I 


r'  f 


OUTLINES  OF  HISTORY; 


ILLUSTRATED    BY    NUMEROUS 


GEOGRAPHICAL  AND  HISTORICAL  NOTES  AND  MAPS 


EMBRACING 


PART  I,_JLNCIENT  HISTORY,  i  PART  II._JIODEEN  HISTORY. 

PART  ffl._OUTLINES  OF  THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY. 


BY  MAKCIUS  WILLSOlSr, 
i\ 

AUTHOR  OF  "AMERICAN  HISTORY,"  "HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES,"  ETC. 


(Kbition. 


NEW    YORK: 
IVISON    &    PHINNEY,    178    FULTON    STREET; 

(SUCCESSORS  OF  NEWMAN  A  IVISON,  AND  MARK  H.  NEWMAN  <t  CO.) 

CHICAGO:     S.    C.    GRIGGS    &    CO.,    Ill    LAKE    STREET. 

BUFFALO:  PHINNEY  &  CO.,  188  MAIN  STREET. 

AUBURN:  J.  c.  IVISON  A  co.   DETROIT:  A.  M'FARREN. 

CINCINNATI :   MOORE,  ANDERSON  &  CO 

"  1854. 


VV53 


ENTERED,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1854,  by 

MARCIUS    WILLSON, 
In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  for  the  Southern  District  of  New  York, 


<T 


STEREOTYPED    BY 

THOMAS   B.    SMITH, 
216  William  St.,  N.  Y. 


PREFACE  TO  THE  UNIVERSITY  EDITION* 

THE  author  of  the  following  work  submits  it  to  the  Public  with  a  few 
remarks  explanatory  of  its  Plan,  and  of  the  endeavors  of  the  writer  to 
prepare  a  useful  and  interesting  text-book  on  the  subject  of  General 
History. 

In  the  important  departments  of  Grecian  and  Roman  History  he  has 
aimed  to  embody  the  results  of  the  investigations  of  the  best  modern 
writers,  especially  Thirlwall  and  Grote  in  Grecian,  and  Niebuhr  and 
Arnold  in  Roman  History  ;  and  in  both  Ancient  and  Modern  History  he 
has  carefully  examined  disputed  points  of  interest,  with  the  hope  of 
avoiding  all  important  antiquated  errors. 

By  endeavoring  to  keep  the  attention  of  the  student  fixed  on  the 
history  of  the  most  important  nations — grouping  around  them,  and  treat- 
ing as  of  secondary  importance,  the  history  of  others, — and  by  bringing 
out  in  bold  relief  the  main  subjects  of  history,  to  the  exclusion  of  com- 
paratively unimportant  collateral  details,  he  has  given  greater  fulness 
than  would  otherwise  be  possible  to  Grecian,  Roman,  German,  French,  and 
English  history,  and  preserved  a  considerable  degree  of  unity  in  the  nar- 
rative ;  while  the  importance  of  rendering  the  whole  as  interesting  to  the 
student  as  possible,  has  been  kept  constantly  in  view. 

The  numerous  Notes  throughout  the  work  were  not  only  thought 
necessary  to  the  geographical  elucidation  of  the  narrative,  by  giving  to 
events  a  distinct  "  local  habitation,"  but  they  also  supply  much  useful  ex- 
planatory historical  information,  not  easily  attainable  by  the  student,  and 
which  could  not  be  introduced  into  the  text  without  frequent  digressions 
that  would  impair  the  unity  of  the  subject. 

In  addition  to  the  Table  of  Contents,  which  contains  a  general  analysis 
of  the  whole  work,  a  somewhat  minute  analysis  of  each  Chapter  or  Sec- 
tion, given  at  the  beginning  of  each,  is  designed  for  the  use  of  teachers 
and  pupils,  in  place  of  questions. 

*  In  the  «  School  Edition,"  Part  EL,  containing  «  Outlines  of  the  Philosophy  of  History,"  is 
omitted. 


IR1M7GO 


17  PREFACE. 

The  author  has  devoted  less  space  to  the  History  of  the  United  States 
of  America  than  is  found  in  most  similar  works,  for  the  reason  that  he 
has  already  published  for  the  use  of  schools,  a  "  History  of  the  United 
States,"  and  also  a  larger  "  American  History ;"  and,  furthermore,  that 
as  the  present  work  is  designed  as  a  text-hook  for  American  students, 
who  have,  or  who  should  have  previously  studied  tjie  separate  history  of 
their  own  country,  it  is  unnecessary,  and,  indeed,  impossible,  to  repeat  the 
same  matter  here  in  detail;  and  something  more  than  so  meagre  an 
abridgment  of  our  country's  annals  as  a  General  History  must  nec- 
essarily be  confined  to,  is  universally  demanded. 

The  author  is  not  ignorant  that  he  will  very  probably  be  charged  with 
presumption  in  heading  Part  III.  of  the  present  work  with  the  am- 
bitious title  of  "  Philosophy  of  History,"  although  he  professes  to  give 
only  its  "  Outlines ;"  nor  is  he  ignorant  that  a  great  critic  has  expressed 
the  sentiment,  that  as  the  vast  Chaos  of  Being  is  unfathomable  by  Human 
Experience,  so  the  Philosophy  of  all  History,  could  it  be  written,  would 
require  Infinite  wisdom  to  understand  it.  But  although  the  whole  mean- 
ing of  what  has  been  recorded  lies  far  beyond  us,  the  fact  should  not 
deter  us  from  a  plausible  explanation  of  what  is  known,  if,  haply,  we  may 
thereby  lead  others  to  a  more  just  appreciation  of  the  true  spirit — the 
Genius  of  History — and  the  great  lessons,  social,  moral,  and  political, 
which  it  teaches.  With  the  explanatory  remark  that  our  brief  and  very 
imperfect  sketches  of  the  Philosophy  of  History  were  not  designed  to  en- 
lighten the  advanced  historical  scholar,  but  to  lead  the  student  beyond 
the  narrow  circle  of  facts,  back  to  their  causes,  and  onward  to  some  of 
the  important  deductions  which  the  greatest  historians  have  drawn  from 
them,  we  present  these  closing  chapters  as  a  brief  compend  of  the  history 
of  Civilization,  in  which  we  have  aimed  to  do  justice  to  the  cause  of  Be- 
ligion,  Intelligence,  and  Virtue,  and  the  cause  of  Democracy, — the  great 
agents  of  regeneration  and  Human  Progress; — and  we  commend  this 
portion  of  our  work  to  the  candor  of  those  who  have  the  charity  to  ap- 
preciate our  object,  and  the  liberality  to  connect  with  it  our  disclaimer 
of  any  other  merit  than  that  of  having  laboriously  gathered  and  analyzed 
the  results  of  the  researches  of  others,  and  reconstructed  them  with  some 
degree  of  unity  of  plan,  and  for  a  good  purpose,  into  these  forms  of  our 
own. 


TABLE  OF  COiNTENTS, 

PART    I. 

ANCIENT     HISTORY. 
CHAPTER  I. 

THE  EARLY  AGES  OF  THE  WORLD  PRIOR  TO  THE  COMMENCEMENT  OF  GRECIAN  HISTORY 
I.  The  Creation— Antediluvian  History.— II.  Egyptian  History.— Ill  Asiatic  History.  Page  11—20 

CHAPTER   II. 

FABULOUS   AND   LEGENDARY   PERIOD    OF    GRECIAN    HISTORY  ;    ENDING    WITH   THE 

CLOSE    OF   THE   TROJAN   WAR, — 1183  B.  C. 

I.  Geography  of  Greece.— II.  Grecian  Mythology.— III.  Earliest  inhabitants  of  Greece.— IV. 
Foreign  settlers  in  Greece.— V.  The  Hellenes.— VI.  The  Heroic  Age- Page  20—43. 

CHAPTER   III. 

THE   UNCERTAIAN    PERIOD    OF    GRECIAN    HISTORY  .    FROM   THE    CLOSE    OF   THE    TROJAN 
WAR   TO   THE    FIRST   WAR    WITH    PERSIA:      1183    TO    490    B.    C. 693    YEARS. 

I.  Thessalian  conquest. — II.  Boeotian  conquest. — III.  ^Eolian  migration. — IV.  Return  of  the 
Heraclidae.— V.  Institutions  of  Lycurgus.— VI.  First  Messenian  War.— VII.  Second  Messe- 
nian  War.— VIII.  Draco.— IX.  Legislation  of  Solon.— X.  Expulsion  of  the  Pisistratids.— 
XI.  Ionic  Revolt Page  43-58. 

CO-TEMPORARY  HISTORY.  I.  Phoenician*  History.— II.  Jewish  History.— HI.  Roman  History.— 
IV.  Persian  History Page  58-73. 

CHAPTER   IV. 

THE   AUTHENTIC    PERIOD    OF    GRECIAN    HISTORY. 

SECTION  I.— FROM  THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  FIRST  WAR  WITH  PERSIA,  TO  THE  ESTABLISH- 
MENT OF  PHILIP  ON  THE  THRONE  or  MACEDON  :  490  to  360  B.  c. — 130  YEARS. 
I.  First  Persian  War.— II.  Second  Persian  War.— HI.  Third  Messenian  War.— IV.  First  Pelo- 
ponnesian  War.— V.  The  Sicilian  Expedition.— VI.  Second  Pelop^nnesian  War.— VII.  Third 

Peloponnesian  War.— VIII.  Second  Sacred  War Page  73—92 

SECTION  II.— FROM  THE  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  PHILIP  ON  THE  THRONE  OF  MACEDON,  TO  THE 

REDUCTION  OF  GREECE  TO  A  ROMAN  PROVINCE  :   360  TO  146  B.  C.— 214  YEARS. 

I.  Philip  of  Macedon. — II.  Alexander  the  Great — his  conquests,  and  death. — III.  Achaean 
League,  and  conquest  of  Greece  by  the  Romans-...  Page  92—  111. 

COTEMPORARY  HISTORY.— I.  History  of  the  Jews.— II.  Grecian  Colonies.— IIL  Magna  Graecia. 
—IV.  Cyrenaica Page  111—123. 

CHAPTER   V. 

ROMAN   HISTORY,   FROM   THE   FOUNDING    OF   ROME,    763    B.    C.,   TO   THE   CONQUEST'S 
OF    GREECE    AND    CARTHAGE,    146    B.    C. 607    YEARS. 

SECTION  I.    EARLY  ITALY:  ROME  UNDER  THE  KINGS:  ENDING  510  B.  C.— 243  YEARS. 

I.  Italy— II.  Founding  of  Rome.— III.  War  with  the  Sabines.— IV.  Numa.— V.  Tullus  Hos- 
tiiius.— VI.  Ancus  Martius.— VII.  Tarquin  the  Elder.— VIII.  Servius  Tullius.~IX.  Tarquin 

the  Proud Page  123—134 

SECTION  II. — THE  ROMAN  REPUBLIC,  FROM  THE  ABOLITION  or  ROYALTY,  510  B.  C.,  TO  THE 
BEGINNING  OF  THE  WARS  WITH  CARTHAGE,  263  B.  C. — 247  YEARS. 

I.  Consuls,— II.  Etruscan  War.— III.  Office  of  Dictator.— IV.  Plebeian  Insurrection.— V.  Tri- 
bunes of  the  People.— VI.  Volscian  and  JEquian  wars.— VII.  The  Decemvirs.— VIII.  Office 
of  Censors.— IX.  War  with  VeiL— X.  Gallic  Invasion.— XI.  Plebeian  and  Patrician  con- 
tests.-XII.  Office  of  Praetor.-XIII.  First  Samnite  War.-XIV.  Second  Saranite  War.-XV. 
Third  Samnite  War.— XVI.  War  with  the  Tarentines  and  Pyrrhus Pag«  134—150. 


0  CONTENTS. 

SECTION  III. — THE  ROMAN  REPUBLIC,  FROM  THE  BEGINNING  or  THE  CARTHAGINIAN  WARS, 

263  B.  C.,  TO  THE  REDUCTION  OF  GREECE  AND  CARTHAGE,  146  B.  C. — 117  YEARS. 

J.  Carthage.— II.  First  Punic  War.— III.  Illyrian  War.— IV.  War  with  the  Gauls.— V.  Second 
Punic  War.— VI.  Grecian  War.— VII.  Syrian  War— VIII.  Third  Punic  War.  Page  150—165. 

CHAPTER   VI. 

ROMAN    HISTORY,    FROM   THE    CONQUESTS    OF    GREECE    AND    CARTHAGE,   146    B.    C., 
TO    THE    COMMENCEMENT    OF    THE    CHRISTIAN    ERA. 

I.  Spain  after  the  fall  of  Carthage.— II.  Servile  war  in  Sicily.— III.  Dissensions  of  the  Gracchi. 
—IV.  Jugurthine  War.— V.  Germanic  Invasion.— VI.  Ti:e  Social  War.— VII.  First  Mith- 
ridatic  War.— VIII.  Civil  wars  between  Marius  and  Sylla.— IX.  Servile  war  in  Italy.— X. 
Second  and  Third  Mithridatic  wars.— XI.  Conspiracy  of  Catiline.— XII.  The  First  Triumvi- 
virate. — XIII.  Civil  war  between  Caesar  and  Pompey. — XIV.  The  Second  Triumvirate. — 
XV.  Octavius  Augustus  sole  monarch  of  the  Roman  world, Page  165— 188. 

PART    II. 
MODERN   HISTORY. 

CHAPTER   I. 

EOMAN    HISTORY    CONTINUED,    FROM    THE    COMMENCEMENT    OF   THE    CHRISTIAN    ERA, 
TO   THE    OVERTHROW    OF    THE   WESTERN    EMPIRE    OF    THE    ROMANS: 
A.    D.    1    TO   A.    D.    476. 

SECTION  I. — ROMAN  HISTORY  FROM  THE  COMMENCEMENT  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  ERA  TO  THE 

DEATH  OF  DOMITIAN,  THE  LAST  OF  THE  TWELVE  CjESARS  :  A.  D.  96. 

i.  Earlier  and  later  history  of  the  Empire  compared. — II.  Julius  Caesar. — III.  Augustus.— IV. 
Tiberius.— V.  Caligula.— VI.  Claudius.— VII.  Nero.— VIII.  Galba.— IX.  Otho.— X.  Vitelliua. 
—XI.  Vespasian.— XII.  Jewish  war.— XIII.  Titus.— XIV.  Domitian Page  188—202. 

SECTION  II.— ROMAN  HISTORY  FROM  THE  DEATH  OF  DOMITIAN  A.  D.  96,  TO  THE  ESTABLISH- 
MENT OF  MILITARY  DESPOTISM,  AFTER  THE  MURDER  OF  ALEXANDER  SfiVE'RUS, 

A.  D.  235:— 139  YEARS. 

I.  Nerva.— II.  Trajan.— III.  Adrian.— IV.  Titus  Antoninus.— V.  Marcus  Aurelius  Antoninus. 
VI.  Com'  modus.— VII.  Per'  tinax.— VIII.  Didius  Julianus.— IX.  Septim'  ius  Severus.— X. 
Caracalla.— XL  Macrinus.— XII.  Elagabalus.— XIII.  Alexander  Severus....  Page  202— 211, 

SECTION  III.— ROMAN  HISTORY,  FROM  THE  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  MILITARY  DESPOTISM  AFTER 

THE  REIGN  OF  ALEXANDER  SEVE'RUS,  A.  D.  235,  TO  THE  SUBVERSION  OF  THE 

WESTERN  EMPIRE  OF  THE  ROMANS,  A.  D.  476: — 241  YKARS. 

I.  Maximin.— II.  Gordian.— III.  Pupienus  and  Balbinus.— IV.  Second  Gordian.— V.  Philip  the 
Arabian.-VI.  Decius.— VII.  Gallus.-VIII.  ^Emilianus.-lX.  Valerian.— X.  Gallienus.-XI.  M. 
Aurelius  Claudius— XII.  Quintiliug.— XIII.  Aurelian.— XIV.  Tacitus.— XV.  Florian.— XVI. 
Probus.— XVII.  Carus.— XVIII.  Numerian  and  Carinus.— XIX.  Diocletian.— XX.  Maxim'ian 
—XXI.  Galerius  and  Constan'  tins.— XXII.  Con1  stantine— XXIII.  Constantius  II.— XXIV. 
Julian  the  Apostate.— XXV.  Jovian.— XXVI.  Valentin'ian  and  Valens.— XXVII.  Barbarian 
inroads.— XX VI II.  Gratian  and  Theodosius.— XXIX.  Valentinian  II.— XXX.  Honorius  and 
Arcadius.— XXXI.  Alaric  the  Goth.— XXXII.  Valentin'  ian  III.— XXXIII.  Conquests  of 
Attila.— XXXIV.  The  Vandals.— XXXV.  Av'  itus— Majorian.— XXXVI.  Severus— XXXVII. 
Subversion  of  the  Western  Empire Page  211—235. 

CHAPTER   II. 

HISTORY   OF   THE   MIDDLE  AGES  :   EXTENDING   FROM   THE   OVERTHROW   OF   THE 

WESTERN   EMPIRE    OF   THE   ROMANS,    A.    D.    4*76,   TO   THE    DISCOVERY    OF 

AMERICA,  A.    D.    1492  : — 1016    YEARS. 

SECTION  I. — GENERAL  HISTORY,  FROM  THE  OVERTHROW  OF  THE  WESTERN  EMPIRE  OF  THE 

ROMANS  TO  THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  TENTH  CENTURY  :— 424  YEARS. 

I.  Introductory.— II.  The  monarchy  of  the  Heruli.— III.  Monarchy  of  the  Ostrogoths.— IV.  The 
era  of  Justinian. — V.  The  Lombard  monarchy. — VI.  The  Saracen  empire. — VII.  Monarchy 

of  the  Franks.— VIII.  English  History Page  235—264. 

SECTION  II. — GENERAL  HISTORY  DURING  THE  TENTH,  ELEVENTH,  TWELFTH,  ANP 

THIRTEENTH  CENTURIES  :    A.  D.  900  TO   1300  *. — 400  YEARS. 

1.  Complete  Dissolution  of  the  Bonds  of  Society. — I.  Confusion  of  Historic  materials. — II.  The 
Saracen  world.— III.  The  Byzantine  empire.— IV.  Condition  of  Italy.— V.  Condition  of  Ger 
many.— VI.  Condition  of  France Page  264—273. 


CONTENTS.  7 

t.  The  Feudal  System,  Chivalry,  and  the  Crusades.— I.  The  Feudal  system.— II.  Chivalry.— 
III.  Origin  of  the  Crusades.— IV.  The  First  Crusade.— V.  The  Second  Crusade.— VI.  The 
Third  Crusade.— VII.  The  Fourth  Crusade.— VIII.  The  Fifth  Crusade.— IX.  Tartar  con- 
quests.—X.  The  Sixth  Crusade Page  273—288. 

3.  English  History.— I.  England  after  the  death  of  Alfred.— II.  Norman  conquest.— III.  Re- 
duction of  Ireland.— IV.  Subjugation  of  Wales.— V.  Scottish  wars Page  288—297. 

SECTION  III. — GENERAL  HISTORY  DDRINO  THE  FOURTEENTH  AND  FIFTEENTH  CENTURIES. 

1.  England  and  France  during  the  Fourteenth  and  Fifteenth  centuries. — I.  French  and  English 
wars,    1328  to  1453.— II.  Wars  of  the   cwo  Roses.— III.  Reign  of  Henry  VII.  of  Eng- 
land   Page  297—308. 

2.  Other  Nations  at  the  close  of  the  Fifteenth  century.— I.  Denmark,  Sweden,  and  Norway. — II. 
The  Russian  empire. — III.  The  Ottoman  empire. — IV.  Tartar  empire  of  Tamerlane. — V. 
Poland.  — VI.   The  German  empire.  — VII.    Switzerland.  —  VIII.    Italian    History. —  IX. 
Spain Page  308—  3ia. 

3.  Discoveries.— Navigation.— Magnetic  Needle.— Art  of  Printing.— The  Canaries.— Cape  de 
Verd  and  Azore  Islands.— The  Portuguese.— Christopher  Columbus.— Vasco  de  Gama 

Page  318-322. 

CHAPTER  III. 

GENERAL   HISTORY   DURING   THE   SIXTEENTH   CENTURY. 

1.  Introductory.— Unity  of  Ancient  History.— The  Middle  Ages.— Modern  History.— Plan  of  the 
subsequent  part  of  the  work.— Europe,  Asia,  Egypt,  The  New  World,  at  the  beginning  of 

the  sixteenth  century Page  322—325. 

2.  The  Age  of  Henry  VIII.  and  Charles  V.—\.  The  States-system  of  Europe.— II.  The  rivalry 
between  Francis  I.  and  Charles  V.— III.  Henry  VIII.  of  England.— IV.  The  Reformation.— 
V.  Abdication  and  retirement  of  Charles  V Page  325—339 

3.  The  Age  of  Elizabeth.— I.  Mary  of  Scotland.— II.  Civil  and  religious  war  in  France.— III. 
Massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew.— IV.  The  Netherlands.— V.   The  Spanish  Armada.— VI. 
Edict  of  Nantes.— VII.  Character  of  Elizabeth Page  339-348. 

4.  Cotemporary  History. — I.  The  Portuguese  Colonial  Empire. — II.  Spanish  Colonial  Empire, 
— III.  The  Mogul  Empire  in  India.— IV.  The  Persian  Empire Page  348— 353. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

THE   SEVENTEENTH   CENTURY. 

1.  The  Thirty  Years1  War.— 1.  The  Palatine  period  of  the  war.— II.  Danish  period  of  the 
war.— III.  Swedish  period  of  the  war.— IV.  French  period  of  the  war Page  353—361. 

2.  English  History :  The  English  Revolution. — I.  Union  of  England  and  Scotland. — II.  James 
I.— III.  Charles  L— IV.  Scotch  Rebellion.-V.  The  Long  Parliament.-VI.  Civil  war.— VII.  The 
Scotch  League.— VIII.  Oliver  Cromwell.— IX.  Trial  and  execution  of  Charles  I.— X.  Aboli- 
tion of  monarchy.— XI.  War  with  Holland.— XII.  The  Protectorate.— XIII.  Restoration  of 
monarchy.— XIV.  James  II— XV.  Revolution  of  1688 Page  361—377. 

3.  French  History:    Wars  of  Louis   XIV.— I.   Administration  of  Cardinal  Richelieu.— II. 
Mazarin's  administration.— III.  Louis  XIV.  His  war  with  Spain.— With  the  Allied  Powers- 
England,  Spain,  Holland,  and  Sweden. — internal  affairs  of  France. — General  war  against 
Louis.— France  at  the  end  of  the  century Page  377—385. 

4.  Cotemporary  History.— 1.  Denmark,  Sweden,  and  Norway.— II.  Poland.— III.  Russia.— IV. 
Turkey.— V.  Italy.— VI.  The  Spanish  Peninsula.— VII.   Asiatic  Nations.— VIII.  Colonial 
Establishments.— American  History Page  385—398. 

CHAPTER   V. 

THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY. 

1.  War  of  the  Spanish  succession,  andclofe  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV.— I.  England,  Germany,  and 
Holland  declare  war  against  France,  1702.— II.  Campaign  of  1702.— III.  Events  of  1703.— IV. 
Events  of  1704.— V.  Events  of  1705-3.— VI.  Campaign  of  1707.— VII.  Events  of  1708.— VIII. 
1709.— IX.  Treaty  of  Utrecht,  1713.— X.  Character  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV . ..  Page  396—407. 

2.  Peter  the  Great  of  Russia,  and  Charles  XII.  of  Sweden.— I.  The  north  and  east  of  Europe.— 
II.  Beginning  of  hostilities  against  Sweden.— III.  Defeat  of  the  Russians  at  Narva.— IV. 
Victories  of  Charles  in  the  year  1702.— V.  March  of  Charles  into  Russia.— VI.  Battle  of 
Pultowa.— VII.  The  Turks.— VIII.  Return  of  Charles.— IX.   Events  of  1715— X.  Death  of 
Charles.— XI.  His  character.— XII.  Death  and  character  of  Peter  the  Great..  Page  407—418. 

3.  Spanish   Wars  and   War  of  the  Austrian  Succession. — I.   European  Alliance. — II.  War 
between  England  and  Spain.— III.  Causes  of  the  war  of  the  Austrian  succession.— IV. 


8  CONTENTS. 

Coalition  against  Austria.— V.  Events  of  1742-3.— VI.  Events  of  17-14.— Vll.  Events  of  1745. 
— VIH.  Invasion  of  England  by  the  Young  Pretender. — IX.  Events  in  America. — X.  1746-7. 
—XI.  Treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  1748 Page  418—423. 

4.  The  Swen  Years'  War  :  1756— 1763.— I.  Eight  years  of  peace.— II.  Causes  of  another  war. 
— III.  Beginning  of  hostilities  in  America.— IV.  European  Alliances. — V.  First  Campaign 
of  Frederick,  1756.— VI.    1757.— VII.  1758.— VIII.   1759. -IX.  1760.— X.  1701.— XI.   Peace 
of  1763.— XII.  Military  character  of  Frederick Page  423—433. 

5.  State  of  Europe.     The  American  Revolution. — I.  General  peace  in  Europe. — II.  France. — 
III.  Russia.— IV.  Dismemberment  of  Poland. — V.  State  of  parties  in  England. — VI.  American 
Taxation. — VII.   Opening  ot  the  war  with  the  Colonies. — VIII.  European  relations  with 
England. — IX.  Alliance  between  France  and  the  American  Stales. — X.  War  between  France 
and  England. — XL  War  between  Spain  and  England. — XII.  Armed  Neutrality  against  Eng- 
land.—XIII.  Rupture  between  England  and  Holland.— XIV.  War  in  the  East  Indies.— XV. 
Treaty  of  1782.— XVI.  General  Treaty  of  1783 Page  433—445. 

G.  The  French  Revolution  :  1789— 1800.— I.  Democratic  spirit.— II.  Louis  XVI.— III.  Financial 
difficulties.— IV.  The  States-General. — V.  Revolutionary  state  of  Paris. — VI.  Great  political 
changes.— VII.  Famine  and  mobs.— VIII.  New  Constitution.— IX.  Marshalling  of  parties.— 
X.  The  Emigrant  Nobility.— XL  Attempted  escape  of  the  Royal  Family.— XII.  War  de- 
clared  against  Austria. — XIII.  Massacre  of  the  10th  of  August. — XIV.  Massacre  of  Sep- 
tember.—XV.  Trial  and  execution  of  Louis  XVI— XVI.  Fall  of  the  Girondists— XVII. 
The  Reign  of  Terror.— XVIII.  Triumph  of  Infidelity.— XIX.  Fall  of  the  Dantonists— XX. 
War  against  Europe. — XXI.  Insurrection  of  La  Vendee. — XXII.  Insurrection  in  the  south 
of  France.— XXI11.  Fall  of  Robespierre,  and  end  of  the  reign  of  Terror.-«-XXIV.  The  Eng- 
lish victorious  at  sea,  and  the  French  on  land.— XXV.  Second  partition  of  Poland.— XXVI. 
Third  partition  of  Poland  — 1795.  XXVII.  Dissolution  of  the  coalition  against  France.— 
XXVIII.  New  Constitution.— XXIX.  Insurrection  in  Paris.— 1796.  XXX.  Invasion  of  Ger- 
many.—XXXI.  The  Army  of  Italy.— XXXII.  Disturbances  in  England.— 1797.  XXXIII. 
Napoleon's  Austrian  Campaign.— XXXIV.  Treaty  of  Campo  Foi  mio.— XXX V.  Establish- 
ment of  Military  Despotism  in  France.— 1798.  XXXVI.  Preparations  for  the  invasion  of 
England.— XXXVII.  Expedition  to  Egypt.— XXXVIII.  Battle  of  the  Pyramids.-XXXIX. 
Battle  of  the  Nile.— 1799.  XL.  Syrian  Expedition.— XLI.  Siege  of  Acre.— XLII.  Battle  of 
Mount  Tabor.— XLIH.  Battle  of  Aboukir.— XLIV.  Overthrow  of  the  Directory.— XLV.  Na- 
poleon First  Consul Page  445 — 475. 

CHAPTER   VI. 

THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 

SECTION  I.— THE  WARS  OF  NAPOLEON  :  1800—1815. 

I.  Events  of  the  year  1800.  War  with  Austria.— II.  Events  of  1801.— III.  Events  of  1802,  the  year 
of  peace.— IV.  Renewal  of  the  war,  1803.— V.  Events  of  1804.  Napoleon  Emperor.— VI.  1805, 
Coalition  against  France.  Battle  of  Austerlitz.— VII.  1806,  ix>uis  Napoleon  king  of  Holland. 
Confederation  of  the  Rhine.  Battles  of  Jena  and  Auerstadt.— V11I.  1807,  Treaty  of  Tilsit.— 
IX.  1808,  Events  in  Spain.  Beginning  of  the  Peninsular  War.— X.  1809,  War  with  Austria. 
Battle  of  Wagram.  Napoleon's  divorce  from  Josephine. — XI.  1810,  Busaco  and  Torres 
Vedras.— XII.  1811,  Badajoz  and  Albuera.— XIII.  1812,  Russian  Campaign.  Smolensko— 
Borodino —Moscow.  American  War. — XIV.  1813,  General  coalition  against  Napoleon. 
Lutzen— Bautzen— Lei psic.— XV.  1814,  Capitulation  of  Paris.  Abdication  of  Napoleon.— 
XVI.  1815,  Napoleon's  return  from  Elba.  Battle  of  Waterloo Page  475—503. 

SECTION  II. — FROM  THE  FALL  or  NAPOLEON  TO  THE  PRESENT  TIME. 

1.  The  Psriod  of  Peace  :  1815— 1820.— I.  Treaties  of  1815.— II.  England.— III.  France 

Page  50ft— 512. 

2.  Revolutions   in   Spain,   Portugal.  Naples.  Piedmont.   Greece.  France.  Belgium,  and   Po- 
land: 1820-1831 Page  512—550. 

3.  English  Reforms.    French  Revolution  of  1848.     Revolution  in  the  German  States,  Prussia, 
and  Austria.    Revolution  in  Italy.     Hungarian   War.     Usurpation  of  Louis  Napoleon : 
1831—1852 Page  550—562. 

GENERAL  GEOGRAPHICAL  AND  HISTORICAL  VIEWS,  ILLUSTRATED 
BY  THE  FOLLOWING  MAPS. 


1.  Ancient  Greece 564 

2.  Athens  and  its  Harbors 566 

3.  Islands  of  the  ^Egean  Sea 568 

4.  Asia  Minor 570 

5.  Persian  Empire 572 

6.  Palestine 574 

7.  Turkey  in  Europe 576 

8.  Ancient  Italy 578 

9.  Roman  Empire 580 


10.  Ancient  Rome 582 

11.  Chart  of  the  World 584 

12.  Battle  Grounds  of  Napoleon,  &,c 586 

J3.  France,  Spain,  and  Portugal 588 

14.  Switzerland,  Denmark,  &c 590 

15.  Netherlands.  (Holland  and  Belgium)..  592 

16.  Great  Britain  and  Ireland 594 

17.  Central  Europe 596 

18.  United  States  of  America 598 


NOTE.    For  the  « Index  to  the  Geographical  and  Historical  Note*"  see  end  of  the  volume. 


CONTENTS. 


PART    III. 

OUTLINES  OF  THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY 

[OMITTED  IN  THE  SCHOOL  EDITION.] 
CHAPTER  I. 

THE   ANTEDILUVIAN   WORLD. 

I.  Scriptural  account  of  the  Creation.— II.  Geological  History  of  the  Earth.— III.  Unity  of  the 
Human  Race.— IV.  Institution  of  a  Sabbath.— V.  The  Origin  of  Discord.— VI.  Coincidences 
between  Sacred  and  Profane  History.— VII.  Traditions  of  the  Deluge.— VIII.  Ancient 
Chronology Page  601-625. 

CHAPTER   II. 

EAELT    EGYPTIAN,    ASSYRIAN,    AND   BABYLONIAN   CIVILIZATION. 

I.  Exclusive  policy  of  the  Early  Egyptians.— II.  Character  of  the  testimony  of  Herodotus.— III. 
The  three  great  Egyptian  dynasties. — IV.   Egyptian  History  from  Menes  to  Joseph. — V. 
'ian  Hieroglyphics.— VI.  The  Early  Inhabitants  of  Egypt.— VII.  Dwellings  and  Public 


ifices  of  the  Egyptians. — VIII.  Egyptian  Sculptures  and  Paintings. — IX.  Astronomical 
Knowledge.— X.  Mechanical  Science— XL  Art  of  Weaving.— XII.  Working  of  Metals—  XIII. 
Science  of  Medicine.— XIV.  Literary  attainments.— XV.  Division  into  Castes.— XVI.  Re- 
ligion.—XVII.  Materials  of  Assyrian  History.— XVIII.  Assyrian  Civilization,  Page  625—648. 

CHAPTER   III. 

CHARACTER   AND    EXTENT    OF    CIVILIZATION    DURING   THE   FABULOUS 
PERIOD    OF    GRECIAN    HISTORY, 

I.  Grecian  Mythology. — II.  Legends  of  the  Heroic  Age. — III.  Early  Grecian  Chronology. — IV. 
Interpretation  of  the  Grecian  Fables.— V.  Religion  of  the  Early  Greeks.— VI.  Belief  in  a 
Future  State.— VII.  Grecian  form  of  Government.— VIII.  Geographical  Knowledge.— IX. 
Astronomy  and  Commerce. — X.  Dwellings  and  occupations  of  the  people. — XI.  Manners. 
XII.  Domestic  Relations.-XIIl.  The  Israelites Page  648-666. 

CHAPTER   IV. 

CHARACTER    AND    EXTENT   OF    CIVILIZATION    DURING   THE    UNCERTAIN 
PERIOD    OK    GRECIAN    HISTORY. 

I.  Changes  in  Grecian  Politics.— II.  National  Councils.— III.  Public  Festivals.— IV.  Grecian 
Colonization. — V.  Progress  of  Arts  and  Literature.— VI.  The  Eleusinian  Mysteries. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  GLORY  AND  THE  FALL  OF  GREECE. 

1  Closing  Period  of  Grecian  History.— II.  The  Persian  Wars.— III.  Battle  of  Platsea.— IV.  Im- 
portance of  the  Persian  overthrow. — V.  The  Age  of  Pericles. — VI.  Full  development  of  iho 
democratic  character  of  Grecian  Institutions.— VII.  Cultivation  of  Rhetoric  and  Oratory.— 
VIII.  Historians,  poets,  and  orators.— IX.  The  Drama. — X.  Causes  of  the  downfall  of 
Athens 777. Page  689-710 

CHAPTER  VI. 

THE    FIRST   PERIOD    OF    ROMAN    HISTORY:    FROM   THE    FOUNDING    OF   ROME 
TO   THE    CONQUESTS    OF    GREECE    AND    CARTHAGE. 

L  Authenticity  of  Early  Roman  History  —II.  History  of  Regal  Rome.— III.  Results  of  Criticism. 
—IV.  Constitutional  History  of  Early  Rome.— V.  Plebeian  and  Patrician  contests.— VI.  Re- 
ligious Notions  of  the  Romans.— VII.  Mode  of  Living,  Social  Condition,  &c.,  under  the 
Kings Page  710— 727. 


10  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   VII. 

THE   SECOND   PERIOD   OF   ROMAN   HISTORY:    EXTENDING   FROM  THE    CONQUESTS   OF 
GREECE   AND    CARTHAGE   TO    THE    CHRISTIAN    ERA. 

I.  Political  character  of  the  closing  period  of  the  Republic.— II.  Moral  and  Social  Condition  of 

the  people.— III.  Roman  Literature.— IV.  The  Arts.— V.  The  Historical  Prophecies 

Page  727— 740. 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE   ROMAN   EMPIRE. 

L  Power  and  Majesty  of  Rome  and  her  Caesars— II.  Foreign  Policy.— III.  Internal  condition 
of  the  Roman  World  in  the  Age  of  the  Antonines. — IV.  The  slaves  of  the  Romans. — V.  Ro- 
man citizens. — VI.  Taxation. — VII.  The  Roman  Army. — VIII.  Religion  of  the  Romans 
during  the  Empire.— IX.  Social  Morality  of  the  Romans.— X.  Outward  appearances  of 
general  prosperity  in  the  Age  of  the  Antonines. — XI.  The  Silver  Age  of  Roman  Literature. 
—XII.  Greek  Literature  during  the  Silver  Age.— XIII.  Roman  History  after  the  Age  of  the 
Antonines.— XIV.  Increasing  causes  of  decline Page  740—764. 

CHAPTER   IX. 

THE   MIDDLE    AGES. 

L  Unity  of  character  in  ancient  civilization. — GREAT  DIVERSITY  OF  THE  ELEMENTS  OF  MODERN 
CIVILIZATION. — I.  Elementary  principles  derived  from  the  Roman  Empire. — II.  The  Chris- 
tian Church. — III.  The  Barbarian  World. — IV.  Unsettled  condition  of  individuals. — V.  Of 
Governments  and  States. — SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENTS  ARISING  OUT  OF  THE  ELEMENTS  ENUMER- 
ATED.— I.  Impulses  towards  an  escape  from  barbarism. — II.  Influences  of  the  Church. — III. 
The  two-fold  influences  of  Feudalism. — IV.  General  insurrection  of  the  cities. — V.  Effects 
of  their  enfranchisement. — VI.  Effects  of  the  Crusades. — ATTEMPTS  AT  CENTRALIZATION 
OF  POWER. — 1.  Attempt  at  Theocratic  organization. — II.  Attempts  at  Democratic  organiza- 
tion.— III.  Attempts  at  a  union  of  the  various  elements  of  society. — IV.  Successful  attempts 
at  Monarchical  organization. — V.  Moral  and  intellectual  changes  in  the  fifteenth  century. — 
VI.  Revival  of  Literature.— VII.  Inventions.— VIII.  Discoveries Page  764—786. 

CHAPTER   X. 

THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY. 

THE  REFORMATION.— I.  The  causes  that  led  to  the  Reformation.— II.  Progress  and  extent  of 

the  Reformation.— HI.  Character  of  the  Reformation.— IV.  Effects  of  the  Reformation 

Page  786— 802. 

CHAPTER  XI. 

THE    SEVENTEENTH    CENTURY. 

THE  ENGLISH  REVOLUTION. — I.  The  contest  that  naturally  followed  the  Reformation. — II. 
Partial  suppression  of  the  Reformation  in  England,  one  cause  of  the  English  Revolution. — 
III.  The  existence  of  free  institutions  in  England,  a  second  cause. — IV.  Resistance  to  mon- 
archy, and  its  overthrow,  in  England.— V.  Restoration  of  monarchy,  and  renewal  of  the 
contest.— VI.  Concluding  event  of  the  Revolution Page  802—816. 

CHAPTER  XII. 

THE   EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY. 

THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. — I.  The  French  Revolution— what  is  necessary  to  a  correct  under- 
standing of  it.— II.  Growth  and  character  of  the  French  Monarchy  and  Nobility.— III.  Origin 
of  the  Third  Estate,  or  Commons. — IV.  Character  and  position  of  the  Galilean  Church. — V. 
Peculiarities  of  early  French  Legislation. — VI.  Relations  between  the  ruling  orders  and  the 
people  during  the  century  preceding  the  Revolution.— VII.  Causes  of  the  development  and 
spread  of  Free  Principles.— VIII.  Louis  XVI.— The  First  Act  in  the  Drama  of  the  Revo- 
lution.— Progress  of  the  Revolution. — IX.  Change  in  its  character. — X.  Termination,  and 
Results Page  816—845. 


PART    I. 
ANCIENT    HISTORY, 


CHAPTER   I. 

THE  EARLY  AGES  OF  THE  WORLD,  PRIOR  TO  THE  COMMENCE- 
MENT OF  GRECIAN  HISTORY. 

• 

ANALYSIS.  1.  THE  CREATION.  The  earth  a  chaotic  mass.  Creation  of  light.  Separation 
of  land  and  water.— 2.  Vegetable  life.  The  heavenly  bodies.  Animal  life.— 3.  God's  blessing 
on  his  works.  Creation  of  man.  Dominion  given  to  him.  Institution  of  the  sabbath. — 4.  AN- 
TEDILUVIAN HISTORY.  The  subjects  treated  of. — 5.  The  earth  immediately  after  the  deluge. 
The  inheritance  given  to  Noah  and  his  children.— 6.  The  building  of  Babel.  [Euphrates.  Geo- 
graphical and  historical  account  of  the  surrounding  country.]  Confusion  of  tongues,  and  dis- 
persion of  the  human  family. — 7.  Supposed  directions  taken  by  Noah  and  his  sons. — 8.  EGYPT- 
IAN HISTORY.  Mis'raim,  the  founder  of  the  Egyptian  nation.  [Egypt.]  The  government 
established  by  him.  Subverted  by  Menes,  2400  B.  C.— 9.  Accounts  given  by  Herod'  otus,  Jose- 
phus,  and  others.  [Memphis  and  Thebes.  Description  of.]  Traditions  relating  to  Menes 
His  great  celebrity.  [The  Nile.]— 10.  Egyptian  history  from  Menes  to  Abraham.  The  erection 
of  the  Egyptian  pyramids.  [Description  of  them.]  Evidences  of  Egyptian  civilization  during 
the  time  of  Abraham. — 11.  The  Shepherd  Kings  in  Lower  Egypt  Their  final  expulsion,  1900 
B.  C.  Joseph,  governor  of  Egypt.  [Goshen.]  Commencement  of  Grecian  history. — 12.  ASIA- 
TIC HISTORY.  [Assyria.  Nineveh.]  Ashur  and  Nimrod.  [Babylon.]  The  worship  of  Nim- 
rod. — 13.  Conflicting  accounts  of  Ninus.  Assyria  and  Babylon  during  hla  reign,  and  that  of  hia 
successor.— 14.  Account  of  Semir  amis.  Her  conquests,  &c.  [Indus  R.]  The  history  of  Assy- 
ria subsequent  to  the  reign  of  Semir'  amis. 

1.  THE  history  of  the  world  which  we  inhabit  commences  with 
the  first  act  of  creation,  when,  in  the  language  of  Moses, 

the  earliest  sacred  historian,  "  God  created  the  heavens 
and  the  earth."  We  are  told  that  the  earth  was  "  with- 
out form,  and  void" — a  shapeless,  chaotic  mass,  shrouded  in  a  man- 
tle of  darkness.  But  "  God  said,  let  there  be  light ;  and  there  was 
light."  At  the  command  of  the  same  infinite  power  the  waters  rolled 
together  into  their  appointed  places,  forming  seas  and  oceans ;  and 
the  dry  land  appeared. 

2.  Then  the  mysteries  of  vegetable  life  began  to  start  into  being ; 
beautiful  shrubs  and  flowers  adorned  the  fields,  lofty  trees  waved  in 
the  forests,  and  herbs  and  grasses  covered  the  ground  with  verdure. 


12  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART  I. 

The  stars,  those  gems  of  evening,  shone  forth  in  the  sky ;  and  two 
greater  lights  were  set  in  the  firmament,  to  divide  the  day  from  the 
night,  and  to  be  "  for  signs,  and  for  seasons,  and  for  days  and  for 
years."  Then  the  finny-tribes  sported  in  "  the  waters  of  the  seas," 
the  birds  of  heaven  filled  the  air  with  their  melody,  and  the  earth 
brought  forth  abundantly  "  cattle  and  creeping  things,"  and  "  every 
living  creature  after  its  kind." 

3.  And  when  the  Almighty  architect  looked  upon  the  objects  of 
creation,  he  saw  that  "  all  were  good,"  and  he  blessed  the  works  of 
his  hands.     Then  he  "  created  mana  in  his  own  image ;"  in  the  like- 
ness of  God,  "male  and  female  created  hq  them;"   and  he  gave 
them  "  dominion  over  the  fish  of  the  sea,  and  over  the  fowl  of  the 
air,  and  over  every  living  thing  that  moveth  upon  the  earth."     This 
was  the  last  great  act  of  creation,  and  thus  God  ended  the  work 
which  he  had  made  ;  and  having  rested  from  his  labors,  he  sanctified 
a  sabbath  or  day  of  rest,  ever  to  be  kept  holy,  in  grateful  remem- 
brance of  Him  who  made  all  things,  and  who  bestows  upon  man  all 
the  blessings  which  he  enjoys. 

4.  The  only  history  of  the  human  family  from  the  creation  of 
IL  ANTEDI-    Adam  t°  the  time  of  the  deluge,b  a  period  of  more  than 
LUVIAN  ms-    two  thousand  years,  is  contained  in  the  first  six  chap- 

>RY'  ters  of  the  book  of  Genesis,  supposed  to  have  been  written 
by  Moses  more  than  fourteen  hundred  years  after  the  flood.  The 
fall  of  our  first  parents  from  a  state  of  innocence  and  purity,  the 
transgression  of  Cain  and  the  death  of  Abel,  together  with  a  gen- 
ealogy of  the  patriarchs,  and  an  account  of  the  exceeding  wicked- 
ness of  mankind,  are  the  principal  subjects  treated  of  in  the  brief 
history  of  the  antediluvian  world.  ^  ^, 

5.  When  Noah  and  his  family  came  forth  from  the  ark,  "after  the 
deluge  had  subsided,  the  earth  was  again  a  barren  waste ;  for  the 
waters  had  prevailed  exceedingly,  so  that  the  hill- tops  and  the  moun- 
tains were  covered;  and  every  fowl,  and  beast,  and  creeping  thing 
and  every  man  that  had  been  left  exposed  to  the  raging  flood,  had 
been  destroyed  from  the  earth.     Noah  only  remained  alive,  and 
they  that  had  been  saved  with  him  in  the  ark ;  and  to  him,  and  his 
three  sons,  whose  names  were  Shem,  Ham,  and  Japheth,  the  whole 
earth  was  now  given  for  an  inheritance. 

6.  About  two  hundred  years  after  the  flood,  we  find  the  sons  of 
Noah  and  their  descendants,  or  many  of  them,  assembled  on  the 

a.  5411  B.  C.  b.  3155  B.  C. 


CHAP.  L]  EARLY  AGES.  13 

banks  of  the  Euphrates,1  in  a  region  called  the  "  Land  of  ghmar," 
and  there  beginning  to  build  a  city, — together  with  a  tower,  whose 
top,  tm^j  boasted,  should  reach  unto  heaven.  But  the  Lord  came 
down  to  see  the  city  and  the  tower  which  the  children  of  men  in 
their  pride  and  impiety  were  building ;  and  he  there  confounded  the 
language  of  the  workmen,  that  they  might  not  understand  one  an- 
other ;  and  thus  the  building  of  the  tower,  which  was  called  Babel, 
was  abandoned,  and  the  people  were  scattered  abroad  over  the  whole 
earth. 

7.  It  is  generally  supposed  that  Noah  himself,  after  this  event, 
journeyed  eastward,  and  founded  the  empire  of  China ;  that  Shem 
was  the  father  of  the  nations  of  Southern  Asia ;  that  Ham  peopled 
Egyp^ ;  and  that  the  descendants  of  Japheth  migrated  westward 
and  settled  in  the  countries  of  Europe,  or,  as  they  are  called  in 
Scripture,  the  "  Isles  of  the  Gentiles." 

8.  Soon  after  the  dispersion  of  mankind  from  Babel,  it  is  supposed 
that  Mis'  raim,  one  of  the  sons  of  Ham,  journeyed  into 

Egypt,8  where  he  became  the  founder  of  the  most  ancient 
and  renowned  nation  of  antiquity.  The  government  es- 
tablished by  him  is  believed  to  have  been  that  of  an  aristocratic 

1.  The  Euphrates,  the  most  considerable  river  of  Western  Asia,  has  its  sources  in  the  table 
lands  of  Armenia,  about  ninety  miles  from  the  south-eastern  borders  of  the  Black  Sea.    The 
sources  of  the  Tigris  are  in  the  same  region,  but  farther  south.    The  general  direction  of  both 
rivers  is  south-east,  to  their  entrance  into  the  head  of  the  Persian  Gulf.    (See  Map,  p.  15.)    So 
late  as  the  age  of  Alexander  the  Great,  each  of  these  rivers  preserved  a  separate  course  to  the 
sea,  but  not  long  after  they  became  united  about  eighty  miles  from  their  mouth,  from  which 
point  they  have  ever  since  continued  to  flow  in  a  single  stream.    Both  rivers  are  navigable  a 
considerable  distance,— both  have  their  regular  inundations ;  rising  twice  a  year— first  in  De- 
cember, in  consequence  of  the  autumnal  rains;  and  next  from  March  till  June,  owing  to  the 
melting  of  the  mountain  snows.    The  Scriptures  place  the  Garden  of  Eden  on  the  banks  of  the 
Euphrates,  but  the  exact  site  is  unknown. 

We  learn  that  soon  after  the  deluge,  the  country  in  the  vicinity  of  the  two  rivers  Tigris  and 
Euphrates,  where  stood  the  tower  of  Babel,  was  known  as  the  Land  of  Shinar :  afterwards  the 
empire  of  Assyria  or  Babylon  flourished  here ;  and  still  later,  the  country  between  the  two 
rivers  was  called  by  the  ancient  Greeks,  Mesopotamia, — a  compound  of  two  Greek  worda, 
(mesos  and  potamos,)  signifying  "between  the  rivers."  In  ancient  times  the  banks  of  both 
rivers  were  studded  with  cities  of  the  first  rank.  On  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Tigris  stood 
Nineveh;  and  on  both  sides  of  the  Euphrates  stood  the  mighty  Babylon,  "the  glory  of  king- 
doms," and  "the  beauty  of  the  Chaldee's  excellency."  Lower  Mesopotamia,  both  above  and 
below  Babylon,  was  anciently  intersected  by  canals  in  every  direction,  many  of  which  can  still 
be  traced ;  and  some  of  them  could  easily  be  restored  to  their  original  condition.  (See 
Map,  p.  15.) 

2.  Ancient  EGYPT,  called  by  the  Hebrews  Mis' raim,  may  be  divided  into  two  principal  por- 
tions ;  Upper  or  Southern  Egypt,  of  which  Thebes  was  the  capital,  and  Lower  Egypt,  whose 
capital  was  Memphis.    That  portion  of  Lower  Egypt  embraced  within  the  mouths  or  outlets  of 
the  Nile,  the  Greeks  afterwards  called  the  Delta,  from  its  resemblance  to  the  form  of  the 
Greek  letter  of  that  name.  (A)    Ancient  Egypt  probably  embraced  all  of  the  present  Nubia, 
and  perhaps  a  part  of  Abyssinia.    Modern  Egypt  is  bounded  on  the  north  by  the  Mediterra- 


14  AXCIEXT  HISTORY.  [PABT  I 

priesthood,  whose  members  were  the  patrons  of  the  arts  and  sciences ; 
and  it  is  supposed  that  the  nation  was  divided  into  three  distinct 
classes, — the  priests,  the  military,  and  the  people  ; — the  two  former 
holding  the  latter  and  most  numerous  body  in  subjection.  After 
this  government  had  existed  nearly  two  centuries,  under  rulers  whose 
names  have  perished,  Menes,  a  military  chieftain,  is  supposed  to 
have  subverted  the  ancient  sacerdotal  despotism,  and  to  have  estab- 
lished the  first  civil  monarchy,  about  2400  years  before  the  Christian 
era.  Menes  was  the  first  Pharaoh,  a  name  common  to  all  the  kings 
of  Egypt. 

9.  Upon  the  authority  of  Herod'  otus1  and  Josephus,2  to  the  first 
king,  Menes,  is  attributed  the  founding  of  Memphis,8  probably  the 
most  ancient  city  in  Egypt.  Other  writers  ascribe  to  him  the  build- 
ing of  Thebes4  also  ;  but  some  suppose  that  Thebes  was  built  many 

uean,  on  the  east  by  the  Isthmus  of  Suez  and  the  Red  Sea,  on  the  south  by  Nubia,  and  on  the 
west  by  the  Great  Desert  and  the  province  of  Barca. 

The  cultivated  portion  of  Egypt,  embraced  mostly  within  a  narrow  valley  of  from  five  to 
twenty  miles  in  width,  is  indebted  wholly  to  the  annual  inundations  of  the  Nile  for  its  fertility; 
and  without  them,  would  soon  become  a  barren  waste.  The  river  begins  to  swell,  in  its  higher 
parts,  in  April ;  but  at  the  Delta  no  increase  occurs  until  the  beginning  of  June.  Its  greatest 
height  there  is  in  September,  when  the  Delta  is  almost  entirely  under  water.  By  the  end  of 
November  the  waters  leave  the  land  altogether,  having  deposited  a  rich  alluvium.  Then  the 
Egyptian  spring  commences,  at  a  season  corresponding  to  our  winter,  when  the  whole  country, 
covered  with  a  vivid  green,  bears  the  aspect  of  a  fruitful  garden.  (Map,  p.  15.) 

1.  Herod' otus— the  earliest  of  the  Greek  historians:  born  484  B.  C. 

2.  Josephtis — a  celebrated  Jewish  historian :  born  at  Jerusalem,  A.  D.  37. 

3.  Memphis,  a  famous  city  of  Egypt,  whose  origin  dates  beyond  the  period  of  authentic  his- 
tory, is  supposed  to  have  stood  on  the  western  bank  of  the  Nile,  about  fifteen  miles  south  from 
the  apex  of  the  Delta — the  point  whence  the  waters  of  the  river  diverge  to  enter  the  sea  by 
different  channels.    But  few  relics  of  its  magnificence  now  occupy  the  ground  where  the  city 
once  stood,  the  materials  having  been  mostly  removed  for  the  building  of  modern  edifices.    At 
the  time  of  our  Saviour,  Memphis  was  the  second  city  in  Egypt,  and  next  in  importance  to 
Alexandria,  the  capital ;  but  its  decay  had  already  begun.    Even  in  the  twelfth  century  of  the 
Christian  era,  after  the  lapse  of  four  thousand  years  from  its  origin,  it  is  described  by  an  Orien- 
tal writer  as  containing  "works  so  wonderful  that  they  confound  even  a  reflecting  mind,  and 
such  as  the  most  eloquent  would  not  be  able  to  describe."    (Map,  p.  15.) 

4.  The  ruins  of  Thebes,  "  the  capital  of  a  by-gone  world,"  are  situated  in  the  narrow  valley 
of  the  Nile,  in  Upper  Egypt,  extending  about  seven  miles  along  both  banks  of  the  river.    Here 
are  still  to  be  seen  magnificent  ruins  of  temples,  palaces,  colossal  statues,  obelisks,  and  tombs, 
which  attest  the  exceeding  wealth  and  power  of  the  early  Egyptians.    The  city  is  supposed  to 
have  attained  its  greatest  splendor  about  fifteen  hundred  years  before  the  Christian  era.    On 
the  east  side  of  the  river  the  principal  rums  are  those  of  Carnac  and  Luxor,  about  a  mile  and  a 
half  apart.    Among  the  former  are  the  remains  of  a  temple  dedicated  to  Ammon,  the  Jupiter 
of  the  Egyptians,  covering  more  than  nine  acres  of  ground.    A  large  portion  of  this  stupendous 
structure  is  still  standing.    The  principal  front  to  this  building  is  368  feet  in  length,  and  148  feet 
in  height,  with  a  door-way  in  the  middle  64  feet  high.    One  of  the  halls  in  this  vast  building 
covers  an  area  of  more  than  an  acre  and  a  quarter ;  and  its  roof,  consisting  of  enormous  slabs 
of  stone,  has  been  supported  by  134  huge  columns.    The  roof  of  what  is  supposed  to  have  been 
the  sanctuary,  or  place  from  which  the  oracles  were  delivered,  is  composed  of  three  blocks  of 
granite,  painted  with  clusters  of  gilt  stars  on  a  blue  ground.    The  entrance  to  this  room  was 
marked  by  four  noble  obelisks,  each  70  feet  high,  three  of  which  are  now  standing.    At  Lrjxor 


CHAT.  I.] 


EARLY  AGES. 


15 


centuries  later.  Menes  appears  to  have  been  occupied,  during  most 
of  his  reign,  in  wars  with  foreign  nations  to  us  unknown.  According 
to  numerous  traditions,  recorded  in  later  ages,  he  also  cultivated  the 
arts  of  peace ;  he  protected  religion  and  the  priesthood,  and  erected 
temples ;  he  built  walls  of  defence  on  the  frontier  of  his  kingdom — 
and  he  dug  numerous  canals,  and  constructed  dikes,  both  to  draw  off 


MAP   ILLUSTRATIVE   OF   EARLY   HISTORY. 

are  to  be  seen  the  remains  of  a  magnificent  palace,  about  800  feet  in  length  by  200  in  width. 
On  each  side  of  the  doorway  is  a  colossal  statue,  measuring  44  feet  from  the  ground.  Fronting 
these  statues  were  two  obelisks,  each  formed  of  a  single  block  of  red  granite,  80  feet  in  height, 
and  beautifully  sculptured.  A  few  years  ago  one  of  these  obelisks  was  taken  down,  and  con- 
veyed, at  great  expense,  to  the  city  of  Paris,  where  it  has  been  erected  in  the  Place  de  la  Con- 
corde. Among  the  ruins  on  the  west  side  of  the  river,  at  Medinet  Abou,  are  two  sitting  colossal 
figures,  each  about  50  feet  in  height,  supported  by  pedestals  of  corresponding  dimensions.  On 
the  same  side  of  the  river,  in  the  mountain-range  that  skirts  the  valley,  and  westward  of  tho 
ruins,  are  the  famous  catacombs,  or  burial-places  of  the  ancient  inhabitants,  excavated  in  tho 
lolidrock.  (J\lap,p.lZ.) 


16  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PAKT  1. 

the  waters  of  the  Nile1  for  enriching  the  cultivated  lands,  and  to 
prevent  inundations.  His  name  is  common  in  ancient  records,  while 
many  subsequent  monarchs  of  Egypt  have  been  forgotten.  Monu- 
ments still  exist  which  attest  the  veneration  in  which  he  was  held 
by  his  posterity. 

10.  From  the  time  of  Menes  until  about  the  21st  century  before 
Christ,  the  period  when  Abraham  is  supposed  to  have  visited  Egypt,* 
little  is  known  of  Egyptian  history.  It  appears,  however,  from 
hieroglyphic  inscriptions,  first  interpreted  in  the  present  century,  and 
corroborated  by  traditions  and  some  vague  historic  records,  that  the 
greatest  Egyptian  pyramids8  were  erected  three  or  four  hundred 
years  before  the  time  of  Abraham,  and  eight  or  nine  hundred  years 
before  the  era  of  Moses, — showing  a  truly  astonishing  degree  of 
power  and  grandeur  attained  by  the  Egyptian  monarchy  more  than 
four  thousand  years  ago.  "When  Abraham  visited  Egypt  he  was  re- 

1.  The  JVYZe,  a  large  river  of  eastern  Africa,  is  formed  by  the  junction  of  the  White  River  and 
the  Blue  River  in  the  country  of  Sennaar,  whence  the  united  stream  flows  northward,  in  a  very 
winding  course,  through  Nubia  and  Egypt,  and  enters  the  Mediterranean  through  two  mouths, 
those  of  Rosetta  and  Damietta,  the  former  or  most  westerly  of  which  has  a  width  of  about  1800 
feet ;  and  the  latter  of  about  900.    The  Rosetta  channel  has  a  depth  of  about  five  feet  in  the  dry 
season,  and  the  Damietta  channel  of  seven  or  eight  feet  when  the  river  is  lowest.    Formerly  the 
Nile  entered  the  sea  by  seven  different  channels,  several  of  which  still  occasionally  serve  for 
canals,  and  purposes  of  irrigation.    During  the  last  thirteen  hundred  miles  of  its  course,  the 
Nile  receives  no  tributary  on  either  side.    The  White  river,  generally  regarded  as  the  true  Nile, 
about  whose  source  no  satisfactory  knowledge  has  yet  been  obtained,  is  supposed  to  have  its 
rise  in  the  highlands  of  Central  Africa,  north  of  the  Equator.    ( Map,  p.  15.) 

2.  The  pyramids  of  Egypt  are  vast  artificial  structures,  most  of  them  of  stone,  scattered  at 
irregular  intervals  along  the  western  valley  of  the  Nile  from  Meroe,  (Mer-o-we)  in  modern 
Nubia,  to  the  site  of  ancient  Memphis  near  Cairo.  (Ki-ro.)    The  largest,  best  known,  and  most 
celebrated,  are  the  three  pyramids  of  Ghizeh,  situated  on  a  platform  of  rock  about  150  feet 
above  the  level  of  the  surrounding  desert,  near  the  ruins  of  Memphis,  seven  or  eight  miles 
south-west  from  Cairo.    The  largest  of  these,  the  famous  pyramid  of  Cheops,  is  a  gigantic  struc- 
ture, the  base  of  which  covers  a  surface  of  about  eleven  acres.    The  sides  of  the  base  corre- 
spond in  direction  with  the  four  cardinal  points,  and  each  measures,  at  the  foundation,  746  feet. 
The  perpendicular  height  is  about  480  feet,  which  is  43  feet  9  inches  higher  than  St.  Peters  at 
Rome,  the  loftiest  edifice  of  modern  times.    This  huge  fabric  consists  of  two  hundred  and  six 
layers  of  vast  blocks  of  stone,  rising  above  each  other  in  the  form  of  steps,  the  thickness  of 
which  diminishes  as  the  height  of  the  pyramid  increases,  the  lower  layers  being  nearly  five  feet 
in  thickness,  and  the  upper  ones  about  eighteen  inches.    The  summit  of  the  pyramid  appears 
to  have  been,  originally,  a  level  platform,  sixteen  or  eighteen  feet  square.    Within  this  pyramid 
several  chambers  have  been  discovered,  lined  with  immense  slabs  of  granite,  which  must  have 
been  conveyed  thither  from  a  great  distance  up  the  Nile.    The  second  pyramid  at  Ghizeh  is 
coated  over  with  polished  stone  140  feet  downwards  from  the  summit,  thereby  removing  the 
inequalities  occasioned  by  the  steps,  and  rendering  the  surface  smooth  and  uniform.    Herod'  o- 
tus  states,  from  information  derived  from  the  Egyptian  priests,  that  one  hundred  thousand  men 
were  employed  twenty  years  in  constructing  the  great  pyramid  of  Ghizeh,  and  that  ten  years 
had  been  spent,  previously,  in  quarrying  the  stones  and  conveying  them  to  the  place.    The  re- 
maining pyramids  of  Egypt  correspond,  in  their  general  character,  with  the  one  described,  with 
the  exception  that  several  of  them  are  constructed  of  sun-burnt  brick.    No  reasonable  doubt 
now  exists  that  the  pyramids  were  desigaed  as  the  burial  places  of  kings. 

a.  2077  B.  C. 


CHAP.  I]  EARLY  AGES.  17 

ceived  with  the  hospitality  and  kindness  becoming  a  civilized  nation ; 
and  when  he  left  Egypt,  to  return  to  his  own  country,  the  ruling 
monarch  dismissed  him  and  all  his  people,  "  rich  in  cattle,  in  silver, 
and  in  gold." 

1 1.  Nearly  a  hundred  years  before  the  time  of  Abraham's  visit  to 
Egypt,  Lower  Egypt  had  been  invaded  and  subdued*  by  the  Hyc'  sos, 
or  Shepherd  Kings,  a  roving  people  from  the  eastern  shores  of  the 
Mediterranean, — probably  the  same  that  were  known,  at  a  later 
period,  in  sacred  history,  as  the  Philistines,  and  still  later  as  the 
Phoanicians.     Kings  of  this  race  continued  to  rule  over  Lower  Egypt 
during  a  period  of  260  years,  but  they  were  finally  expelled,b  and 
driven  back  to  their  original  seats  in  Asia.     During  their  dominion, 
Upper  Egypt,  with  Thebes  its  capital,  appears  to  have  remained 
under  the  government  of  the  native  Egyptians.     A  few  years  after 
the  expulsion  of  the  Shepherd  Kings,  Joseph  was  appointed0  governor 
or  regent  of  Egypt,  under  one  of  the  Pharaohs ;  and  the  family  of 
Jacob  was  settledd  in  the  land  of  Goshen.1     It  was  during  the  resi- 
dence of  the  Israelites  in  Egypt  that  we  date  the  commencement  of 
Grecian  history,  with  the  supposed  founding  of  Argos  by  In'  achus, 
1856  years  before  the  Christian  era. 

12.  During  the  early  period  of  Egyptian  history  which  we  have 
described,  kingdoms  arose  and  mighty  cities  were  found- 
ed in  those  regions  of  Asia  first  peopled  by  the  imme- 

diate  descendants  of  Noah.      After  the  dispersion  of 
mankind  from  Babel,  Ashur,  one  of  the  sons  of  Shem,  remained  in 
the  vicinity  of  that  place ;    and  by  many  he  is   regarded  as  the 
founder  of  the  Assyrian  empire,2  and  the  builder  of  Nineveh.8     But 

1.  "The  land  of  Goshen  lay  along  the  most  easterly  branch  of  the  Nile,  and  on  the  east  side 
of  it ;  for  it  is  evident  that  at  the  time  of  the  Exode  the  Israelites  did  not  cross  the  Nile.    (Hale's 
Analysis  of  Chronology,  i.  374.)    "The  'land  of  Goshen'  was  between  Egypt  and  Canaan,  not 
far  from  the  Isthmus  of  Suez,  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  Nile."    (See  Map,  p.  15.)    (Cockaync't 
Hist,  of  the  Jews,  p.  7.) 

2.  The  early  province  or  kingdom  of  ASSYRIA  is  usually  considered  as  having  been  on  the 
eastern  bank  of  the  river  Tigris,  having  Nineveh  for  its  capital.    But  it  is  probable  that  both 
Nineveh  and  Babylon  belonged  to  the  early  Assyrian  empire,  and  that  these  two  cities  were  at 
times  the  capitals  of  separate  monarchies,  and  at  times  united  under  one  government,  whose 
territories  were  ever  changing  by  conquest,  and  by  alliances  with  surrounding  tribes  or  nations. 

3.  The  city  of  Nineveh  is  supposed  to  have  stood  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Tigris,  opposite  the 
modern  city  of  Mosul.    (See  JHap,  p.  15.)    Its  site  was  probably  identical  with  that  of  the  pre- 
sent small  village  of  Nunia,  and  what  is  called  the  "  tomb  of  Jonah ;"  which  are  surrounded  by 
vast  heaps  of  ruins,  and  vestiges  of  mounds,  from  which  bricks  and  pieces  of  gypsum  are  dug 
out,  with  inscriptions  closely  resembling  those  found  among  the  ruins  of  Babylon. 

Of  the  early  history  of  Nineveh  little  is  known.    Some  early  writers  describe  it  as  larger  than 
Babylon ;  but  little  dependence  can  be  placed  on  their  statements.    It  is  believed,  however, 
a.  2159  B.  C.  b.  1900  B.  C.  c.  W72  B.  C.  d.  1863  B.  C. 

2 


!8  ANCIENT   HISTORY.  [PART! 

others1  ascribe  this  honor  to  Nimrod,  a  grandson  of  Ham,  who,  as  they 
suppose,  having  obtained  possession  of  the  provinces  of  Ashur,  built 
Nineveh,  and  encompassing  Babel  with  walls,  and  rebuilding  the  desert- 
ed city,  made  it  the  capital  of  his  empire,  under  the  name  of  Babylon,9 


that  the  walls  included,  besides  the  buildings  of  the  city,  a  large  extent  of  well-cultivated  gar- 
dens and  pasture  grounds.  In  the  ninth  century  before  Christ,  it  was  described  by  the  prophet 
Jonah  as  "an  exceeding  great  city  of  three  days' journey,"  and  as  containing  "more  than  six 
score  thousand  persons  that  c'ould  not  distinguish  between  their  right  hand  and  their  left."  It 
is  generally  believed  that  the  expression  here  used  denoted  children,  and  that  the  entire  popu- 
lation of  the  city  numbered  seven  or  eight  hundred  thousand  souls. 

Nineveh  was  a  city  of  great  commercial  importance.  The  prophet  Nahum  thus  addresses 
her:  "Thou  hast  multiplied  thy  merchants  above  the  stars  of  heaven."  (iii.  16.)  Nineveh  was 
besieged  and  taken  by  Arbaces  the  Mede,  in  the  eighth  century  before  Christ ;  and  in  the  year 
C12  it  fell  into  the  hands  of  Ahasuerus,  or  Cyaxares,  king  of  Media,  who  took  great  "spoil  of 
silver  and  gold,  and  none  end  of  the  store  and  glory,  out  of  all  her  pleasant  furniture,"  making 
her  "empty,  and  void,  and  waste."  (Map,  p.  15.) 

1.  According  to  our  English  Bible  (Genesis,  x.  11),  "rfshur  went  forth  out  of  the  land  of  Shi- 
nar  (Babylon)  and  builded  Nineveh."    But  by  many  this  reading  is  supposed  to  be  a  wrong 
translation,  and  that  the  passage  should  read,  "From  that  land  he  (Nimrod)  went  forth  into 
Ashur,  (the  name  of  a  province,)  and  built  Nineveh."    ("De  terra  ilia  egressus  est  Assur  et 
zedificavit  Nineveh."    (See  Anthon's  Classical  Dictionary,  article  Assyria.    See,  also,  the  subject 
examined  in  H ale's  Analysis  of  Chronology,  i.  450-1.) 

2.  Ancient  Babylon,  once  the  greatest,  most  magnificent,  and  most  powerful  city  of  the  world, 
stood  on  both  sides  of  the  river  Euphrates,  about  350  miles  from  the  entrance  of  that  stream 
into  the  Persian  Gulf.    The  building  of  Babel  was  probably  the  commencement  of  the  city,  but 
it  is  supposed  to  have  attained  its  greatest  glory  during  the  reign  of  the  Assyrian  queen,  Semir'- 
amis.    Different  writers  give  different  acccounts  of  the  extent  of  this  city.    The  Greek  historian 
Herod' otus,  who  visited  it  in  the  fourth  century  before  Christ,  while  its  walls  were  still  standing 
and  much  of  its  early  magnificence  remaining,  described  it  as  a  perfect  square,  the  walls  of 
each  side  being  120  furlongs,  or  fifteen  miles  in  length.    According  to  this  computation  the  city 
embraced  an  area  of  225  square  miles.    But  Diodorus  reduces  the  supposed  area  lo  72  square 
miles ; — equal,  however,  to  three  and  a  half  times  the  area  of  London,  with  all  its  suburbs. 
Some  writers  have  supposed  that  the  city  contained  a  population  of  at  least  five  millions  of 
people.    Others  have  reduced  this  estimate  to  one  million.    It  is  highly  improbable  that  the 
whole  of  the  immense  area  inclosed  by  the  walls  was  filled  with  the  buildings  of  a  compact 
city. 

The  walls  of  Babylon,  which  were  built  of  large  bricks  cemented  with  bitumen,  are  said  to 
have  been  350  feet  high,  and  87  feet  in  thickness,  flanked  with  lofty  towers,  and  pierced  by  100 
gates  of  brass.  The  two  portions  of  the  city,  on  each  side  of  the  Euphrates,  were  connected  by 
a  bridge  of  stone,  which  rested  on  arches  of  the  same  material.  The  temple  of  Jupiter  Belus, 
supposed  to  have  been  the  tower  of  Babel,  is  described  by  Herod'  otus  as  an  immense  structure, 
square  at  the  base,  and  rising,  in  eight  distinct  stories,  to  the  height  of  nearly  600  feet.  Herod'- 
otus  says  that  when  he  visited  Babylon  the  brazen  gates  of  this  temple  were  still  to  be  seen, 
and  that  in  the  upper  story  there  was  a  couch  magnificently  adorned,  and  near  it  a  table  of  solid 
gold.  Herod 'otus  also  mentions  a  statue  of  gold  twelve  cubits  high, — supposed  to  have  been 
the  "golden  image"  set  up  by  Nebuchadnezzar.  The  site  of  this  temple  has  been  identified  as 
that  of  the  ruins  now  called  by  the  Arabs  the  "  Birs  Nimroud,"  or  Tower  of  Nimrod. 

Later  writers  than  Herod'  otus  speak  of  a  tunnel  under  the  Euphrates — subterranean  banquet- 
ing rooms  of  brass — and  hanging  gardens  elevated  three  hundred  feet  above  the  city ;  but  as 
Herod'  otus  rs  silent  on  these  points,  serious  doubts  have  been  entertained  of  the  existence  of 
these  structures. 

Nothing  now  remains  of  the  buildings  of  ancient  Babylon  but  immense  and  shapeless  masses 
of  ruins;  their  sites  being  partly  occupied  by  the  modem  and  meanly  built  town  of  Hillah,  on 
the  western  bank  of  the  Euphrates.  This  town,  surrounded  by  mud  walls,  contains  a  mixed 
Arabian  and  Jewish  population  of  six  or  seven  thousand  souls.  (Map,  p.  15.) 


CHAP.  I.]  EARLY  AGES.  1$ 

about  600  years  after  the  deluge,  and  2555  years  before  the  Chris- 
tian era.  After  his  death,  Nimrod  was  deified  for  his  great  actions, 
and  called  Belus  :  and  it  is  supposed  that  the  tower  of  Babel,  rising 
high  above  the  walls  of  Babylon,  but  still  in  an  unfinished  state,  was 
consecrated  to  his  worship. 

13.  While  some  believe  that  the  monarch  Ninus  was  the  son  of 
Nimrod,  and  that  Assyria  and  Babylon  formed  one  united  empire 
under  the  immediate  successors  of  the  first  founder ;  others  regard 
Ninus  as  an  Assyrian  prince,  who,  by  conquering  Babylon,  united 
the  hitherto  separate  empires,  more  than  four  hundred  years  after 
the  reign  of  Nimrod ;  while  others  still  regard  Ninus  as  only  a  per- 
sonification   of  Nineveh-*     During  the  reign  of  Ninus,   and  also 
during  that  of  his  supposed  queen  and  successor,  Semir'  amis,  the 
boundaries  of  the  united  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  empires  are  said 
to  have  been  greatly  enlarged  by  conquest ;  but  the  accounts  that 
are  given  of  these  events  are  evidently  so  exaggerated,  that  little  re- 
liance can  be  placed  upon  them. 

14.  Semir' amis,  who  was  raised  from  an  humble  station  to  be- 
come the  queen  of  Ninus,  is  described  as  a  woman  of  uncommon 
courage  and  masculine  character,  the  main  object  of  whose  ambition 
was  to  immortalize  her  name  by  the  greatness  of  her  exploits.     Her 
conquests  are  said  to  have  embraced  nearly  all  the  then  known  world, 
extending  as  far  as  Central  Africa  on  the  one  hand,  and  as  far  as 
the  Indus,1  in  Asia,  on  the  other.     She  is  said  to  have  raised,  at  one 
time,  an  army  of  more  than  three  millions  of  men,  and  to  have  em- 
ployed two  millions  of  workmen  in  adorning  Babylon — statements 
wholly  inconsistent  with  the  current  opinion  of  the  sparse  population 
of  the  world  at  this  early  period.     After  the  reign  of  Semir'  amis, 
which  is  supposed  to  have  been  during  the  time  of  the  sojourn  of 
the  Israelites  in  Egypt,  little  is  known  of  the  history  of  Assyria  for 
more  than  thirty  generations. 

1.  The  river  Indus,  or  Sinde,  rises  in  the  Himmaleh  mountains,  and  running  in  a  soulh-w«*- 
erly  direction  enters  the  Arabian  Sea  near  the  western  extremity  of  Hindostan. 
a.  Niebuhr's  Ancient  Hist.  i.  55. 


20  ANCIENT   HISTORY.  PART  L 


CHAPTER    II. 


THE  FABULOUS  AND    LEGENDARY  PERIOD  OF  GRECIAN 
HISTORY : 

ENDING  WITE   THE   CLOSE   OF  THE   TROJAN   WAR,    1183   B.   C. 

ANALYSIS.  1.  Extent  of  Ancient  Greece.  Of  Modern  Greece.  The  most  ancient  name  of 
the  country.— 2.  The  two  general  divisions  of  Modern  Greece.  Extent  of  Northern  Greece. 
Of  the  Morea.  Whole  area  of  the  country  so  renowned  in  history. — 3.  The  general  surface  of 
the  country.  Its  fertility.— 4.  Mountains  of  Greece.  Rivers.  Climate.  The  seasons.  Scenery. 
Classical  associations. 

5.  GRECIAN  MYTHOLOGY,  the  proper  introduction  to  Grecian  history.— 6.  Chaos.  Earth,  and 
Heaven.  The  offspring  of  Earth  and  U'  ranus.  [U '  ran  us ;  the  Titans :  the  Cyclopes.]— 7.  U'  rauua 
is  dethroned,  and  is  succeeded  by  Sat' urn.  [The  Furies:  the  Giants:  and  the  Melian  Nymphs. 
Venus.  Sat' urn.  Jupiter.  Nep'tune.  Pluto.]— 8.  War  of  tho  Titans  against  Sat' urn.  War 
of  the  Giants  with  Jupiter.  The  result.  New  dynasty  of  the  gods. — 9.  The  wives  of  Jupiter. 
[Juno.]  His  offspring.  [Mer'cury.  Mars.  Apol'lo.  Vul'can.  Diana.  Miner' va.]  Other 
celestial  divinities.  [Ceres.  Ves'ta.]— 10.  Other  deities  not  included  among  the  celestials. 
[Bac'  chus.  Iris.  Hebe.  The  Muses.  The  Fates.  The  Graces.]  Monsters.  [Harpies.  Gor'- 
gons.]  Rebellions  against  Jupiter.  [Olym'pus.]— 11.  Numbers,  and  character,  of  the  legends 
of  the  gods.  Vulgar  belief,  and  philosophical  explanations  of  them. 

12.  EARLIEST  INHABITANTS  OF  GREECE.  The  Pelas'gians.  Tribes  included  under  this 
name. — 13.  Character  and  civilization  of  the  Pelas'gians.  [Cyclopean  structures.  Asia 
Minor.]— 14.  FOREIGN  SETTLERS  IN  GREECE.  Reputed  founding  of  Ar'gos.  [Ar'gos.  Ar'- 
?olis.  Oceanus.  In'  achus.]  The  accounts  of  the  early  Grecian  settlements  not  reliable. — 15. 
The  founding  of  Athens.  [At'  tica.  Ogy'ges.]  The  elements  of  Grecian  civilization  attributed 
to  Cecrops.  The  story  of  Cecrops  doubtless  fabulous. — 16.  Legend  of  the  contest  between  Min- 
er'va  and  Nep'tune. — 17.  Cran'aus  and  Amphic'tyon.  Dan'aus  and  Cad' mus.  [Boeotia. 
Thebes.]— 18.  General  character  of  the  accounts  of  foreign  settlers  in  Greece.  Value  of  these  tra- 
ditions. The  probable  truth  in  relation  to  them,  which  accounts  for  the  intermixture  of  foreign 
with  Grecian  mythology.  [^Egean  Sea.] 

19.  The  HELLENES  appear  in  Thessaly,  about  1384  B.  C.,  and  become  the  ruling  class  among 
the  Grecians.— 20.  Ilellen  the  son  of  Deucalion.  The  several  Grecian  tribes.  The  Julian  tribe. 
— 21.  The  HEROIC  AGE.  Our  knowledge  of  Grecian  history  during  this  period.  Character  and 
value  of  the  Heroic  legends.  The  most  important  of  them.  [1st.  Hercules.  2d.  Theseus.  3d. 
Argonaiitic  expedition.  4tb.  Theban  and  Ar'golic  war.] — 22.  The  Argonautic  expedition 
thought  the  most  important.  Probably  a  poetic  fiction.  [Samothrace.  Euxine  Sea.]  Proba- 
bility of  naval  expeditions  at  this  early  period,  and  their  results.  [Minos.  Crete]— 23.  Opet- 
vng  of  the  Trojan  war.  Its  alleged  causes.  [Troy.  Lacedae'mon.] — 24.  Paris, — the  flight  of 
Helen,— the  war  which  followed.— 25.  Remarks  on  the  supposed  reality  of  the  war.  [The  fable 
of  Helen.]— 26.  What  kind  of  truth  is  to  be  extracted  from  Homer's  account. 

COTEMPORARY  HISTORY.— 1.  Our  limited  knowledge  of  cotemporary  history  during  this 
period.  Rome.  Europe.  Central  Western  Asia.  Egyptian  History.— 2.  The  conquests  of 
Sesos'  tris.  [Libya.  Ethi6pia.  The  Gauges.  Thracians  and  Scythians.]  The  columns  erect- 
ed by  Sesos'  tris.— 3.  Statues  of  Sesostris  at  Ipsam'  boul.  Historical  sculptures.— 4.  Remarks 
on  the  evidences  of  the  existence  of  this  conqueror.  The  close  of  his  reign.  Subsequent 
Egyptian  history.— 5.  The  Israelites  at  the  period  of  the  commencement  of  Grecian  history. 
Their  situation  after  the  death  of  Joseph.  Their  exodus  from  Egypt,  1648  B.  0.— 6.  Wander- 
ing in  the  wilderness.  Passage  of  the  Jordan.  [Arabia.  Jordan.  Palestine.]  Death  of 


CHAP.  1L]  GRECIAN  HISTORY.  '21 


Israel  during  the  time  of  Joshua  and  the  ciders. — 7.  Israel  ruled  by  judges  until  the 
time  of  Saul.  The  Israelites  frequently  apostatize  to  idolatry.  [Mdabites.  Canaanites.]— S. 
Their  deliverance  from  the  Mid'  iauites  and  Am'  alekites.  [Localities  of  these  tribes.]— 9.  De- 
liverance from  the  Philistines  and  Am'  monites.  [Localities  of  these  tribes.]  Samson,  Eli,  and 
Samuel.  Saul  anointed  king  over  Israel,  1110  B.  C.— 10.  Closing  remarks. 

1.  GREECE,  which  is  the  Roman  name  of  the  country  whose  his- 
i  GEOOKAPHI-  *orv  we  nex*  Proceed  to  narrate,  but  which  was  called 

OAL  DESCUIP-  by  the  natives  Hel'  las,  denoting  the  country  of  the 
[ON*  Hellenes,  comprised,  in  its  most  flourishing  period, 
nearly  the  whole  of  the  great  eastern  peninsula  of  southern  Europe 
— extending  north  to  the  northern  extremity  of  the  waters  of  the 
Grecian  Archipelago.  Modern  Greece,  however,  has  a  less  extent 
on  the  north,  as  Thes'  saly,  Epirus,  and  Macedonia  have  been  taken 
from  it,  and  annexed  to  the  Turkish  empire.  The  area  of  Modern 
Greece  is  less  than  that  of  Portugal ;  but  owing  to  the  irregularities 
of  its  shores,  its  range  of  seacoast  is  greater  than  that  of  the  whole 
of  Spain.  The  most  ancient  name  by  which  Greece  was  known  to 
other  nations  was  Ionia, — a  term  which  Josephus  derives  from  Ja- 
van,  the  son  of  Japhet,  and  grandson  of  Noah :  although  the  Greeks 
themselves  applied  the  term  Zones  only  to  the  descendants  of  the 
fabulous  /'  on,  son  of  Xuthus. 

2.  Modern  Greece  is  divided  into  two  principal  portions  : — North- 
ern Greece  or  Hel'  las,  and  Southern  Greece,  or  Mor6a — anciently 
called  Peloponnesus.     The  former  includes  the  country  of  the  an- 
cient  Grecian   States,  Acarnania,   JEtolia,    Locris,  Phocis,  Doris, 
Bceotia,  Eubce'a,  and  At'tica;  and  the  latter,  the  Peloponnesian 
States  of  E' lis,  Achaia,  Cor' inth,  Ar' golis,  Laconia,  and  Messenia; 
whose  localities  may  be  learned  from  the  accompanying  map.     The 
greatest  length  of  the  northern  portion,  which  is  from  north-west  to 
south-east,  is  about  two  hundred  miles,  with  an  average  width  of 
fifty  miles.     The  greatest  length  of  the  Morea,  which  is  from  north 
to  south,  is  about  one  hundred  and  forty  miles.     The  whole  area  of 
the  country  so  renowned  in  history  under  the  name  of  Greece  or 
Hel'  las,  is  only  about  twenty  thousand  square  miles,  which  is  less 
than  half  the  area  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania. 

3.  The  general  surface  of  Greece  is  mountainous ;  and  almost  the 
only  fertile  spots  are  the  numerous  and  usually  narrow  plains  along 
the  sea-shore  and  the  banks  of  rivers,  or,  as  in  several  places,  large 
basins,  which  apparently  once  formed  the  beds  of  mountain  lakes. 
The  largest  tracts  of  level  country  are  in  western  Hel'  las,  and  along 
the  northern  and  north-western  shores  of  the  Morea. 


22  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PAST  L 

4.  The  mountains  of  Greece  are  of  the  Alpine  character,  and  are 
remarkable  for  their  numerous  grottos  and  caverns.     Their  abrupt 
summits  never  rise  to  the  regions  of  perpetual  snow.     There  are  no 
navigable  rivers  in  Greece,  but  this  want  is  obviated  by  the  numerous 
gulfs  and  inlets  of  the  sea,  which  indent  the  coast  on  every  side,  and 
thus  furnish  unusual  facilities  to  commerce,  while  they  add  to  the 
Variety  and  beauty  of  the  scenery.     The  climate  of  Greece  is  for  the 
most  part  healthy,  except  in  the  low  and  marshy  tracts  around  the 
shores  and  lakes.     The  winters  are  short.     Spring  and  autumn  are 
rainy  seasons,  when  many  parts  of  the  country  are  inundated ;  but 
during  the  whole  summer,  which  comprises  half  the  year,  a  cloud  in 
the  sky  is  rare  in  several  parts  of  the  country.     Grecian  scenery  is 
unsurpassed  in  romantic  wildness  and  beauty ;  but  our  deepest  inter- 
est in  the  country  arises  from  its  classical  associations,  and  the  ruins 
of  ancient  art  and  splendor  scattered  over  it. 

5.  As  the  Greeks,  in  common  with  the  Egyptians  and  other  East- 
ern nations,  placed  the  reign  of  the  gods  anterior  to  the 

race  of  mortals,  therefore  Grecian  mythology1  forms  the 
most  appropriate  introduction  to  Grecian  history. 

6.  According  to  Grecian  philosophy,  first  in  the  order  of  time 
came  Chaos,  a  heterogeneous  mass  containing  all  the  seeds  of  nature ; 
then  "  broad-breasted  Earth,"  the  mother  of  the  gods,  who  produced 
U'  ranus,  or  Heaven,  the  mountains,  and  the  barren  and  billowy  sea. 
Then  Earth  married  U'  ranus3  or  Heaven,  and  from  this  union  came 
a  numerous  and  powerful  brood,  the  Titans3  and  the  Cyclopes,*  and 
the  gods  of  the  wintry  season, — Kot'  tos,  Briareus,  and  Gy'  ges,  who 
had  each  a  hundred  hands, — supposed  to  be  personifications  of  the 
kail,  the  rain,  and  the  snow. 

1.  MYTHOLOGY,  from  two  Greek  words  signifying  a  " fable"  and  a  " discourse?  is  a  system 
of  myths,  or  fabulous  opinions  and  doctrines  respecting  the  deities  which  heathen  nations 
have  supposed  to  preside  over  the  world,  or  to  influence  its  affairs. 

2.  U'  ranus,  from  a  Greek  word  signifying  "  heaven,"  or  "  sky,"  was  the  most  ancient  of  all 
the  gods. 

3.  The  Titans  were  six  males— Oceanus,  Coios,  Crios,  Hyperion,  Japetus,  and  Kronos,  or 
Sat' urn,  and  six  females, — Theia,  Rhea,  Themis,  Mnemos' yne,  Phce'be,  and  Tethys.     Oceanus, 
or  the  Ocean,  espoused  his  sisterTethys,  and  their  children  were  the  rivers  of  the  earth,  and  the 
three  thousand  Oceanides  or  Ocean-nymphs.    Hyperion  married  his  sister  Theia,  by  whom  he 
had  Aurora,  or  the  morning,  and  also  the  sun  and  moon. 

4.  The  CyclSpes  were  a  race  of  gigantic  size,  having  but  one  eye,  and  that  placed  in  the  centre 
of  the  forehead.    According  to  some  accounts  there  were  many  of  this  race,  but  according  to 
the  poet  Hesiod,  the  principal  authority  in  Grecian  mythology,  they  were  only  three  in  num- 
ber, Brori  tes,  Ster'  opes,  and  Ar' ges,  words  which  signify  in  the  Greek,  Thunder,  Lightning, 
a»d  the  rapid  Blame.    The  poets  converted  them  into  smiths— the  assistants  of  the  fire-god 
Vulcan.    The  Cyclopes  were  probably  personifications  of  the  energies  of  the  "powers  of  the 
air." 


HEATHEN  DEITIES- 


24  ANCIWT  HISTORY.  [PART  I. 

7.  The  Titans  made  war  upon  their  father,  who  was  wounded  by 
Sat'  urn,1  the  youngest  and  bravest  of  his  sons.  From  the  drops  of 
blood  which  flowed  from  the  wound  and  fell  upon  the  earth,  sprung 
the  Furies,2  the  Giants,3  and  the  Melian  nymphs  ;4  and  from  those 
which  fell  into  the  sea,  sprung  Venus,5  the  goddess  of  love  and  beauty. 
U'ranus  or  Heaven  being  dethroned,  Sat' urn,  by  the  consent  of  his 
brethren,  was  permitted  to  reign  in  his  stead,  on  condition  that  he 
would  destroy  all  his  male  children :  but  Rhea  his  wife  concealed 
from  him  the  birth  of  Jupiter,6  Nep'  tune,7  and  Pluto.8 


1.  Sat'  urn,  the  youngest  but  most  powerful  of  the  Titans,  called  by  the  Greeks,  Kronos,  & 
word  signifying  "Time,"  is  generally  represented  as  an  old  man,  bent  by  age  and  infirmity, 
holding  a  scythe  in  hia  right  hand,  together  with  a  serpent  that  bites  its  own  tail,  which  is  an 
emblem  of  time,  and  of  the  revolution  of  the  year.    In  his  left  hand  he  has  a  child  which  he 
raises  up  as  if  to  devour  it — as  time  devours  all  things. 

When  Sat'  urn  was  banished  by  his  son  Jupiter,  he  is  said  to  have  fled  to  Italy,  where  he 
employed  himself  in  civilizing  the  barbarous  manners  of  the  people.  His  reign  there  was  so 
beneficent  and  virtuous  that  mankind  have  called  it  the  golden  age.  According  to  Hesiod, 
Sat'  urn  ruled  over  the  Isles  of  the  Blessed,  at  the  end  of  the  earth,  by  the  "  deep  eddying 
ocean." 

2.  The  Furies  were  three  goddesses,  whose  names  signified  the  "Unceasing,"  the  "Envier," 
and  the  "  Blood-avenger."    They  are  usualy  represented  with  looks  full  of  terror,  each  brand- 
ishing a  torch  in  one  hand  and  a  scourge  of  snakes  in  the  other.    They  torment  guilty  con- 
sciences, and  punish  the  crimes  of  bad  men. 

3.  The  Giants  are  represented  as  of  uncommon  stature,  with  strength  proportioned  to  their 
gigantic  size.    The  war  of  the  Titans  against  Sat'  urn,  and  that  of  the  Giants  against  Jupiter,  are 
very  celebrated  in  mythology.    It  is  believed  that  the  Giants  were  nothing  more  than  the  ener- 
gies of  nature  personified,  and  that  the  war  with  Jupiter  is  an  allegorical  representation  of  some 
tremendous  convulsion  of  nature  in  early  times. 

4.  In  Grecian  mythology,  all  the  regions  of  earth  and  water  were  peopled  with  beautiful  fe- 
male forms  called  nymphs,  divided  into  various  orders  according  to  the  place  of  their  abode. 
The  Melian  nymphs  were  those  which  watched  over  gardens  and  flocks. 

5.  Vemts,  the  most  beautiful  of  all  the  goddesses,  is  sometimes  represented  as  rising  out  of 
the  sea,  and  wringing  her  locks, — sometimes  drawn  in  a  sea-shell  by  Tritons — sea-deities  that 
•were  half  fish  and  half  human — and  sometimes  in  a  chariot  drawn  by  swans.    Swans,  doves, 
and  sparrows,  were  sacred  to  her.    Her  favorite  plants  were  the  rose  and  the  myrtle. 

6.  Jupiter,  called  the  "father  of  men  and  gods,"  is  placed  at  the  head  of  the  entire  system  of 
the  universe.    He  is  supreme  over  all :  earthly  monarchs  derive  their  authority  from  him,  and 
his  will  is  fate.    He  is  generally  represented  as  majestic  in  appearance,  seated  on  a  throne,  with 
a  sceptre  in  one  hand,  and  thunderbolts  in  the  other.    The  eagle,  which  is  sacred  to  him,  is 
standing  by  his  side.    Regarding  Jupiter  as  the  surrounding  ether,  or  atmosphere,  the  numer- 
ous fables  of  thia  monarch  of  the  gods  may  be  considered  allegories  which  typify  the  great  gen- 
erative power  of  the  universe,  displaying  itself  in  a  variety  of  ways,  and  under  the  greatest 
diversity  of  forms. 

7.  Nep'tune,  the  "Earth-shaker,"  and  ruler  of  the  sea,  is  second  only  to  Jupiter  in  power. 
He  is  represented,  like  Jupiter,  of  a  serene  and  majestic  aspect,  seated  in  a  chariot  made  of  a 
Bhell,  bearing  a  trident  in  his  right  hand,  and  drawn  by  dolphins  and  sea-horses ;  while  the 
tritons,  nymphs,  and  other  sea-monsters,  gambol  around  him. 

8.  Pluto,  called  also  Hades  and  Or'  cus,  the  god  of  the  lower  world,  is  represented  as  a  man 
of  a  stern  aspect,  seated  on  a  throne  of  sulphur,  from  beneath  which  flow  the  rivers  Lethe  or 
Oblivion,  Phleg' ethon,  Cocy'tus,  and  Ach'eron.    In  one  hand  he  holds  a  bident,  or  sceptre 
with  two  forks,  and  in  the  other  the  keys  of  hell.    His  queen,  Pros'  erpine,  is  sometimes  seated 
by  him.    He  is  described  by  the  poets  as  a  being  inexorable  and  deaf  to  supplication,  and  an 


CHAP.  II.]  GRECIAN  HISTORY.  25 

8.  The  Titans,  informed  that  Sat' urn   had  saved  his  children, 
made  war  upon  him  and  dethroned  him ;  but  he  was  restored  by  his 
son  Jupiter.     Yet  the  latter  afterwards  conspired  against  his  father, 
and  after  a  long  war  with  him  and  his  giant  progeny,  which  lasted 
ten  full  y^ears,  and  in  which  all  the  gods  took  part,  he  drove  Sat' urn 
from   the   kingdom,  and   then   divided,  between   himself  and   his 
brothers  Nep'tune  and  Plato,  the  dominion  of  the  universe,  taking 
heaven  as  his  own  portion,  and  assigning  the  sea  to  Nep'tune,  and 
to  Pltito  the  lower  regions,  the  abodes  of  the  dead.     With  Jupiter 
and  his  brethren  begins  a  new  dynasty  of  the  gods,  being  those,  for 
the  most  part,  whom  the  Greeks  recognised  and  worshipped. 

9.  Jupiter  had  several  wives,  both  goddesses  and  mortals,  but 
last  of  all  he  married  his  sister  Juno,1  who  maintained,  permanently, 
the  dignity  of  queen  of  the  gods.     The  offspring  of  Jupiter  were 
numerous,  comprising  both  celestial  and  terrestrial  divinities.     The 
most  noted  of  the  former  were  Mer'cury,2  Mars,3  Apol'lo,*  Vul'can,8 

object  of  aversion  and  hatred  to  both  gods  and  men.    From  his  realms  there  is  no  return,  and 
all  mankind,  sooner  or  later,  are  sure  to  be  gathered  into  his  kingdom. 

As  none  of  the  goddesses  would  marry  the  stern  and  gloomy  god,  he  seized  Pros'  erpine,  the 
daughter  of  Ceres,  while  she  was  gathering  flowers,  and  opening  a  passage  through  the  earth, 
carried  her  to  his  abode,  and  made  her  queen  of  his  dominions. 

1.  Juno,  a  goddess  of  a  dignified  and  matronly  air,  but  haughty,  jealous,  and  inexorable,  is 
represented  sometimes  as  seated  on  a  throne,  holding  in  one  hand  a  pomegranate,  and  in  the 
other  a  golden  sceptre,  with  a  cuckoo  on  its  top ;  and  at  others,  as  drawn  in  a  chariot  by  pea- 
cocks, and  attended  by  I'  ris,  the  goddess  of  the  rainbow. 

The  many  quarrels  attributed  to  Jupiter  and  Juno,  are  supposed  to  be  physical  allegories- 
Jupiter  representing  the  ether,  or  upper  regions  of  the  air,  and  Juno  the  lower  strata — hence 
their  quarrels  are  the  storms  that  pass  over  the  earth :  and  the  capricious  and  quick-changing 
temper  of  the  spouse  of  Jove,  is  typical  of  the  ever-varying  changes  that  disturb  our  atmos- 
phere. 

2.  Mcr'  cury,  the  confident,  messenger,  interpreter,  and  ambassador  of  the  gods,  was  himself 
the  god  of  eloquence,  and  the  patron  of  orators,  merchants,  thieves  and  robbers,  travellers  and 
Bhepherds.    He  is  said  to  have  invented  the  lyre,  letters,  commerce,  and  gymnastic  exercises. 
His  thieving  exploits  are  celebrated.    He  is  usually  represented  with  a  cloak  neatly  arranged 
on  his  person,  having  a  winged  cap  on  his  head,  and  winged  sandals  on  his  feet.    In  his  hand 
be  bears  his  wand  or  staff,  with  wings  at  its  extremity,  and  two  serpents  twined  about  it. 

3.  Jl/ars,  the  god  of  war,  was  of  huge  size  and  prodigious  strength,  and  his  voice  was  louder 
than  that  of  ten  thousand  mortals.    He  is  represented  as  a  warrior  of  a  severe  and  menacing 
air,  dressed  in  the  style  of  the  Heroic  Age,  with  a  cuirass  on,  and  a  round  Grecian  shield  on  his 
arm.    He  is  sometimes  seen  standing  in  a  chariot,  with  Bellona  his  sister  for  a  charioteer. 
Terror  and  Fear  accompany  him ;  Discord,  in  tattered  garments,  goes  before  him,  and  Anger 
and  Clamor  follow. 

4.  dpol'lo,  the  god  of  archery,  prophecy,  and  music,  is  represented  in  the  perfection  of  manly 
strength  and  beauty,  with  hair  long  and  curling,  and  bound  behind  his  head ;  his  brows  are 
wreathed  with  bay:  sometimes  he  bears  a  lyre  in  his  hand,  and  sometimes  a  bow,  with  a  gold- 
en quiver  of  arrows  at  his  back. 

5.  Vul'  can  was  the  fire-god  of  the  Greeks,  and  the  artificer  of  heaven.    He  was  born  lame, 
and  his  mother  Juno  was  y>  shocked  at  the  sight  that  she  flung  him  from  Olym'pus.    He 
forged  the  thunderbolts  of  Jupiter,  also  the  arras  of  gods  and  demi-gods.    He  is  usually  repre- 
sented as  of  ripe  age,  with  a  serious  countenance  and  muscular  form.    His  hair  hangs  in  curls 


26  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART  I. 

Diana,1  and  Miner' va.a  There  were  two  other  celestial  divinities, 
Ceres3  and  Ves'ta,4  making,  with  Juno,  Nep'tune,  and  Pluto,  twelve 
in  all. 

10.  The  number  of  other  deities,  not  included  among  the  celestials, 
was  indefinite,  the  most  noted  of  whom  were  Bac'  chus,6 I'^is,6  Hebe,7 
the  Muses,"  the  Fates,9  and  the  Graces;10  also  Sleep,  Dreams,  and 
Death.  There  were  also  monsters,  the  offspring  of  the  gods,  pos- 
sessed of  free  will  and  intelligence,  and  having  the  mixed  forms  of 

on  his  shoulders.  He  generally  appears  at  his  anvil,  in  a  short  tunic,  with  his  right  arm  bare, 
and  sometimes  with  a  pointed  cap  on  his  head. 

1.  Diana,  the  exact  counterpart  of  her  brother  Apol'lo,  was  queen  of  the  woods,  end  the 
goddess  of  hunting.    She  devoted  herself  to  perpetual  celibacy,  and  her  chief  joy  was  to  speed 
like  a  Dorian  maid  over  the  hills,  followed  by  a  train  of  nymphs,  in  pursuit  of  the  flymor  game. 
She  is  represented  as  a  strong,  active  maiden,  lightly  clad,  with  a  bow  or  hunting  spear  in  her 
hand,  a  quiver  of  arrows  on  her  shoulders,  wearing  the  Cretan  hunting-shoes,  and  attended  by 
a  hound. 

2.  Miner'  va,  the  goddess  of  wisdom  and  skill,  and,  as  opposed  to  Mars,  the  patroness  and 
teacher  of  just  and  scientific  warfare,  is  said  to  have  sprung,  full  armed,  from  the  braui  of  Ju- 
piter.   She  is  represented  with  a  serious  and  thoughtful  countenance ;  her  hair  hangs  in  ring- 
lets over  her  shoulders,  and  a  helmet  covers  her  head :  she  wears  a  long  tunic  or  ni^le,  and 
bears  a  spear  in  one  hand,  and  an  aegis  or  shield,  on  which  is  a  figure  of  the  Gorgon's  head,  in 
the  other. 

3.  Ceres  was  the  goddess  of  grain  and  harvests.    The  most  celebrated  event  in  her  history  is 
the  carrying  off  of  her  daughter  Pros'  erpine  by  Pluto,  and  the  search  of  the  goddess  after  her 
throughout  the  whole  world.    The  form  of  Ceres  is  like  that  of  Juno.    She  is  represented  bear- 
ing poppies  and  ears  of  corn  in  one  hand,  a  lighted  torch  iu  the  other,  and  wearing  on  her  head 
a  garland  of  poppies.    She  is  also  represented  riding  in  a  chariot  drawn  by  dragona,  and  dis- 
tributing corn  to  the  different  regions  of  the  earth. 

4.  Ves'  ta,  the  virgin  goddess  who  presided  over  the  domestic  hearth,  is  representec1  *r  a  long 
flowing  robe,  with  a  veil  on  her  head,  a  lamp  in  one  hand,  and  a  spear  or  javelin  in  the  other. 
In  every  Grecian  city  an  altar  was  dedicated  to  her,  on  which  a  sacred  fire  was  kept  constantly 
burning.    In  her  temple  at  K,ome  the  sacred  fire  was  guarded  by  six  priestesses,  called  the 
Vestal  Virgins. 

5.  Bac'  cftiiK,  the  god  of  wine,  and  the  patron  of  drunkenness  and  debauchery,  is  represented 
as  an  effeminate  young  man,  with  long  flowing  hair,  crowned  with  a  garland  of  vine  leaves, 
and  generally  covered  with  a  cloak  thrown  loosely  over  his  shoulders.    In  one  hand  he  holds  a 
goblet,  and  in  the  other  clusters  of  grapes  and  a  short  dagger. 

6.  1'  ris,  the  "golden  winged,"  was  the  goddess  of  the  rainbow,  and  special  messenger  of  the 
king  and  queen  of  Olympus. 

7.  The  blooming  Hebe,  the  goddess  of  Youth,  was  a  kind  of  maid-servant  who  handed  around 
the  nectar  at  the  banquets  of  the  gods. 

8.  The  Muses,  nine  in  number,  were  goddesses  who  presided  over  poetry,  music,  and  all  the 
liberal  arts  and  sciences.    They  are  thought  to  be  personifications  of  the  inventive  peters  of 
the  mind,  as  displayed  in  the  several  arts. 

9.  The  Fates  were  three  goddesses  who  presided  over  the  destinies  of  mortals: — 1st,  Clotho, 
who  held  the  distaff;  2d,  Lach'  esis,  who  spun  each  one's  portion  of  the  thread  of  life ;  and  3d, 
At'  ropos,  who  cut  off  the  thread  with  her  scissors. 

"Clotho  and  Lach' esis,  whose  boundless  sway, 
With  At' ropos,  both  men  and  gods  obey !" — HESIOD. 

10.  The  Oraces  were  three  young  and  beautiful  sisters,  whose  names  signified,  respectively, 
Splendor,  Joy,  and  Pleasure.    They  are  supposed  to  have  been  a  symbolical  representation  of 
all  that  is  beautiful  and  attractive.    They  are  represented  as  dancing  together,  or  standing  with 
their  anus  entwined. 


CHAP.  II]  GRECIAN  HISTORY.  27 

animals  and  men.  Such  were  the  Har'pies;1  the  Gorgons;8  the 
winged  horso  Peg'  asus ;  the  fifty,  or,  as  some  say,  the  hundred  head- 
ed dog  Cer'berus;  the  Cen'taurs,  half  men  and  half  horses;  the 
Ler' nean  Ily'  dra,  a  famous  water  serpent ;  and  Scyl'  la  and  Charyb'- 
dis,  fearful  sea  monsters,  the  one  changed  into  a  rock,  and  the  other 
into  a  whirlpool  on  the  coast  of  Sicily, — the  dread  of  mariners. 
Many  rebellious  attempts  were  made  by  the  gods  and  demi-gods  to 
dethrone  Jupiter ;  but  jby  his  unparalleled  strength  he  overcame  all 
his  enemies,  and  holding  his  court  on  mount  Olyrn'  pus,3  reigned  su- 
preme god  over  heaven  and  earth. 

11.  Such  is  the  brief  outline  of  Grecian  mythology.     The  legends 
of  the  gods  and  goddesses  are  numerous,  and  some  of  them  are  of 
exceeding  interest  and  beauty,  while  others  shock  and  disgust  us  by 
the  gross  impossibilities  and  hideous  deformities  which  they  reveal. 
The  great  mass .  of  the  Grecian  people  appear  to  have  believed  that 
their  divinities  were  real  persons  ;  but  their  philosophers  explained 
the  legends  concerning  them  as  allegorical  representations  of  general 
physical  and  moral  truths.     The  Greek,  therefore,  instead  of  wor- 
shipping nature,  worshipped  the  powers  of  nature  personified. 

12.  The  earliest  reliable  information  that  we  possess  of  the  country 
denominated  Greece,  represents  it  in  the  possession  of  m  EARLIEST 
a  number  of  rude  tribes,  of  which  the  Pelas'  gians  were    INHABITANTS 
the  most  numerous  and  powerful,  and  probably  the  most    '  F  GREECK- 
ancient.       The   name  Pelas' gians  was  also  a  general  one,  under 
which  were  included  many  kindred  tribes,  such  as  the  Dol'  opes,  Cha- 
ones,  and  Grse'  ci ;  but  still  the  origin  and  extent  of  the  race  are  in- 
volved in  much  obscurity. 

13.  Of  the  early  character  of  the  Pelas' gians,  and  of  the  degree 
of  civilization  to  which  they  had  attained  before  the  reputed  found- 
ing of  Ar'  gos,  we  have  unsatisfactory  and  conflicting  accounts.     On 
the  one  hand  they  are  represented  as  no  better  than  the  rudest  bar- 
barians, dwelling  in  caves,  subsisting  on  reptiles,  herbs,  and  wild 
fruits,  and  strangers  to  the  simplest  arts  of  civilized  life.     Other  and 
more  reliable  traditions,  however,  attribute  to  them  a  knowledge  of 

1.  The  Har'pies  were  three-winged  monsters  who  had  female  faces,  and  the  bodies,  wings, 
and  claws  of  birds.    They  are  supposed  to  be  personifications  of  the  terrors  of  the  storm— de- 
mons riding  upon  the  wind,  and  directing  its  blasts. 

2.  The  Gordons  were  three  hideous  female  forms,  who  turned  to  atone  all  whom  they  fixed 
their  eyes  upon.    They  are  supposed  to  be  personifications  of  the  terrors  of  the  sea. 

3.  Olympus  is  a  celebrated  mountain  of  Greece,  near  the  north-eastern  coast  of  Thessaly.    To 
the  highest  summit  in  the  range  the  name  Olympus  was  specially  applied  by  the  poets.    It  was 
the  fabled  residence  of  the  goda;  and  hence  the  name  "Olym'pus"  was  frequently  used  for 
"  Heaven." 


28  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART  I 

agriculture,  and  some  little  acquaintance  with  navigation;  while 
there  is  a  strong  probability  that  they  were  the  authors*  of  those  huge 
structures  commonly  called  Cyclopean,1  remains  of  which  are  still 
visible  in  many  parts  of  Greece  and  Italy,  and  on  the  western  coast 
of  Asia  Minor.8 

14.  Ar'gos,3  the  capital  of  Ar'golis,4  is  generally  considered  the 
iv.  FOREIGN  most  ancient  city  °f  Greece ;  and  its  reputed  founding 
SETTLERS  IN  by  In' achus,  a  son  of  the  god  Oceanus,5  1856  years  be- 
GREECE.      fore  j^e  (3hristian  era,  is  usually  assigned  as  the  period 
of  the  commencement  of  Grecian  history.     But  the  massive  Cyclo- 
pean walls  of  Ar'  gos  evidently  show  the  Pelas'  gic  origin  of  the  place, 
in  opposition  to  the   traditionary  Phoenician  origin   of  In' achus, 
whose  very  existence  is  quite   problematical.     And  indeed  the  ac- 
counts usually  given  of  early  foreign  settlers  in  Greece,  who  planted 
colonies  there,  founded  dynasties,   built  cities,  and  introduced  a 

1.  The  Cyclopean  structures  were  works  of  extraordinary  magnitude,  consisting  of  walls  and 
circular  buildings,  constructed  of  immense  blocks  of  stone  placed  upon  each  other  without 
cement,  but  so  nicely  fitted  as  to  form  the  most  solid  masonry.    The  most  remarkable  are  cer- 
tain walls  at  Tir'  yns,  or  Tiryn'  thus,  and  the  circular  tower  of  At'  reus  at  Mycena,  both  cities 
of  Ar'golis  in  Greece.    The  structure  at  Mycena  is  a  hollow  cone  fifty  feet  in  diameter,  and  as 
many  in  height,  formerly  terminating  in  a  point ;  but  the  central  stone  and  a  few  others  have 
been  removed.    The  Greek  poets  ascribed  these  structures  to  the  three  Cyclopes  Brontes,  Ster'- 
cpes,  and  Jlr'  ges,  fabulous  one-eyed  giants,  whose  employment  was  to  fabricate  the  thunder- 
bolts of  Jupiter.    (See  Cyclopes,  p.  22.) 

2.  Asia  Minor,  (or  Lesser  Asia,)  now  embraced  mostly  in  the  Asiatic  portion  of  Turkey, 
comprised  that  western  peninsula  of  Asia  which  lies  between  the  waters  of  the  Mediterranean 
and  the  Black  Sea.    (See  Map,  No.  IV.) 

3.  Ar'  gos,  a  city  of  southern  Greece,  and  anciently  the  capital  of  the  kingdom  of  Ar'golis,  is 
situated  on  the  western  bank  of  the  river  In'  achus,  two  miles  from  the  bottom  of  the  Gulf  of 
Ar'  gos,  and  on  the  western  side  of  a  plain  ten  or  twelve  miles  in  length,  and  four  or  five  in 
width.    The  eastern  side  of  the  plain  is  dry  and  barren,  and  here  were  situated  Tir'  yns,  from 
which  Her'  cules  departed  at  the  commencement  of  his  "  labors,"  and  Mycena,  the  royal  city 
of  Agamem'  non.    The  immediate  vicinity  of  Ar'  gos  was  injured  by  excess  of  moisture.    Here, 
near  the  Gulf,  was  the  marsh  of  Ler'  na,  celebrated  for  the  Ler'  nean  Hy'  dra,  which  Her'  cules 
Blew. 

But  few  vestiges  of  the  ancient  city  of  Ar'  gos  are  now  to  be  seen.  The  elevated  rock  on 
which  stood'  the  ancient  citadel,  is  now  surmounted  by  a  modern  castle.  The  town  suffered 
much  during  the  revolutionary  struggle  between  the  Greeks  and  Turks.  The  present  popula- 
tion is  about  3,000.  (See  Map,  No.  I.) 

4.  Ar'golis,  a  country  of  Southern  Greece,  is  properly  a  neck  of  land,  deriving  its  name  from 
its  capital  city,  Ar'  gos,  and  extending  in  a  south-easterly  direction  from  Arcadia  fifty-four  miles 
into  the  sea,  where  it  terminates  in  the  promontory  of  Scil'  laeum.    Among  the  noted  places  in 
Ar'  golis  have  been  mentioned  Ar'  gos,  Mycenae,  Tir'  yns,  and  the  Ler'  nean  marsh.    Nemea, 
in  the  north  of  Ar'  golis,  was  celebrated  for  the  JVemean  lion,  and  for  the  games  instituted  there 
in  honor  of  Nep'  tune.    Naiiplia,  or  Napoli  di  Romani,  which  was  the  post  and  arsenal  of 
ancient  Ar'  gos  during  the  best  period  of  Grecian  history,  is  now  a  flourishing,  enterprising, 
and  beautiful  town  of  about  16,000  inhabitants.    (See  Map,  No.  I.) 

5.  Oceanus.  (See  "The  Titans,"  p.  22)    In'  achus  was  probably  only  a  river,  personified  into 
the  founder  of  a  Grecian  state. 

a.  Thirwall's  Greece  i.  p.  52;  Anthon's  Classical  Diet.,  articles  Pelasgi  and  Ar'  gos  ;  also 
Heeren's  Manual  of  Ancient  History,  p.  119. 


CHAP.  H]  GRECIAN  HISTORY.  29 

knowledge  of  the  arts  unknown  to  the  ruder  natives,  must  be  taken 
with  a  great  degree  of  abatement. 

15.  Cecrops,  an  Egyptian,  is  said  to  have  led  a  colony  from 
the  Delta  to  Greece  about  the  year  1556  B.  C.     Two  years  later, 
proceeding  to  At'  tica,1  which  had  been  desolated  by  a  deluge  a  cen- 
tury before,  during  the  reign  of  Og'  yges,'  he  is  said  to  have-founded, 
on  the  Cecropian  rock,  a  new  city,  which  he  called  Athens,3  in  honor 
of  the  Grecian  goddess  Athe'  na,  whom  the  Romans  called  Miner'  va. 
To  Cecrops  has  been  ascribed  the  institution  of  marriage,  and  the 
introduction  of  the  first  elements  of  Grecian  civilization ;  yet,  not 
only  has  the  Egyptian  origin  of  Cecrops  been  doubted,  but  his  very 
existence  has  been  denied,a  and  the  whole  story  of  his  Egyptian  col- 
ony, and  of  the  arts  which  he  is  said  to  have  established,  has  been 
attributed,  with  much  show  of  reason,  to  a  homesprung  Attic  fable. 

16.  As  a  part  of  the  history  of  Cecrops,  it  is  represented  that  in 
his  days  the  gods  began  to  choose  favorite  spots  among  the  dwellings 
of  men  for  their  residences;    or,  in  other  words,  that  particular 
deities  began  to  be  worshipped  with  especial  homage  in  particular 
cities ;  and  that  when  Miner'  va  and  Nep'  tune  claimed  the  homage 
of  At' tica,  Cecrops  was  chosen  umpire  of  the  dispute.     Nep' tune 
asserted  that  he  had  appropriated  the  country  to  himself  before  it 
had  been  claimed  by  Miner'  va,  by  planting  his  trident  on  the  rock 
of  the  Acrop'  olis  of  Athens  ;  and,  as  proof  of  his  claim,  he  pointed 

1.  At'  tica,  the  most  celebrated  of  the  Grecian  States,  and  the  least  proportioned,  in  extent, 
of  any  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  to  its  fame  and  importance  in  the  history  of  mankind,  is  situ- 
ated at  the  south-eastern  extremity  of  Northern  Greece,  having  an  extent  of  about  forty-five 
miles  from  east  to  west,  and  an  average  breadth  of  about  thirty-five.    As  the  soil  of  At'  tica  was 
mostly  rugged,  and  the  surface  consisted  of  barren  hills,  or  plains  of  little  extent,  ita  produce 
was  never  sufficient  to  supply  the  wants  of  its  inhabitants,  who  were  therefore  compelled  to 
look  abroad  for  subsistence.    Thus  the  barrenness  of  the  Attic  soil  rendered  the  people  indus- 
trious, and  filled  them  with  that  spirit  of  enterprise  and  activity  for  which  they  were  so  dis- 
tinguished.   Secure  in  her  sterility,  the  soil  of  At'  tica  never  tempted  the  cupidity  of  her  neigh- 
bors, and  she  boasted  that  the  race  of  her  inhabitants  had  ever  been  the  same.    Among  the 
advantages  of  At'  tica  may  be  reckoned  the  purity  of  its  air,  the  fragrance  of  its  shrubs,  and 
the  excellence  of  its  fruits,  together  with  its  form  and  position,  which  marked  it  out,  in  an  emi- 
nent degree,  for  commercial  pursuits.    Its  most  remarkable  plains  are  those  of  Athens  and 
Mar' athon,  and  its  principal  rivers  the  Cephis'  sus  and  Ilys' sus.    (See  Map,  No.  I.) 

2.  Og'  yges  is  fabled  to  have  been  the  first  king  of  Athens  and  of  Thebes  also.    It  is  also  said 
that  in  the  time  of  Og'  yges  happened  a  deluge,  which  preceded  that  of  Deucalion ;  and  Og'  yges 
is  said  to  have  been  the  only  person  saved  when  Greece  was  covered  with  water. 

3.  Athens.     (See  Map  No.  II.  and  description.) 

a.  "Notwithstanding  the  confidence  with  which  this  story  (that  of  Ctecrops)  has  been  repeated 
in  modern  times,  the  Egyptian  origin  of  Cecrops  is  extremely  doubtful."—  Tkirwall  i.  p.  53. 
"  The  story  of  his  leading  a  colony  from  Egypt  to  Athens  is  entitled  to  no  credit."—"  The  whole 
series  of  Attic  kings  who  are  said  to  have  preceded  Theseus,  including  perhaps  Theseus  himself, 
are  probably  mere  fictions."— Anthon's  Clas.  Diet.,  article  "  Cecrops." 


30  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART  L 

to  the  trident  standing  there  erect,  and  to  the  salt  spring  which  had 
issued  from  the  fissure  in  the  cliff,  and  which  still  continued  to 
flow.  On  the  other  hand,  Miner'  va  pointed  to  the  olive  which  she 
had  planted  long  ago,  and  which  still  grew  in  native  luxuriance  by 
the  side  of  the  fountain  which,  she  asserted,  had  been  produced  at  a 
later  period  by  the  hand  of  Nep'  tune.  Cecrops  himself  attested  the 
truth  of  her  assertion,  when  the  gods,  according  to  one  account,  but, 
according  to  another,  Cecrops  himself,  decided  in  favor  of  Miner' va, 
who  then  became  the  tutelary  deity  of  Athens. 

17.  Cran'aus,  the  successor  of  Cecrops  on  the  list  of  Attic  kings, 
was  probably  a  no  less  fabulous  personage  than  his  predecessor ;  and 
of  Amphic'  tyon,  the  third  on  the  list,  who  is  said  to  have  been  the 
founder  of  the  celebrated  Amphictyonic  council,  our  knowledge  is  as 
limited  and  as  doubtful  as  of  the  former  two.a  About  half  a  century 
after  the  time  of  Cecrops,  another  Egyptian,  by  name  Dan'  aus,  is 
said  to  have  fled  to  Greece  with  a  family  of  fifty  daughters,  and  to 
have  established  a  second  Egyptian  colony  in  the  vicinity  of  Ar'  gos ; 
and  about  the  same  time,  Cad'  mus,1  a  Phoenician,  is  reported  to  have 
led  a  colony  into  Boeotia,2  bringing  with  him  the  Phoenician  alphabet, 
the  basis  of  the  Grecian,  and  to  have  founded  Cad'  mea,  which  after- 
wards became  the  citadel  of  Thebes.3 

1.  There  is  no  good  reason  for  believing  that  Cad'  mus  was  the  founder  of  Thebes,  as  his  his- 
tory is  evidently  fabulous,  although  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  alphabet  attributed  to 
him  was  originally  brought  from  Phoenicia.    (See  Thirwall,  i.  p.  107.)    We  may  therefore  ven- 
ture to  dismiss  the  early  theory  of  Cad'  mus,  and  seek  a  Grecian  origin  for  the  name  of  the  sup- 
posed founder  of  Thebes. 

2.  B<z6tia,  lying  north-west  of  At'  tica,  is  a  high  and  well-watered  region,  mostly  surrounded 
by  mountain  ranges,  of  which  the  most  noted  summits  are  those  of  Hel'  icon  and  Cithas'  ron 
in  the  south-west.    Boeotia  is  divided  into  two  principal  basins  or  plains,  that  of  Cephis'  sus  in 
the  north-west,  watered  by  the  river  of  the  same  name,  and  containing  the  lake  of  Copais ;  and 
that  of  Thebes  in  the  south-east,  watered  by  the  river  Asopus.    As  many  of  the  streams  and 
lakes  of  Bceotia  find  their  outlet  to  the  sea  by  subterranean  channels,  marshes  abound,  and  the 
atmosphere  is  damp,  foggy,  oppressive,  and  in  many  places  unhealthy.    The  fertility  of  Boeotia, 
however,  is  such,  that  it  has  always  an  abundant  crop,  though  elsewhere  famine  should  pre- 
vail.   Bceotia  was  the  most  populous  of  all  the  Grecian  states ;  but  the  very  productiveness  of 
the  country  seems  to  have  depressed  the  intellectual  and  moral  character  of  the  Boeotians,  and 
to  have  justified  the  ridicule  which  their  more  enterprising  neighbors  of  barren  At'  tica  heaped 
upon  them.    (See  Map,  No.  I.) 

3.  Thebes,  the  ancient  capital  of  Boeotia,  was  situated  near  the  small  river  (or  brook)  Is- 
menus,  about  five  miles  south  of  the  lake  Hyl'  ica.    The  city  was  surrounded  by  high  walls, 
which  had  seven  gates,  and  it  contained  many  magnificent  temples,  theatres,  gymnasiums,  and 
other  public  edifices,  adorned  with  statues,  paintings,  and  other  works  of  art.    In  the  most 
flourishing  period  of  its  history,  the  population  of  the  city  amounted  to  perhaps  50,000.    The 
modern  town  of  Thebes,  (called  Th'iva,)  contains  a  population  of  about  5,000  souls,  and  is  confined 
mostly  to  the  eminence  occupied  by  the  Acropolis,  or  citadel,  of  the  ancient  city.    Prodigious 
ramparts  and  artificial  mounds  appear  outside  of  the  town :  it  is  surrounded  by  a  deep  fosse ; 

a.  "There  can  be  scarcely  any  reasonable  doubt  that  this  Amphic' tyon  is  a  merely  fictitious 
person."—  Thirwall,  i.  p.  149. 


CHAF.  II.]  GRECIAN  HISTORY.  31 

18.  These  and  many  other  accounts  of  foreign  settlers  in  Greece 
during  this  early  period  of  Grecian  history,  are  so  interwoven  with 
the  absurdest  fables,  or,  rather,  deduced  from  them,  that  no  reliance 
can  bo  placed  upon  their  authenticity.     Still,  these  traditions  are 
not  without  their  value,  for  although  the  particular  persons  men- 
tioned may  have  had  no  existence,  yet  the  events  related  can  hardly 
have  been  without  some  historical  foundation.     It  is  probable  that 
after  the  general  diffusion  of  the  Pelas'  gic  tribes  over  Greece,  and 
while  the  western  regions  of  Asia  and  northern  Africa  were  in  an 
unsettled  state,  various  bands  of  flying  or  conquering  tribes  found 
their  way  to  the  more  peaceful  shores  of  Greece  through  the  islands 
of  the  jE'  gean,1  bringing  with  them  the  arts  and  knowledge  of  the 
countries  which  they  had  abandoned.     It  is  thus  that  we  can  satis- 
factorily account  for  that  portion  of  Grecian  mythology  which  bears 
evident  marks  of  Phoenician  origin,  and  for  that  still  greater  por- 
tion of  the  religious  notions  and  practices,  objects  and  forms  of  Gre- 
cian worship,  which,  according  to  Herod'  otus,  were  derived  from  the 
Egyptians. 

19.  At  the  time  that  colonies  from  the  East  are  supposed  to 
have  been  settling  in  Greece,  a  people  called  the  Hd-       v.  THE 
leneS)  uut  whether  a  Pelas'  gic  tribe  or  otherwise  is  un-    HKLLENES. 
certain,  first  appeared  in  the  south  of  Thes' saly,2  about  1384  years 
before  the  Christian  era,  according  to  the  received  chronology,  and 

and  remains  of  the  old  walls  are  still  to  be  seen;  but  the  sacred  and  public  edifices  of  the  an- 
cient city  have  wholly  disappeared.  Previous  to  the  late  Greek  Revolution  the  city  had  some 
handsome  mosques,  a  bazaar  shaded  by  gigantic  palm-trees,  and  extensive  gardens,  but  these 
were  almost  wholly  destroyed  by  the  casualties  of  war.  (See  Map,  No.  I.) 

1.  The  JE'  gean  Sea  is  that  part  of  the  Mediterranean  lying  between  Greece  and  Asia  Minor, 
now  called  the  Grecian  Archipelago.    (See  Map,  No.  HI.) 

2.  Thes'  saly,  now  included  in  Turkey  in  Europe,  was  bounded  on  the  north  by  the  Cambu- 
nian  mountains,  terminating,  on  the  east,  in  the  loftier  heights  of  Olympus,  and  separating 
Thes'  8<uj  from  Macedonia ;  on  the  east  by  the  JE'  gean  Sea,  which  is  skirted  by  ranges  of  Ossa 
and  Pelion ;  on  the  south  by  the  Malian  gulf  and  the  mountain  chain  of  (Eta ;  and  on  the 
west  £7  *be  chain  of  Pindus,  which  separated  it  from  Epirus.    In  the  southern  part  of  this  ter- 
ritory, between  the  mountain  chains  of  CEta  and  Othrys,  is  the  long  and  narrow  valley  of  the 
river  S'^rchius,  which,  though  considered  as  a  part  of  Thes'  saly,  forms  a  separate  region, 
widely  distinguished  from  the  rest  by  its  physical  features.    Between  the  Othrys  and  the  Cam- 
bunian  mountains  lies  the  great  basin  of  Thes'  saly,  the  largest  and  richest  plain  in  Greece,  en- 
compassed on  all  sides  by  a  mountain  barrier,  broken  only  at  the  north-east  corner  by  a  deep 
and  narrow  cleft,  which  parts  Ossa  from  Olympus — the  defile  so  renowned  in  history  as  the 
pass,  ana  in  poetry  as  the  Pale  of  Tem'pe.    Through  this  narrow  glen,  of  about  five  miles  in 
length,  the  Peneus,  the  principal  river  of  Thes'  saly,  finds  its  way  to  the  sea ;  and  an  ancient 
legend  asserts  that  the  waters  of  the  Peneus  and  its  tributaries  covered  the  whole  basin  of 
Thes'  saly,  until  the  arm  of  Her'  cules,  or,  as  some  assert,  the  trident  of  Nep'  tune,  rent  asunder 
the  gorge  of  Tem'pe,  and  thus  afforded  a  passage  to  the  pent-up  streams.    Herod' otus  says, 
w  To  me  the  separation  of  these  mountains  appea  "3  to  have  been  the  effect  of  an  earthquake." 
(See  Map,  No.  I.) 


32  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART  I 

gradually  diffusing  themselves  over  the  whole  country,  became,  by 
their  martial  spirit,  and  active,  enterprising  genius,  the  ruling  class, 
and  impressed  new  features  upon  the  Grecian  character.  The  Hel 
lenes  gave  their  name  to  the  population  of  the  whole  peninsula,  al 
though  the  term  Grecians  was  the  name  applied  to  them  by  th< 
Romans. 

20.  In  accordance  with  the  Greek  custom  of  attributing  the  origir 
of  their  tribes  or  nations  to  some  remote  mythical  ancestor,  Hel'len. 
a  son  of  the  fabulous  Deucalion,  is  represented  as  the  father  of  the 
Hel'  lenic  nation.     His  three  sons  were  JE'  olus,  Dorus,  and  Xuthus, 
from  the  two  former  of  whom  are  represented  to  have  descended  the 
JEolians  and  Dorians ;  and  from  Achse'us  and  I' on,  sons  of  Xu- 
thus, the  Achce'  ans  and  lonians, — the  four  tribes  into  which  th^ 
He!'  lenic  or  Grecian  nation  was  for  many  centuries  divided,  and 
which  were  distinguished  from  each  other  by  many  peculiarities  of 
language  and  institutions.11     Hel'  len  is  said  to  have  left  his  kingdom 
to  JEt'  olus,  his  eldest  son ;  and  the  JEolian  tribe  was  the  one  that 
spread  the  most  widely,  and  that  long  exerted  the  greatest  influence 
in  the  affairs  of  the  nation,  although  at  a  later  period  it  was  surpassed 
by  the  fame  and  power  of  the  Dorians  and  lonians. 

21.  The  period  from  the  time  of  the  first  appearance  of  the  Hel- 
vi.  THE       lenes  in  Thes'  saly,  to  the  return  of  the  Greeks  from  the 

HEEOIC  AGE.  expedition  against  Troy,  is  usually  called  the  Heroic 
Age.  Our  only  knowledge  of  Grecian  history  during  this  period  is 
derived  from  numerous  marvellous  legends  of  wars,  expeditions,  and 
heroic  achievements,  which  possess  scarcely  the  slightest  evidence  of 
historical  authenticity ;  and  which,  even  if  they  can  be  supposed  to 
rest  on  a  basis  of  fact,  would  be  scarcely  deserving  of  notice,  as  being 
unattended  with  any  important  or  lasting  consequences,  were  it  not 
for  the  light  which  they  throw  upon  the  subject  of  Grecian  mythol- 
ogy, and  the  gradual  fading  away,  which  they  exhibit,  of  fiction,  in 
the  dawn  of  historic  truth.  The  most  important  of  these  legends  are 
those  which  recount  the  Labors  of  Her'  cules1  and  the  exploits  of  the 

1.  Her'  cules,  a  celebrated  hero,  is  reported  to  have  been  a  son  of  the  god  Jupiter  and  Alc- 
mena.  While  yet  an  infant,  Juno,  moved  by  jealousy,  sent  two  serpents  to  devour  him;  but 
the  child  boldly  seized  them  in  both  his  hands,  and  squeezed  them  to  death.  By  an  oath  of 
Jupiter,  imposed  upon  him  by  the  artifice  of  Juno,  Her'  culea  was  made  subservient,  for  twelve 
years,  to  the  will  of  Eurys'  theus,  his  enemy,  and  bound  to  obey  all  his  commands.  Eurys' 
theus  commanded  him  to  achieve  a  number  of  enterprises,  the  most  difficult  and  arduous  ever 
known,  generally  called  the  "  twelve  labors  of  Her'cules."  But  the  favor  of  the  gods  had  com- 

a.  "We  believe  Hel'len,  M'  olus,  Dorus,  Achae'us,and  I' on,  to  be  merely  fictitious  persons, 
representatives  of  the  races  which  bore  their  names."—  Thirwalf,\.  p.  66. 


CHAP.  II.]  GRECIAN  HISTORY.  33 

Athenian  Theseus;1  the  events  of  the  Argonautic  expedition;2  of 
the  Theban  and  Ar'  golic  war  of  the  Seven  Captains  ;3  and  of  the 
succeeding  war  of  the  Epig'  onoi,  or  descendants  of  the  survivors,  in 

pletely  armed  him  for  the  undertaking.  lie  had  received  a  sword  from  Mer'cury,  a  bow 
from  Apol'  lo,  a  golden  breastplate  from  Vul'  can,  horses  from  Nep'  tune,  a  robe  from  Miner'  va ; 
and  he  himself  cut  his  club  from  the  Nemean  wood.  We  have  merely  room  to  enumerate  his 
twelve  labors,  without  describing  them. 

1st,  He  strangled  the  Nemean  lion,  which  ravaged  the  country  near  Mycenae,  and  ever  after 
clothed  himself  with  its  skin.  2d.  He  destroyed  the  Lernean  hydra,  a  water-serpent,  which 
had  nine  heads,  eight  of  them  mortal,  and  one  immortal.  3d.  He  brought  into  the  presence  of 
Eurys'  theus  a  stag,  famous  for  its  incredible  swiftness  and  golden  horns.  4th.  Fie  brought  to 
Mycenae  the  wild  boar  of  Eryman'  thus,  and  during  this  expedition  slew  two  of  the  Centaurs, 
monsters  who  were  half  men  and  half  horses.  5th.  He  cleansed  the  Augean  stables  in  one 
day,  by  changing  the  courses  of  the  rivers  Al' pheus  and  Peneus.  ("To  cleanse  the  Augean 
stables"  has  become  a  common  proverb,  and  is  applied  to  any  undertaking  where  the  object 
Is  to  remove  a  mass  of  moral  corruption,  the  accumulation  of  which  renders  the  task  almost 
impossible.")  6th.  He  destroyed  the  carnivorous  birds  which  ravaged  the  country  near  the 
Lake  Stymphalus  in  Arcadia.  7.  He  brought  alive  into  Peloponnesus  a  prodigious  wild  bull 
which  ravaged  the  island  of  Crete.  8th.  He  brought  from  Thrace  the  mares  of  Dioraede,  which 
fed  on  human  flesh.  9th.  He  obtained  the  famous  girdle  of  Hippol'  yta,  queen  of  the  Amazons. 
10th.  He  killed,  in  an  island  of  the  Atlantic,  the  monster  Geryon,  who  had  the  bodies  of  three 
men  united,  and  brought  away  his  purple  oxen.  llth.  He  obtained  from  the  garden  of  the 
Hesper'  ides  the  golden  apples,  and  slew  the  dragon  which  guarded  them.  12th.  He  went 
down  to  the  lower  regions,  and  brought  upon  earth  the  three-headed  dog  Cer'berus. 

1.  To  Tkiseus,  who  is  stated  to  have  become  king  of  Athens,  are  attributed  many  exploits 
similar  to  those  performed  by  Her'  cules,  and  he  even  shared  in  some  of  the  enterprises  of  the 
latter.    By  his  wise  laws  Theseus  is  said  to  have  laid  the  principal  foundation  of  Athenian 
greatness ;  but  his  name,  which  signifies  the  Orderer,  or  Regulator,  seems  to  indicate  a  period 
in  Grecian  history,  rather  than  an  individual. 

2.  The  Jlrgonautic  Expedition  is  said,  in  the  popular  legend,  to  have  been  undertaken  by 
Jason  and  fifty-four  of  the  most  renowned  heroes  of  Greece,  among  whom  were  Theseus  and 
Her' cules,  for  the  recovery  of  a.  golden  fleece  which  had  been  deposited  in  the  capital  of  Col'- 
chis,  a  province  of  Asia  Minor,  bordering  on  the  eastern  extremity  of  the  Euxine.    The  adven- 
turers sailed  from  lol'  cos  in  the  ship  Ar'  go,  and  during  the  voyage  met  with  many  adventures. 
Having  arrived  at  Col' chis,  they  would  have  been  unsuccessful  in  the  object  of  their  expedi- 
tion had  not  th«>  king's  daughter,  Medea,  who  was  an  enchantress,  fallen  in  love  with  Jason, 
and  defeated  the  plans  of  her  father  for  his  destruction.    After  a  long  return  voyage,  filled  with 
marvellous  adventures,  most  of  the  Argonauts  reached  Greece  in  safety,  where  Her'  cules,  in 
honor  of  the  expedition,  instituted  the  Olym'  pic  games. 

Some  have  supposed  this  to  have  been  a  piratical  expedition ;  others,  that  it  was  undertaken 
for  the  purpose  of  discovery,  or  to  secure  some  commercial  establishment  on  the  shores  of  the 
Euxine,  while  others  have  regarded  the  legend  as  wholly  fabulous.  Says  Grote,  u  I  repeat  the 
opinion  long  ago  expressed,  that  the  process  of  dissecting  the  story,  in  search  of  a  basis  of  fact, 
is  one  altogether  fruitless." — Orote^s  Hist,  of  Greece,  \.  243. 

3.  The  following  are  said  to  have  been  the  circumstances  of  the  Theban  and  Jlr'  golic  war. 
After  the  death  of  CE'  dipus,  king  of  Thebes,  it  was  agreed  between  his  two  sons,  Eteocles  and 
Polynices,  that  they  should  reign  alternately,  each  a  year.     Eteocles,  however,  the  elder, 
after  his  first  year  had  expired,  refused  to  give  up  the  crown  to  his  brother,  when  the  latter, 
fleeing  to  Ar'  gos,  induced  Adras'  tus,  king  of  that  place,  to  espouse  his  cause.    Adraa'  tus 
marched  an  army  against  Thebes,  led  by  himself  and  seven  captains ;  but  all  the  leaders  were 
slain  before  the  city,  and  the  war  ended  by  a  single  combat  between  Eteocles  and  Polynices, 
in  which  both  brothers  fell.    This  is  said  to  have  happened  twenty-seven  years  before  the 
Trojan  war.    Ten  years  later  the  war  was  renewed  by  the  Epig'  onoi,  descendants  of  those  who 
were  killed  in  the  first  Theban  war.    Some  of  the  Grecian  states  espoused  the  cause  of  the 
Ar'  gives,  and  others  aided  the  Thebans ;  but  in  the  end  Thebes  was  abandoned  by  its  inhabiU 
ants,  and  plundered  by  the  Ar'  gives. 


34  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PAET  L 

which  Thebes  is  said  to  have  been  plundered  by  the  confederate 
Greeks. 

22.  Of  these  events,  the  Argonautic  expedition  has  usually  been 
thought  of  more  importance  than  the  rest,  as  having  been  conducted 
against  a  distant  country,  and  as  presenting  some  valid  claims  to 
our  belief  in  its  historical  reality.     But  we  incline  to  the  opinion, 
that  both  the  hero  and  the  heroine  of  the  legend  are  purely  ideal 
personages  connected  with  Grecian  mythology, — that  Jason  was  per- 
haps no  other  than  the  Samothracian1  god  or  hero  Jasion,a  the  pro- 
tector of  mariners,  and  that  the  fable  of  the  expedition  itself  is  a 
poetic  fiction  which  represented  the  commercial  and  piratical  voy- 
ages that  began  to  be  made,  about  this  period,  to  the  eastern  shores  of 
the  Euxine.2     It  is  not  improbable  that  voyages  similar  to  that  rep- 
resented to  have  been  made  by  the  Argonauts,  or,  perhaps,  naval 
expeditions   like  those  attributed  to    Minos,s  the    Cretan4   prince 
and  lawgiver,  may  first  have  led  to  hostile  rivalries  between  the 
inhabitants  of  the  Asiatic  and  Grecian  coasts,  and  thus  have  been 
the  occasion  of  the  first  conflict  between  the  Greeks  and  the  Tro- 
jans.13 

23.  The  Trojan  war,  rendered  so  celebrated  in  early  Grecian  his- 

1.  Samotfir&ce  (the  Thracian  Samoa,  now  Samothraki,)  is  an  island  in  the  northern  part  of 
the  IE.'  gean  Sea,  aboiit  thirty  miles  south  of  the  Thracian  coast.    It  was  celebrated  for  the  mys- 
teries of  the  goddess  Cyb'  ele,  whose  priests  ran  about  with  dreadful  cries  and  bowlings,  beat- 
ing on  timbrels,  clashing  cymbals,  and  cutting  their  flesh  with  knives.    (See  Map  No.  III.) 

2.  The  Euxine  (Pon'tus  Euxinus)  is  now  called  the  Black  Sea.    It  lies  between  the  south- 
western provinces  of  Russia  in  Europe,  and  Asia  Minor.    Its  greatest  length,  from  east  to  west, 
is  upwards  of  700  miles,  and  its  greatest  breadth  about  400  miles.    Its  waters  are  only  about 
one-seventh  part  less  salt  than  the  Atlantic — a  fact  attributable  to  the  saline  nature  of  the  bot- 
tom, and  of  the  northern  coast.    The  Euxine  is  deep,  and  singularly  free  from  rocks  and  shoals. 
(See  Map  No.  V.) 

3.  Minos  is  said,  in  the  Grecian  legends,  to  have  been  a  son  of  Jupiter,  from  whom  he 
learned  those  laws  which  he  delivered  unto  men.    It  is  said  that  he  was  the  first  among  the 
Greeks  who  possessed  a  navy,  and  that  he  conquered  and  colonized  several  islands,  and  finally 
perished  in  an  expedition  against  Sicily.    Some  regard  Minos  simply  as  the  concentration  of 
that  spirit  of  order,  which,  about  his  time,  began  to  exhibit,  in  the  island  of  Crete,  a  regular 
system  of  laws  and  government.    He  seems  to  be  intermediate  between  the  periods  of  mythol 
ogy  and  history,  combining,  in  his  person,  the  characteristics  of  both. 

4.  Crete  (now  called  Candia)  is  a  large  mountainous  island  in  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  80  miles 
south-east  from  Cape  Matapan  in  Greece — 160  miles  in  length  from  east  to  west,  with  a  breadth 
averaging  about  20  miles.    Crete  was  the  reputed  birth-place  of  Jupiter,  "  king  of  gods  and 
men."    The  laws  of  Minos  are  said  to  have  served  as  a  model  for  those  of  Lycur'  gus ;  and  the 
wealth,  number,  and  flourishing  condition  of  the  Cretan  cities,  are  repeatedly  referred  to  by 
Homer.    (See  Map  No.  III.) 

a.  ThirwalPs  Greece,  i.  77-79. 

b.  According  to  Herod'  otus,  i.  2,  3,  the  abduction  of  Hel'  en,  the  cause  of  the  Trojan  war,  was 
in  retaliation  of  the  abduction  of  Medea  by  Jason  in  the  Argouautic  expedition.    But  Herod'- 
otus  goes  farther  back,  and  attributes  to  the  Phosnicians  the  first  cause  of  contention  between 
the  Asiatics  and  the  Grecians,  in  carrying  away  from  Ar'  gos,  lo,  a  priestess  of  Jiino. 


CHAP.  IL]  GRECIAN  HISTORY.  35 

tory  *»y  the  poems  of  Homer,1  is  represented  to  have  been  under- 
taken about  the  year  1173  before  the  Christian  era,  by  the  confed- 
erate princes  of  Greece,  against  the  city  and  kingdom  of  Troy," 
situated  on  the  western  coast  of  Asia  Minor.  The  alleged  caus<3S 
of  this  war,  according  to  the  Grecian  legend,  were  the  following: 
Hel'  en,  the  most  beautiful  woman  of  her  age,  and  daughter  of  Tyn'- 
daru«;  king  of  Lacedge'mon,  was  sought  in  marriage  by  all  the 
princes  of  Greece ;  when  Tyn'  darus,  perplexed  with  the  difficulty  of 
choosing  one  without  displeasing  all  the  rest,  being  advised  by  the 
sage  Ulys'  ses,  bound  the  suitors  by  an  oath  that  they  would  approve 
of  the  uninfluenced  choice  of  Hel' en,  and  would  unite  together  to 
defend  her  person  and  character,  if  ever  any  attempts  were  made  to 
carry  her  off  from  her  husband.  Menelaus  became  the  choice  of 
Hel'  en,  and  soon  after,  on  the  death  of  Tyn'  darus,  succeeded  to  the 
vacant  throne  of  Lacedas'  mon.3 

24.  After  three  years,  Paris,  son  of  Priam  king  of  Troy,  visited 
the  court  of  Menelaus,  and  taking  advantage  of  the  temporary  ab- 
sence of  the  latter,  he  corrupted  the  fidelity  of  Hel'  en,  whom  he 
induced  to  flee  with  him  to  Troy.  Menelaus,  returning,  prepared  to 
avenge  the  outrage.  .  He  assembled  the  princes  of  Greece,  wh«; 
combining  their  forces  under  the  command  of  Agamem'  non,  brother 
of  Menelaus,  sailed  with  a  great  armament  to  Troy,  and  after  a  siege 
of  ten  years  finally  took  the  city  by  stratagem,  and  razed  it  to  the 
ground.  (1183  B.  C.)  Most  of  the  inhabitants  were  slain  or  take* 
prisoners,  and  the  rest  were  forced  to  become  exiles  in  distant 
lands. 


1.  Homer,  the  greatest  and  earliest  of  the  poets,  often  styled  the  father  of  poetry,  was  prob- 
abij  au  Asiatic  Greek,  although  seven  Grecian  cities  contended  for  the  honor  of  his  birth.    No 
circumstances  of  his  life  are  known  with  any  certainty,  except  that  he  was  a  wandering-  poet, 
and  blind.    The  principal  works  of  Homer  are  the  Iliad  and  the  Od'  yssey, — the  former  at 
which  relates  the  circumstances  of  the  Trojan  war ;  and  the  latter,  the  history  and  wanderings 
of  Ulys'  ses  after  the  fall  of  Troy. 

2.  Troy,  the  scene  of  the  battles  described  in  the  Iliad,  stood  on  a  rising  ground  between  th» 
small  river  Simois  (now  theDumbrek)  and  the  Seaman' der.  (now  the  Mendere,)  on  the  coast 
of  Asia  Minor,  near  the  entrance  to  the  Hel'  lespont.    New  Ilium  was  afterwards  built  on  the 
spot  now  believed  to  be  the  site  of  the  ancient  city,  about  three  miles  from  the  sea.    (See  Map 
No.  III.  and  No.  IV.) 

3.  iMcedae,'  mon,  or  Spar'  ta,  the  ancient  capital  of  Laconia,  was  situated  in  a  plain  of  COR- 
siderable  extent,  embracing  the  greater  part  of  Laconia,  bounded  on  the  west  by  the  mountain 
chain  of  Taygetus,  and  on  the  east  by  the  less  elevated  ridge  of  mount  Thornax,  between  whiofc 
flows  the  Eurotas,  on  the  east  side  of  the  town.    In  early  times  Spar'  ta  was  without  walls,  Ly- 
cur'gus  having  inspired  his  country  men  with  the  idea,  that  the  real  defence  of  a  town  consisted 
solely  in  the  valor  of  its  citizens ;  but  fortifications  were  erected  after  Sparta  became  subject 
to  despotic  rulers.    The  remains  01  Spar'  ta  are  about  two  miles  nor  ih-east  of  the  modern  tow* 
of  Mistro.    (See  Map  No.  I.) 


36  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART  I. 

25.  Such  is,  in  brief,  the  commonly-received  account  of  the  Tro- 
jan war,  stripped  of  the  incredible  but  glowing  fictions  with  which 
the  poetic  genius  of  Homer  has   adorned  it.      But  although  the 
reality  of  some  such  war  as  this  can  hardly  be  questioned,  yet  the 
causes  which  led  to  it,  the  manner  in  which  it  was  conducted,  and  it? 
issue,  being  gathered,  even  by  Homer  himself,  only  from  traditional 
legends,  which  served  as  the  basis  of  other  compositions  besides 
the  Iliad,  are  involved  in  an  obscurity  which  we  cannot  hope  to 
penetrate.     The  accounts  of  Hel'  en  are  various  and  contradictory, 
and  so  connected  with  fabulous  beings — with  gods  and  goddesses — as 
clearly  to  assign  her  to  the  department  of  mythology  ;  while  the 
real  events  of  the  war,  if  such  ever  occurred,  can  hardly  be  separated 
from  the  fictions  with  which  they  are  interwoven.1 

26.  But  although  little  confidence  can  be  placed  in  the  reality  of 
the  persons  and  events  mentioned  in  Homer's  poetic  account  of  the 
siege  of  Troy,  yet  there  is  one  kind  of  truth  from  which  the  poet 
can  hardly  have  deviated,  or  his  writings  would  not  have  been  so  ac- 
ceptable as  they  appear  to  have  been  to  his  cotemporaries ; — and 
that  is,  a  faithful  portraiture  of  the  government,  usages,  religious  no- 
tions, institutions,  manners,  and  general  condition  of  Grecian  society, 
during  the  heroic  age.a 

1.  Thus  the  most  ancient  account  of  Hel'  en  is,  that  she  was  a  daughter  of  the  god  Ju- 
piter, hatched  from  the  egg  of  a  swan ;  and  Homer  speaks  of  her  in  the  Iliad  as  "  begotten 
of  Jupiter."  When  only  seven  years  of  age,  such  were  her  personal  attractions,  that  Theseus, 
king  of  Athens,  having  become  enamored  of  her,  carried  her  off  from  a  festival  at  which  he 
aaw  her  dancing  ;  but  her  brothers  recovered  her  by  force  of  arms,  and  restored  her  to  her 
family.  After  her  marriage  with  Menelaus,  it  is  said  that  Jupiter,  plotting  a  war  for  the  pur- 
pose of  ridding  the  earth  of  a  portion  of  its  overstocked  inhabitants,  contrived  that  the  beauty 
of  Hel'  en  should  involve  the  Greeks  and  Trojans  in  hostilities.  At  a  banquet  of  the  gods,  Dis- 
cord, by  the  direction  of  Jupiter,  threw  into  the  assembly  a  golden  apple,  on  which  was  in- 
scribed, "The  apple  for  the  Fair  one,"  (Trj  Ka\rj  rd  /^Aoj/,)  or,  as  in  Virgil,  Pulcherrima  me 
habeto,  "Let  the  most  beautiful  have  me."  The  goddesses  Juno,  Miner'  va,  and  Venus,  claim- 
ing it,  Paris,  the  son  of  Priam,  king  of  Troy,  was  made  the  arbiter.  He  awarded  the  prize  to 
Venus,  who  had  promised  him  the  beautiful  Hel' en  in  marriage,  if  he  would  decide  in  her 
favor.  Venus  (the  goddess  of  love  and  beauty)  caused  Paris  and  Hel'  en  to  become  mutually 
enamored,  and  afterwards  aided  the  Trojans  in  the  war  that  followed.  Homer  represents  the 
heroes  as  performing  prodigies  of  valor,  shielded  and  aided  by  the  gods ;  and  the  gods  them 
selves  as  mingling  in  the  strife,  and  taking  part  with  the  combatants.  The  goddess  Miner'  va 
an  unsuccessful  competitor  for  the  prize  which  Paris  awarded  to  her  rival  Venus,  planned  th«, 
stratagem  of  the  wooden  horse,  which  concealed  within  its  side  a  band  of  Greeks,  who,  borno 
with  it  into  the  city,  were  thus  enabled  to  open  the  gates  to  their  confederates  without. 

a.  "  Homer  was  regarded  even  by  the  ancients  as  of  historical  authority." — "  Truth  was  his 
object  in  his  accounts  and  descriptions,  as  far  as  it  can  be  the  object  of  a  poet,  and  even  in  s. 
greater  degree  than  was  necessary,  when  he  distinguishes  the  earlier  and  later  times  or  ages.  He 
is  the  best  source  of  information  respecting  the  heroic  age."— Heeren's  Politics  of  Greece,  p.  82. 


CHAP.  II,]  EGYPTIAN  HISTORY.  3t 

COTEMPORARY  HISTORY. 

1.  During  the  period  of  early  Grecian  history  which  we  have 
passed  over  in  the  present  chapter,  our  knowledge  of  the  cotempo- 
rary  history  of  other  nations  is  exceedingly  limited.  Rome  had  not* 
yet  a  beginning  : — all  Europe,  except  the  little  Grecian  peninsula, 
was  in  the  darkness  of  barbarism  :  in  Central  "Western  Asia  we  in- 
deed suppose  there  existed,  at  this  time,  large  cities,  and  the  flour- 
ishing empires  of  Assyria  and  Babylon;  but  from  them  we  can 
gather  no  reliable  historic  annals.  In  north-eastern  Africa,  indeed, 
the  Egyptian  empire  had  already  attained  the  meridian  of  its  glory ; 
but  of  the  chronological  detail  of  Egyptian  history  during  this  pe- 
riod we  know  comparatively  nothing.  What  is  known  relates  prin- 
cipally to  the  conquests  of  the  renowned  Sesos'  tris,  an  Egyptian 
monarch,  who,  as  nearly  as  can  be  ascertained,  was  cotemporary 
with  Oth'  uiel,  the  first  judge  of  Israel,  and  with  Cecrops,  the  sup- 
posed founder  of  Athens,  although  some  modern  authors  place  his 
reign  a  hundred  years  later.8-  This  monarch  is  said  to  have  achieved 
many  brilliant  conquests  as  the  lieutenant  of  his  father.  After  he 
came  to  the  throne  he  made  vast  preparations  for  the  conquest  of  the 
world,  and  raised  an  army  which  is  said  to  have  numbered  six  hun- 
dred thousand  foot  and  twenty-four  thousand  horse,  besides  twenty- 
seven  thousand  armed  chariots.  He  conquered  Lib'  ya1  and  Ethiopia,* 
after  which,  entering  Asia,  he  overran  Arabia,  subdued  the  Assyrians 
and  Medes,  and  even  led  his  victorious  hosts  beyond  the  Ganges  :* 

1.  Lib'  ya  is  the  name  which  the  Greek  and  Roman  poets  gave  to  Africa.    In  a  more  re- 
stricted sense,  however,  the  name  was  applied  to  that  part  of  Africa,  bordering  on  the  Mediter- 
ranean, which  lies  between  Egypt  on  the  east  and  Tripoli  on  the  west, — the  most  important 
part  of  which  territory  is  embraced  in  the  present  Barca. 

2.  Ancient  Ethiopia  comprised,  principally,  the  present  countries  of  Nubia  and  Abyssinia, 
south  of  Egypt. 

3.  The  Ganges,  the  sacred  river  of  the   Hindoos,  flowing  south-east  through  the  northr 

a.  The  era  of  the  accession  of  Sesos'  tris,  may  be  placed  at  1565  B.  C.;  that  of  Oth'  niel  at 
1564 ;  and  the  supposed  founding  of  Athens  at  1558,— the  latter  two  in  accordance  with  Dr. 
Hales.  In  Rollin  the  date  for  Sesos'  tris  is  1491 ;  Hereen  "about  1500" ;  Russell's  Egypt,  1308; 
Mure,  "  between  1400  and  1410";  Gliddon's  Egypt,  1565;  and  Champolion  Figeac  (making 
Sesos'  tris  the  same  as  Ramses  IV.,  at  the  head  of  the  19th  dynasty),  1473.  Eusebius,  followed 
by  Usher  and  Playfair,  supposes  that  Sesos'  tris  was  the  immediate  successor  of  the  Pharaoh  wh» 
was  drowned  in  the  Red  Sea;  while  Marsham,  followed  by  Newton,  attempts  to  identify  him 
with  the  Shishak  of  Scripture  who  invaded  Judea — a  difference,  according  to  various  systems 
of  chronology,  of  from  500  to  800  years.  Mr.  Bryant  endeavors  to  prove  that  no  such  person 
ever  existed.  ,.{»  ,. 

Since  the  interpretation  of  the  hieroglyphics,  however,  the  principal  ground  of  dispute  on  this 
subject  among  the  learned,  appears  to  be,  whether  the  Sesos'  tris  so  renowned  in  history  wa§ 
the  same  aa  Ramses  III.,  the  fourteenth  king  of  the  18th  dynasty,  or  the  same  as  Ramses  IV,  the 
first  king  of  the  19th  dynasty,  there  being  a  difference  between  the  two  of  about  a  hundred  years. 


*8  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  \Fj&x  L 

he  is  also  said  to  have  passed  over  into  Europe,  and  to  have  ravaged 
the  territories  of  the  Thracians  and  the  Scythians,1  when  scarcity  of 
provisions  stopped  the  progress  of  his  conquests.  That  the  fame  of 
kis  deeds  might  long  survive  him,  he  erected  columns  in  the  countries 
through  which  he  passed,  on  which  was  inscribed,  "  Sesos'  tris,  king 
of  kings,  and  lord  of  lords,  subdued  this  country  by  the  power  of  his 
arms."  Some  of  these  columns  were  still  to  be  seen  in  Asia  Minor 
in  the  days  of  Herod'  otus. 

3.  The  deeds  and  triumphs  of  Sesos'  tris  are  also  wrought,  in 
sculpture  and  in  painting,  in  numerous  temples,  and  on  the  most 
celebrated  obelisks,  from  Ethiopia  to  Lower  Egypt.    At  Ipsamboul,2 
in  Nubia,  is  a  temple  cut  out  of  the  solid  rock,  whose  front  or  fa- 
§ade  is  supported  by  four  colossal  figures  of  exquisite  workmanship, 
each  sixty  feet  high,  all  statues  of  Sesos'  tris,  the  faces  of  which  bear 
a  perfect  resemblance  to  the  figures  of  the  same  king  at  Mem'  phis. 
The  walls  of  the  temple  are  covered  with  numerous  sculptures  on  his- 
torical subjects,  representing  the  conquests  of  this  prince  in  Africa. 
Among  them  are  processions  of  the  conquered  nations,  carrying  the 
riches  of  their  country  and  laying  them  at  the  feet  of  the  conqueror ; 
and  even  the  wild  animals  of  the  desert — antelopes,  apes,  giraffes, 
and  ostriches — are  led  in  the  triumphs  of  the  Egyptians. 

4.  Were  it  not  for  the  many  similar  monumental  evidences  of  the 
reign  of  this  monarch,  which  have  been  recently  discovered,  corrobo- 
rative of  the  deeds  which  profane  authors  attribute  to  him,  we  might 
fee  disposed  to  regard  Sesos'  tris  as  others  have  done,  as  no  more  than 
a  mythological  personification  of  the  Sun,  the  god  of  day,  "  the 
giant  that  rejoiceth  to  run  his  course  from  one  end  of  heaven  to  the 
other."     But  with  such  an  amount  of  testimony  bearing  on  the  sub- 
ject, we  cannot  doubt  the  existence  of  this  mighty  conqueror,  al- 
though probably  his  exploits  have  been  greatly  exaggerated  by  the 
vanity  of  his  chroniclers ;  and  it  is  not  improbable  that  the  deeds 
of  several  monarchs  have  been  attributed  to  one.     After  the  return 
«f  Sesos'  tris  from  his  conquests,  he  is  said  to  have  employed  his 
time  to  the  close  of  his  reign,  in  encouraging  the  arts,  erecting  teni- 

eastern  part  of  Hindostan,  enters  the  Bay  of  Bengal,  through  a  great  number  of  mouths,  near 
Calcutta. 

1.  Thrace,  a  large  tract  of  country  now  embraced  in  Turkey  in  Europe,  and  bordering  on  the 
Propontis,  or  sea  of  Marmora,  extended  from  Macedonia  and  the  JE'  gean  Sea  on  the  south-west, 
to  the  Euxine  on  the  north-east.    North  of  the  Thracians,  extending  along  the  Euxine  to  the 
river  Danube,  was  the  country  of  the  Scythians. 

2.  Ipsamboul)  so  celebrated  for  its  well-known  excavated  temples,  is  in  the  northern  part  of 
Nubia,  on  the  western  bank  of  the  Nile. 


CHAP.  II.]  IHE  ISRAELITES.  39 

pies  to  the  gods,  and  improving  the  revenues  cf  his  kingdom.  After 
his  time  we  know  little  of  the  history  of  Egypt  until  the  reign  of 
Pharaoh-Necho,  in  the  beginning  of  the  seventh  century,  who  is  re- 
markable for  his  successes  against  Jerusalem. 

5.  At  the  period  which  we  have  assigned,  somewhat  arbitrarily, 
for  the  commencement  of  Grecian  history,  1856  years  before  the 
Christian  era,  Joseph,  the  son  of  the  patriarch  Jacob,  was  governor 
over  Egypt ;  and  his  father's  family,  by  invitation  of  Pharaoh,  had 
settled  in  Goshen,  on  the  eastern  borders  of  the  valley  of  the  Nile. 
This  is  supposed  to  have  been  about  three  centuries  before  the  time 
of  Sesos'  tris.     On  the  death  of  Joseph,  the  circumstances  of  the  de- 
scendants of  Jacob,  who  were  now  called  Israelites,  were  greatly 
changed.     "  A  king  arose  who  knew  not  Joseph  ;"a  and  the  children 
of  Israel  became  servants  and  bondsmen  in  the  land  of  Egypt.    Two 
hundred  years  they  were  held  in  bondage,  when  the  Lord,  by  his 
servant  Moses,  brought15  them  forth  out  of  Egypt  with  a  mighty  hand 
and  an  outstretched  arm,  after  inflicting  the  most  grievous  plagues 
upon  their  oppressors,  and  destroying  the  pursuing  hosts  of  Pharaoh 
in  the  Ked  Sea.     (1648  B.  C.) 

6.  Forty  years  the   Israelites,  numbering  probably  two  millions 
of  souls,c  wandered  in  the  wilderness  on  the  north-western  confines 
of  Arabia,1  supported  by  miraculous  interposition ;  for  the  country 
was  then,  as  now,  "  a  land  of  deserts  and  of  pits,  a  land  of  drouth 
and  of  the  shadow  of  death,  a  land  that  no  man  passed  through,  and 
where  no  man  dwelt  ;"d  and  after  they  had  completed  their  wander- 
ings, and  another  generation  had  grown  up  since  they  had  left  Egypt, 
they  came  to  the  river  Jordan,2  and  passing  through  the  bed  of  the 

1.  Arabia  is  an  extensive  peninsula  at  the  south-western  extremity  of  Asia,  lying  immediately 
east  of  the  Red  Sea.    It  is  mostly  a  rocky  and  desert  country,  inhabited  by  wandering  tribes 
of  Arabs,  the  descendants  of  Ishmael.    They  still  retain  the  character  given  to  their  ancestor. 
The  desert  has  continued  to  be  the  home  of  the  Arab ;  he  has  been  a  man  of  war  from  his 
youth ;  "  his  hand  against  every  man,  and  every  man's  hand  against  him."    (Gen.  xvi.  12.) 

2.  The  river  Jordan  (See  Map,  No.  VI.)  rises  towards  the  northern  part  of  Palestine,  on  the 
western  slope  of  Mount  Hermon,  and  after  a  south  course  of  about  forty  miles,  opens  into  the 
sea  of  Galilee  near  the  ancient  town  of  Bethsaida.    After  passing  through  this  lake  or  sea, 
which  is  about  fifteen  miles  long  and  seven  broad,  and  on  and  near  which  occurred  so  many 
striking  scenes  in  the  history  of  Christ,  it  pursues  a  winding  southerly  course  of  about  ninety 
miles  through  a  narrow  valley,  and  then  empties  its  waters  into  the  Dead  Sea.    In  this  river- 
valley  was  the  dwelling  of  Lot,  "who  pitched  his  tents  toward  Sodom"  (Gen.  xiii.  11,  12) ;  and 
"  in  the  vale  of  Siddim,  which  is  the  salt  sea,"  occurred  the  battle  of  the  "  four  kings  with  five." 
(Gen.  xv.)    The  Israelites  passed  the  Jordan  near  Jericho  (Josh.  iii.  14-17) ;  the  prophets  Elijah 

a.  Paraphrased  by  Josephus  as  meaning  that  the  kingdom  had  passed  to  another  dynasty. 

b.  1648,  B.C. 

c.  They  had  603,550  men,  above  20  years  of  age,  not  reckoning  Levites.  EKNlus,  xxxviii.  26. 

d.  Jeremiah,  ii.  6. 


40  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART  I. 

stream,  which  rolled  back  its  waters  on  their  approach,  entered  the 
promised  land  of  Palestine.1  The  death  of  Moses  had  left  the  gov- 
ernment in  the  hands  of  Joshua.  And  "  Israel  served  the  Lord  all 
the  days  of  Joshua,  and  all  the  days  of  the  elders  that  outlived 
Joshua,  and  which  had  known  all  the  works  of  the  Lord  that  he  had 
done  for  his  chosen  people.  "a 

7.  From  the  time  of  the  death  of  Joshua  to  the  election  of  Saul 
as  first  king  of  Israel,  which  latter  event  occurred  about  seventy 
years  after  the  supposed  siege  of  Troy,  Israel  was  ruled  by  judges, 
who  were  appointed  through  the  agency  of  the  priests  and  of  the 
divine  oracle,  in  accordance  with  the  theocratic  form  of  government 
established  by  Moses.  After  the  death  of  Joshua,  however,  the  Is- 
raelites often  apostatized  to  idolatry,  for  which  they  were  punished 
by  being  successively  delivered  into  the  hands  of  the  surrounding  na- 
tions. First  they  were  subdued  by  the  king  of  Mesopotamia,1*  after 
which  the  Lord  raised  up  Oth'niel  to  be  their  deliverer  (1564  B.  C.) , 
a  second  defection  was  punished  by  eighteen  years  of  servitude  to  the 
king  of  the  M6abites,'J  from  whom  they  were  delivered  by  the  eater- 
find  Elisha  afterwards  divided  the  waters  to  prove  their  divine  mission  (2  Kings,  xi.  8)  ;  the 
leper  Naaman  was  commanded  to  wash  in  Jordan  and  be  clean  (2  Kings,  iv.  10)  ;  and  it  is  thia 
stream  in  which  Jesus  was  baptized  before  he  entered  on  his  divine  mission.  (Matt.  iii.  1G,  &c.) 
The  Dead  Sea,  into  which  the  Jordan  empties,  is  so  called  from  the  heaviness  and  consequent 
stillness  of  its  waters,  which  contain  one-fourth  part  of  their  weight  of  salts.  The  country 
around  this  lake  is  exceedingly  dreary,  and  the  soil  is  destitute  of  vegetation.  Sodom  and  Go- 
morrah are  supposed  to  have  stood  in  the  plain  now  occupied  by  the  lake,  and  ruins  of  the 
overthrown  cities  are  said  to  have  been  seen  on  its  western  borders.  (Map  No.  VI.) 

1.  Palestine,  a  part  of  modern  Syria,  now  embraced  in  Turkey  in  Asia,  lies  at  the  eastern 
extremity  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea ;  extending  north  and  south  along  the  coast  about  200 
miles,  and  having  an  extreme  breadth  of  about  80  miles.    Though  in  antiquity  the  northern 
part  of  Palestine  was  the  seat  of  the  Phoenicians,  a  great  commercial  people,  yet  there  are 
now  few  good  harbors  on  the  coast,  those  of  Tyre  and  Sidon,  once  so  famous,  being  now  for 
the  most  part  blocked  up  with  sand.    The  country  of  Palestine  consists  principally  of  rugged 
hills  and  narrow  valleys,  although  it  has  a  few  plains  of  considerable  extent.    There  are  many 
streams  falling  into  the  Mediterranean,  the  largest  of  which  is  the  Orontes,  at  the  north,  but 
none  of  them  are  navigable.    The  river  Jordan,  on  the  east,  empties  its  waters  into  the  As- 
phaltic  Lake,  or  Dead  Sea,  which  lat,ter,  about  55  miles  in  length,  and  20  in  extreme  width, 
now  fills  the  plain  where  once  stood  the  cities  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah.    North  of  the  Dead 
Sea  is  the  Lake  of  Gennesareth,  or  Sea  of  Galilee,  the  theatre  of  some  most  remarkable  mir- 
acles.   (Matthew  viii. ;  Luke  viii. ;  and  Matthew  xix.  25.)    The  principal  mountains  of  Pales- 
tine are  those  of  Lebanon,  running  in  ranges  nearly  parallel  to  the  Mediterranean,  and  finally 
connecting  with  mounts  Horeb  and  Sinai,  near  the  Gulf  of  Suez.    JERUSALEM,  the  capital 
City  of  Palestine  or  the  Holy  Land,  will  be  described  in  a  subsequent  article.  (Secy.  164,  McCul- 
lock;  articles  Syria,  Said,  or  Sidon,  Dead  Sea,  Lebanon,  &c.)    (Map  No.  VI.) 

2.  The  Monbite.f,  so  called  from  Moab,  the  son  of  Lot  (Gen.  xix.  37),  dwelt  in  the  country  on 
the  east  of  the  Dead  Sea.    (Map  No.  VI.) 

a.  Joshua,  xxiv.  31. 

b.  Numbers,  iii.  8.    Some  think  that  the  country  here  referred  to  was  in  the  vicinity  of 
Damascus,  and  not  "beyond  the  Euphrates,"  as  Mesopotamia  would  imply.    (See  Cockayne's 
Civil  Hist,  of  the  Jews,  29-33.) 


CHAP  II.]  THE  ISRAELITES.  4! 

prising  valor  of  Elmd.a  After  his  death  the  Israelites  again  did  evil 
in  the  sight  of  the  Lord,  and  "  the  Lord  sold  them  into  the  hand  of 
Jabin  king  of  Canaan,"1  under  whose  cruel  yoke  they  groaned  twenty 
years,  when  the  prophetess  Deborah,  and  Barak  her  general,  were 
made  the  instruments  of  their  liberation.  The  Canaanites  were 
routed  with  great  slaughter,  and  their  leader  Sisera  slain  by  Jael,  in 
whose  tent  he  had  sought  refuge. b 

8.  Afterwards,  the  children  of  Israel  were  delivered  over  a  prey 
to  the  Midianites  and  Amalekites,9  wild  tribes  of  the  desert,  who 
"  came  up  with  their  cattle  and  their  tents,  as  grasshoppers  for  mul- 
titude."    But  the  prophet  Gideon,  chosen  by  the  Lord  to  be  the 
liberator  of  his  people,  taking  with  him  only  three  hundred  men, 
made  a  night  attack  on  the  camp  of  the  enemy,  upon  whom  such  fear 
fell  that  they  slew  each  other  ;  so  that  a  hundred  and  twenty  thou- 
sand men  were  left  dead  on  the  field,  and  only  fifteen  thousand  es- 
caped by  flight.     In  the  height  of  their  joy  and  gratitude,  the  peo- 
ple would  have  made  Gideon  king,  but  he  said  to  them,  "  Not  I,  nor 
my  son,  but  JEHOVAH  shall  reign  over  you."0 

9.  Again  the  idolatry  of  the  Israelites  became  so  gross,  that  the  Lord 
delivered  them  into  the  hands  of  the  Philistines3  and  the  Ammonites,4 
from  whom  they  were  finally  delivered  by  the  valor  of  Jephthah.d 
At  a  later  period  the  Philistines  oppressed  Israel  forty  years,  but  the 
people  found  an  avenger  in  the  prowess  of  Samson.6     After  the 
death  of  Samson  the  aged  Eli  judged  Israel,  but  the  crimes  of  his 
sons,  Hophni  and  Phinehas,  whom  he  had  chosen  to  aid  him  in  the 
government,  brought  down  the  vengeance  of  the  Lord,  and  thirty 
thousand  of  the  warriors  of  Israel  were  slain  in  battle  by  the  Philis- 

1.  The  Canaanites,  so  called  from  Canaan,  one  of  the  sons  of  Ham  (Gen.  x.  6-19),  then  dwelt 
in  the  lowlands  of  the  Galilee  of  the  Gentiles,  between  the  sea  of  Galilee  and  the  Mediterranean. 
Barak,  descending  from  Mount  Tabor  (see  Map),  attacked  Sisera  on  the  banks  of  the  river 
Kishon.   (Map  No.  VI.) 

2.  The  Midianites,  so  called  from  one  of  the  sons  of  Abraham  by  Keturah,  dwelt  in  western 
Arabia,  near  the  head  of  the  Red  Sea.    The  Jlmalekites  dwelt  in  the  wilderness  between  the 
Dead  Sea  and  the  Red  Sea.    (Map  No.  VI.) 

3.  The  Philistines  (see  Map)  dwelt  on  the  south-western  borders  of  Palestine,  along  the  coast 
of  the  Mediterranean,  as  far  north  as  Mount  Carrael,  the  commencement  of  the  Phoenician 
territories.    Their  principal  towns  were  Gaza,  Gath,  Ascalon,  and  Megiddo,  for  which  see  Map. 
The  Israelite  tribes  of  Simeon,  Dan,  Ephraim,  and  Manasseh,  bordered  on  their  territories. 
"The  whole  of  the  towns  of  the  coast  continued  in  the  hands  of  the  Philistines  and  Phoenicians, 
and  never  permanently  fell  under  the  dominion  of  Israel." — Cockayne's  Hist,  of  the  Jews,  p.  44. 

4.  The  Ammonites  (see  Map)  dwelt  on  the  borders  of  the  desert  eastward  of  the  Israelite 
tribes  that  settled  east  of  the  Jordan. 

a.  Judges,  iii.  15-30.  b.  Judges,  iv.  c.  Judges,  vl. ;  vl. ;  viii. 

d.  Judges,  x.  7 ;  xi.  33.  e.  Judges,  xiii.  1 ;  xiv. ;  XT.  ;  xvi. 


42  ANCIENT  HISTORY  [PART  I. 

tines.a  The  prophet  Samuel  was  divinely  chosen  as  the  successor  of 
Eli.  (1152  B.  C.)  His  administration  was  wise  and  prudent,  but 
in  his  old  age  the  tyranny  of  his  sons,  whom  he  was  obliged  to  em- 
ploy as  his  deputies,  induced  the  people  to  demand  a  king  who 
should  rule  over  them  like  the  kings  of  other  nations.  With  reluct- 
ance Samuel  yielded  to  the  popular  request,  and  by  divine  guidance, 
anointed  Saul,  of  the  tribe  of  Benjamin,  king  over  Israel.b  (1110 
B.  C.) 

10.  We  have  thus  briefly  traced  the  civil  history  of  the  Israelites 
down  to  the  period  of  the  establishment  of  a  monarchy  over  them, 
in  the  person  of  Saul,  at  a  date,  according  to  the  chronology  which 
we  haye  adopted,  seventy-three  years  later  than  the  supposed  destruc- 
tion of  Troy.  It  is,  however,  the  religious  history,  rather  than  the 
civil  annals,  of  the  children  of  Abraham,  that  possesses  the  greatest 
value  and  the  deepest  interest ;  but  as  our  limits  forbid  our  enter- 
ing upon  a  subject  so  comprehensive  as  the  former,  and  the  one  can- 
not be  wholly  separated  from  the  other  without  the  greatest  violence, 
we  refer  the  reader  to  the  Bible  for  full  and  satisfactory  details  of 
the  civil  and  religious  polity  of  the  Jews,  contenting  ourselves  with 
having  given  merely  such  a  skeleton  of  Jewish  annals,  in  connection 
with  profane  history,  as  may  serve  to  render  the  comparative  chro- 
nology of  the  whole  easy  of  comprehension. 

a.  1  Sara,  iv.  10.  b.  x.  1. 


CHAP.  III.]  GRECIAN  HISTORY  43 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE  UNCERTAIN  PERIOD  OF  GRECIAN  HISTORY: 

EXTENDING   FROM   THE    CLOSE   OF   THE  TROJAN  WAR  TO  THE  FIRST  WAR  WITH  PERSIA  : 

1183  TO  490  B.  c.  =  693  YEARS. 

, 

ANALYSIS.  1.  Introductory. — 2.  Consequences  of  the  Trojan  war. — 3.  THESSA'  LIAN  CON- 
QUEST.—[i^pirus.  Pin'duS.  PenCUS.]— 4.  BCEO'TIAN  CONQUEST.— .<EO' LIAN  MIGRATION.  [LCS'- 

bos.  5  Doris.]  RETURN  OF  THE  HERACLI'D«. — 6.  Numbers  and  military  character  of  the 
Dorians. — Passage  of  the  Corinthian  Gulf. — [Corinthian  Isthmus. — Corinthian  Gulf. — Naupac'- 
tus.]— 7.  Dorian  conquest  of  the  Peloponnesus.  [Arcadia.  Achaia.]  Ionian  and  Dorian  mi- 
grations.—8.  Dorian  invasion  of  At' tica.— [Athens.  Delphos.]  Self-sacrifice  of  Codrus. 
Government  of  At' tica.— 9.  [Laconia,]  Its  government.  Lycur'gus.— 10.  Travels  of  Lycur'- 
gus. [The  Brahmins.]  INSTITUTIONS  OF  LYCUR'GUS. — 11.  Plutarch's  account — senate — 
assemblies— division  of  lands.— 12.  Movable  property.  The  currency.— 13.  Public  tables. 
Object  of  Spartan  education,  and  aim  of  Lycur'gus. — 14.  Disputes  about  Lycur'gus.  Hia 
supposed  fate,  [Delphos,  Crete,  and  E'lis.]— 15.  The  three  classes  of  the  Ionian  population. 
Treatment  of  the  H6lots.— 16.  The  provincials.  Their  condition.— 17.  [Messenia.  Ithome.] 
FIRST  MESSE'  NIAN  WAR.  Results  of  the  war  to  the  Messenians.— 18.  Its  influence  on  the 
Spartans.  SECOND  MESSE' NIAN  WAR.  Aristom' enes. — 10.  The  PoetTyrtae'us.  [Corinth.  Sic'- 
yon.]  Battle  of  the  Pamisus.  The  Arcadians.  20.  Results  of  the  war.— 21.  Government  of 
Athens.  DRA' co. — 22.  Severity  of  his  laws. — 23.  Anarchy.  LEGISLATION  OF  SOLON.  Solon's 
integrity.— 24.  Distresses  of  the  people.  The  needy  and  the  rich  —25.  The  policy  of  Solon. 
Debtors— lands  of  the  poor— imprisonment.  Classification  of  the  citizens.— 26.  Disabilities 
and  privileges  of  the  fourth  class.  General  policy  of  Solon's  system. — 27.  The  nine  archons. 
The  Senate  of  Four  Hundred. — 28.  Court  of  the  Areop'  agus.  Its  powers.  Institutions  of 
Solon  compared  with  the  Spartan  code.— 29.  Party  feuds.  Pisis'  tratus.— 30.  His  usurpation 
of  power.  Opposition  to,  and  character  of,  his  government. — 31.  The  sons  of  Pisis'  tratus. 
Conspiracy  of  Harmodius  and  Aristogiton. — 3-2.  EXPULSION  OF  THE  PISISTRATIDS.  Intrigues 
of  Hip'  pias.  [Lyd'  ia.  Per'  sia.]— 33.  The  Grecian  colonies  conquered  by  Crce'  sus— by  the 
Persians.  Application  for  aid. — 34.  ION'  ic  REVOLT.  Athens  and  Eubo3'  a  aid  the  lonians. 
[Euboe'a,  Sar'dis.  Eph'esus.]  Results  of  the  Ionian  war.  [Miletus.]  Designs  of  Darius. 

COTEMPORARY  HISTORY. — I.  PiiojNi  ciAN  HISTORY.  1.  Geography  of  Phoenicia. — 2.  Early  his- 
tory of  Phoanicia.  Political  condition.  Colonies.— 3.  Supposed  circumnavigation  of  Africa.— 
4.  Commercial  relations.  II.  JEWISH  HISTORY — continuation  of. — 6.  Accession  of  Saul  to  the 
throne.  Slaughter  of  the  Am' monites.  [Jabesh  Gil' ead.  Gil' gal.]  War  with  the  Philistines— 7. 
Wars  with  the  surrounding  nations.  Saul's  disobedience.— 8.  David— his  prowess.  [Gath.] 
Saul's  jealousy  of  David.  David's  integrity.— 9.  Death  of  Saul.  [Mount  Gil' boa.]  Division  of  the 
kingdom  between  David  and  Ish'  bosheth.  [Hebron.]  Union  of  the  tribes.— 10.  Limited  possess- 
ions of  the  Israelites.  [Tyre.  Sidon.  Joppa.  Jerusalem.]  David  takes  Jerusalem  .—11.  His  other 
conquests.  [Syria.  Damascus.  Rabbah.]  Siege  of  Rabbah.  Close  of  David's  reign.— 12. 
Solomon.  His  wisdom — fame — commercial  relations. — 13.  His  impiety.  Close  of  his  rei?n. — 
14.  Revolt  of  the  ten  tribes.  Their  subsequent  history.— 15.  Rehoboam's  reign  over  Judah. 
Reign  of  Ahaz.  Hezekiah.  Signal  overthrow  of  the  Assyrians. — 17.  Corroboraied  by  pro- 
fane history.— 18.  Account  given  by  Herod'otus.— 19.  Reigns  of  Manas' seh,  A' mon,  Josiah, 
and  Jehoahaz.— 20.  Reign  of  Jehoiakim— of  Jechoniah.— 21.  Reign  of  Hezekiah.  Destruc- 
tion of  Jerusalem.— 2-2.  Captivity  of  the  Jews.— 23.  Rebuilding  of  Jerusalem.  III.  RO- 
MAN HISTORY. — 24.  Founding  of  Rome. — IV.  PERSIAN  HISTORY. — 25.  Dissolution  of  the  As- 
syrian empire.— 26.  Establishment  of  the  empire  of  the  Medes  and  Babylonians.  First  and 


44  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART  I 

second  captivity  of  the  Jews.— 27.  Other  conquests  of  Nebuchadnez'  zar.  His  war  wilh  the 
Phoenicians.— 28.  With  the  Egyptians.  Fulfilment  of  Ezekiel's  prophecy.— 29.  Impiety  and 
pride  of  Nebuchaduez' zar.  His  punishment.— 30.  Belshaz' zar's  reign.  Rise  of  the  separate 
kingdom  of  Media.  Founding  of  the  Persian  empire. — 31.  Cyrus  defeats  Croa'  sus — subjugates 
the  Grecian  colonies— conquers  Babylon.  Prophecies  relating  to  Babylon.— 32.  Remainder  of 
the  reign  of  Cyrus. — 33.  Reign  of  Camby'  ses.  [Jupiter  Am'  mon.] — 34.  Accession  of  Darius 
Hystas'pes.  Revolt  and  destruction  of  Babylon. — 35.  Expedition  against  the  Scythians. 
[Scythia.  River  Don.  Thrace.]— 36.  Other  events  in  the  history  of  Darius.  His  aims,  policy, 
and  government. — 37.  Extent  of  the  Persian  empire. 

1.  PASSING  from  the  fabulous  era  of  Grecian  history,  we  enter 
upon  a  period  when  the  crude  fictions  of  more  than  mortal  heroes, 
and  demi-gods,  begin  to  give  place  to  the  realities  of  human  exist- 
ence ;  but  still  the  vague,  disputed,  and  often  contradictory  annals 
on  which  we  are  obliged  to  rely,  shed  only  an  uncertain  light  around 
us ;  and  even  what  we  have  gathered  as  the  most  reliable,  in  the 
present  chapter,  perhaps  cannot  wholly  be  taken  as  undoubted  his- 
toric truth,  especially  in  chronological  details. 

2.  The  immediate  consequences  of  the  Trojan  war,  as  represented 
by  Greek  historians,  were  scarcely  less  disastrous  to  the  victors  than 
to  the  vanquished.     The  return  of  the  Grecian  heroes  to  their  coun- 
try is  represented  by  Homer  and  other  early  writers  to  have  been 
full  of  tragical  adventures,  while  their  long  absence  had  encouraged 
usurpers  to  seize  many  of  their  thrones  ;  and  hence  arose  fierce  wars 
and  intestine  commotions,  which  greatly  retarded  the  progress  of 
Grecian  civilization. 

3.  Among  these  petty  revolutions,  however,  no  events  of  general 
i.  THESSA'  LIAN  interest  occurred  until  about  sixty  years  after  the  fall  of 

CONQUEST.  Troy,  when  a  people  from  Epirus,1  passing  over  the 
mountain  chain  of  Pin'  dus,2  descended  into  the  rich  plains  which  lie 
along  the  banks  of  the  Peneus,3  and  finally  conquered0-  the  country,  to 


1.  The  country  of  Epirus,  comprised  in  the  present  Turkish  province  of  Albania,  was  at 
the  north-western  extremity  of  Greece,  lying  along  the  coast  of  the  Adriatic  Sea,  or  Gulf  of 
Venice,  and  bounded  on  the  north  by  Macedonia,  and  on  the  east  by  Macedonia  and  Thes'- 
saly.    The  inhabitants  in  early  times  were  probably  Pelas'gic,  but  they  can  hardly  be  consid- 
ered ever  to  have  belonged  to  the  Hellenic  race,  or  Grecians  proper.    Epirus  is  principally 
distinguished  in  Roman  history  as  the  country  of  the  celebrated  Pyr'  rhus  (see  p.  149.)   The 
earliest  oracle  of  Greece  was  that  of  Dodona  in  Epirus,  but  its  exact  locality  is  unknown. 
There  was  another  oracle  of  the  same  name  in  Thes'  saly.    (Map  No.  I.) 

2.  Pin' dus  is  the  name  of  the  mountain  chain  which  separated  Thes'saly  from   Epirus. 
(Map  No.  I.) 

3.  Peneus,  the  principal  river  of  Thes'  saly,  rises  in  the  Pin'  dus  mountains,  and  flowing  in  a 
course  generally  east,  passes  through  the  vale  of  Tern'  pe,  and  empties  its  waters  into  the  Ther- 
maic  Gulf,  no\v  the  gulf  of  Salonica,  a  branch  of  the  JE'  gean  Sea,  or  Archipelago.    (Map 
No.  I.) 

a.  About  1224  B.  C. 


CHAT.  III.]  GRECIAN  HISTORY.  45 

which  they  gave  the  name  of  Thes 'saly;  driving  away  most  of  the 
inhabitants,  and  reducing  those  who  remained  to  the  condition  of 
serfs,  or  agricultural  slaves. 

4.  The  fugitives  from  Thes'  saly,  driven  from  their  own  country, 
passed  over  into  Bceotia,  which  they  subdued  after  a  long  IL  B(EO'  TIAN 
struggle,  imitating  their  own  conquerors  in  the  disposal    CONQUEST. 
of  the  inhabitants.     The  unsettled  state  of  society  occasioned  by  the 
Thessalian  and  Boeotian  conquests  was  the  cause  of  collecting  to- 
gether various  bands  of  fugitives,  who,  being  joined  by  adventurers 
from  Peloponnesus,  passed  over  into  Asia,a  constituting  the  JEolian 
migration,  so  called  from  the  race  which  took  the  prin-  ra.  JEO'  LIAN 
cipal  share  in  it.     They  established  their  settlements  in    MIGRATION-. 
the  vicinity  of  the  ruins  of  Troy,  and  on  the  opposite  island  of  Les'- 
bos,1  while  on  the  main  land  they  built  many  cities,  which  were  com- 
prised in  twelve  States,  the  whole  of  which  formed  the  ^Eolian  Con- 
federacy. 

5.  About  twenty  years  after  the  Thessalian  conquest,  the  Dorians, 
a  Hellenic  tribe,  whose  country,  Doris,2  a  mountainous  region,  was 
on  the  south  of  Thes'  saly,  being  probably  harassed  by  their  northern 
neighbors,  and  desirous  of  a  settlement  in  a  more  fertile  territory, 
commenced  a  migration  to  the  Peloponnesus,  accompanied  by  por- 
tions of  other  tribes,  and  led,  as  was  asserted,  by  descendants  of 
Her'  cules,  who  had  formerly  been  driven  into  exile  from  the  latter 
country.     This  important  event  in  Grecian  history  is   Jy 

called  the  Return  of  the  Heraclidce.    The  migration  of  the      OF  THE 
Dorians  was  similar  in  its  character  to  the  return  of  the  HERACL1/  D^- 
Israelites  to  Palestine,  as  they  took  with  them  their  wives  and  chil- 
dren, prepared  for  whatever  fortune  should  award  them. 

6.  The  Dorians  could  muster  about  twenty  thousand  fighting  men, 
and  although  they  were  greatly  inferior  in  numbers  to  the  inhabit- 
ants of  the  countries  which  they  conquered,  their  superior  military 
tactics  appear  generally  to  have  insured  them  an  easy  victory  in  the 


1.  Les'bos,  one  of  the  most  celebrated  of  the  Grecian  islands,  now  called  Mytilene,  from  its 
principal  city,  lies  an  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor,  north  of  the  entrance  to  the  Gulf  of  Smyrna. 
Anciently,  Les'  bos  contained  nine  flourishing  cities,  founded  mostly  by  the  ^Eolians.    The 
Les'bians  were  notorious  for  their  dissolute  manners,  while  at  the  same    time  they  were 
distinguished  for  intellectual  cultivation,  and  especially  for  poetry  and  music.    (Map  No.  III.) 

2.  D6ris,  a  small  mountainous  country,  extending  only  about  forty  miles  in  length,  was 
situated  on  the  south  of  Thes'  saly,  from  which  it.  was  separated  by  the  range  of  mount  CE'  ta. 
The  Dorians  were  the  most  powerful  of  the  Hellenic  tribes.    (Map  No.  I.) 

9.  About  1040  B.  C. 


46  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART  I 

open  field.  Twice,  however,  they  were  repelled  in  their  attempts  to 
"break  through  the  Corinthian  isthmus,1  the  key  to  Southern  Greece, 
when,  warned  by  these  misfortunes,  they  abandoned  the  guarded 
isthmus,  and  crossing  the  Corinthian  Gulf2  from  Naupac'  tus,8  landed 
safely  on  the  north-western  coast  of  the  peninsula.  (B.  C.  1 1 04). 

7.  The  whole  of  Peloponnesus,  except  the  central  and  mountainous 
district  of  Arcadia4  and  the  coast  province  of  Achaia,"  was  eventually 
subdued,  and  apportioned  among  the  conquerors, — all  the  old  inhab- 
itants who  remained  in  the  country  being  reduced  to  an  inferior  con- 
dition, like  that  of  the  Saxon  serfs  of  England  at  the  time  of  the 
Norman  conquest.  Some  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  southern  part 
of  the  peninsula,  however,  uniting  under  valiant  leaders,  conquered 
the  province  of  Achaia,  and  expelled  its  Ionian  inhabitants,  many 
of  whom,  joined  by  various  bands  of  fugitives,  sought  a  retreat  on  the 
western  coast  of  Asia  Minor,  south  of  the  j^Eolian  cities,  where,  in 

1.  The  Corinthian  Isthmus,  between  the  Corinthian  Gulf  (now  Gulf  of  Lepan'  to)  on  the 
north-west,  and  the  Saron'  ic  Gulf  (now  Gulf  of  Athens,  or  ^Egina)  on  the  south-east,  Unites  the 
Peloponnesus  to  the  northern  parts  of  Greece,  or  Greece  Proper.    The  narrowest  part  of  this 
celebrated  Isthmus  is  about  six  miles  east  from  Corinth,  where  the  distance  across  is  about 
five  miles.    The  Isthmus  is  high  and  rocky,  and  many  unsuccessful  attempts  have  been  made 
to  unite  the  waters  on  each  side  by  a  canal.    The  Isthmus  derived  much  of  its  early  celebrity 
from  the  Isthmian  games  celebrated  there  in  honor  of  False'  mon  and  Nep'  tune.    Ruins  of 
the  temple  of  Nep'  tune  have  been  discovered  at  the  port  of  Schae'  nus,  on  the  east  side  of  the 
Isthmus.    (Map  No.  I.) 

2.  The  Corinthian  Oulf  (now  called  the  Gulf  of  Lepan' to)  is  an  eastern  arm  of  the  Adriatic, 
or  Gulf  of  Venice,  and  lies  principally  between  the  coast  of  ancient  Phocis  on  tne  north,  and 
of  Achaia  on  the  south.    The  entrance  to  the  gulf,  between  two  ruined  castles,  the  Roumelia 
on  the  north,  and  the  Morea  on  the  south,  is  only  about  one  mile  across.    Within,  the  waters 
expand  into  a  deep  magnificent  basin,  stretching  about  seventy-eight  miles  to  the  south-east, 
and  being,  where  widest,  about  twenty  miles  across.    Near  the  mouth  of  this  gulf  was  fought, 
in  the  year  1570,  one  of  the  greatest  naval  battles  of  modern  times.    (Map  No.  I.) 

3.  Naupac'  tus  (now  called  Lepan'  to)  stands  on  a  hill  on  the  coast  of  Locris,  about  three  and 
a  half  miles  from  the  ruined  cast!-;  of  Roumelia.    It  is  said  to  have  derived  its  name  from  the 
circumstance  of  the  Heraclidae  having  there  constructed  the  fleet  in  which  they  crossed  over 
to  the  Peloponnesus.     (JVaits,  a  ship,  and  Pego,  or  Pegnumi,  to  construct.)    It  was  once  a  place 
of  considerable  importance,  but  is  now  a  ruinous  town.    (Map  No.  I.) 

4.  Jlrcadia,  the  central  country  of  the  Peloponnesus,  and,  next  to  Laconia,  the  largest  of  its 
Bix  provinces,  is  a  mountainous  region,  somewhat  similar  to  Switzerland,  having  a  length  and 
breadth  of  about  forty  miles  each.    The  most  fertile  part  of  the  country  was  towards  the  south, 
where  were  several  delightful  plains,  and  numerous  vineyards.    The  Alpheus  is  the  principal 
river  of  Arcadia.    Tegea  and  Mantinea  were  its  principal  cities.    Its  lakes  are  small,  but 
among  them  is  the  Stymphalus,  of  classic  fame.    The  Arcadians,  scarcely  a  genuine  Greek 
race,  were  a  rude  and  pastoral  people,  deeply  attached  to  music,  and  possessing  a  strong  love 
of  freedom.    (Map  No.  I.) 

5.  Achilla,,  the  most  northern  country  of  the  Peloponnesus,  extended  along  the  Corinthian 
Gulf,  north  of  E'  lis  and  Arcadia.    It  was  a  country  of  moderate  fertility ;  its  coast  was  for  the 
most  part  level,  containing  no  good  harbors,  and  exposed  to  inundations ;  and  its  streams 
were  of  small  size,  many  of  them  mere  winter  torrents,  descending  from  the  ridges  of  Arcadia. 
Originally  Achaia  embraced  the  territory  of  Sic'  yon,  on  the  east,  but  the  latter  was  finally 
wrested  from  it  by  the  Dorians.    The  Achae'  ans  are  principally  celebrated  for  being  the  orig- 
inators of  the  celebrated  Achaean  league.    (See  p.  107.)    (Map  No.  I.) 


CHAP.  TIL]  GRECIAN  HISTORY  47 

process  of  time,  twelve  Ionian  cities  were  built,  the  whole  of  which 
were  united  in  the  Ionian  Confederacy,  while  their  new  country  re- 
ceived the  name  of  Ionia.  At  a  later  period,  bands  of  the  Dorians 
themselves,  not  content  with  their  conquest  of  the  Peloponnesus, 
thronged  to  Asia  Minor,  where  they  peopled  several  cities  on  the 
coast  of  Caria,  south  of  Ionia ;  so  that  the  JE'gean  Sea  was  finally 
circled  by  Grecian  settlements,  and  its  islands  covered  by  them, 

8.  About  the  year  1068,  the  Dorians,  impelled,  as  some  assert,  by 
a  general  scarcity,  the  natural  effect  of  long-protracted  wars,  invaded 
At'  tica,  and  encamped  before  the  walls  of  Athens.1  The  chief  of 
the  Dorian  expedition,  having  consulted  the  oracle  of  Del'  phos,2  was 
told  that  the  Dorians  would  be  successful  so  long  as  Codrus,  the 
Athenian  king,  was  uninjured.  The  latter,  being  informed  of  the 
answer  of  the  oracle,  resolved  to  sacrifice  himself  for  the  good  of 
his  country ;  and  going  out  of  the  gate,  disguised  in  the  garb  of  a 
peasant,  he  provoked  a  quarrel  with  a  Dorian  soldier,  and  suffered 
himself  to  be  slain.  On  recognizing  the  body,  the  superstitious  Do- 
rians, deeming  the  war  hopeless,  withdrew  from  At'  tica ;  and  the 
Athenians,  out  of  respect  for  the  memory  of  Codrus,  declared  that 
no  one  was  worthy  to  succeed  him,  and  abolished  the  form  of  roy- 
alty altogether.3-  Magistrates  called  archons,  however,  differing  little 
from  kings,  were  now  appointed  from  the  family  of  Codrus  for  life ; 
after  a  long  period  these  were  exchanged1*  for  archons  appointed  for 
ten  years,  until,  lastly,0  the  yearly  election  of  a  senate  of  Archons 
gave  the  final  blow  to  royalty  in  Athens,  and  established  an  aristo- 
cratical  government  of  the  nobility.  These  successive  encroachments 

1.  Athens,  one  of  the  most  famous  cities  of  antiquity,  is  situated  on  the  western  side  of  the 
At'  tic  peninsula,  about  five  miles  from  the  Saron'ic  Gulf,  now  the  Gulf  of  ^Egina.    Most  of 
the  ancient  city  stood  on  the  west  side  of  a  rocky  eminence  called  the  Acrop'  olis,  surrounded 
by  an  extensive  plain,  and,  at  the  time  when  it  had  attained  its  greatest  magnitude,  was  twenty 
miles  in  circumference,  and  encompassed  by  a  wall  surmounted,  at  intervals,  by  strongly-for- 
tified towers.    The  small  river  Cephis'  sus,  flowing  south,  on  the  west  side  of  the  city,  and  the 
river  His'  sus,  on  the  east,  flowing  south-west,  inclosed  it  in  a  sort  of  peninsula ;  but  both 
streams  lost  themselves  in  the  marshes  south-west,  of  the  city.    The  waters  of  the  Ills'  sus  were 
mostly  drawn  off  to  irrigate  the  neighboring  gardens,  or  to  supply  the  artificial  fountains  of 
Athens.    (Map  No.  I.    See  farther  description,  p.  5<>4.) 

2.  Del' phos,  or  Del'  phi,  a  small  city  of  Phocis,  situated  on  the  southern  declivity  of  Mount 
Parnas'  sus,  forty-five  miles  north-west  from  Cor'  inth,  and  eight  and  a  half  miles  from  the  nearest 
point  of  the  Corinthian  Gulf,  was  the  seat  of  the  most  remarkable  oracle  of  the  ancient  world. 
Above  Del'  phi  arose  the  two  towering  cliffs  of  Parnas'  sus,  while  from  the  chasm  between 
them  flowed  the  waters  of  the  Castalian  spring,  the  source  of  poetical  inspiration.    Below  lay 
a  rugged  mountain,  past  which  flowed  the  rapid  stream  Plis'  tus ;  while  on  both  sides  of  the 
plain,  where  stood  the  little  city,  arose  steep  and  almost  inaccessible  precipices.    (Map  No.L) 

a.  1068  B.  C.  b.  752  B.  C.  c.  682  B.  C. 


48  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART  L 

on  the  royal  prerogatives  are  almost  the  only  events  that  fill  the 
meagre  annals  of  Athens  for  several  centuries.8- 

9.  While  these  changes  were  occurring  at  Athens,  Laconia,1  whose 
capital  was  Sparta,  although  often  engaged  in  tedious  wars  with  the 
Ar'  gives,2  was  gradually  acquiring  an  ascendancy  over  the  Dorian 
states  of  the  Peloponnesus.     After  the  Heraclidse  had  obtained  pos- 
session of  the  sovereignty,  two  descendants  of  that  family  reigned 
jointly  at  Lacedse'  mon,  but  this  divided  rule  served  only  to  increase 
the  public  confusion.     Things  remained,  however,  in  this  situation 
until  some  time  in  the  ninth  century  B.  C.,  when  Polydec'  tes,  one 
of  the  kings,  died  without  children.     The  reins  of  government  then 
fell  into  the  hands  of  his  brother  Lycur'  gus,  but  the  latter  soon  re- 
signed the  crown  to  the  posthumous  son  of  Polydec'  tes,  and,  to 
avoid  the  imputation  of  ambitious  designs,  went  into  voluntary  exile, 
although  against  the  wishes  of  the  best  of  his  countrymen. 

10.  He  is  said  to  have  visited  many  foreign  lands,  observing  their 
institutions  and  manners,  and  conversing  with  their  sages — to  have 
studied  the  Cretan  laws  of  Minos — to  have  been  a  disciple  of  the 
Egyptian  priests — and  even  to  have  gathered  wisdom  from  the  Brah- 
mins3 of  India,  employing  his  time  in  maturing  a  plan  for  remedying 
the  evils  which  afflicted  his  native  country.     On  his  return  he  ap- 
plied himself  to  the  business  of  framing  a  new  constitution  for  Sparta, 
after  consulting  the  Delphic  oracle,  which  assured  him   that  "  the 
constitution  he  should  establish  would  be  the  most  excellent  in  the 
world."     Having  enlisted  the  aid  of  the  most  illustrious  citizens, 

v  INSTITU-   w^o  *°°k  UP  arms  to  support   him,  he  procured  the 

TIONS  OF     enactment   of  a   code  of  laws,  by  which  the  form  of 

LYCUB,  GUS.   goyemmentj  the  military  discipline  of  the  people,  the 

distribution  of  property,  the  education  of  the  citizens,  and  the  rules 

1.  Laconia,  situated  at  the  southern  extremity  of  Greece,  had  Ar'  golis  and  Arcadia  on  the 
north,  Messenia  on  the  west,  and  the  sea  on  the  south  and  east.    Its  extent  was  about  fifty 
miles  from  north  to  south,  and  from  twenty  to  thirty  from  east  to  west.    Its  principal  river  was 
the  Eurotas,  on  the  western  bank  of  which  was  Sparta,  the  capital ;  and  its  mountains  were 
the  ranges  of  Par'  non  on  the  north  and  east,  and  of  Tayg'  etus  on  the  west,  which  rendered 
the  fertile  valley  of  the  Eurotas,  comprising  the  principal  part  of  Laconia,  exceedingly  diffi- 
cult of  access.    The  two  southern  promontories  of  Lacouia  were  Malea  and  Ttenariuin,  now 
called  St.  Angelo  and  Matapan.    (Map  No.  I.) 

2.  The  Ar' gives  proper  were  inhabitants  of  the  state  and  city  of  Ar'gos ;  but  the  word  is 
often  applied  by  the  poets  to  all  the  inhabitants  of  Greece.    (Map  No.  I.) 

3.  The  Brahmins  were  a  class  of  Hindoo  priests  and  philosophers,  worshippers  of  the  Indian 
god  Brama,  the  supposed  creator  of  the  world.    They  were  the  only  persons  who  understood 
the  Sanecrit,  the  ancient  language  of  Hindoostan,  in  which  the  sacred  books  of  the  Hindoos 
were  written. 

a.  Thirwall,  i.  p.  175. 


CHAP.  Ill]  GRECIAN  HISTORY  49 

Df  domestic  life,  were  to  be  established  on  a  new  and  immutable 
basis. 

11.  The  account  which  Plutarch  gives  of  these  regulations  asserts 
that  Lycur'  gus  first  established  a  senate  of  thirty  members,  chosen 
for  life,  the  two  kings  being  of  the  number,  and  that  the  former 
shared  the  power  of  the  latter.     There  were  also  to  be  assemblies  of 
the  people,  who  were  to  have  no  right  to  propose  any  subject  of  de- 
bate, but  were  only  authorized  to  ratify  or  reject  what  might  be 
proposed  to  them  by  the  senate  and  the  kings.     Lycur' gus  next 
made  a  new  division  of  the  lands,  for  here  he  found  great  inequality 
existing,  as  there  were  many  indigent  persons  who  had  no  lands,  and 
the  wealth  was  centred  in  the  hands  of  a  few. 

12.  In  order  farther  to  remove  inequalities  among  the  citizens, 
and,  as  far  as  possible,  to  place  all  on  the  same  level,  he  next  at- 
tempted to  divide  the  movable  property ;  but  as  this  measure  met 
with  great  opposition,  he  had  recourse  to  another  method  for  accom- 
plishing the  same  object.     He  stopped  the  currency  of  gold  and  sil- 
ver coin,  and  permitted  iron  money  only  to  be  used ;  and,  to  a  great 
quantity  and  weight  of  this  he  assigned  but  a  small  value,  so  that, 
to  remove  one  or  two  hundred  dollars  of  this  money  would  require 
a  yoke  of  oxen.     This  regulation  put  an  end  to  many  kinds  of  in- 
justice, for  "  Who,"  says  Plutarch,  "  would  steal  or  take  a  bribe  ; 
who  would  defraud  or  rob,  when  he  could  not  conceal  the  booty, — 
when  he  could  neither  be  dignified  by  the  possession  of  it,  nor  be 
served  by  its  use  ?"     Unprofitable  and  superfluous  arts  were  excluded, 
trade  with  foreign  States  was  abandoned ;  and  luxury,  losing  its 
sources  of  support,  died  away  of  itself. 

13.  To  promote  sobriety,  all  the  citizens,  and  even  the  kings,  ate 
at  public  tables,  and  of  the  plainest  fare  ;  each  individual  being  ob- 
liged to  bring  in,  monthly,  certain  provisions  for  the  common  use. 
This  regulation  was  designed,  moreover,  to  furnish  a  kind  of  school, 
where  the  young  might  be  instructed  by  the  conversation  of  their 
elders.      From  his  birth,  every  Spartan  belonged  to  the  State  ; 
sickly  and  deformed  infants  were  destroyed,  those  only  being  thought 
worthy  to  live  who  promised  to  become  useful  members  of  the  com- 
munity.    The  object  of  Spartan  education  was  to  render  children 
expert  in  manly  exercises,  hardy,  and  courageous ;  and  the  principal 
aim  of  Lycur'  gus  appears  to  have  been  to  render  the  Spartans  a  na- 
tion of  warriors,  although  not  of  conquerors,  for  he  dreaded  the  ef- 
fects of  an  extension  of  territory  beyond  the  boundaries  of  Laconk. 

4 


50  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PAm  I. 

14.  Lycur'gus  left  none  of  his  laws  in  writing ;  and  some  of  the 
regulations  attributed  to  him  were  probably  the  results  of  subsequent 
legislation.      It  is  even  a  disputed  point  in  what  age  Lycur'gus 
lived,  some  making  him  cotemporary  with  the  Heraclidse,  and  others 
dating  his  era  four  hundred  years  later,  after  the  close  of  the  Messe- 
nian  wars ;  but  the  great  mass  of  evidence  fixes  his  legislation  in 
the  ninth  century  before  the  Christian  era.     It  is  said  that  after  he 
had  completed  his  work,  he  set  out  on  a  journey,  having  previously 
bound  the  Spartans  by  an  oath  to  make  no  change  in  his  laws  until 
his  return,  and,  that  they  might  never  be  released  from  the  obliga- 
tion, he  voluntarily  banished   himself   forever   from   his   country, 
and  died  in  a  foreign  land.     The  place  and  manner  of  his  death 
are   unknown,  but   Del'phos,   Crete,  and   E'lis,1  all  claimed   his 
tomb. 

15.  There  were  three  classes  among  the  population  of  Laconia  : — 
the  Dorians  of  Sparta ;  their  serfs,  the  Helots ;  and  the  people  of 
the  provincial  districts.51     The  former,   properly  called   Spartans, 
were  the  ruling  caste,  who  neither  employed  themselves  in  agricul- 
ture nor  commerce,  nor  practiced  any  mechanical  art.b     The  Helots 
were  slaves,  who,  as  is  generally  believed,  on  account  of  their  obsti- 
nate resistance  in  some  early  wars,  and  subsequent  conquest,  had  been 
reduced  to  the  most  degrading  servitude.     They  were  always  viewed 
with  suspicion  by  their  masters,  and  although  some  were  occasionally 
emancipated,  yet  measures  of  the  most  atrocious  violence  were  often 
adopted  to  reduce  the  strength  and  break  the  spirits  of  the  bravest 
and  most  aspiring,  who  might  threaten  an  insurrection. 

16.  The  people  of  the  provincial  districts  were  a  mixed  race,  com- 
posed partly  of  strangers  who  had  accompanied  the  Dorians,  and 
aided  them  in  their  conquest,  and  partly  of  the  old  inhabitants  of 
the  country  who  had  submitted  to  the  conquerors.     The  provincials 
were  under  the  control  of  the  Spartan  government,  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  which  they  had  no  share,  and  the  lands  which  they  held 
were  tributary  to  the  State ;  they  formed  an  important  part  of  the 

1.  Del'  phos  and  Crete  have  been  described.  The  summit  of  Mount  I'  da,  in  Crete,  was 
sacred  to  Jupiter.  Here  also  Cyb'  ele,  the  "  mother  of  the  gods,"  was  worshipped.  (The 
Mount  I'  da  mentioned  by  the  poets  was  in  the  vicinity  of  ancient  Troy.)  E'  Us  was  a  district 
of  the  Peloponnesus,  lying  west  of  Arcadia.  At  Olym'pia,  situated  on  the  river  Alpheus,  in 
this  district,  the  celebrated  Olympic  games  were  celebrated  in  honor  of  Jupiter.  E'  Us,  the 
capital  of  the  district,  was  situated  on  the  river  Peneus,  thirty  miles  north-west  from  Olym'  pia. 
(Map  No.  I.) 

a.  Thirwall,  i.  129.  b.  Hill's  Institutions  of  Ancient  Greece,  p.  153. 


CHAP.  Ill]  GRECIAN  HISTORY.  51 

military  force  of  the  country,  and,  on  the  whole,  had  little  to  com- 
plain of  but  the  want  of  political  independence. 

17.  During  a  century  or  more  after  the  time  of  Lycur'  gus.  the 
Spartans  remained  at  peace  with  their  neighbors,  except  a  few  petty 
contests  on  the  side  of  Arcadia  and  Ar'  gos.     Jealousies,  however, 
arose  between  the  Spartans  and  their  brethren  of  Messenia,1  which, 
stimulated  by  insults  and  injuries  on  both  sides,  gave  rise  to  the  first 
Messenian   war,  743   years   before  the   Christian   era.  Vr.  FIRST  MES- 
After  a  conflict  of  twenty  years,  the  Messenians  were  SENIAN  WAB, 
obliged  to  abandon  their  principal  fortress  of  Ithome,2  and  to  leave 
their  rich  fields  in  the  possession  of  the  conquerors.     A  few  of  the 
inhabitants  withdrew  into  foreign  lands,  but  the  principal  citizens 
took  refuge  in  Ar'  gos  and  Arcadia ;  while  those  who  remained  were 
reduced  to  a  condition  little  better  than  that  of  the  Laconian  He- 
lots, being  obliged  to  pay  to  their  masters  one-half  of  the  fruits  of 
the  land  which  they  were  allowed  to  till. 

18.  The  Messenian  war  exerted  a  great  influence  on  the  character 
and  subsequent  history  of  the  Spartans,  as  it  gave  a  full  development 
to  the  warlike  spirit  which  the  institutions  of  Lycur'  gus  were  so 
well  calculated  to  encourage.     The   Spartans,  stern  and  unyielding 
in  their  exactions  from  the  conquered,  again  drove  the  Messenians 
to  revolt  (685  B.  C.),  thirty-nine  years  after  the  termi-  vn  SECOND 
nation  of  the  former  war.     The  latter  found  a  worthy    MESSENIAN 
leader  in  Aristom'  enes,  whose  valor  in  the  first  battle 

struck  fear  into  his  enemies,  and  inspired  his  countrymen  with  con- 
fidence. The  Spartans,  sending  to  the  Delphic  oracle  for  advice, 
received  the  mortifying  response,  that  they  must  seek  a  leader  from 
the  Athenians,  between  whose  country  and  Laconia  there  had  been 
no  intercourse  for  several  centuries.  . 

19.  The  Athenians,  fearing  to  disobey  the  oracle,  and  reluctant 
to  further  the  cause  of  the  Spartans,  sent  to  the  latter  the  poet  Tyr- 
tae'  us,  who  had  never  been  distinguished  as  a  warrior.     His  patriotic 
odes,  however,  roused  the  spirit  of  the  Spartans,  who,  obtaining  Do- 
rian auxiliaries  from   Corinth,3   commenced  the  war  anew.     The 

1.  Messtnia  was  a  country  west  of  Laconia,  and  at  the  south-western  extremity  of  the 
Peloponnesus.    It  was  separated  from  E'  lis  on  the  north  by  the  river  Neda,  and  from  Arcadia 
and  Laconia  by  mountain  ranges.     The  Pamisus  was  its  principal  river.    On  the  western  coast 
was  the  deep  bay  of  Py'lus,  which  has  become  celebrated  in  modern  history  under  the  name 
of  Navarino  (see  p.517)— the  only  perfect  harbor  of  Southern  Greece.    (Map  No.  I.) 

2.  Ithome  was  in  Central  Messenia,  on  a  high  hill  on  the  western  side  of  the  vale  of  the 
Pamisus.    (Map  No.  I.) 

3.  Cor'  inth  was  situated  near  the  isthmus  of  the  same  name,  between  the  Gulf  of  Lepan'  to 


52  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART! 

Messenians,  oil  the  other  hand,  were  aided  by  forces  from  Sic'  yon1 
and  Ar'  gos,  Arcadia  and  E'  lis,  and,  in  a  great  battle  near  the  mouth 
of  the  Pamisus,2  in  Messenia,  they  completely  routed  their  enemies. 
In  the  third  year  of  the  war  the  Arcadian  auxiliaries  of  the  Messe- 
nians, seduced  by  bribes,  deserted  them  in  the  heat  of  battle,  and 
gave  the  victory  to  the  Spartans. 

20.  The  war  continued,  with   various  success,  seventeen  years, 
throughout  the  whole  of  which  period  Aristom'  enes  distinguished 
himself  by  many  noble  exploits ;    but  all  his  efforts  to  save  his 
country  were  ineffectual.     A  second  time  Sparta  conquered  (668), 
and  the  yoke  appeared  to  be  fixed  on  Messenia  forever.     Thence- 
forward the  growing  power  and  reputation  of  Sparta  seemed  des- 
tined to  undisputed  preeminence,  not  only  in  the  Peloponnesus,  but 
throughout  all  Greece. 

21.  At  the  period   of  the  close  of  the  second  Messenian  war, 
Athens,  as  previously  stated,  was  under  the  aristocratical  govern- 
ment of  a  senate  of  archons-magistrates  chosen  by  the  nobility  from 
their  own  order,  who  possessed  all  authority,  religious,  civil,  and 
military.      The  Athenian  populace  not  only  enjoyed  no  political 
rights,  but  was  reduced  to  a  condition  but  little  above  servitude ; 
and  it  appears  to  have  been  owing  to  the  anarchy  that  arose  from 
ruinous  extortions  of  the  nobles  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  resistance 

7      of  the  people  on  the  other,  that  Draco,  the  most  eminent 
'    of  the  nobility,  was  chosen  to  prepare  the  first  written 
code  of  laws  for  the  government  of  the  State.     (622  B.  0.) 


on  the  north-west,  and  of  ^Egina  on  the  south-east,  two  miles  from  the  nearest  point  of  the 
former,  and  seven  from  the  latter.  The  site  of  the  town  was  at  the  north  foot  of  a  steep  rock 
called  the  Acrop'  oils  of  Cor'  inth,  1.33G  feet  in  height,  the  summit  of  which  is  now,  as  in  an- 
tiquity, occupied  as  a  fortress.  This  eminence  may  be  distinctly  seen  from  Athens,  from  which 
it  is  distant  no  less  than  forty-four  miles  in  a  direct  line.  Cor'  inth  was  a  large  and  populous 
city  when  St.  Paul  preached  the  Gospel  there  for  a  year  and  six  months.  (Acts,  xviii.  11.) 
The  present  town,  though  of  considerable  extent,  is  thinly  peopled.  The  only  Grecian  ruin 
now  to  be  seen  there  is  a  dilapidated  Doric  temple.  (Map  No.  I.) 

"  Where  is  thy  grandeur  Corinth  ?    Shrunk  from  sight, 
Thy  ancient  treasures,  and  thy  rampart's  height, 
Thy  god-like  fanes  and  palaces !    Oh,  where 
Thy  mighty  myriads  and  majestic  fair  ! 
Relentless  war  has  poured  around  thy  wall, 
And  hardly  spared  the  traces  of  thy  fall !" 

1.  Sic'  yon,  once  a  great  and  flourishing  city,  was  situated  near  the  Gulf  of  Lepan'  to,  about 

ten  miles  north-west  from  Cor'  inth.    It  boasted  a  high  antiquity,  and  by  some  was  considered 

older  than  Ar'  gos.    The  ruins  of  the  ancient  town  are  still  to  be  seen  near  the  small  modern 

Tillage  of  Basilico.    (Map  No.  I.) 

.  2.  The  Pamisus  (now  called  the  Pimatza)  was  the  principal  river  of  Messenia.    (Map  No.  I.) 


CHAP.  Ill]  GRECIAN  H  {STORY.  53 

22.  The  severity  of  his  laws  has  made  his  name  proverbial.  Their 
character  was  thought  to  be  happily  expressed,  when  one  said  of  them 
that  they  were  written,  not  in  ink,  but  in  blood.     He  attached  the 
same  penalty  to  petty  thefts  as  to  sacrilege  and  murder,  saying  that 
the  former  offences  deserved  death,  and  he  had  no  greater  punishment 
for  the  latter.     It  is  thought  that  the  nobles  suggested  the  severity 
of  the  laws  of  Draco,  thinking  they  would  be  a  convenient  instru- 
ment of  oppression  in  their  hands ;    but  human  nature  revolted 
against  such  legalized  butchery,  and  the  system  of  Draco  soon  fell 
into  disuse. 

23.  The  commonwealth  was  finally  reduced  to  complete  anarchy, 
without  law,  or  order,  or  system  in  the  administration  of  justice, 
when  Solon,  who  was  descended  from  the  line  of  Codrus,  was  raised 
to  the  office  of  first  magistrate  (594  B.  C.),  and,  by  the  consent  of  all 
parties,  was  chosen  as  a  general  arbiter  of  their  differ-  ^  LEGISLA. 
ences,  and  invested  with  full  authority  to  frame  a  new     TION  OF 
constitution  and  a  new  code  of  laws.    The  almost  unlim- 
ited power  conferred  upon  Solon  might  easily  have  been  perverted 
to  dangerous  purposes,  and  many  advised  him  to  make  himself  ab- 
solute master  of  the  State,  and  at  once  quell  the  numerous  factions 
by  the  exercise  of  royal  authority.     And,  indeed,  such  a  usurpation 
would  probably  have  been  acquiesced  in  with  but  little  opposition, 
as  offering,  for  a  time  at  least,  a  refuge  from  evils  that  had  already 
become  too  intolerable  to  be  borne.     But  the  stern  integrity  of  Solon 
was  proof  against  all  temptations  to  swerve  from  the  path  of  honor, 
and  betray  the  sacred  trust  reposed  in  him. 

24.  The  grievous  exactions  of  the  ruling  orders  had  already  re- 
duced the  laboring  classes,  generally,  to  poverty  and  abject  depend- 
ence :  all  whom  bad  times  or  casual  disasters  had  compelled  to  bor- 
row, had  been  impoverished  by  the  high  rates  of  interest;    and 
thousands  of  insolvent  debtors  had  been  sold  into  slavery,  to  satisfy  the 
demands  of  relentless  creditors.     In  this  situation  of  affairs  the  most 
violent  or  needy  demanded  a  new  distribution  of  property,  as  had  been 
done  in  Sparta ;  while  the  rich  would  have  held  on  to  all  the  fruits 
of  their  extortion  and  tyranny. 

25.  But  Solon,  pursuing  a  middle  course  between  these  extremes, 
relieved  the  debtor  by  reducing  the  rate  of  interest,  and  enhancing 
the  value  of  the  currency,  so  that  three  silver  minae  paid  an  indebt- 
edness of  four  :  he  also  relieved  the  lands  of  the  poor  from  all  in- 
cumbrances ;  he  abolished  imprisonment  for  debt :  he  restored  to 


54  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PAET  L 

liberty  those  whom  poverty  had  placed  in  bondage  ;  and  he  repealed 
all  the  laws  of  Draco,  except  those  against  murder.  He  next  ar- 
ranged all  the  citizens  in  four  classes,  according  to  their  landed 
property ;  the  first  class  alone  being  eligible  to  the  highest  civil 
offices  and  the  highest  commands  in  the  army,  while  only  a  few  of 
the  lower  offices  were  open  to  the  second  'and  third  classes.  The 
latter  classes,  however,  were  partially  relieved  from  taxation ;  but  in 
war  they  were  required  to  equip  themselves  for  military  service,  the 
one  as  cavalry,  and  the  other  as  heavy  armed  infantry. 

26.  Individuals  of  the  fourth  class  were  excluded  from  all  offices, 
but  in  return  they  were  wholly  exempt  from  taxation ;  and  yet  they 
had  a  share  in  the  government,  for  they  were  permitted  to  take  part 
in  the  popular  assemblies,  which  had  the  right  of  confirming  or  reject- 
ing new  laws,  and  of  electing  the  magistrates  ;  and  here  their  votes 
counted  the  same  as  those  of  the  wealthiest  of  the  nobles.     In  war 
they  served  only  as  light  troops,  or  manned  the  fleets.     Thus  the 
system  of  Solon,  being  based  primarily  on  property  qualifications, 
provided  for  all  the  freemen ;  and  its  aim  was  to  bestow  upon  the 
commonalty  such  a  share  in  the  government  as  would  enable  it  to 
protect  itself,  and  to  give  to  the  wealthy  what  was  necessary  for  re- 
taining their  dignity  ; — throwing  the  burdens  of  government  on  the 
latter,  and  not  excluding  the  former  from  its  benefits. 

27.  Solon  retained  the  magistracy  of  the  nine  archons,  but  with 
abridged  powers  ;  and,  as  a  guard  against  democratical  extravagance 
on  the  one  hand,  and  a  check  to  undue  assumptions  of  power  on 
the  other,  he  instituted  a  Senate  of  Four  Hundred,  and  founded  or 
remodelled  the  court  of  the  Areop'  agus.     The  Senate  consisted  of 
members  selected  by  lot  from  the  first  three  classes ;  but  none  could 
be  appointed  to  this  honor  until  they  had  undergone  a  strict  ex- 
amination into  their  past  lives,  characters,  and  qualifications.     The 
Senate  was  to  be  consulted  by  the  archons  in  all  important  mat- 
ters, and  was  to  prepare  all  new  laws  and  regulations,  which  were 
to  be  submitted  to  the  votes  of  the  assembly  of  the  people. 

28.  The  court  of  the  Areop'  agus,  which  held  its  sittings  on  an 
eminence  on  the  western  side  of  the  Athenian  Acrop'  olis,  was  com- 
posed of  persons  who  had  held  the  office  of  archon,  and  was  the 
supreme  tribunal  in  all  capital  cases.     It  exercised,  also,  a  general 
superintendence  over  education,  morals,  and  religion ;  and  it  could 
suspend  a  resolution  of  the  public  assembly  which  it  deemed  fraught 
with  folly  or  injustice,  until  it  had  undergone  a  reconsideration. 


CHAP.  Ill]  GRECIAN  HISTORY.  55 

Such  is  a  brief  outline  of  the  institutions  of  Solon,  which  exhibit  a 
mingling  of  aristocracy  and  democracy,  well  adapted  to  the  char- 
acter of  the  age,  and  the  circumstances  of  the  people.  They  exhibit 
less  control  over  the  pursuits  and  domestic  habits  of  individuals  than 
the  Spartan  code,  but  at  the  same  time  they  show  a  far  greater  re 
gard  for  the  public  morals. 

29.  The  legislation  of  Solon  was  not  followed  by  the  total  extinc- 
tion of  party  spirit,  and  ere  long  the  three  prominent  factions  in  the 
State  renewed  their  ancient  feuds.     Pisis'  tratus,  a  wealthy  kinsman 
of  Solon,  who  had  supported  the  measures  of  the  latter  by  his  elo- 
quence and  military  talents,  had  the  art  to  gain  the  favor  of  the 
populace,  and  constitute  himself  their  leader.     When  his  schemes 
were  ripe  for  execution,  he  one  day  drove  into  the  public  square, 
his  mules  and  himself  disfigured  with  recent  wounds  inflicted  by  his 
own  hands,  but  which  he  induced  the  multitude  to  believe  had  been 
received  from  a  band  of  assassins,  whom  his  enemies,  the  nobility, 
had  hired  to  murder  the  friend  of  the  people.     An  assembly  was 
immediately  convoked  by  his  partizans,  and  the  indignant  crowd 
voted  him  a  guard  of  fifty  citizens  to  protect  his  person,  although 
warned  by  Solon  of  the  pernicious  consequences  of  such  a  measure. 

30.  Pisis'  tratus  took  advantage  of  the  popular  favor  which  he  had 
gained,  and,  arming  a  larger  body,  seized  the  Acrop'  olis,  and  made 
himself  master  of  Athens.     But  the  usurper,  satisfied  with  the  power 
cf  quietly  directing  the  administration   of  government,  made  no 
changes  in  the  constitution,  and  suffered  the  laws  to  take  their  or- 
dinary course.     The  government  of  Pisis'  tratus  was  probably  a  less 
evil  than  would  have  resulted  from  the  success  of  either  of  the  other 
factions  ;  and  in  this  light  Solon  appears  to  have  viewed  it,  although 
he  did  not  hesitate  to  denounce  the  usurpation ;  and,  rejecting  the 
usurper's  offers  of  favor,  it  is  said  that  he  went  into  voluntary  exile, 
and  died  at  Sal'  amis.1  (559  B.  C.)     Twice  was  Pisis'  tratus  driven 
from  Athens  by  a  coalition  of  the  opposing  factions ;  but  as  the  latter 
were  almost  constantly  at  variance  with  each  other,  he  finally  returned 
at  the  head  of  an  army,  and  regained  the  sovereignty,  which  he  held 
until  his  death.     Although  he  tightened  the  reins  of  government,  yet 
he  ruled  with  equity  and  mildness,  courting  popularity  by  a  generous 
treatment  of  the  poorer  citizens,  and  gratifying  the  national  pride 
by  adorning  Athens  with  many  useful  and  magnificent  works. 

1.  Sal'  amis  is  an  island  in  the  Gulf  of  ^Egina,  iiear  the  coast  of  At'  tica,  and  twelve  or  fifteen 
mi!es  south-west  from  Athens.    (See  Map  No.  I.) 


56  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART  L 

31.  On  the  death  of  Pisis  tratus  (528  B.  C.),  his  sons  Hip'pias, 
Hippar'  chus,  and  Thes'  salus  succeeded  to  his  power,  and  for  some 
years  trod  in  his  steps  and  prosecuted  his  plans,  only  taking  care  to 
fill  the  most  important  offices  with  their  friends,  and  keeping  a  stand- 
ing force  of  foreign  mercenaries  to  secure  themselves  from  hostile 
factions  and  popular  outbreaks.     After  a  joint  reign  of  fourteen 
years  a  conspiracy  was  planned  to  free  At'  tica  from  their  rule,  at 
the  head  of  which  were  two  young  Athenians,  Harmodius  and  Aris- 
togeiton,  whose  personal  resentment  had  been  provoked  by  an  atro- 
cious insult  to  the  family  of  the  former.     Hippar'  chus  was  killed, 
but  the  two  young  Athenians  also  lost  their  lives  in  the  struggle. 

32.  Hip'  pias,  the  elder  of  the  ruling  brothers,  now  that  he  had 
injuries  to  avenge,  became  a  cruel  tyrant,  and  thus  alienated  the  af- 
fections of  the  people.     The  latter  finally  obtained  aid  from  the 

Spartans,  and  the  family  of  the  Pisistratids  was  driven 
OF  THE       from  Athens,  never  to  regain  its  former  ascendency ;  al- 
SISTRATIDS.  though  but  a  few  years  after  its  expulsion,  Sparta,  re- 
penting the  course  she  had  taken,  made  an  ineffectual  effort  to  restore 
Hip'  pias  to  the  throne  of  which  she  had  aided  in  depriving  him. 
Hip'  pias  then  fled  to  the  court  of  Artapanes,  governor  of  Lyd'  ia,1 
then  a  part  of  the  Persian  dominions  of  Darius,  where  his  intrigues 
f;reatly  contributed  to  the  opening  of  a  war  between  Greece  and 
Persia.2 

33.  Nearly  half  a  century  before  this  time,  Croe'sus,3  king  of 
Lyd'  ia,  had  conquered  the  Grecian  colonies  on  the  coast  of  Asia 
Minor  ;  but  he  ruled  them  with  great  mildness,  leaving  them  their 
political  institutions  undisturbed,  and  requiring  of  them  little  more 
than  the  payment  of  a  moderate  tribute.     A  few  years  later  they 
experienced  a  change  of  masters,  and,  together  with  Lyd'  ia,  fell,  by 
conquest,  under  the  dominion  of  the  Persians.     But  they  were  still 
allowed  to  retain  their  own  form  of  government  by  paying  tribute  to 
their  conquerors  5  yet  they  seized  every  opportunity  to  deliver  them- 

1.  Lyd'  ia  was  a  country  on  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor,  having  Mys'ia  on  the  north,  Phryg'ia 
on  the  east,  and  Caria  on  the  south.    The  Grecian  colony  of  Ionia  was  embraced  within  Lyd'  ia 
and  the  northern  part  of  Caria,  extending  along  the  coast.    (Map  No.  IV.) 

2.  Modern  Persia,  a  large  country  of  Central  Asia,  extends  from  the  Caspian  Sea  on  the 
north,  to  the  Persian  Gulf  on  the  south,  having  Asiatic  Turkey  on  the  west,  and  the  provinces 
of  Afghanistan  and  Beloochistan  on  the  east.    For  the  greatest  extent  of  the  Persian  empire, 
which  was  during  the  reign  of  Darius  Hystas'  pes,  see  the  Map  No..  V. 

3.  CrcB'  sws,  the  last  king  of  Lyd'  ia,  was  famed  for  his  riches  and  munificence.    Herod'  otus 
(i.  30-33,  and  36,  &c.)  and  Plutarch  (life  of  Solon)  give  a  very  interesting  account  of  the  visit 
of  the  Athenian  Solon  to  the  court  of  that  prince,  who  greatly  prided  himself  on  his  riches, 
and  vainly  thought  himself  the  happiest  of  mankind. 


CHAP.  Ill]  GRECIAN  HISTORY.  57 

selves  from  this  species  of  thraldom,  and  finally  the  lonians  sought 
the  aid  of  their  Grecian  countrymen,  making  application,  first  to 
Sparta,  but  in  vain,  and  next  (35.  C.  500)  to  Athens,  and  the  Grecian 
islands  of  the  .53'  gean  Sea. 

34.  The  Athenians,  irritated  at  this  time  by  a  haughty  demand 
of  the  Persian  monarch,  that  they  should  restore  Hip'pias  to  the 
throne,  and  regarding  Darius  as  an  avowed  enemy,  gladly  took  part 
with  the  lonians,  and,  in  connection  with  Euboa'  a,1  fur-  xr.  IOMO 
nished  their  Asiatic  countrymen  with  a  fleet  of  twenty-  REVOLT. 
five  sail.  The  allied  Grecians  were  at  first  successful,  ravaging 
Lyd'  ia,  and  burning  Sar'  dis,3  its  capital ;  but  in  the  end  they  were 
defeated  near  Eph'  esus  ;3  the  commanders  quarrelled  with  each  other ; 
and  the  Athenians  sailed  home,  leaving  the  Asiatic  Greeks  divided 
among  themselves,  to  contend  alone  against  the  whole  power  of  Per- 
sia. Still  the  Ionian  war  was  protracted  six  years,  when  it  was  ter- 
minated by  the  storming  of  Miletus,4  (B.  C.  494,)  the  capital  of  the 
Ionian  confederacy.  The  surviving  inhabitants  of  this  beautiful 

1.  Eula'  a,  (now  called  Neg'  ropont',)  a  long,  narrow,  and  irregular  island  of  the  JE'  gean 
Sea,  (now  Grecian  Archipel'  ago,)  extended  one  hundred  and  ten  miles  along  the  eastern  coast 
of  Bcjeotia  and  At'  tica,  from  which  it  was  separated  by  the  channel  of  Euripus,  which,  at  one 
place,  was  only  forty  yards  across.  The  chief  town  of  the  island  was  Chal'  cis,  (now  Neg'  ro- 
pont',) on  the  western  coast.  (Map  No.  I.) 

a.  Sar'  dis,  the  ancient  capital  of  Lyd'  ia,  was  situated  on  both  sides  of  the  river  Pactolus,  a 
southern  branch  of  the  Her'  mus,  seventy  miles  east  from  Smyr'  na.  In  the  annals  of  Chris- 
tianity, Sar'  dis  is  distinguished  as  having  been  one  of  the  seven  churches  of  Asia.  A  mis- 
erable village,  called  Sart,  is  now  found  on  the  site  of  this  ancient  city.  (Map  No.  IV.) 

3.  Eph,'  esus,  one  of  the  Ionian  cities,  was  situated  on  the  south  side,  and  near  the  month 
of  the  small  river  Cays' ter,  on  the  coast  of  Lyd'  ia,  thirty-eight  miles  south  from  Smyr'na. 
Here  stood  a  noble  temple,  erected  in  honor  of  the  goddess  Diana  ;  but  an  obscure  individ- 
ual, of  the  name  of  Ileros'  tratus,  burned  it,  in  order  to  perpetuate  his  memory  by  the  infamous 
notoriety  which  such  an  act  would  give  him  !    The  grand  council  of  Ionia  endeavored  to  dis- 
appoint the  incendiary  by  passing  a  decree  that  his  name  should  not  be  mentioned,  but  it  was 
divulged  by  the  historian  Theopom'  pus.    A  new  temple  was  subsequently  built,  far  surpassing 
the  first,  and  ranked  among  the  seven  wonders  of  the  world.    When  St.  Paul  visited  Eph'  esus, 
still  the  cry  was,  "  Great  is  Diana  of  the  Ephesians"  (Acts,  xix.  28,  34) ;  but  the  worship  of  the 
goddess  was  doomed  speedily  to  decline,  and  here  St.  Paul  founded  the  principal  of  the  Asiatic 
churches.    But  war,  the  ravages  of  earthquakes,  and  the  desolating  hand  of  time,  have  com- 
pleted the  ruin  of  this  once  famous  city.    "  The  glorious  pomp  of  its  heathen  worship  is  no 
longer  remembered ;  and  Christianity,  which  was  there  nursed  by  apostles,  and  fostered  by 
general  councils,  until  it  increased  to  fulness  of  stature,  barely  lingers  on  in  an  existence 
hardly  visible."    (Map  No.  IV.) 

4.  Miletus,  the  most  distinguished  of  the  Ionian  cities  of  Asia  Minor,  and  once  greatly  cele- 
brated for  its  population,  wealth,  commerce,  and  civilization,  was  situated  in  the  province  of 
Ciria,  on  the  southern  shore  of  the  bay  into  which  the  small  river  Lat'  mus  emptied,  and  about 
thirty-five  miles  south  from  Eph'  esus.    St.  Paul  appears  to  have  sojourned  here  a  few  days ; 
and  here  he  assembled  the  elders  of  the  Ephesian  church,  and  delivered  unto  them  an  affec- 
tionate farewell  address.    (Acts,  xx.  15,  38.)    Miletus  is  now  a  deserted  place,  but  contains  the 
ruins  of  a  few  once  magnificent  structures,  and  still  jears  the  name  of  Palat,  or  the  Palaces. 
<J\fap  No.  IV.) 


58  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [TABT  I, 

and  opulent  city  were  carried  away  by  order  of  Darius,  and  settled 
near  the  mouth  of  the  Tigris.  Darius  next  turned  his  resentment 
against  the  Athenians  and  Euboe'ans,  who  had  aided  the  Ionian 
revolt, — meditating,  however,  Hothing  less  than  the  conquest  of  all 
Greece  (B.  C.  490).  The  events  of  the  "  Persian  War"  which  fol- 
lowed, will  next  be  narrated,  after  we  shall  have  given  some  general 
views  of  cotemporary  history,  during  the  period  which  we  have  passed 
over  in  the  preceding  part  of  the  present  chapter. 


COTEMPORARY  HISTORY  :  1184  to  490  B.  C. 

[I.  PHOENICIAN  HISTORY.] — 1.  The  name  Phoenicia  was  applied  to 
the  north-western  part  of  Palestine  and  part  of  the  coast  of  Syria, 
embracing  the  country  from  Mount  Carmel,  north,  along  the  coast, 
to  the  city  and  island  Aradus, — an  extent  of  about  a  hundred  and 
fifty  miles.  The  mountain  ranges  of  Lib'  anus  and  Anti-Lib'  anus 
formed  the  utmost  extent  of  the  Phoenician  territory  on  the  east. 
The  surface  of  the  country  was  in  general  sandy  and  hilly,  and  poorly 
adapted  to  agriculture  ;  but  the  coast  abounded  in  good  harbors, 
and  the  fisheries  were  excellent,  while  the  mountain  ranges  in  the 
interior  afforded,  in  their  cedar  forests,  a  rich  supply  of  timber  for 
naval  and  other  purposes. 

2.  At  a  remote  period  the  Phoenicians,  who  are  supposed  to  have 
been  of  the  race  of  the  Canaanites,a  were  a  commercial  people,  but 
the  loss  of  the  Phoenician  annals  renders  it  difficult  to  investigate 
their  early  history.     Their  principal  towns  were  probably  indepen- 
dent States,  with  small  adjacent  territories,  like  the  little  Grecian 
republics ;  and  no  political  union  appears  to  have  existed  among 
them,  except  that  arising  from  a  common  religious  worship,  until 
the  time  of  the  Persians.     The  Phoenicians  occupied  Sicily  before 
the  Greeks ;  they  made  themselves  masters  of  Cy'  prus,  and  they 
formed  settlements  on  the  northern  coast  of  Africa ;  but  the  chief 
seat  of  their  early  colonial  establishments  was  the  southern  part  of 
Spain,  whence  they  are  said  to*  have  extended  their  voyages  to  Brit- 
ain, and  even  to  the  coasts  of  the  Baltic. 

3.  It  is  also  related  by  Herod'  otus,  (B.  IV.  42,)  that  at  an  epoch 
which  is  believed  to  correspond  to  the  year  604  before  the  Chris- 
tian era,  a  fleet  fitted  out  by  Pharaoh  Necho,  king  of  Egypt,  but 
manned  and  commanded  by  Phoenicians,  departed  from  a  port  on 

a.  Niebuhr'fl  Loct,  on  Ancient  Hist.  i.  113. 


CHAP.  IIL]  JEWISH  HISTORY.  59 

the  Red  Sea,  and  sailing  south,  and  keeping  always  to  the  right, 
doubled  the  southern  promontory  of  Africa,  and,  after  a  voyage  of 
three  years  returned  to  Egypt  by  the  way  of  the  straits  of  Gibral- 
tar and  the  Mediterranean.  Herod7  otus  farther  mentions  that  the 
navigators  asserted  that,  in  sailing  round  Africa,  they  had  the  sun 
on  their  right  hand,  or  to  the  north,  a  circumstance  which,  Herod'- 
otus  says,  to  him  seemed  incredible,  but  which  we  know  must  have 
been  the  case  if  the  voyage  was  actually  performed,  because  southern 
Africa  lies  south  of  the  equatorial  region.  Thus  was  Africa  prob- 
ably circumnavigated  by  the  Phoenicians,  more  than  two  thousand 
years  before  the  Portuguese  voyage  of  De  Grama. 

4.  The  Phoenicians  of  Tyre  and  Sidon  had  friendly  connections 
with  the  Hebrews ;  and  through  the  Red  Sea,  and  by  the  way  of 
the  Arabian  desert,  and  across  the  wilderness  of  Syria,  they  for  a 
long  time  carried  on  the  commercial  exchanges  between  Europe 
and  Asia.  From  the  time  of  the  great  commotions  in  Western 
Asia,  which  caused  the  downfall  of  so  many  independent  States,  and 
their  subjection  to  the  monarchs  of  Babylon  and  Persia,  the  com- 
mercial prosperity  of  the  Phoenicians  began  to  decline ;  but  it  was 
the  founding  of  Alexandria  by  the  Macedonian  conqueror,  which 
proved  the  final  ruin  of  the  Phoenician  cities. 

[II.  JEWISH  HISTORY.] — 5.  The  history  of  the  Jews,  which  has 
been  brought  down  to  the  accession  of  Saul  as  king  of  Israel,  pre- 
sents to  the  historian  a  fairer  field  than  that  of  the  Phoenicians, 
and  is  now  to  be  continued  down  to  the  return  of  the  Jews  from 
their  Babylonian  captivity,  and  the  completion  of  the  rebuilding  of 
the  second  temple  of  Jerusalem. 

6.  Saul,  soon  after  his  accession  to  the  throne,  (B.  C.  1110,) 
which  was  about  the  time  of  the  Dorian  emigration,  or  the  "  Return 
of  the  Heraclidse"  to  the  Peloponnesus,  gave  proof  of  his  military 
qualifications  by  a  signal  slaughter  of  the  Ammonites,  who  had  laid 
siege  to  Jabesh-Gil'ead.1  ^n  a  solemn  assembly  of  the  tribes  at 
Gil'  gal,2  the  people  renewed  their  allegiance  to  their  new  sovereign, 
and  there  Samuel  resigned  his  office.  During  a  war  with  the  Phil- 
istines soon  after,  Saul  ventured  to  ask  counsel  of  the  Lord,  and 
assuming  the  sacerdotal  functions,  he  offered  the  solemn  sacrifice, 

1.  Jabesh-G'd'  end  was  a  town  on  the  east  side  of  the  Jordan,  in  Gil'  ead.    (Map  No.  VI.) 

2.  The  Oil' gal  here  mentioned  appears  to  have  been  a  short  distance  west  or  n">rth-we*t 
of  Shechem,  near  the  country  of  the  Philistines.    (Map  No.  VI.) 


60  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART  I 

a  duty  which  the  sacred  law  assigned  to  the  high-priest  alone  For 
this  violation  of  the  law  the  divine  displeasure  was  denounced  against 
him  by  the  prophet  Samuel,  who  declared  to  him  that  his  kingdom 
should  not  continue  ;  and  so  disheartened  were  the  people,  that  the 
army  of  Saul  soon  dwindled  away  to  six  hundred  men  ;  but  by  the 
daring  valor  of  Jonathan,  his  son,  a  panic  was  spread  among  the 
Philistines,  and  their  whole  army  was  easily  overthrown. 

7.  During  several  years  after  this  victory,  Saul  carried  on  a  suc- 
cessful warfare  against  the  different  nations  that  harassed  the  fron- 
tiers of  his  kingdom  ;  but  when  Agag,  the  king  of  the  Amalekites, 
had  fallen  into  his  hands,  in  violation  of  the  divine  command  he 
spared  his  life,  and  brought  away  from  the  vanquished  enemy  a 
vast  booty  of  cattle.     For  not  fulfilling  his  commission  from  the 
Lord,  he  was  declared  unfit  to  be  the  founder  of  a  race  of  kings,  and 
was  told  that  the  sovereign  power  should  be  transferred  to  another 
family. 

8.  David,  of  the  tribe  of  Benjamin,  then  a  mere  youth,  was  di- 
vinely chosen  for  the  succession,  being  secretly  anointed  for  that 
purpose  by  Samuel.     In  the  next  war  with  the  Philistines  he  dis- 
tinguished himself  by  slaying  their  champion,  the  gigantic  Groliath 
of  Grath.1     Saul,  however,  looked  upon  David  with  a  jealousy  bor- 
dering on  madness,  and  made  frequent  attempts  to  take  his  life ; 
but  the  latter  sought  safety  in  exile,  and  for  a  while  took  up  his 
residence  in  a  Philistine  city.     Returning  to  Palestine,  he  sought 
refuge  from  the  anger  of  Saul  in  the  dens  and  caves  of  the  moun- 
tains 5  and  twice,  while  Saul  was  pursuing  him,  had  it  in  his  power 
to  destroy  his  persecutor,  but  he  would  not  "  lift  his  hand  against 
the  Lord's  anointed." 

9.  Aftef  the  death  of  Samuel,  the  favor  of  the  Lord  was  wholly 
withdrawn  from  Saul ;  and  when  the  Philistines  invaded  the  country 
with  a  numerous  army,  several  of  the  sons  of  Saul  were  slain  in 
battle  on  Mount  Gil'  boa,2  and  Saul  himself,  to  avoid  falling  alive 
into  the  hands  of  his  enemies,  fell  upon  his  own  sword.     On  the 
death  of  Saul,  David  repaired  to  Hebron,3  and,  with  the  support  of 
the  tribe  of  Judah,  asserted  his  title  to  the  throne  ;  but  the  north- 
ern tribes  attached  themselves  to  Ishbosheth,  a  son  of  Saul ; — "  and 

1.  Gaih,  a  town  of  the  Philistines,  was  about  twenty-five  miles  west  from  Jerusalem.    (Map 
No.  VI.) 

2.  Mount  Oil'  boa  is  in  the  southern  part  of  Galilee,  a  short  distance  west  of  the  Jordan 
(Map  No.  VI.) 

3.  Hebron,  a  town  of  Judah,  was  about  twenty  miles  south  of  Jerusalem.    (Map  No.  VI.) 


CHAP  III]  JEWISH  HISTORY.  61 

there  was  long  war  between  the  house  of  Saul  and  the  house  of 
David ;  but  David  waxed  stronger  and  stronger,  and  the  house  of 
Saul  waxed  weaker  and  weaker."  The  death  of  Ishbosheth,  who 
fell  by  the  hands  of  two  of  his  own  guards,  removed  the  obstacles 
in  the  way  of  a  union  of  the  tribes,  and  at  Hebron  David  was  pub- 
licly recognized  king  of  all  Israel. 

10.  After  all  the  conquests  which  the  Israelites  had  made  in  the 
land  of  promise,  there  still  remained  large  portions  of  Palestine  of 
which  they  had  not  yet  gained  possession.  On  the  south-west  were 
the  strongholds  and  cities  of  the  Philistines  ;  and  bordering  on  the 
north-western  coast  was  the  country  of  the  Phoanicians,  whose  two 
chief  cities  were  Tyre1  and  Sidon.2  Joppa3  was  the  only  Mediter- 
ranean port  open  to  the  Israelites.  Even  in  the  very  heart  of  Pal- 
estine, the  Jeb'usites,  supposed  to  have  been  a  tribe  of  the  wan 
dering  Hyk'  sos,  possessed  the  stronghold  of  Jebus,  or  Jerusalem,4 
on  Mount  Zion,  after  David  had  become  king  of  "  all  Israel,"  But 

1.  Tyre,  long  the  principal  city  of  Phoenicia,  and  the  commercial  emporium  of  the  ancient 
world,  stood  on  a  small  island  on  the  south-eastern  or  Palestine  coast  of  the  Mediterranean, 
about  forty  miles  north-east  from  Mount  Carmel.    The  modern  town  of  Siir,  (Soor,)  with  fifteen 
hundred  inhabitants,  occupies  a  site  opposite  the  ancient  city.    The  prophets  Isaiah,  Jeremiah, 
and  Ezekiel,  represent  Tyre  as  a  city  of  unrivalled  wealth,  "  a  mart  of  nations,"  whose  "  mer- 
chants were  princes,  and  her  traffickers  the  honorable  of  the  earth."    (Isaiah,  xxiii.  3,  8.) 
After  the  destruction  of  the  old  city  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  New  Tyre  enjoyed  a  considerable  de- 
gree of  celebrity  and  commercial  prosperity ;  but  the  founding  of  Alexandria,  by  diverting  the 
commerce  that  had  formerly  centred  at  Tyre  into  a  new  channel,  gave  her  an  irreparable  blow, 
and  she  gradually  declined,  till,  in  the  language  of  prophecy,  her  palaces  have  been  levelled 
with  the  dust,  and  she  has  become  "  a  place  for  the  spreading  of  nets  in  the  midst  of  the  sea." 
(Ezek.  xxvi.  5.)    The  prophet  Ezekiel  has  described,  in  magnificent  terms,  the  glory  and  the 
riches  of  Tyre.    (See  Ezek.  xxvii.)    (Map  No.  VI.) 

2.  Sidon,  (now  called  Said,)  was  situated  near  the  sea,  twenty-two  miles  north  of  Tyre,  of 
which  it  was  the  parent  city,  and  by  which  it  was  early  eclipsed  in  commercial  importance. 
The  modern  town  contains  four  or  five  thousand  inhabitants.    The  site  of  the  ancient  city  is 
supposed  to  have  been  about  two  miles  farther  inland.    Sidon  is  twice  spoken  of  in  Joshua 
as  the  "  great  Sidon"  (Josh.  xi.  8,  and  xix.  28) ;  and  in  the  time  of  Homer  there  were  "  skillful 
Sidonian  artists"  (Cowper's  II.  xxiii.  891).    In  the  division  of  Palestine,  Sidon  fell  to  the  lot  of 
Asher ;  but  we  learn  from  Judges,  (i.  31,)  corroborated  also  by  profane  history,  that  it  never 
came  into  the  actual  possession  of  that  tribe.    In  the  time  of  Solomon  there  were  none  among 
the  Jews  who  had  "  skill  to  hew  timber  like  unto  the  Sidonians."    (1  Kings,  v.  6.)    The  mod- 
ern town  of  Said,  the  representative  of  the  ancient  city,  is  on  the  north  side  of  a  cape  extending 
into  the  Mediterranean.    (Map  No.  VI.) 

3.  Jop'  pa,  (now  called  Jaffa,  a  town  of  about  four  thousand  inhabitants,)  stands  on  a  tongue 
of  land  projecting  into  the  Mediterranean,  and  rising  from  the  shore  in  the  form  of  an  am- 
phitheatre, thirty-two  miles  north-west  from  Jerusalem.    The  "  border  before  Joppa"  was  in- 
cluded in  the  possessions  of  the  tribe  of  Dan  (Josh.  xix.  46).    In  the  time  of  Solomon  it  ap- 
pears to  have  been  a  port  of  some  consequence.    Hiram,  king  of  Tyre,  writing  to  Solomon, 
says,  "  We  will  cut  wood  out  of  Lebanon  s.s  much  as  thou  shall  need ;  and  we  will  bring  it 
thee  in  floats  by  sea  to  Jop'  pa,  and  thou  shalt  carry  it  up  to  Jerusalem."    (Map  No.  VI.) 

4.  Jerusalem,  first  known  as  the  city  of  the  Jeb'  usites,  is  in  the  southern  part  of  Palestine, 
nearly  intermediate  between  the  northern  extremity  of  the  Dead  Sea  and  the  Mediterranean, 
and  thirty-two  miles  east  from  Jaf  fa.    (See  farther  description  p.  164.) 


62  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART! 

David,  having  resolved  upon  the  conquest  of  this  important  city, 
which  its  inhabitants  deemed  impregnable,  sent  Joab,  his  general, 
against  it,  with  a  mighty  army ;  "  and  David  took  the  stronghold  of 
Zion  ;"  and  so  pleased  was  he  with  its  situation,  that  he  made  it  the 
capital  of  his  dominions. 

1 1.  After  the  defeat  of  the  Jeb'  usites,  David  was  involved  in  war 
with  many  of  the  surrounding  nations,  whom  he  compelled  to  be- 
eome   tributary  to  hire,  as   far   as  the  banks  of  the   Euphrates. 
Among  these  were  most  of  the  States  of  Syr'  ia,1  on  the  north-east, 
with  Damas'  cus,3  their  capital,  and  also  the  E'  domites,  on  the  south- 
eastern borders  of  Palestinff.     It  was.  in  the  last  of  these  wars,  dur- 
ing the  siege  of  Rab'  bah,3  the  Ammonite  capital,  that  David  pro- 
voked the  anger  of  the  Lord  by  taking  Bath'  sheba,  the  wife  of 
Uriah,  to  himself,  and  exposing  her  husband  to  death.     The  re- 
mainder of  David's  life  was  full  of  trouble  from  his  children,  three 
of  whom,  Amnon,  Absalom,  and  Adonijah,  died  violent  deaths — the 
latter  two  after  they  had  successively  rebelled  against  their  father. 
David  died  after  a  troubled  but  glorious  reign  of  forty  years,  after 
having  given  orders  that  his  son  Solomon  should  succeed  him. 

12.  By  the  conquests  of  David  the  fame  of  the  Israelites  had 
spread  into  distant  lands,  and  SolDmon  obtained  in  marriage  the 
daughter  of  the  king  of  Egypt.     So  celebrated  was  the  wisdom  of 
Solomon,  that  the  queen  of  Sheba a  came  to  visit  him  from  a  dis- 

1.  Ancient  Syr'  ia  embraced  the  whole  of  Palestine  and  Phoenicia,  and  was  bounded  on  the 
east  by  the  Euphrates  and  the  Arabian  desert.    Syv'  ia  is  called  in  Scripture  Aram,  and  the 
inhabitants  Aramaeans.    The  term  Syr'  ia  is  a  corruption  or  abridgment  of  Assyria.    (Map 
No.  V.) 

2.  Damas'  cus,  one  of  the  most  ancient  cities  of  Syr'  ia,  existed  in  the  time  of  Abraham, 
two  thousand  years  before  the  Christian  era.    (See  Gen.  xiv.  15.)    It  was  conquered  by  David, 
but  freed  itself  from  the  Jewish  yoke  in  the  time  of  Solomon,  when,  becoming  the  seat  of  a 
new  principality,  it  often  harassed  the  kingdoms  both  of  Judah  and  Israel.    At  later  periods 
it  fell  successively  under  the  power  of  the  Persians,  Greeks,  and  Romans.    As  a  Roman  city  it 
attained  great  eminence,  and  it  appears  conspicuously  in  the  history  of  the  Apostle  Paul.  (Acts, 
ix.)    It  is  now  a  large  and  important  commercial  Mohammedan  city,  containing  a  population 
of  more  than  a  hundred  thousand  inhabitants.    The  city  is  situated  in  a  pleasant  plain,  watered 
by  a  river,  the  Syriac  name  of  which  was  Pharphar,  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  Anti-Lib'  anus 
mountains,  a  hundred  and  fifty  miles  north-east  from  Jerusalem.    (Map  No.  VI.) 

3.  Rabbah,  (afterwards  called  Philadelphia  by  the  Greeks,  when  it  was  rebuilt  by  Ptolemy 
Philadelphia,)  was  about  thirty  miles  north-east  from  the  northern  extremity  of  the  Dead  Sea, 
at  the  source  of  the  brook  Jabbok.    Extensive  ruins,  at  a  place  now  called  Amman,  consisting 
of  the  remains  of  theatres,  temples,  and  colonnades  of  Grecian  construction,  mark  the  site  of 
the  Ammonite  capital.    The  ancient  city  is  now  without  an  inhabitant,  but  the  excellent  water 
found  there  renders  the  spot  a  desirable  halting-place  for  caravans,  the  drivers  of  which  use 
the  ancient  temples  and  buildings  as  shelter  for  their  beasts,  literally  fulfilling  the  denunciation 

a.  The  queen  of  Sheba  is  supposed  by  some  to  have  come  from  Southern  Arabia,  but  is  more 
generally  thought  to  have  been  the  queen  of  At  yssinia,  which  is  the  firm  belief  of  the  Aby»- 
sinians  to  this  day.— Kino's  Palestine 


CBAP.  III.]  JEWISH  HISTORY.  63 

tant  country,  and  the  most  powerful  princes  of  the  surrounding  na- 
tions courted  his  alliance.  With  Hiram,  king  of  Tyre,  the  chief 
city  of  the  Phoenicians,  and  the  emporium  of  the  commerce  of  the 
Eastern  world,  he  was  united  by  the  strictest  bonds  of  friendship. 
Seven  years  and  a  half  was  he  occupied  in  building,  at  Jerusalem,  a 
magnificent  temple  to  the  Lord.  He  also  erected  for  himself  a  pal- 
ace of  unrivalled  splendor.  A  great  portion  of  his  immense  wealth 
was  derived  from  commerce,  of  which  he  was  a  distinguished  patron. 
From  ports  on  the  Red  Sea,  in  his  possession,  his  vessels  sailed  to 
Ophir,  some  rich  country  on  the  shores  of  the  Indian  Ocean.  By 
the  aid  of  Phoenician  navigators  he  also  opened  a  communication 
with  Tar'  shish,  in  western  Europe,  while  the  commerce  between 
Central  Asia  and  Palestine  was  carried  on  by  caravans  across  the 
desert. 

13.  But  even  Solomon,  notwithstanding  all  his  learning  and  wis- 
dom, was  corrupted  by  prosperity,  and  in  his  old  age  was  seduced 
by  his  numerous  "  strange  wives"  to  forsake  the  God  of  his  fathers. 
He  became  an  idolater  :  and  then  enemies  began  to  arise  up  against 
him  on  every  side.     A  revolt  was  organized  in  E'dom:1  an  inde- 
pendent adventurer  seized  Damascus,  and  formed  a  new  Syrian  king- 
dom there ;  and  the  prophet  Ahijah  foretold  to  Solomon  that  the 
kingdom  of  Israel  should  be  rent,  and  that  the  dominion  of  ten  of 
the  twelve  tribes  should  be  given  to  Jeroboam,  of  the  tribe  of  Eph- 
raim,  although  not  till  after  the  death  of  Solomon. 

14.  Accordingly,  on  the  death  of  Solomon,  when  Rehoboam  his 
son  came  to  the  throne,  the  ten  northern  tribes  chose  Jeroboam  for 
their  king ;  and  Israel  and  Judah,  with  which  latter  was  united  the 
tribe  of  Benjamin,  became  separate  kingdoms.     The  separation  thus 
effected  is  called  "  The  Revolt  of  the  Ten  Tribes."     (990  B.  C.) 
The  subsequent  princes  of  the  kingdom  of  Israel,  as  the  Ten  Tribes 
were  called,  were  all  idolaters  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord,  although 
from  time  to  time  they  were  warned  of  the  consequences  of  their 
idolatry  by  the  prophets  Elijah,  Elisha,  Hosea,  Amos,  Jonah,  and 
others.      The   history  of  these  ten  tribes  is  but  a  repetition  of 
calamities  and  revolutions.     Their  seventeen  kings,  excluding  two 

of  Ezekiel :  "  I  will  make  Kabbah  of  the  Ammonites  a  stable  for  camels,  and  a  couching  place 
for  flocks."  (Ezekiel,  "xxv.  5.)  (Map  No.  VI.) 

1.  The  E'  domites,  inhabitants  of  Idumea,  or  E'  dom,  dwelt,  at  this  time,  in  the  country  south 
and  south-east  of  the  Dead  Sea.  During  the  Babylonian  captivity  the  E'  domites  took  posses- 
sion of  the  southern  portion  of  Judea,  and  made  Hebron  their  capital.  They  afterwards  em- 
braced Judaism,  and  their  territory  became  incorporated  with  Judea.  although  in  the  tim<  of 
our  Saviour  it  still  retained  the  nam«  of  Idumea.  (Map  No.  VI.) 


64  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PAET  I. 

pretenders,  belonged  to  seven  different  families,  and  were  placed  on 
the  throne  by  seven  sanguinary  conspiracies.  At  length  Shalmanezer, 
king  of  Assyria,  invaded  the  country ;  and  Samaria,1  its  capital,  after 
a  brave  resistance  of  three  years,  was  taken  by  storm.  The  ten 
tribes  were  then  driven  out  of  Palestine,  and  carried  away  captive 
into  a  distant  region  beyond  the  Euphrates,  719  years  before  the 
Christian  era.  With  their  captivity  the  history  of  the  ten  tribes  ends. 
Their  fate  is  still  unknown  to  this  day,  and  their  history  remains  un- 
written. 

15.  After  the  revolt  of  the  ten  tribes,  Rehoboam  reigned  seven- 
teen years  at  Jerusalem,  over  Judah  and  Benjamin,  comprising  what 
was  called  the  kingdom  of  Judah.     During  his  reign  he  and  his 
subjects  fell  into  idolatry,  for  which  they  were  punished  by  an  in- 
vasion by  Shishak,  king  of  Egypt,  who  entered  Jerusalem  and  car- 
ried off  the  treasures  of  the  temple  and  the  palace.     We  find  some 
of  the  subsequent  kings  of  Judah  practising  idolatry,  and  suffering 
the  severest  punishments  for  their  sins  :  others  restored  the  worship 
of  the  true  God ;  and  of  them  it  is  recorded  that  "  God  prospered 
their  undertakings." 

16.  At  the  time  when  Shalmanezer,  the  Assyrian,  carried  Israel 
away  captive,  the  wicked  Ahaz  was  king  over  Judah.     He  brought 
the  country  to  the  brink  of  ruin,  but  its  fall  was  arrested  by  the 
death  of  the  impious  monarch.     The  good  Hezekiah  succeeded  him, 
and,  aided  by  the  advice  of  the  prophet  Isaiah,  commenced  his  reign 
with  a  thorough  reformation  of  abuses.     He  shook  off  the  Assyrian 
yoke,  to  which  his  father  Ahaz  had  submitted  by  paying  tribute. 
Sennacherib,  the  son  and  successor  of  Shalmanezer,  determining  to 
be  revenged  upon  Judah,  sent  a  large  army  against  Jerusalem  (711 
B.  C.) ;  but  "  the  angel  of  the  Lord  went  forth,  and  smote,  in  the 
camp  of  the  Assyrians,  a  hundred  and  fourscore  and  five  thousand 
men."     The  instrument  by  which  the  Lord  executed  vengeance  upon 
the  Assyrians,  is  supposed  by  some  to  have  been  the  pestilential 
simoom  of  the  desert ;  for  Isaiah  had  prophesied  of  the  king  of  As- 
syria :  "Thus  saith  the  Lord;  behold,  I  will  send  a  blast  upon 
him."a 

17.  It  is  interesting  to  find  an  account  of  the  miraculous  destruc- 
tion of  the  Assyrian  army  in  the  pages  of  profane  history.     Senna- 

1.  Samdria,  (now  called  Sebustieh,)  the  capital  of  the  kingdom  of  Israel,  stood  on  Mount 
Sameron,  about  forty  miles  north  from  Jerusalem.    (Map  No.  VI.) 

a.  Isaiah,  xxxvii.  6,  7. 


CHAP.  III.]  JETV/SH  HISTORY.  65 

cherib  was  at  this  time  marching  against  Egypt,  whose  alliance  had 
been  sought  by  Hezekiah,  when,  unwilling  to  leave  the  hostile  power 
of  Judah  in  his  rear,  he  turned  against  Jerusalem.  It  was  natural, 
therefore,  that  the  discomfiture  which  removed  the  fears  of  the  Egypt- 
ians, should  have  a  place  in  their  annals.  Accordingly,  Herod'  otus 
gives  an  account  of  it,  which  he  had  learned  from  the  Egyptians 
themselves ;  but  in  the  place  of  the  prophet  Isaiah,  it  is  an  Egyptian 
priest  who  invokes  the  aid  of  his  god  against  the  enemy,  and  pre- 
dicts the  destruction  of  the  Assyrian  host. 

18.  Herod' otus  relates  that  the  Egyptian  king,  directed  by  the 
priest,  marched  against  Sennacherib  with  a  company  composed  only 
of  tradesmen  and  artizans,  and  that  "  so  immense  a  number  of  mice 
infested  by  night  the  enemy's  camp,  that  their  quivers  and  bows, 
together  with  what  secured  their  shields  to  their  arms,  were  gnawed 
in  pieces ;"  and  that,  "  in  the  morning  the  enemy,  finding  themselves 
without  arms,  fled  in  confusion,  and  lost  great  numbers  of  their  men." 
Herod'  otus  also  relates  that,  in  his  time,  there  was  still  standing  in 
the  Egyptian  temple  of  Yulcan  a  marble  statue  of  this  Egyptian 
king,  having  a  mouse  in  his  hand,  and  with  the  inscription  :  "  Learn 
from  my  fortune  to  reverence  the  gods."a 

19.  Hezekiah  was  succeeded  on  the  throne  of  Judah  by  his  son 
Manas'  seh,  who,  in  the  early  part  of  his  reign,  revelled  in  the  gross- 
est abominations  of  Eastern  idolatry.     Being  carried  away  captive  to 
Babylon  by  Sardanapalus,  the  Assyrian  king,  he  repented  of  his  sins, 
and  was  restored  to  his  kingdom.     The  brief  reign  of  his  son  A'  mon 
was  corrupt  and  idolatrous.     The  good  Josiah  then  succeeded  to  the 
throne.     His  reign  was  an  era  in  the  religious  government  of  the 
nation ;  but  during  an  invasion  of  the  country  by  Pharaoh  Necho, 
king  of  Egypt,  he  was  mortally  wounded  in  battle.     Jerusalem  was 
soon  after  taken,  and  Jehoahaz,  who  had  been  elected  to  the  throne 
by  the  people,  was  deposed,  and  carried  captive  to  Egypt,  where  he 
died. 

20.  Not  long  after  this,  during  the  reign  of  Jehoiakim,  the  Egypt- 
ian monarch,  pursuing  his  conquests  eastward  against  the  Babylo- 
nians, was  utterly  defeated  by  Nebuchadnez'  zar  near  the  Euphrates, 
— an  event  which  prepared  the  way  for  the  Babylonian  dominion 
over  Judea  and  the  west  of  Asia.     Pursuing  his  success  westward, 
Nebuchadnez'  zar  came  to  Jerusalem,  when  the  king,  Jehoiakim, 
submitted,  and  agreed  to  pay  tribute  for  Judah  ;  but  as  he  rebelled 

a.  Herod'  otus,  Book  II.  p.  141. 
4 


66  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PAET  L 

after  three  years,  Nebuchadnez'  zar  returned,  pillaged  Jerusalem, 
and  carried  away  certain  of  the  royal  family  and  of  the  nobles  as 
hostages  for  the  fidelity  of  the  king  and  people.  (B.  C.  605.) 
Among  these  were  the  prophet  Daniel  and  his  companions.  Je- 
choniah,  the  next  king  of  Judah,  was  carried  away  to  Babylon,  with 
a  multitude  of  other  captives,  so  that  "  none  remained  save  the 
poorest  people  of  the  land." 

21.  The  throne  in  Jerusalem  was  next  filled  by  Zedekiah,  who 
joined  some  of  the  surrounding  nations  in  a  rebellion  against  Nebu- 
chadnez' zar  ;  but  Jerusalem,  after  an  eighteen  months'  siege,  whose 
miseries  were  heightened  by  the  horrors  of  famine,  was  taken  by 
storm  at  midnight.     Dreadful  was  the  carnage  which  ensued.    Zede- 
kiah, attempting  to  escape,  was  made  prisoner ;  and  the  king  of 
Babylon  slew  the  sons  of  Zedekiah  before  his  eyes,  and  put  out  the 
eyes  of  Zedekiah,  and  bound  him  with  fetters  of  brass,  and  carried 
him  to  Babylon.     Nearly  all  the  wretched  inhabitants  were  made 
companions  of  his  exile.     Jerusalem  was  burned,  the  temple  levelled 
with  the  ground,  and  the  very  walls  destroyed.     (586  B.  C.) 

22.  Thus  ended  the  kingdom  of  Judah,  and  the  reign  of  the  house 
of  David.     Seventy  years  were  the  children  of  Israel  detained  in 
captivity  in  Babylon,  reckoning  from  the  time  of  the  first  pillag- 
ing of  Jerusalem  by  Nebuchadnez'  zar,  a  period  that  had  been  de- 
clared in  prophecy  by  Jeremiah,  and  which  was  distinguished  by  the 
visions  of  Nebuchadnez'  zar,  the  prophetic  declarations  of  Daniel, 
Belshazzar's  feast,  and  the  overthrow  of  the  kingdom  of  Babylon  by 
the  Medes  and  Persians.     The  termination  of  the  Captivity,  as  had 
been  foretold  by  the  prophets,  was  the  act  of  Cyrus,  the  Persian, 
immediately  after  the  conquest  of  Babylon.     (536  B.  C.) 

23.  The  edict  of  Cyrus  permitted  all  Jews  in  his  dominions  to 
return  to  Palestine,  and  to  rebuild  the  city  and  temple  of  Jerusalem. 
Only  a  zealous  minority,  however,  returned,  and  but  little  progress 
had  been  made  in  the  rebuilding  of  the  temple,  when  the  work  was 
altogether  stopped  by  an  order  of  the  next  sovereign ;  but  during 
the  reign  of  Darius  Hystas'  pes,  Zerub'  babel,  urged  by  the  prophets 
Hag'  gai  and  Zechariah,  obtained  a  new  edict  for  the  restoration  of 
the  temple,  and  after  four  years  the  work  was  completed,  516  years 
before   the   Christian   era.      The   temple   was    now   dedicated    to 
the  worship  of  Jehovah,  the  ceremonies  of  the  Jewish  law  were 
restored,  and  never  again  did  the  Jews,  as  a  people,  relapse  into 
idolatry. 


CHAP.  Ill]  PERSIAN  HISTORY.  67 

[III.  ROMAN  HISTORY.] — 24.  Having  thus  brought  the  events  of 
Jewish  history  down  to  the  time  of  the  commencement  of  the  wars 
between  Greece  and  Persia,  we  again  turn  back  to  take  a  view  of  the 
cotemporary  history  of  such  other  nations  as  had  begun  to  acquire 
historical  importance  during  the  same  period.  Our  attention  is  first 
directed  to  Rome — to  the  rise  of  that  power  which  was  destined  event- 
ually to  overshadow  the  world,  Rome  is  supposed  to  have  been  found- 
ed 753  years  before  the  Christian  era,  about  the  time  of  the  abolition 
of  the  hereditary  archonship  in  Athens — twenty  years  before  the 
commencement  of  the  first  war  between  Sparta  and  Messenia,  and 
about  thirty  years  before  the  reign  of  Hezekiah,  king  of  Judaa. 
But  the  importance  of  Roman  history  demands  a  connected  account, 
which  can  better  be  given  after  Rome  has  broken  in  upon  the  line 
of  history  we  are  pursuing,  by  the  reduction  of  Greece  to  a  Roman 
province  ;  and  as  we  have  already  arrived  at  a  period  of  correspond- 
ing importance  in  Persian  affairs,  we  shall  next  briefly  trace  the 
events  of  Persian  history  down  to  the  time  when  they  became  min- 
gled with  the  history  of  the  Grecians. 

[IV.  PERSIAN  HISTORY.] — 25.  In  the  course  of  the  preceding 
history  of  the  Jews  we  have  had  occasion  to  mention  the  names  of 
Shalmenesar,  Sennacherib,  and  Sardanapalus,  who  were  the  last 
three  kings  of  the  united  empire  of  Assyria,  whose  capital  was  Nine- 
veh. Not  long  after  Sardanapalus  had  attacked  Judah,  and  carried 
away  its  king  Manas'  seh  into  captivity,  the  governors  of  several  of 
the  Assyrian  provinces  revolted  against  him,  and  besieged  him  in  his 
capital,  when,  finding  himself  deserted  by  his  subjects,  he  destroyed 
his  own  life.  (671  B.  C.)  The  empire,  which,  during  the  latter  part 
of  the  reign  of  Sardanapalus,  had  embraced  Media,  Persia,  Babylo- 
nia, and  Assyria,  was  then  divided  among  the  conspirators. 

26.  Sixty-five  years  later,  the  Medes  and  Babylonians,  with  joint 
forces,  destroyed  Nineveh  (B.  C.  606),*  and  Babylon  became  the  capi- 
tal of  the  reunited  empire.  The  year  after  the  destruction  of  Nine- 
veh, Nebuchadnez'  zar,  a  name  common  to  the  kings  of  Babylon,  as 
was  Pharaoh  to  those  of  Egypt,  made  his  first  attack  upon  Jerusa- 
lem (B.  C.  605),  rendering  the  Jews  tributary  to  him,  and  carrying 
away  numbers  of  them  into  captivity,  and  among  them  the  prophet 
Daniel  and  his  companions.  Nineteen  years  later  (B.  C.  586),  he 

a.  Clinton,  I  269.    Grote,  iii.  255,  Note,  says,  "  During  the  last  ten  years  of  the  reign  of  Cywc- 
ares" :— and  Cyaxares,  the  Mede,  reigned  from  636  to  595. 


68  ANCIENT  HISTORY  [PART  I 

destroyed  the  very  walls  of  Jerusalem  and  tlie  temple  itself,  and 
carried  away  the  remnant  of  tlie  Jews  captive  tc  Babylon. 

27.  Soon  after  the  conquest  of  Judea,  Nebuchadnez'  zar  resolved 
to  take  vengeance  on  the  surrounding  nations,  some  of  whom  had 
solicited  the  Jews  to  unite  in  a  confederacy  against  him,  but  had  af- 
terwards rejoiced  at  their  destruction.     These  were  the  Am'  monites, 
Moabites,  E'domites,  Arabians,  Sidonians,   Tyr'ians,   Philistines, 
Egyptians,   and  Abyssin' ians.     The  subjugation  of  each  was  par- 
ticularly foretold  by  the  prophets,  and  has  been  related  both  by 
sacred  and  profane  writers.     In  the  war  against  the  Phoenicians, 
after  a  long  siege  of  thirteen  years  he  made  himself  master  of  insular 
Tyre,  the  Phoenician  capital  (B.  C.  571),  and  the  Tyr'ians  became 
subject  to  him  and  his  successors  until  the  destruction  of  the  Chal- 
dean monarchy  by  Cyrus. a 

28.  In  the  war  against  Egypt  (B.  C.  570),  Nebuchadnez'  zar  laid 
the  whole  country  waste,  in  accordance  with  previous  predictions  of 
the  prophets  Ezekiel  and  Jeremiah.     The  prophecy  of  Ezekiel,  that, 
after  the  desolations  foretold,  "  there  shall  no  more  be  a  prince  of 
•the  land  of  Egypt,"  has  been  verified  in  a  remarkable  manner  ;  for 
the  kings  of  Egypt  were  made  tributary,  and  grievously  oppressed, 
first  by  the  Babylonians,  and  next  by  the  Persians ;  and  since  the 
rule  of  the  latter,  Egypt  has  successively  been  governed  by  foreigners 
—by  the  Macedonians,  the  Romans,  the  Mamelukes,  and  lastly,  by 
the  Turks,  who  possess  the  land  of  the  Pharaohs  to  this  day. 

29.  It  was  immediately  after  his  return  from  Egypt  that  Nebu- 
chadnez'zar,  flushed  with  the  brilliancy  of  his  conquests,  set  up  a 
golden  image,  and  commanded  all  the  people  to  fall  down  and  wor- 
ship it.  (B.  C,  569.)     Notwithstanding  the  rebuke  which  his  impiety 

>ceived  on  this  occasion,  after  he  had  adorned  Babylon  with  mag- 
'cent  works,  again  the  pride  of  his  heart  was  exhibited,  for  as  he 
\ed  in  his  palace  he  said,  in  exultation,  "  Is  not  this  great  Baby- 
hat  I  have  built  for  the  head  of  the  kingdom,  by  the  might  of 
wer,  and  for  the  honor  of  my  majesty  ?"     But  in  the  same 
at  he  had  spoken  he  was  struck  with  lunacy,  and  all  his  glory 
'  from  him.     Of  his  dreams,  and  their  prophetic  interpreta- 
\niel,  we  shall  have  occasion  to  speak,  as  the  predictions  are 
T  verified  in  the  progress  of  history. 

statement  that  it  was  the  inland  town  that  was  reduced  by  Nebuchadnez'- 
>f  the  inhabitants  had  previously  withdrawn  to  an  island,  where  they  built 
to  be  erroneous.    See  Grote's  Greece,  iii.  266-7. 


CHAP.  Ill]  PERSIAN  HISTORY.  69 

30.  Not  long  after  the  reign  of  Nebuchadnez'  zar,  we  find  Bel- 
shaz'  zar,  probably  a  grandson  of  the  former,  on  the  throne  of  Baby- 
lon.     Nothing  is  recorded  of  him  but  the  circumstances  of  his 
death,  which  are  related  in  the  fifth  chapter  of  Daniel.     He  was 
probably  slain  in  a  conspiracy  of  his  nobles.  (B.  C.  553.)     In  the 
meantime,  the  kingdom  of  Media1  had*risen  to  eminence  under  the 
successive  reigns  of  Phraor'  tes,  Cyax'  ares,  and  Asty'  ages,8  the  for- 
mer of  whom  is  supposed  to  be  the  Ahasuerus  mentioned  in  the  book 
of  Daniel.a     While  some  writers  mention  a  successor  of  Asty'  ages, 
Cyax' ares  II.,  who  has  been  thought  to  be  the  same  as  the  Darius 
of  Scripture,  others  assert  that  Asty'  ages  was  the  last  of  the  Me- 
dian kings.    In  accordance  with  the  latter  and  now  generally-received 
account,  Cyrus,  a  grandson  of  Asty'  ages,  but  whose  father  was  a 
Persian,  roused  the  Persian  tribes  against  the  ruling  Medes,  defeated 
Asty'  ages,  and  transferred  the  supreme  power  to  the  Persians. 
(558  B.  C.)* 

31.  Cyrus  the  Great,0  as  he  is  often  called,  is  generally  considered 
the  founder  of  the  Persian  empire.     Soon  after  his  accession  to 
the  throne  his  dominions  were  invaded  by  Croe'  sus,  king  of  Lydia ; 
but  Cyrus  defeated  him  in  the  great  battle  of  Thymbria,  and  after- 
wards, besieging  him  in  his  own  capital  of  Sardis,  took  him  prisoner, 
and  obtained  possession  of  all  his  treasures.  (B.  C.  546.)     The  sub- 
jugation of  the  Grecian  cities  of  Asia  Minor  by  the  Persians  soon 
followed.     Cyrus  next  laid  siege  to  Babylon,  which  still  remained  an 
independent  city  in  the  heart  of  his  empire.     Babylon  soon  fell  be- 
neath his  power,  and  it  has  been  generally  asserted  that  he  effected 
the  conquest  by  turning  the  waters  of  the  Euphrates  from  their  chan- 
nel, and  marching  his  troops  into  the  city  through  the  dry  bed  of  the 
stream ;  but  this  account  has  been  doubted,  while  it  has  been  thought 
quite  as  probable  that  he  owed  his  success  to  some  internal  revolu- 
tion, which  put  an  end  to  the  dynasty  of  the  Babylonian  kings. 
(B.  C.  536.)     The  prophetic  declarations  of  the  final  and  utter  de- 

1.  Media,  the  boundaries  of  which  varied  greatly  at  different  times,  embraced  the  country 
immediately  south  and  south-west  of  the  Caspian  Sea,  and  north  of  the  early  Persia.    ( Map 
No.  V.) 

2.  These  kings  were  probably  in  a  measure  subordinate  to  the  ruling  king  at  Babylon. 

a.  Daniel,  ix.  1.    Kale's  Analysis,  iv.  81. 

b.  Niebuhr's  Lect.  on  Ancient  Hist.  i.  135.    Grote's  Greece,  iv.  183. 

c.  The  accounts  of  the  early  history  of  Cyrus,  as  derived  from  Xen'  ophon,  Herod'  otus,  Ctesias, 
&c.,  are  very  contradictory.    The  account  of  Herod'  otus  is  now  generally  preferred,  as  con- 
taining a  greater  proportion  of  historical  truth  than  the  others.    Grote  calls  the  Cyropoe'  dia  of 
Xen'  ophon  a  "  philosophical  novel."    Niebuhr  says,  "  No  rational  man,  in  our  days,  can  look 
upon  Xen1  ophon's  history  of  Cyrus  in  any  )ther  light  than  that  of  a  romance." 


79  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART  I. 

struction  of  Babylon,  which  was  eventually  to  be  made  a  desolate 
waste — a  possession  for  the  bittern — a  retreat  for  the  wild  beasts  of 
the  desert  and  of  the  islands — to  be  filled  with  pools  of  water — and 
to  be  inhabited  no  more  from  generation  to  generation,  have  been  fully 
verified. 

32.  In  the  year  that  Babylon  was  taken,  Cyrus  issued  the  famous 
decree  which  permitted  the  Jews  to  return  to  their  own  land,  and 
to  rebuild  the  city  and  temple  of  Jerusalem — events  which  had  been 
foretold  by  the  prophet  Isaiah  more  than  a  century  before  Cyrus 
was  born.     Cyrus  is  supposed  to  have  lived  about  seven  years  after 
the  taking  of  Babylon — directing  his  chief  attention  to  the  means 
of  increasing  the  prosperity  of  his  kingdom.     The  manner  of  his 
death  is  a  disputed  point  in  history,  but  in  the  age  of  Strabo  his 
tomb  bore  the  inscription :  "  0  man,  I  am  Cyrus,  who  founded  the 
Persian  empire  :  envy  me  not  then  the  little  earth  which  covers  my 
remains." 

33.  Camby'ses  succeeded  his  father  on  the  throne  of  Persia. 
(530  B.  C.)     Intent  on  carrying  out  the  ambitious  designs  of  Cyrus, 
lie  invaded  and  conquered  Egypt,  although  the  Egyptian  king  was 
aided  by  a  force  of  Grecian  auxiliaries.     The  power  of  the  Persians 
was  also  extended  over  several  African  tribes :  even  the  Greek  col- 
ony of  Cyrenaica1  was  forced  to  pay  tribute  to  Camby'  ses,  and  the 
Greek  cities  of  Asia  Minor  remained  quiet  under  Persian  governors ; 
but  an  army  which  Camby'  ses  sent  over  the  Libyan  desert  to  sub- 
due the  little  oasis  where  the  temple  of  Jiipiter  Am'  mon2  was  the 
centre  of  an  independent  community,  was  buried    in    the    sands ; 
and  another  army  which  the  king  himself  led  up  the  Nile  against 
Ethiopia,   came  near  perishing  from  hunger.      The  Persian  king 
would  have  attempted  the  conquest  of  the  rising  kingdom  of  Car- 
thage, but  his  Phoenician  allies  or  subjects,  who  constituted  his  naval 
power,  were  unwilling  to  lend  their  aid  in  destroying  the  indepen- 
dence of  their  own  colony,  and  Camby'  ses  was  forced  to  abandon  the 
project. 

34.  On  the  death  of  Camly'ses  (B.  C.  521),  one  Smer'  dis,  an 

1.  Cyren&ica,  a  country  on  the  African  :oast  of  the  Mediterranean,  corresponded  with  the 
western  portion  of  the  modern  Barca.    It  Tas  sometimes  called  Pentap'  nlis,  from  its  having 
five  Grecian  cities  of  note  in  it,  of  which  Cyrene  was  the  capital.     (See  p.  95,  also  Map  No.  V.) 

2.  The  Temple  of  Jupiter  Jim'  mon  was  situated  in  what  is  now  called  the  Oasis  of  Siwah,  a 
fertile  spot  in  the  desert,  three  hundred  miles  south-west  from  Cairo.    The  time  and  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  existence  of  this  temple  are  unknown,  but,  like  that  of  Delphi,  it  was  famed 
for  its  treasures.    A  well  sixty  feet  deep,  which  has  been  discovered  in  the  oasis,  is  supposed 
to  mark  the  site  of  the  temple. 


CHAP.  III.]  PERSIAN  HISTORY.  71 

impostor,  a  pretended  son  of  Cyrus,  seized  the  throne  ;  but  the  Per- 
sian nobles  soon  formed  a  conspiracy  against  him,  killed  him  in  his 
palace,  and  chose  one  of  their  own  number  to  reign  in  his  stead. 
The  new  monarch  assumed  the  old  Median  title  of  royalty,  and  is 
known  in  history  as  Darius,  or  Darius  Hystas'  pes.  Babylon  having 
revolted,  he  was  engaged  twenty  months  in  the  siege  of  the  city 
which  was  finally  taken  by  the  artifice  of  a  Persian  nobleman,  who 
pretending  to  desert  to  the  enemy,  gained  their  confidence,  and 
having  obtained  the  command  of  an  important  post  in  the  city, 
opened  the  gates  to  the  Persians  :  Darius  put  to  death  three  thou- 
sand of  the  citizens,  and  ordered  the  one  hundred  gates  to  be  pulled 
down,  and  the  walls  of  the  proud  city  to  be  demolished,  that  it  might 
never  after  be  in  a  condition  to  rebel  against  him.  The  favor  which 
this  monarch  showed  the  Jews,  in  permitting  them  to  rebuild  the 
walls  of  Jerusalem,  has  already  been  mentioned. 

35.  The  attention  of  Darius  was  next  turned  towards  the  Scyth- 
ians,1 then  a  European  nation,  who  inhabited  the  country  along  the 
western  borders  of  the  Euxine,  from  the  Tan'  ais  or  Don2  to  the  north- 
ern boundaries  of  Thrace.3     Darius  indeed  overran  their  country, 
but  without  finding  an  enemy  who  would  meet  him  in  battle  ;  for  the 
Scythians  were  wise  enough  to  retreat  before  the  invader,  and  deso- 
late the  country  through  which  he  directed  his  course.     When  the 
supplies  of  the  Persians  had  been  cut  off  on  every  side,  and  their 
strength  wasted  in  useless  pursuit,  they  were  glad  to  seek  safety  by 
a  hasty  retreat. 

36.  The  next  important  events  in  the  history  of  Darius  we  find 
connected  with  the  revolt,  and  final  subjugation,  of  the  Greek  colonies 
of  Asia  Minor,  an  account  of  which  has  already  been  given.     Still 
Darius  was  not  a  conqueror  like  Cyrus  or  Camby'  ses,  but  seems 
to  have  aimed  rather  at  consolidating  and  securing  his  empire,  than 

1.  Scythia  is  a  name  given  by  the  early  Greeks  to  the  country  on  the  northern  and  western 
borders  of  the  Euxine.    In  the  time  of  the  first  Ptolemy,  however,  the  early  Scythia,  together 
•with  the  whole  region  from  the  Baltic  Sea  to  the  Caspian,  had  changed  its  name  to  Sarmatia, 
while  the  entire  north  of  Asia  beyond  the  Himalaya  mountains  was  denominated  Scythia. 
(Map  Nos.  V.  and  IX.) 

2.  The  Don  (anciently  Tan'  ais),  rising  in  Central  Russia,  flows  south-east  until  it  approaches 
within  about  thirty-six  miles  of  the  Volga,  when  it  turns  to  the  south-west,  and  enters  the 
north-eastern  extremity  of  the  Sea  of  Azof  (anciently  Palug  Mceotis).    (Map  No.  IX.) 

3.  Thrace,  embracing  nearly  the  same  as  the  modern  Turkish  province  of  Rumilia,  was 
bounded  on  the  north  by  the  Haemus  mountains,  on  the  east  by  the  Euxine,  on  the  south  by 
the  Propon'  tis  and  the  JE'  gean  Sea,  and  on  the  west  by  Macedonia.    Its  principal  river  was 
the  Hebrus  (now  Maritza),  and  its  largest  towns,  excepting  those  in  the  Thracian  Chersonesu*, 
(see  p.  96.)  were  Hadrianopolis  and  Byzantium.    (Map  No.  III.  and  IX.) 


72  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART  I. 

at  enlarging  it.  The  dominions  bequeathed  him  by  his  predecessors 
comprised  many  countries,  united  under  one  government  only  by 
their  subjection  to  the  will  and  the  arbitrary  exactions  of  a  common 
ruler ;  but  Darius  first  organized  them  into  one  empire,  by  dividing 
the  whole  into  twenty  satrapies  or  provinces,  and  assigning  to  each 
its  proper  share  in  the  burdens  of  government. 

37.  Under  Darius  the  Persian  empire  had  now  attained  its  great- 
est extent,  embracing,  in  Asia,  all  that,  at  a  later  period,  was  con- 
tained in  Persia  proper  and  Turkey ;  in  Africa,  taking  in  Egypt  as 
far  as  Nubia,  and  the  coast  of  the  Mediterranean  as  far  as  Barca  ; 
and  in  Europe,  part  of  Thrace  and  Macedonia — thus  stretching  from 
the  JE'  gean  Sea  to  the  Indus,  and  from  the  plains  of  Tartary1  to 
the  cataracts  of  the  Nile.  Such  was  the  empire  against  whose  united 
power  a  few  Grecian  communities  were  to  contend  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  their  very  name  and  existence.  The  results  of  the  contest 
may  be  learned  from  the  following  chapter.  (See  Map  No.  VII.) 

1.  Tartary  is  a  name  of  modern  origin,  applied  to  that  extensive  portion  of  Central  Asia 
which  extends  eastward  from  the  Caspian  Sea  to  the  Pacific  Ocean. 


CHAP.  IV.J  GRECIAN  HISTORY.  73 

CHAPTER    IV. 

THE  AUTHENTIC  PERIOD  OF  GRECIAN  HISTORY. 
SECTION  I. 

GR£*»-&>  HISTORY  FROM   THE  BEGINNING    OF  THE  FIRST  WAR  WITH   PERSIA  TO  THE   ES 
TABLISHMENT  OF  PHILIP  ON  THE  THRONE    OF    MACEDON  : 

490  TO  360  B.  c.  =  130  YEARS. 

ANALYSIS.  FIRST  PERSIAN  WAR.  1.  Preparations  of  Darius  for  the  conquest  of  Greece. 
Miirdonius.  Instruction  of  the  Persian  fleet.  [Mount  A'  thos.]  Return  of  Mardonius. — 2.  Re- 
newed p>op»;  i  aiions  of  Dari  us.  Heralds  sent  to  Greece.  Their  treatment  by  the  Athenians  and 
Spartans.  YU<J  JEginetans.  [yEgina.]— 3.  Persian  fleet  sails  for  Greece.  Islands  submit 
Euboa'a.  Persians  at  Mar' athon.  The  Plataa'ans  aid  the  Athenians.  Spartans  absent, 
[Mar'  athon.  Ple.tae'  a.] — 4.  The  Athenian  army.  How  commanded. — 5.  Battle  of  Mar'  athon. 
— 6.  Remarks  on  the  battle.  Legends  of  the  battle. — 7.  The  war  terminated.  Subsequen 
history  of  Miltiades.  [Paros.]  Themis' tocles  and  Aristides.  Their  characters.  Banish- 
ment of  the  latter.  [Ostracism.]— 9.  Death  of  Darius.  SECOND  PERSIAN  WAR.  Xerxes  in- 
vades Greece  Opposed  by  Leon'  idas.  [Thermop'  ylae.]  Anecdote  of  Dien'  eces. — 10.  Treachery. 
Leon'  idas  dismisses  his  allies.  Self-devotion  of  the  Greeks. — 11.  Eiirytus  and  Aristodemus, 
— 12.  The  Athenians  desert  Athens,  which  is  burned  by  the  enemy.  [Trezene.]  The  Greeks 
fortify  the  Corinthian  Isthmus. — 13.  The  Persian  fleet  at  Sal'  amis.  Eurybiades,  Themis'  tocles, 
and  Aristides.— 14.  Battle  of  Sal'  amis.  Flight  of  Xerxes,  [Hei'  lespont.]  Battle  of  Platae'  a 
—of  Myc'  ale.  [Myc'  ale.]  Death  of  Xerxes.— 15.  Athens  rebuilt.  Banishment  of  Themis'- 
tocles.  Cimon  and  Pausanias.  The  Persian  dependencies.  Ionian  revolt.  [Cy'prus.  By- 
zan'  tium.]— 16.  Final  peace  with  Persia.— 17.  Dissensions  among  the  Grecian  States.  Per' 
icles.  Jealousy  of  Sparta,  and  growing  power  of  Athens. — 18.  Power  and  character  of  Sparta. 
Earthquake  at  Sparta.  Revolt  of  the  Helots.  THIRD  MESSE'  NIAN  WAR.  Migration  of  the 
Jlessenians.— 19.  Athenians  defeated  at  Tan'  agra.  [Tan'  agra.]  Subsequent  victory  gained  by 
the  Athenians. 

20.  Causes  which  opened  the  FIRST  PELOPONNE' SIAN  WAR.  [Corey' ra.  Potidae'a.] — 21. 
The  Spartan  army  ravages  At'  tica.  The  Athenian  navy  desolates  the  coast  of  the  Peloponn6- 
sus.  [Meg'  ara.]— 22.  Second  invasion  of  At'  tica.  The  plague  at  Athens,  and  death  of  Per'- 
icles.  Potidae'a  surrenders  to  Athens,  and  Platae' a  to  Sparta. — 23.  The  peace  of  Nicias.  Pre- 
texts for  renewing  the  struggle.— 24.  Character  of  Alcibiades.  His  artifices.  Reduction  of 
Melos.  [Melos.]— 25.  THE  SICILIAN  EXPEDITION.  Its  object.  [Sicily.  Syracuse.]  Revolt 
and  flight  of  Alcibiades.— 26.  Operations  of  Nicias,  and  disastrous  result  of  the  expedition. 

27.  SECOND  PELOPONNE'  SIAN  WAR.  Revolt  of  the  Athenian  allies.  Intrigues  of  Alcibiades. 
Revolution  at  Athens.  [Eretria  Cys'  icus.]  Return  of  Alcibiades.— 28.  He  is  again  banished. 
The  affairs  of  Sparta  are  retrieved  by  Lysan'  der.  Cyrus  the  Persian.— 29.  The  Athenians  are 
defeated  at  JE'  gos-Pof  amos.  Treatment  of  the  prisoners.— 30.  Disastrous  state  of  Athenian 
aft'airs.  Submission  of  Athens,  and  close  of  the  war. — 31.  Change  of  government  at  Athens. 
The  Thirty  Tyrants  overthrown.  The  rule  of  the  democracy  restored.— 32.  Character,  accusa- 
tion, and  death  of  Soc'  rates.— 33.  The  designs  of  Cyrus  the  Persian.  He  is  aided  by  the  Greeks. 
—34.  Result  of  his  expedition.— 35.  Famous  retreat  of  the  Ten  Thousand.— 36.  The  Creek  cities 
of  Asia  are  involved  in  a  war  with  Persia.  The  THIRD  PELOPONNE'  SIAN  WAR.  [Coronea.] 
The  peace  of  Autal'  cidas.  [Im1  brus,  Lem'  nos,  and  Scy'  rus.]— 37.  The  designs  of  the  Persian 
king  promoted  by  the  jealousy  of  the  Greeks.  Athens  and  Sparta — how  affected  by  the  peace. 
—38.  Sparta  is  involved  in  new  wars.  War  with  Mantinea.  With  Olyn'  thus.  [Mantinea. 


74  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART  L 

Olyn'thus.]  Seizure  of  the  Theban  citadel.— 39.  The  political  morality  of  the  Spartans.— 40. 
The  Theban  citadel  recovered.  Pelop'  Idas  and  Epaminon'  das.  Events  of  the  Theban  war. 
[Teg'yra.  Leuc'tra.]— 41.  The  SKCOND  SACRED  WAR.  [First  Sacred  War.]  Causes  of  the 
Second  Sacred  War.  [Phocis.J — 42.  The  parties  to  the  war.  [Locrians.]  Cruelties  practised. 
Philip  of  Macedon. 

1.  After  the  subjugation  of  the  Ionian  cities  of  Asia  Minor,  Darius 
made  active  preparations  for  the  conquest  of  all  Greece.     A  mighty 

i.  FIRST  PEE-  armament  was  fitted  out  and  intrusted  to  the  command 
SIAN  WAR.  of  his  son-in-law  Mardonius,  who,  leading  the  land  force  in 
person  through  Thrace  and  Macedonia,  succeeded,  after  being  once  routed 
by  a  night  attack,a  in  subduing  those  countries  ;  but  the  Persian  fleet, 
which  was  designed  to  sweep  the  islands  of  the  .ZE'gean,  was  checked 
in  its  progress  by  a  violent  storm  which  it  encountered  off  Mount 
A'  thos1,  arid  which  was  thought  to  have  destroyed  three  hundred  ves- 
sels and  twenty  thousand  lives.  Weakened  by  these  disasters,  Mar- 
donius abruptly  terminated  the  campaign  and  returned  to  Asia. 

2.  Darius  soon  renewed  his  preparations  for  the  invasion  of  Greece, 
and,  while   his   forces   were   assembling,   sent   heralds   through   the 
Grecian  cities,  demanding  earth  and  water,  as  tokens  of  submission. 
The  smaller  States,  intimidated  by  his  power,  submitted  ;b  but  Athens 
and  Sparta  haughtily  rejected  the  demands  of  the  eastern  monarch, 
and  put  his  heralds  to  death  with  cruel  mockery,  throwing  one  into  a 
pit  and  another  into  a  well,  and  bidding  them  take  thence  their  earth 
and  water.     The  Spartans  threatened  to  make  war  upon  the  JEgine- 
tans2  for  having  basely  submitted  to  the  power  of  Persia,  and  com- 
pelled them  to  send  hostages  to  Athens.0 

1.  Mount  A'  thos  is  a  lofty  summit,  more  than  six  thousand  feet  high,  on  the  most  eastern  of 
three  narrow  peninsulas  which  extend  from  Macedonia  into  the  JE'  gean  sea.  The  peninsula 
which  is  about  twenty-five  miles  in  length  by  about  four  in  breadth,  has  long  been  occupied 
in  modern  times  by  a  number  of  monks  of  the  Greek  Church,  who  live  in  a  kind  of  fortified 
monasteries,  about  twenty  in  number.  No  females  are  admitted  within  this  peninsula,  whose 
modern  name,  derived  from  its  supposed  sanctity,  is  Monte  Santo,  ''sacred  mountain." 
(Map  No.  I.) 

2  JEgina,  (now  Egina  or  Eng-ia,)  was  an  island  containing  about  fifty  square  miles,  in  the 
centre  of  the  Saron'  ic  Gulf,  (now  Gulf  of  Athens,)  between  Attica  and  Ar'  golis,  and  sixteen 
miles  south-west  from  Athens.  The  remains  of  a  temple  of  Jupiter  in  the  northern  part  of 
the  island  are  among  the  most  interesting  of  the  Grecian  ruins.  Of  its  thirty-six  columns 
twenty-five  were  recently  standing.  (Map  No.  I.) 

a.  By  the  Brygi,  a  Thracian  tribe.    Mardonius  wounded 

b.  Among  them,  probably,  the  Thebans  and  Thessalians ;  also  most  of  the  islands,  but  not 
Eubce'  a  and  Nax'  os.    The  Persians  desolated  Nax'  os  on  their  way  across  the  M'  gean. 

c.  At  this  time  Thebes  and  ^Egina  had  been  at  war  with  Athens  fourteen  years.    Ar'  gos, 
which  had  contested  with  Sparta  the  supremacy  of  Greece,  had  recently  been  subdued  ;  and 
Sparta  was  acknowledged  to  be  the  head  of  the  political  union  of  Greece  against  the  Per- 
sians.   Grote's  Greece,  iv.  311-328. 


CHAE  IV.]  GRECIAN  HISTORY.  75 

3.  In  the  third  year  after  the  first  disastrous  campaign,  a  Persian 
fleet  of  six  hundred  ships,  conveying  an  army  of  a  hundred  and  twenty 
thousand  men,  commanded  by  the  generals  Datis  and  Artapher'  nes, 
and  guided  by  the  exiled  tyrant  and  traitor  Hip'pias,  directed  its 
course  towards  the  Grecian  shores.     (B.  C.  490.)     Several  islands  of 
the  JSt'  gean  submitted  without  a  struggle ;  Euboe'  a  was  punished  for 
the  aid  it  had  given  the  lonians  in  their  rebellion  ;  and  without  farther 
opposition  the  Persian  host  advanced  to  the  plains  of  Mar' athon,1 
within  twenty  miles  of  Athens.     The  Athenians  probably  called  on 
the  Platae'  ansa  as  well  as  the  Spartans  for  aid  :a — the  former  sent 
their  entire  force  of  a  thousand  men ;  but  the  latter,  influenced  by 
jealousy  or  superstition,  refused  to  send  their  proffered  aid  before  the 
full  of  the  moon. 

4.  In  this  extremity  the  Athenian  army,  numbering  only  ten  thou- 
sand men,  and  commanded  by  ten  generals,  marched  against  the  enemy. 
Five  of  the  ten  generals  had  been  afraid  to  hazard  a  battle,  but  the 
arguments1*  of  Miltiades,  one  of  their  number,  finally  prevailed  upon 
the  polemarch  Callim'  achus  to  give  his  casting  vote  in  favor  of  fight- 
ing.    The  ten  generals  were  to  command  the  whole  army  successively, 
each  for  a  day.     Those  who  had  seconded  the  advice  of  Miltiades 
were  willing  to  resign  their  turns  to  him,  but  he  waited  till  his  own 
day  arrived,  when  he  drew  up  the  little  army  in  order  of  battle. 

1.  Mar'  athon,  which  still  retains  its  ancient  name,  is  a  small  town  of  Attica,  twenty  miles 
northeast  from  Athens,  and  about  three  miles  from  the  sea-coast,  or  Bay  of  Mar'  athon.    The 
plain  in  which  the  battle  was  fought  is  about  five  miles  in  length  and  two  in  breadth,  inclosed 
on  the  land  side  by  steep  slopes  descending  from  the  higher  ridges  of  Pentel'  icus  and  Faros, 
and  divided  into  two  unequal  parts  by  a  small  stream  which  falls  into  the  Bay.    Towards  the 
middle  of  the  plain  may  still  be  seen  a  mound  of  earth,  twenty-five  feet  in  height,  which  was 
raised  over  the  bodies  of  the  Athenians  who  fell  in  the  battle.    In  the  marsh  near  the  sea. 
coast,  also,  the  remains  of  trophies  and  marble  monuments  are  still  visible.    The  names  of 
the  one  hundred  and  ninety-two  Athenians  who  were  slain  were  inscribed  on  ten  pillars 
erected  on  the  battle-field.    (Map  No.  I.) 

2.  Plata:  a,  a  city  of  Bceotia,  now  wholly  in  ruins,  was  situated  on  the  northern  side  of  the 
CithEe'  ron  mountains,  seven  miles  south  from  Thebes.    This  city  has  acquired  an  immortality 
of  renown  from  its  having  given  its  name  to  the  great  battle  fought  in  its  vicinity  in  the  year 
479  B.  C.  between  the  Persians  under  Mardonius,  and  the  Greeks  under  Pausanias  the  Spar- 
tan.   (See  p.  80.)    From  the  tenth  of  the  spoils  taken  from  the  Persians  on  that  occasion,  and 
presented  to  the  shrine  of  Delphi,  a  golden  tripod  was  made,  supported  by  a  brazen  pillar 
resembling  three  serpents  twined  together.    This  identical  brazen  pillar  may  still  be  seen  in 
the  Hippodrome  of  Constantinople.    (Map  No.  I.) 

a.  Thirwall  says :  "  It  is  probable  that  they  summoned  the  Platae'  ans."    Grote  says :  "  We 
are  not  told  that  they  had  been  invited." 

b.  Herod'  otus  describes  this  debate  as  having  occurred  at  Mar'  athon,  after  the  Greeks  had 
taken  post  in  sight  of  the  Persians ;  while  Cornelius  Nepos  says  it  occurred  before  the  army 
left  Athens.    Thirwall  appears  to  follow  the  former :  Grote  declares  his  preference  for  the 
latter,  as  the  most  reasonable. 


76  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART  L 

5.  The  Persians  were  extended  in  a  line  across  the  middle  of  the 
plain,  having  their  best  troops  in  the  centre.     The  Athenians  were 
drawn  up  in  a  line  opposite,  but  having  their  main  strength  in  the 
extreme  wings  of  their  army.     The  Greeks  made  the  attack,  and,  as 
had  been  foreseen  by  Miltiades,  their  centre  was  soon  broken,  while 
the  extremities  of  the  enemy's  line,  made  up  of  motley  and  undisci- 
plined bands  of  all  nations,  were  routed,  and  driven  towards  the  shore, 
and  into   the  adjoining   morasses.      Hastily  concentrating   his  two 
wings,  Miltiades  next  directed  their  united  force  against  the  flanks  of 
the  Persian  centre,  which,  deeming  itself  victorious,  was  taken  com- 
pletely by  surprise.     In  a  few  minutes  victory  decided  in  favor  of  the 
Greeks.     The  Persians  fled  in  disorder  to  their  ships;    but  many 
perished  in  the  marshes ;  the  shore  was  strewn  with  their  dead, — and 
seven  of  their  ships  were  destroyed.     The  loss  of  the  Persians  was 
6,400  :  that  of  the  Athenians,  not  including  the  Platae'  ans,  only  192. 

6.  Such  was  the  famous  battle  of  Mar'  athon ;  but  the  glory  of 
the  victory  is  not  to  be  measured  wholly  by  the  disparity  of  the 
numbers  engaged,  when  compared  with  the  result.     The  Persians 
were  strong  in  the  terror  of  their  name,  and  in  the  renown  of  their 
conquests ;  and  it  required  a  most  heroic  resolution  in  the  Athenians 
to  face  a  danger  which  they  had  not  yet  learned  to  despise.     The 
victory  was  viewed  by  the  people  as  a  deliverance  vouchsafed  to  the 
Grecians  by  the  gods  themselves  :  the  marvellous  legends  of  the  battle 
attributed  to  the  heroes  prodigies  of  valor  ;  and  represented  Theseus 
and  Her'  cules  as  sharing  in  the  fight,  and  dealing  death  to  the  flying 
barbarians ;  while  to  this  day  the  peasant  believes  the  field  of  Mar'  a- 
thon  to  be  haunted  with  spectral  warriors,  whose  shouts  are  heard  at 
midnight,  borne  on  the  wind,  and  rising  above  the  din  of  battle. 

7.  The  victory  obtained  by  the  Greeks  at  Mar'  athon  terminated 
the  first  war  with  Persia.     Soon  after  the  Persian  defeat,  Miltiades, 
who  at  first  received  all  the  honors  which  a  grateful  people  could  be- 
stow, experienced  a  fate  which  casts  a  melancholy  gloom  over  his 
history.     Being  unfortunate  in  an  expedition  which  he  led  against  Pa- 
ros,1  and  which  he  induced  the  Athenians  to  intrust  to  him,  without 
informing  them  of  its  destination,  he  was  accused  of  having  deceived 

1.  P&ros  is  an  island  of  the  JK  gean  sea,  of  the  group  of  the  Cyc' lades,  about  seventy-five 
miles  south-east  from  Attica.  It  is  about  twelve  miles  iti  length  by  eight  in  breadth,  rugged 
and  uneven,  but  generally  very  fertile.  Paros  was  famous  in  antiquity  for  its  marble,  although 
that  obtained  from  Mount  Pentel'  icus  in  Attica  was  of  the  purest  white.  In  modern  times 
Paros  has  become  distinguished  for  the  discovery  there  of  the  celebrated  "Parian  or  Arunde- 
lian  Chronicle,"  cut  in  a  marble  slab,  and  purporting  to  be  a  chronological  account  of  Grecian 


CHAP.  IV.]  GRECIAN  HISTORY.  77 

the  people,  or,  as  some  say,  of  having  received  a  bribe.  Unable  to 
defend  his  cause  before  the  people  on  account  of  an  injury  which  he 
had  received  at  Paros,  he  was  impeached  before  the  popular  judica- 
ture as  worthy  of  death ;  and  although  the  proposition  of  his  accusers 
was  rejected,  he  was  condemned  to  pay  a  fine  of  fifty  talents.  A  few 
days  later  Miltiades  died  of  his  wound,  and  the  fine  was  paid  by  his 
son  Cimon. 

8.  After  the  death  of  Miltiades,  Themis'  tocles  and  Aristides  be- 
come, for  a  time,  the  most  prominent  men  among  the  Athenians.    The 
former,  a  most  able  statesman,  being  influenced  by  ambitious  motives, 
aimed  to  make  Athens  great  and  powerful,  that  he  himself  might  rise 
to  greater  eminence  with  the  growing  fortunes  of  the  state ; — the  latter, 
a  pure  patriot,  had,  like  Themis'  tocles,  the  good  of  Athens  at  heart, 
but,  unlike  his  rival,  he  was  wholly  destitute  of  selfish  ambition,  and 
knew  no  cause  but  that  of  justice  and  the  public  welfare.     His  known 
probity  acquired  for  him  the  appellation  of  The  Just ;  but  his  very 
integrity  made  for  him  secret  enemies,  who,  although  they  charged  him 
with  no  crimes,  were  yet  able  to  procure  from  the  people  the  penalty  of 
banishment  against  him  by  ostracism.1    His  removal  left  Themis'  tocles 
in  possession  of  almost  undivided  power  at  Athens,  and  threw  upon 
him  chiefly  the  responsibility  of  the  measure  for  resisting  another 
Persian  invasion,  with  which  the  Greeks  were  now  threatened. 

9.  Darius  made  great  preparations  for  invading  Greece  in  person, 
when  death  put  an  end  to  his  ambitious  projects.     Ten  years  after 
the  battle  of  Mar'athon,  Xerxes,  the  son  and  successor    n  SECOND 
of  Darius,  being  determined  to  execute  the  plans  of  his  PERSIAN  WAR. 
father,  entered  Greece  at  the  head  of  an  army  the  greatest  the  world 
has  ever  seen,  and  whose  numbers  have  been  estimated  at  more  than 
two  millions  of  fighting  men.     This  immense  force,  passing  through 
Thes'  saly,  had  arrived,  without  opposition,  at  the  strait  of  Thermop'- 
ylse,2  where  Xerxes  found  a  body  of  eight  thousand  men,  command- 
history  from  the  time  of  Cecrops  to  the  year  2G1  B.  C.    The  pretence  of  Miltiades  in  attacking 
Paros  was  that  the  inhabitants  had  aided  the  Persians ;  but  Herod'  otus  assures  us  that  his 
real  motive  was  a  private  grudge  against  a  Parian  citizen.    The  injury  of  which  he  died  was 
caused  by  a  fall  that  he  received  while  attempting  to  visit  by  night,  a  Pftrian  priestess  of  Ceres, 
who  had  promised  to  reveal  to  him  a  secret  that  would  place  Paros  in  his  power.     (Map  No.  III.) 

1.  The  mode  of  Ostracism  was  as  follows :  The  people  having  assembled,  each  man  took  a 
shell  (ostrakon)  and  wrote  on  it  the  name  of  the  person  whom  he  wished  to  have  banished. 
If  the  number  of  votes  thus  given  was  less  than  six  thousand,  the  ostracism  was  void ;  but  if 
more,  then  the  person  whose  name  was  on  the  greatest  number  of  shells  was  sent  into  banish 
ment  for  ten  years. 

2.  Thermop'  yla  is  a  narrow  defile  on  the  western  shore  of  the  Gulf  which  lies  between 
Eubre'a  and  Thessaly,  and  is  almost  the  only  road  by  which  Greece  can  be  entered  on  the 


78  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART  L 

ed  by  the  Spartan  king  Leon'  Idas,  prepared  to  dispute  the  passage. 
Xerxes  sent  a  herald  to  the  Greeks,  commanding  them  to  lay  down 
their  arms;  but  Leon'idas  replied  with  true  Spartan  brevity,  "come 
and  take  them."  When  one  said  that  the  Persians  were  so  numerous 
that  their  very  darts  would  darken  the  sun,  "  Then,"  replied  Dieneces, 
a  Spartan,  "we  shall  fight  in  the  shade." 

1 0.  After  repeated  and  unavailing  efforts,  during  two  days,  to  break 
the  Grecian  lines,  the  confidence  of  Xerxes  had  changed  into  de- 
spondence and  perplexity,  when  a  deserter  revealed  to  him,  for  a  large 
reward,  a  secret  path  over  the  mountains,  by  which  he  was  enabled 
to  throw  a  force  of  twenty  thousand  men  into  the  rear  of  the  Gre- 
cians.    Leon'idas,  seeing  that  his  post  was  no  longer  tenable,  dis- 
missed all  his  allies  who  were  willing  to  retire,  retaining  with  him 
only  three  hundred  fellow  Spartans,  with  some  Thes'  pians  and  The- 
bans,  in  all  about  a  thousand  men.     The  Spartans  were  forbidden  by 
their  laws  ever  to  flee  from  an  enemy ;  and  Leon'  idas  and  his  coun- 
trymen, and  their  Thes'  pian  allies,a  prepared  to  sell  their  lives  as 
dearly  as  possible.     Falling  suddenly  upon  the  enemy,  they  pene- 
trated to  the  very  centre  of  the  Persian  host,  slaying  two  brothers  of 
Xerxes,   and  fighting  with  the  valor  of   desperation,  until   every 
one  of  their  number   had   fallen.      A  monument  was    afterwards 
erected  on  the  spot,  bearing  the  following  inscription  :  "  Go  stranger, 
and   tell   at  Lacedsemon   that  we  died   here  in  obedience  to  her 
laws." 

1 1.  Previous  to  the  last  attack  of  the  Spartans,  two  of  their  num- 
ber, Enrytus  and  Aristodemus,  were  absent  on  leave,  suffering  from 
a  severe  complaint  of  the  eyes.     Enrytus,  being  informed  that  the 
hour  for  the  detachment  was  come,  called  for  his  armor,  and  direct- 
ing his  servant  to  lead  him  to  his  place  in  the  ranks,  fell  foremost  in 
the  fight.     Aristodemus,  overpowered  with  physical  suffering,  was 
carried  to  Sparta ;  but  he  was  denounced  as  a  coward  for  not  imi- 

north-east,  by  way  of  Thessaly.  This  famous  pass,  which  is  shut  in  between  steep  preci- 
pices and  the  sea,  at  the  eastern  extremity  of  Mount  OE'ta,  is  about  five  miles  in  length,  and, 
where  narrowest,  was  not  anciently,  according  to  Herod'  otus,  more  than  half  a  plethron,  or 
fifty  feet  across,  although  Livy  says  sixty  paces.  The  pass  has  long  been  gradually  widening, 
however,  by  the  deposits  of  soil  brought  down  by  the  mountain  streams.  In  the  narrowest 
part  of  the  pass  were  hot  springs,  from  which  the  defile  derives  its  name.  (Thermos,  "hot," 
and  pule,  a  "  gate"  or  "  pass.")  (Map  No.  I.) 

a.  The  Thebans  took  part  in  the  beginning  of  the  fight,  to  save  appearances,  but  finally  sur- 
rendered to  the  Persians,  loudly  proclaiming  that  they  had  come  to  Thermop'  ylae  against  their 
consent.  The  story  that  Leon'  idas  made  a  night  attack,  ind  penetrated  nearly  to  the  royal 
tent,  is  a  mere  fiction.  (See  Orote,  v  92.  Note.) 


CHAP.  IV.]  GRECIAN  HISTORY.  79 

tating  his  comrade — no  one  would  speak  or  communicate  with  him, 
or  even  grant  him  a  light  for  his  fire.  After  a  year  of  bitter  dis- 
grace, he  was  at  length  enabled  to  retrieve  his  honor  at  the  battle 
ofPlatse'a,  where  he  was  slain,  after  surpassing  all  his  comrades  in 
heroic  and  even  reckless  valor.a 

12.  After  the  fall  of  Leon'  idas,  the  Persians  ravaged  At'  tica,  and 
soon  appeared  before  Athens,  which  they  burned  to  the  ground,  but 
which  had  previously  been  deserted  of  its  inhabitants, — those  able  to 
bear  arms  having  retired  to  the  island  of  Sal'  amis,  while  the  old  and 
infirm,  the  women  and  children,  had  found  shelter  in  Trezene,1  a 
city  of  Ar'  golis.     The  allied  Grecians  took  possession  of  the  Corin- 
thian Isthmus,  which  they  fortified  by  a  wall,  and  committed  to  the 
defence  of  Cleom'  brotus,  a  brother  of  Leon'  idas. 

13.  Xerxes  next  made  preparations  to  annihilate  the  power  of  the 
Grecians  in  a  naval  engagement,  and  sent  his  whole  fleet  to  block  up 
that  of  the  Greeks  in  the  narrow  strait  of  Sal'  amis.     Eurybiadcs, 
the  Spartan,  who  commanded  the  Grecian  fleet,  was  in  favor  of  sail- 
ing to  the  isthmus,  that  the  naval  and  land  forces  might  act  in  con- 
junction, but  Themis'  tocles  finally  prevailed  upon  him  to  hazard  an 
engagement,  and  his  counsels  were  enforced  by  Aristides,  now  in  the 
third  year  of  his  exile,  who  crossed  over  in  a  small  boat  from  jEgina 
with  intelligence  o*f  the  exact  position  of  the  Persian  fleet ; — a  cir- 
cumstance that  at  once  put  an  end  to  the  rivalry  between  the  two 
Athenians,  and  led  to  the  restoration  of  Aristides. 

14.  Xerxes  had  caused  a  royal  throne  to  be  erected  on  one  of  the 
neighboring  heights,  where,  surrounded  by  his  army,  he  might  wit- 
ness the  battle  of  Sal'  amis,  in  which  he  was  confident  of  victory  ;  but 
he  had  the  misfortune  to  see  his  magnificent  navy  almost  utterly  an- 
nihilated.    Terrified  at  the  result,  he  hastily  fled  across  the  Hel'  les- 
pont,a  and  retired  into  his  own  dominions,  leaving  Mardonius,  at  the 
head  of  three  hundred  thousand  men,  to  complete,  if  possible,  the 
conquest  of  Greece.      Mardonius  passed  the  winter  in  Thes'saly, 
but  in  the  following  summer  his  army  was  totally  defeated  and  him- 

1.  Trezene  was  near  the  south-eastern  extremity  of  Ar'  golis.    Its  ruins  may  be  seen  near  the 
email  modern  village  of  Damala. 

2.  The  Hel'  lespont  (now  called  Dardanelles),  is  the  narrow  strait  which  connects  the  sea  of 
Marmora  with  the  JE'  gean.    It  is  about  forty  miles  in  length,  and  varies  in  breadth  from  three 
quarters  of  a  mile  to  ten  miles.    The  Dardanelles,  from  which  the  modern  name  of  the  strait 
is  derived,  are  castles,  or  forts,  built  on  its  banks.    The  strait,  being  the  key  to  Constantinople 
and  the  Black  Sea,  has  been  very  strongly  fortified  on  both  sides  by  the  Turks.    (Map  No.  IV.) 

a.  Grote,  v.  95. 


80  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART  L 

self  slain  in  the  battle  of  Platge'  a.  (B.  C.  479.)  Two  hundred  thou- 
sand Persians  fell  in  battle,  and  only  a  small  remnant  escaped  across 
the  Hel'  lespont— rthe  last  Persian  army  that  gained  a  footing  on  the 
Grecian  territory.  On  the  very  day  of  the  battle  of  Platse'  a,  the  re- 
mains of  the  Persian  fleet  which  had  escaped  at  Sal'  amis,  and  which 
had  been  drawn  up  on  shore  at  Myc'  ale,1  on  the  coast  of  Ionia,  were 
burned  by  the  Grecians,  and  Tigranes,  the  Persian  commander,  and 
forty  thousand  of  his  men,  slain.  Six  years  later  the  career  of  Xerxes 
was  terminated  by  assassination,  when  he  was  succeeded  on  the 
throne  by  his  son,  Artaxerx'  es  Longim'  anus. 

15.  In  the  meantime,  Athens  had  been  rebuilt  by  the  vigor  and 
energy  of  Themis'  tocles,  and  the  Pirae'  us  fortified,  and  connected, 
by  long  walls,  with  the  town,  while  Sparta  looked  with  ill-disguised 
jealousy  upon  the  growing  power  of  a  rival  city.     But  the  eminence 
which  Themis'  tocles  had  attained  provoked  the  envy  of  some  of  his 
countrymen,  and  he  was  condemned  to  exile  by  the  same  process  of 
ostracism  which  he  himself  had  before  directed  against  Aristides. 
Being  afterwards  charged  with  conspiring  against  the  liberties  of 
Greece,  he  sought  refuge  in  Persia,  where  he  is  said  to  have  ended 
his  life  by  poison.     Cimon,  the  son  of  Miltiades,  succeeded  Themis'- 
tocles  in  the  chief  direction  of  Athenian  affairs,  while  Pausanias,  the 
hero  of  Platge'  a,  was  at  the  head  of  the  Spartans.     Under  these 
leaders  the  confederate  Greeks  waged  successful  war  upon  the  de- 
pendencies of  Persia  in  the  islands  of  the  JQ'  gean,  and  on  the  coasts 
of  Thrace  and  Asia  Minor.     The  Ionian  cities  were  aided  in  a  suc- 
cessful revolt ;  Cy'  prus2  was  wrested  from  the  power  of  the  Per- 
sians ;  and  Byzan'  tium,3  already  a  flourishing  city,  fell,  with  all  its 
wealth,  into  the  hands  of  the  Grecians.  (B.  C.  476.) 

16.  Cimon  carried  on  a  successful  war  against  Persia  many  years 
later,  during  which  the  commercial  power  and  wealth  of  the  Athe- 
nians were  continually  increasing  ;  but  both  parties  finally  becoming 
tired  of  the  contest,  after  the  death  of  Cimon  a  treaty  of  peace  was 
concluded  with  the  Persian  monarch,  which  stipulated  that  the  16- 


1.  Myc'  ale  was  a  promontory  of  Ionia  in  Asia  Minor,  opposite  the  southern  extremity  of  the 
island  of  Samos.    (Map  No.  IV.) 

2.  Cy'prus  is  a  large  and  fertile  island  near  the  north-eastern  angle  of  the  Mediterranean, 
between  Asia  Minor  and  Syria : — greatest  length,  one  hundred  and  thirty-two  miles ;  average 
breadth,  from  thirty  to  thirty-flve  miles.    Under  the  oppressive  rule  of  the  Turks,  who  con- 
quered the  island  from  the  Venetians  in  1571,  agriculture  was  greatly  neglected,  and  the  popu- 
lation reduced  to  one-seventh  of  its  former  number.    (Maps  Nos.  IV.  and  V.) 

3.  Byzan'  tium,  now  Constantinople.    See  description,  p.  218. 


CHAP.  IV.]  GRECIAN  HISTORY.  81 

nian  cities  in  Asia  should  be  left  in  the  free  enjoyment  of  their  inde- 
pendence, and  that  no  Persian  army  should  come  within  three  days' 
march  of  the  sea-coast. a 

1 7.  While  the  war  with  Persia  continued,  a  sense  of  common  dan- 
gers had  united  the  Greeks  in  a  powerful  and  prosperous  confederacy, 
but  now  jealousies  broke  out  between  several  of  the  rival  cities, 
particularly  Athens  and  Sparta,  which  led  to  political  dissensions 
and  civil  wars,  the  cause  of  the  final  ruin  of  the  Grecian  republics. 
The  authority  of  Cimon  among  the  Athenians  had  gradually  yielded 
to  the  growing  influence  of  his  rival  Per'  icles,  who,  bold,  artful,  and 
eloquent, — a   general,  philosopher,   and   statesman, — managed  the 
multitude  at  his  will,  and  by  his  patronage  of  literature  and  the  arts, 
and  the  extension  of  the  Athenian  power,  raised  Athens  to  the  sum- 
mit of  her  renown.     Sparta  looked  on  with  ill-disguised  jealousy  as 
island  after  island  in  the  M'  gean  yielded  to  the  sway  of  Athens,  and 
saw  not  with  unconcern  the  colonies  of  her  rival  peopling  the  wind 
ing  shores  of  Thrace  and  Macedon.     Athens  had  become  the  mis- 
tress of  the  seas,  while  her  commerce  engrossed  nearly  the  whole 
trade  of  the  Mediterranean. 

18.  But  Sparta  was  also  powerful  in  her  resources,  and  in  the 
military  renown  and  warlike  character  of  her  people,  and  she  dis- 
dained the  luxuries  that  were  enervating  the  Athenians.     Complaints 
and  reclamations  were  frequent  on  both  sides ;  and  occasions  for 
war,  when  sought  by  both  parties,  are  not  long  delayed.     But  while 
the  Spartans  were  secretly  favoring  the  enemies  of  Athens,  although 
still  in  avowed  allegiance  with  her,  Laconia  was  laid  waste  by  an 
earthquake  (464  B.  C.),  and  Sparta  became  a  heap  of  ruins.     A  re 
volt  of  the  Helots  followed ;  Sparta  itself  was  endan-    m  THIED 
gered ;  and  the  remnant  of  the  Messenians,  making  a    MESSENIAN 
vigorous  effort  to  recover  their  freedom,  fortified  the       WAE* 
memorable   hill  of  Ithome,   the  ancient  citadel  of  their  fathers. 
Here,  for  a  long  time,  they  valiantly  defended  themselves  ;  and  the 
Spartans  were  compelled  to  invoke  the  Athenians  and  others  to  their 
assistance.  (461  B.  C.)     After  several  years'  duration,  the  third  and 
last  Messenian  war  was  terminated  by  an  honorable  capitulation  of 
the  Messenians,  who  were  allowed  to  retire  from  the  Peloponnesus 

a.  The  story  of  this  famous  treaty,  however,  generally  called  the  Cimonian  treaty,  and  attrib- 
uted to  Cimon  himself,  has  been  regarded  by  some  writers  as  a  fiction,  which,  originating  in 
the  schools  of  Greek  rhetoricians,  was  transmitted  thence  through  the  orators  to  the  historians. 
(See  Thirwall,  i.  p.  305,  and  note.)  Grote,  however,  v.  336-42,  admits  the  reality  of  the  treaty 
but  places  it  after  the  death  of  Cimon. 

6 


82  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PAET  L 

with  their  property  and  their  families,  and  to  join  the  Athenian  col- 
ony of  Naupac'  tus. 

19.  While  the  Athenians  were  engaged  in  hostilities  with  several 
of  their  northern  neighbors,  Sparta  sent  her  forces  into  the  Boeo- 
tian territory,  to  counteract  the  growing  influence  of  Athens  in 
that  quarter.     The  indignant  Athenians  marched  out  to  meet  them, 
but  were  worsted  in  the  battle  of  Tan'  agra.1     In  the  following  year, 
however,  they  were  enabled  to  wipe  off  the  stain  of  their  defeat  by  a 
victory  over  the  aggregate  Theban  and  Boeotian  forces  then  in  alli- 
ance with  Sparta ;  whereby  the  authority  and  influence  of  Sparta 
were  again  confined  to  the  Peloponnesus. 

20.  Other  events  soon  occurred  to  embitter  the  animosities  of  the 
rival  States,  and  prepare  the  way  for  a  general  war.     Corinth,  a 
Dorian  city  favorable  to  Sparta,  having  become  involved  in  a  war 
with  Corey'  ra,2  one  of  her  colonies,  the  latter  applied  for  and  ob- 
tained assistance  from  Athens.     Potidse'  a,3  a  Corinthian  colony  trib- 
utary to  Athens,  soon  after  revolted,  at  the  same  time  claiming  and 
obtaining  the  assistance  of  the  Corinthians ;  and  thus  in  two  in- 
stances were  Athens  and  Corinth,  though  nominally  at  peace,  brought 
into  conflict  with  each  other  as  open  enemies.     The  Corinthians,  now 
accusing  Athens  of  interfering  between  them  and  their  colonies, 

iv   FIRST     cnarged  her  with  violating  a  treaty  of  the  confederated 
PELOPONNE-  States  of  the  Peloponnesus,  and  easily  engaged  the  Lace- 
SIAN  WAR.    (jggjnfoiang  m  their  quarrel.     Such  were  the  immediate 
causes  which  opened  the  First  Peloponnesian  War. 

21.  The  minor  States  of  Greece  took  sides  as  inclination  or  inter- 
est prompted,  and  nearly  all  were  involved  in  the  contest.     The 
Spartans  and  their  confederates  were  the  most  powerful  by  land, 
the  Athenians  by  sea ;  and  each  began  the  war  by  displaying  its 
strength  on  its  peculiar  element.     While  a  Spartan  army  of  sixty 
thousand,  led  by  their  'king,  Archidamus,  ravaged  At'  tica,  and   sat 
down  before  the  very  gates  of  Athens,  the  naval  force  of  the  Athen 

1.  Tan'  agra,  a  city  near  the  south-eastern  extremity  of  Bce6tia,  was  situated  ou  an  emi- 
nence on  the  northern  bank  of  the  river  Asopus,  and  near  its  mouth.    ( Map  No.  1.) 

2.  Corey'  ra,  now  Corfu,  the  most  important,  although  not  the  largest,  of  the  Ionian  islands, 
is  situated  near  the  coast  of  Epirus,  in  the  Ionian  Sea.    At  its  northern  extremity  it  is  separated 
from  the  coast  by  a  channel  only  three-fifths  of  a  mile  wide.    The  strongly-fortified  city  of  Corfu, 
the  capital  of  the  Ionian  Republic,  stands  on  the  site  of  the  ancient  city  of  Corey'  ra,  on  the 
eastern  side  of  the  island. 

3.  PotidtB'  a  was  situated  on  the  isthmus  that  connects  the  most  western  of  the  three  Mace- 
donian peninsulas  in  the  JE'  gean  with  the  main  land.    There  are  no  remains  of  the  city  exist- 
ing.   (Map  No.  L) 


CHAP.  IV.]  GRECIAN  HISTORY.  83 

ians,  consisting  of  nearly  two  hundred  galleys,  desolated  the  coasts  of 
the  Peloponnesus.  (B.  C.  431.)  The  Spartans  being  recalled  to  pro- 
tect their  own  homes,  Per'  icles  himself,  at  the  head  of  the  largest 
force  mustered  by  the  Athenians  during  the  war,  spread  desolation 
over  the  little  territory  of  Meg'  ara,1  then  in  alliance  with  Sparta. 

22.  In  the  following  year  (B.  C.  430)  the  Spartan  force  a  second 
time  invaded  At'  tica,  when  the  Athenians  again  took  refuge  within 
their  walls ;  but  here  the  plague,  a  calamity  more  dreadful  than  war, 
attacked  them,  and  swept  away  multitudes  of  the  citizens,  and  many 
of  the  principal  men.     In  the  third  year  of  the  war,  Per'  icles  him- 
self fell  a  victim  to  its  ravages.     Before  this,  Potidae'  a  had  surren- 
dered to  the  Athenians  (B.  C.  430),  who  banished  the  inhabitants, 
and  gave  their  vacant  lands  and  houses  to  new  colonists ;  and  when 
Platae'a,  after  a  siege  of  three  years,  was  compelled  to  surren- 
der to  the  Spartans,  the  latter  cruelly  put  the  little  remnant  of  the 
garrison  to  death,  while  the  women  and  children  were  made  slaves 
(B.  C.  427.) 

23.  After  the  struggle  had  continued  with  various  success  ten 
years,  both  parties  became  anxious  for  peace,  and  a  treaty,  for  a 
term  of  fifty  years,  called  the  peace  of  Nic'  ias,  was  concluded,  on 
the  basis  of  a  mutual  restitution  of  all  conquests  made  during  the 
war.  (421  B.  C.)     Yet  interest  and  inclination,  and  the  ambitious 
views  of  party  leaders  among  the  Athenians,  were  not  long  in  find- 
ing plausible  pretexts  for  renewing  the  struggle.     The  Boeotian, 
Megarian,  and  Corinthian  allies  of  Sparta,  refused  to  accede  to  the 
terms  of  the  treaty  by  making  the  required  surrenders,  and  Sparta 
had  no  power  to  compel  them,  while  Athens  would  accept  no  leas 
than  she  had  bargained  for. 

24.  At  the  head  of  the  party  which  aimed  at  severing  the  ties 
that  bound  Athens  and  Sparta  together,  was  Alcibiades,  a  wealthy 
Athenian,  and  nephew  of  Per'  icles, — a  man  ambitious,  bold,  and 
eloquent, — an  artful  demagogue,  but  corrupt  and  unprincipled,  and 
reckless  of  the  means  he  used  to  accomplish  his  purposes.     By  his 
artifices  he  involved  the  Spartans  in  a  war  with  their  recent  allies 
the  Ar'  gives,  and  induced  the  Athenians  to   send  an  armament 
against  the  Dorian  island  of  Melos,2  which  had  provoked  the  enmity 

1.  Meg'  ara,  a  city  of  At'  tica,  and  capital  of  a  district  of  the  same  name,  was  about  twenty- 
five  miles  west,  or  north-west,  of  Athena,  and  was  connected  with  the  port  of  Nis'  sa  on  the 
Saron'  ic  Gulf  by  two  walla  similar  to  those  which  connected  Athena  and  the  Pirae'  us.    The 
miserable  village  of  Meg'  ara  occupies  a  part  of  the  site  of  the  ancient  city.    (Map  No.  I.) 

2.  Melos,  now  called  Milo,  is  an  island  belonging  to  the  group  of  the  Cyc'  lades,  about  seventy 


84  ANCIENT   HISTORY.  [PART  I 

of  Athens  by  its  attachment  to  Sparta,  and  which  was  compelled, 
after  a  vigorous  siege,  to  surrender  at  discretion.  With  deliberate 
cruelty  the  conquerors,  imitating  the  Spartans  at  the  reduction  of 
Platse'a,  put  to  death  all  the  adult  citizens,  and  enslaved  the  women 
and  children — an  act  which  provoked  universal  indignation  through- 
out Greece.  (B.  C.  416.) 

25.  Soon  after  the  surrender  of  Melos,  the  Athenians,  at  the  in- 
stigation of  Alcibiades,  fitted  out  an  expedition  against  Sicily,1  un- 
der the  plea  of  delivering  a  people  in  the  western  part  of  the  island 
from  the  tyranny  of  the  Syracusans,2  a  Dorian  colony ;  but,  in  reality, 
to  establish  the  Athenian  supremacy  in  the  island.  (415  B,  C.) 
v.  SICILIAN  The  armament  fitted  out  on  this  occasion,  the  most 
EXPEDITION,  powerful  that  had  ever  left  a  Grecian  port,  was  intrust- 
ed to  the  joint  command  of  Alcibiades,  Nic'  ias,  and  Lam'  achus ; 
but  ere  the  fleet  had  reached  its  destination,  Alcibiades  was  sum- 
moned home  on  the  absurd  charge  of  impiety  and  sacrilege,  con- 
nected with  designs  against  the  State  itself.  Fearing  to  trust 
himself  to  the  giddy  multitude  in  a  trial  for  life,  he  at  once  threw 
himself  upon  the  generosity  of  his  open  enemies,  and  sought  refuge 

miles  east  from  the  southern  part  of  Laconia.  It  has  one  of  the  best  harbors  in  the  Grecian 
Archipelago.  Near  the  lown  of  Castro  have  been  discovered  the  remains  of  a  theatre  built  of 
the  finest  marble,  and  also  numerous  catacombs  cut  in  the  solid  rock.  (Map  No.  III.) 

1.  Sicily,  the  largest,  most  important,  most  fruitful,  and  most  celebrated  island  of  the  Medi- 
terranean, is  separated  from  the  southern  extremity  of  Italy  by  the  strait  of  Messina,  only  two 
miles  across,  and  is  eighty-five  miles  distant  from  Cape  Bon  in  Africa.    It  is  of  a  triangular  shape, 
and  was  anciently  called   Trinacria,  from  its  terminating  in  three  promontories.    Sicily,  the 
name  by  which  it  is  usually  known,  seems  to  have  been  derived  from  the  Siculi,  its  earliest 
known  inhabitants.    Its  length  east  and  west  is  about  two  hundred  and  fifteen  miles ; — greatest 
breadth,  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles.    The  volcano  ^Etna,  the  most  celebrated  of  European 
mountains,  near  the  eastern  coast  of  the  island,  rises  to  the  height  of  nearly  eleven  thousand 
feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.    (Map  No.  VIII.    For  history  of  Sicily,  see  p.  115.) 

2.  Syracuse,  the  most  famous  of  the  cities  of  Sicily,  was  situated  on  the  south-eastern  coast, 
partly  on  a  small  island,  and  partly  on  the  main  land.    Among  the  existing  remains  of  the 
ancient  city  are  the  prisons,  cut  in  the  solid  rock,  which  have  been  admirably  described  by 
Cicero  in  his  oration  against  Verres.    The  catacombs,  also  excavated  in  the  solid  rock,  and 
consisting  of  one  principal  street  and  several  smaller  ones,  are  of  vast  extent,  and  may  be  truly 
called  a  city  of  the  dead.    The  modern  city,  however,  containing  a  population  of  twelve  or  fif- 
teen thousand  inhabitants,  has  little  except  its  ancient  renown,  its  noble  harbor,  and  the  ex- 
treme beauty  of  its  situation,  to  recommend  it.    (Map  No.  VIII.)    "  Its  streets  are  narrow  and 
dirty ;  its  nobles  poor ;  its  lower  orders  ignorant,  superstitious,  idle,  and  addicted  to  festivals. 
Much  of  its  fertile  land  is  become  a  pestilential  marsh  ;  and  that  commerce  which  once  filled 
the  finest  port  in  Europe  with  the  vessels  of  Italy,  Rhodes,  Alexandria,  Carthage,  and  every 
other  maritime  power,  is  now  confined  to  a  petty  coasting  trade.    Such  is  modern  Syracuse. 
Yet  the  sky  which  canopies  it  is  still  brilliant  and  serene ;  the  golden  grain  is  still  ready  to 
spring  almost  spontaneously  from  its  fields ;  the  azure  waves  still   beat  against  its  walls  to 
send  its  nnvies  over  the  main ;  nature  is  still  prompt  to  pour  forth  her  bounties  with  a  liberal 
hand  ;  but  man,  alas !  is  changed ;  his  liberty  is  lost ;  and  with  that,  the  genius  of  a  nation 
ris«s,  siaks,  and  is  extinguished." — Hughes'1  Ch-eece. 


CHAP.  IV.]  GRECIAN  HISTORY.  85 

at  Sparta.  When,  soon  after,  he  heard  that  the  Athenians  had  con- 
demned him  to  death,  "  I  hope,"  said  he,  "  to  show  them  that  I  am 
still  alive." 

26.  By  the  death  of  Lam'  achus,  Nic'  ias  was  soon  after  left  in 
sole  command  of  the  Athenian  forces  before  Syracuse,  but  he  wasted 
his  time  in  fortifying  his  camp,  and  in  useless  negotiations,  until  the 
Syracusans,  having  received  succor  from  Corinth  and  Sparta  under 
the  famous  Spartan  general  Gylip'pus,  were  able  to  bid  him  defi- 
ance.    Although  new  forces  were  sent  out  from  Athens,  yet  the 
Athenians  were  defeated  in  several  engagements,  when,  still  linger- 
ing in  the  island,  their  entire  fleet  was  eventually  destroyed  by  the 
Syracusans,  who  thus  became  masters  of  the  sea.     The  Athenian 
forces  then  attempted  to  retreat,  but  were  overtaken  and  compelled 
to  surrender.     (B.  C.  413.)     The  generals  destroyed  themselves,  on 
learning  that  their  death  had  been  decreed  by  the  Syracusan  assem- 
bly.    The  common  soldiers,  to  the  number  of  seven  thousand,  were 
crowded  together  during  seventy  days  in  the  gloomy  prisons  of 
Syracuse,  when  most  of  the  survivors  were  taken  out  and  sold  as  slaves. 

27.  The  aid  which  Gylip'pus  had  rendered  the  Syracusans  again 
brought  Sparta  and  Athens  in  direct  conflict,  and  opened  the  second 
Peloponnesian  war.     The  result  of  the  Athenian  expe-   ^  SECOND 
dition  was  the  greatest  calamity  that  had  fallen  upon  PELOPONN& 
Athens.     Several  of  her  allies,  instigated  by  Alcibiades,    SIAN  WAB" 
who  was  now  active  in  the  Spartan  councils,  revolted;    and   the 
power  of  Tisapher'  nes,  the  most  powerful  satrap  of  the  king  of  Persia 
in  Asia  Minor,  was  on  the  point  of  being  thrown  into  the  scale  against 
the  Athenians,  when  a  rupture  between  the  Spartans  and  Alcibiades 
changed  the  aspect  of  affairs,  and  for  awhile  revived  the  waning 
glory  of  Athens.     By  his  intrigues,  Alcibiades,  who  now  sought  a 
reconciliation  with  his  countrymen,  detached  Tisapher'  nes  from  the 
interests  of  Sparta,  and  effected  a  change  of  government  at  Athens 
from  a  democracy  to  an  aristocracy  of  four  hundred  of  the  nobility ; 
but  the  new  government,  dreading  the  ambition  of  Alcibiades,  re- 
fused to  recall  him.     Another  change  soon  followed.     The  defeat  of 
the  Athenian  navy  at  Eretria,1  and  the  revolt  of  Euboa'  a,  produced 
a  new  revolution  at  Athens,  by  which  the  government  of  the  four 
hundred  was  overthrown,  and  democracy  restored.     Alcibiades  was 
immediately  recalled ;  but  before  his  return  he  aided  in  destroying 

1.  Eritna  was  a  town  on  the  western  coast  of  the  island  of  Eubce'  a.    Its  ruins  are  still  to 
be  seen  ten  or  twelve  miles  south-east  from  th«  present  Neg'  ropont.    (Map  No.  I.) 


86  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART  I. 

the  Peloponnesian  fleet  in  the  battle  of  Cys'icus.1  (B.  C.  411.) 
Soon  after,  Alcibiades  was  welcomed  at  Athens  with  great  enthusi- 
asm, a  golden  crown  was  decreed  him,  and  he  was  appointed  com- 
tnander-in-chief  of  all  the  forces  of  the  commonwealth  both  by  land 
*nd  by  sea. 

28.  Alcibiades  was  still  destined  to  experience  the  instability  of 
fortune,  for  when  one  of  his  generals,  contrary  to  instructions,  attacked 
the  Spartan  fleet  and  was  defeated,  an  unjust  suspicion  of  treachery 
fell  upon  Alcibiades  5  the  former  charges  against  him  were  revived, 
and  he  was  deprived  of  his  command  and  again  banished.     The 
affairs  of  Sparta  were  retrieved  by  the  crafty  Lysan'  der,  a  general 
whose  abilities  the  Athenians  could  not  match  since  they  had  de- 
prived themselves  of   the  services  of   Alcibiades.      The   Spartan 
general  had  the  art  to  gain  the  confidence  and  cooperation  of  Cyrus, 
a  younger  son  of  Darius  No'  thus,  the  Persian  king,  whom  the  latter 
bad  invested  with  supreme  authority  over  the  whole  maritime  re- 
gion of  Asia  Minor. 

29.  Aided  by  Persian  gold,  Lysan'  der  found  no  difficulty  in  man- 
ning a  numerous  fleet,  with  which  he  met  the  Athenians  at  jE'gos- 
Pot'  arnos.8     Here,  during  several  days,  he   declined  a  battle,  but 
seizing  the  opportunity  when  nearly  all  the  Athenians  were  dispersed 
on  shore  in  quest  of  supplies,  he  attacked  and  destroyed  all  their 
ships,  with  the  exception  of  eight  galleys,  and  took  three  thousand 
prisoners.     The  fate  of  the  prisoners  is  a  shocking  proof  of  the  bar- 
barous feelings  and  manners  of  the  age,  for  all  of  them  were  re- 
morselessly put  to  death,  in  revenge  for  some  recent  cruelties  of  the 
Athenians,  who  had  thrown  down  a  precipice  the  crews  of  two  captured 
vessels,  and  had  passed  a  decree  for  cutting  off  the  right  thumb  of 
the  prisoners  whose  capture  they  anticipated  in  the  coming  battle. 

30.  Thus,  in  one  short  hour,  by  the  culpable  negligence  of  their 
generals,  were  the  affairs  of  the  Athenians  changed  from  an  equality 
of  resources  with  their  enemy,  to  hopeless,  irretrievable  ruin.     The 
maritime  allies  of  Athens  immediately  submitted  to  Lysander,  who 
directed  the  Athenians  throughout   Greece   to  repair  at  once   to 
Athens,  with  threats  of  death  to  all  whom  he  found  elsewhere ;  and 

1.  Cys'  icus  was  an  island  of  the  Propon'  tis,  (now  sea  of  Marmora,)  on  the  northern  coast 
of  Mys'  ia.    It  was  separated  from  the  main  land  by  a  very  narrow  channel,  which  has  since 
been  filled  up,  and  it  is  now  a  peninsula.    (Map  No.  IV.) 

2.  JE' gos-Pot'  amos,  ("goat's  river")  was  a  small  stream  of  the  Thracian  Chersonesus,  which 
lows  into  the  Hellespont  from  the  west.    The  place  where  the  Athenians  landed,  appears  te 
have  been  "  a  mere  open  beach,  without  any  habitations."    (Thirwall,  i.  485.)    (Map  No.  IV  ) 


CHAP.  IV.]  GRECIAN  HISTORY.  87 

when  famine  began  to  prey  upon  the  collected  multitude  in  the 
city,  he  appeared  before  the  Pirse'  us  with  his  fleet,  while  a  large 
force  from  Sparta  blockaded  Athens  by  land.  The  Athenians  had 
no  hopes  of  effectual  resistance,  and  only  delayed  the  surrender  to 
plead  for  the  best  terms  that  could  be  obtained  from  the  conquerors. 
Compelled  at  last  to  submit  to  whatever  terms  were  dictated  to  them, 
they  agreed  to  destroy  the  long  walls,  and  the  fortifications  of  the 
Pirse'  us ;  to  surrender  all  their  ships  but  twelve ;  to  restore  their 
exiles ;  to  relinquish  their  conquests ;  to  become  a  member  of  the 
Peloponnesian  confederacy ;  and  to  serve  Sparta  in  all  her  expedi- 
tions, whether  by  sea  or  by  land.  (B.  C.  404.)  Thus  closed  the 
second  Peloponnesian  war,  in  the  profound  humiliation  of  Athens. 

31.  A  change  of  government  followed,  as  directed  by  Lysander, 
and  conformable  to  the  aristocratic  character  of  the  Spartan  institu- 
tions.    All  authority  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  thirty  archons, 
known  as  the  Thirty  Tyrants,  whose  power  was  supported  by  a 
Spartan  garrison.     Their  cruelty  and  rapacity  knew  no  bounds,  and 
filled  Athens  with  universal  dismay.     A  large  band  of  exiles  soon 
accumulated  in  the  friendly  Theban  territories,  and  choosing  Thrasy- 
biilus  for  their  leader,  they  resolved  to  strike  a  blow  for  the  deliver- 
ance of  their  country.     They  first  seized  a  small  fortress  on  the 
frontiers  of  Attica,  when,  their  numbers  rapidly  increasing,  they  were 
enabled  to  seize  the  Pirae'  us,  where  they  defeated  the  force  which 
was  brought  against  them.     The  rule  of  the  tyrants  was  overthrown, 
and  a  council  of  ten  was  elected  to  fill  their  places ;  but  the  latter 
emulated  the  wickedness  of  their  predecessors,  and,  when  the  popu- 
lace turned  against  them,  applied  to  Sparta  for  assistance.     But  the 
Spartan  councils  were  divided,  and  eventually,  by  the  aid  of  Sparta 
herself,  the  ten  were  deposed,  when,  the   Spartan  garrison  being 
withdrawn,  Athens  again  became  a  democracy,  with  the  power  in 
the  hands  of  the  people.     (B.  C.  403.) 

32.  It  was  during  the  rule  of  democracy  in  Athens  that  the  wise 
and  virtuous  Socrates,  the  best  and  greatest  of  Grecian  philosophers, 
was  condemned  to  death  on  the  absurd  charge  of  impiety,  and  of 
corrupting  the  morals  of  the  young.     His  accusers  appear  to  have 
been  instigated  by  personal  resentment,  which  he  had  innocently  pro- 
voked, and  by  envy  of  his  many  virtues ;  and  the  result  shows  not 
only  the  instability,  but  the  moral  obliquity  also,  of  the  Athenian 
character.     The  defence  which  Socrates  made  before  his  judges  is 
in  the  tone  of  a  man  who  demands  rewards  and  honors,  instead  of 


88  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PAET  L 

the  punishment  of  a  malefactor  ;  and  when  the  sentence  of  death  had 
been  pronounced  against  him,  he  spent  the  remaining  days  which  the 
laws  allowed  him  in  impressing  on  the  minds  of  his  friends  the  most 
sublime  lessons  in  philosophy  and  virtue ;  and  when  the  fatal  hour 
arrived,  drank  the  poison  with  as  much  composure  as  if  it  had  been 
the  last  draught  of  a  cheerful  banquet. 

33.  Cyrus  has  been  mentioned  as  one  of  the  sons  of  Darius  No'  thus, 
and  governor  of  the  maritime  region  of  Asia  Minor.     As  his  ambi- 
tion led  him  to  aspire  to  the  throne  of  Persia,  to  the  exclusion  of 
his  elder  brother,  Artaxerxes  Mnernon,  he  had  aided  Sparta  in  the 
Peloponnesian  war,  with  the  view  of  claiming,  in  return,  her  assist- 
ance against  his  brother,  should  he  ever  have  occasion  for  it.     When, 
therefore,  the  latter  was  promoted  to  the  throne  in  accordance  with 
the  dying  bequest  of  his  father,  Cyrus  prepared  for  the  execution 
of  his  design* by  raising  an  army  of  a  ^hundred  thousand  Persian 
and  barbarian  troops,  which  he  strengthened  by  an  auxiliary  force 
of  thirteen  thousand  Grecians,  drawn  principally  from  the   Greek 
cities  of  Asia.     On  the  Grecian  force,  commanded  by  the  Spartan 
Clear'  chus,  Cyrus  placed  his  main  reliance  for  success. 

34.  With  these  forces  he  marched  from  Sardis  in  the  Spring  of 
the  year  40 1 ,  and  with  little  difficulty  penetrated  into  the  heart  of 
the  Persian  empire,  when  he  was  met  by  Artaxerx'  es,  seventy  miles 
from  Babylon,  at  the  head  of  nine  hundred  thousand  men.     In  the 
battle  which  followed,  this  immense  force  was  at  first  routed ;  but 
Cyrus,  rashly  charging  the  centre  of  the  guards  who  surrounded  his 
brother,  was  slain  on  the  field,  when  the  whole  of  his  barbarian 
troops  took  to  flight,  leaving  the  Greeks  almost  alone  in  the  midst 
of  a  hostile  country,  more  than  a  thousand  miles  from  any  friendly 
territory. 

35.  The  Persians  proposed  to  the  Grecians  terms  of  accommo- 
dation, but  having  invited  their  leaders  to  a  conference  they  mer- 
cilessly put  them  to  death.     No  alternative  now  remained  to  the 
Greeks  but  to  submit  to  the  enemy,  or  fight  their  way  back  to 
their  native  country.     Where  submission  was  death  or  slavery  they 
could  not  hesitate  which  course  to  pursue.     They  chose  Xen'  ophon, 
a  young  Athenian,  for  their  leader,  and  under  his  conduct  ten  thou- 
sand of  their  number,  after  a  march  of  four  months,  succeeded  in 
reaching  Grecian  settlements  on  the  banks  of  the  Eux'  ine.     Xen  'o- 
phon  himself,  who  afterwards  became  the  historian  of  his  country, 
has  left  an  admirable  narrative  of  the  "  Retreat  of  the  Ten  Thou- 


CHAP.  IV.]  GRECIAN  HISTORY.  89 

sand,"  written  with  great  clearness  and  singular  modesty.  It  is  one 
of  the  most  interesting  works  bequeathed  us  by  antiquity,  as  the 
Retreat  itself  is  the  most  famous  military  expedition  on  record. 

36.  The  part  which  the  Greek  cities  of  Asia  took  in  the  expedi- 
tion of  Cyrus  involved  them  in  a  war  with  Persia,  in  which  they 
were  aided  by  the  Spartans,  who,  under  their  king  Agesilaus,  de- 
feated Tisapher'  nes  in  a  great  battle  in  the  plains  of  Sardis  (B.  G 
395) ;  but  Agesilaus  was  soon  after  recalled  to  aid  his    vn  THmD 
countrymen  at  home  in  another  Peloponnesian  war,  which  PELOPONNE- 
had  been  fomented  chiefly  by  the  Persian  king  himself,    SIAN  WAE' 
in  order  to  save  his  own  dominions  from  the  ravages  of  the  Spartans. 
Artaxerx'  es  supplied  Conon,  an  Athenian,  with  a  fleet  which  defeat- 
ed the  Spartan  navy ;  and  Persian  gold  rebuilt  the  walls  of  Athens. 
On  the  other  hand,  Athens  and  her  allies  were  defeated  in  the 
vicinity  of  Corinth,  and  on  the  plains  of  Coronea.1  (B.   C.   394). 
Finally,  after  the  war  had  continued  eight  years,  articles  of  peace 
were  arranged  between  Artaxerx' es  and  the  Spartan  Antal'cidas^ 
hence  called  the  peace  of  Antal'  cidas,  and  ratified  by  all  the  parties 
engaged  in  the  war,  almost  without  opposition.     (387  B.  C.)     The 
Greek  cities  in  Asia,  together  with  the  islands  Clazom'ense2  and 
Cy'  prus,  were  given  up  to  Persia,  and  the  separate  independence  of 
all  the  other  Greek  cities  was  guaranteed,  with  the  exception  of  the 
islands  Im'  brus,  Lem'  nos,  and  Scy'  rus,3  which,  as  of  old,  were  to 
belong  to  Athens. 

37.  The  terms  of  the  peace  of  Antal'  cidas,  directed  by  the  king  of 
Persia,  were  artfully  contrived  by  him  to  dissolve  the  power  of 
Greece  into  nearly  its  original  elements,  that  Persia  might  there- 
after have  less  to  fear  from  a  united  Greek  confederacy,  or  the  pre- 
ponderating influence  of  any  one  Grecian  State.     It  was  the  un- 
worthy jealousy  of  the  Grecians,  which  the  Persian  knew  how  to 
stimulate,  that  prompted  them  to  give  up  to  a  barbarian  the  free 
cities  of  Asia ;  and  this  is  the  darkest  shade  in  the  picture.     Both 
Athens  and  Sparta  lost  their  former  allies ;  and  though  Sparta  was 


1.  Coronka  was  a  city  of  Bceotia,  to  the  south-east  of  Charonea,  and  two  or  three  miles 
south-west  from  the  Copaic  Lake.  South  of  Coronea  was  Mount  Helicon.  (Map  No.  I.) 

"2.  The  Clazom'  ena  here  mentioned  was  a  small  island  near  the  Lydian  coast,  west  of 
Smyrna,  and  in  what  is  now  called  the  Gulf  of  Smyrna.  (Map  No.  IV.) 

3.  Im'  brus,  Lem'  nos,  and  Scy'  rus,  (now  Imbro,  Statimene,  and  Scyro,)  are  islands  of  the 
&'  gean.  The  first  is  about  ten  miles  west  from  the  entrance  to  the  Hel'  lespont,  and  the  second 
about  forty  miles  south-west.  Scy  rus  ia  ab  mt  twenty-five  miles  north-east  from  Euboe'  a. 
(Map  No.  III.) 


90  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART  I. 

the  most  strongly  in  favor  of  the  terms  of  the  treaty,  yet  Athens 
was  the  greatest  gainer,  for  she  once  more  became,  although  a  small, 
yet  an  independent  and  powerful  State. 

38.  It  was  not  long  before  ambition,  and  the  resentment  of  past 
injuries,  involved  Sparta  in  new  wars.     She  compelled  Mantinea,1 
which  had  formerly  been  her  unwilling  ally,  to   throw  down  her 
walls,  and  dismember  the  city  into  its  original  divisions,  under  the 
pretext  that  the  Mantineans  had  supplied  one  of  the  enemies  of 
Sparta  with  corn  during  the  preceding  war,  and  had  evaded  their 
share  of  service  in  the  Spartan  army.     The  jealousy  of  Sparta  was 
next  aroused  against  the  rising  power  of   Olyn'  thus,2  which  had 
become  engaged  in  hostilities  with  some  rival  cities ;  and  the  Spar- 
tans readily  accepted  an  invitation  of  the  latter  to  send  an  army  to 
their  aid.     As  one  of  the  Spartan  forces  was  marching  through  the 
Theban  territories  on  this  errand,  the  Spartan  general  fraudulently 
seized  upon  the   Cadmeia,  or  Theban  citadel,  although  a  state  of 
peace  existed  between  Thebes  and  Sparta.     (B.  C.  382.) 

39.  The  political  morality  of  the  Spartans  is  clearly  exhibited  in 
the  arguments  by  which  Agesilaus  justified  this  palpable  breach  of 
the  treaty  of  Antal'  cidas.     He  declared  that  the  only  question  for 
the  Spartan  people  to  consider,  was,  whether  they  were  gamers  or 
losers  by  the  transaction.     The  assertion  made  by  the  Athenians  on 
a  former  occasion  was  confirmed,  that,  "  of  all  States,  Sparta  had 
most  glaringly  shown  by  her  conduct  that  in  her  political  transactions 
she  measured  honor  by  inclination,  and  justice  by  expediency." 

40.  On  the  seizure  of  the  Theban  citadel  the  most  patriotic  of 
the  citizens  fled  to  Athens,  while  a  faction,  upheld  by  the  Spartan 
garrison,  ruled  the  city.     After  the  Thebans  had  submitted  to  this 
pke  four  years  they  rose  against  their  tyrants  and  put  them  to 
leath,  and  being  re-enforced  by  the  exiles,  and  an  Athenian  army, 
soon  forced  the  Spartan  garrison  to  capitulate.     (B.  C.  379.)     Pelop'- 
idas  and  Epaminon'  das  now  appeared  on  the  field  of  action,  and  by 
their  abilities  raised  Thebes,  hitherto  of  but  little  political  import- 


1.  Mantinea  was  in  the  eastern  part  of  Arcadia,  seventeen  miles  west  from  Ar'gos.    It  was 
situated  in  a  marshy  plain  through  which  flowed  the  small  river  A'  phis,  whose  waters  found 
a  subterranean  passage  to  the  sea.    Mantinea  is  wholly  indebted  for  its  celebrity  to  the  great 
battle  fought  in  its  vicinity  in  the  year  362  between  the  Spartans  and  Thebans.    (See  p.  91.) 
The  locality  of  the  battle  was  about  three  miles  southwest  from  the  city.    The  ruins  of  the 
ancient  town  may  be  seen  near  the  wretched  modern  hamlet  of  Palaiopoli.    (Map  No.  I.) 

2.  Olyn'  thus  was  in  the  south-eastern  part  of  Macedonia,  six  or  seven  miles  north-east  from 
Potida>'a.    (Map  No.  I.) 


CHAP.  IV.]  GRECIAN  HISTORY.  91 

ance,  to  the  first  rank  in  power  among  the  Grecian  States.  Al- 
though Athens  joined  Thebes  in  the  beginning  of  the  contest,  yet 
she  afterwards  took  the  side  of  the  Spartans.  At  Teg'  yra, 1  Pe- 
lop'  idas  defeated  a  greatly  superior  force,  and  killed  the  two  Spartan 
generals  ;  at  Leuc'  tra,3  Epaminon'  das,  with  a  force  of  six  thousand 
Thebans,  defeated  the  Lacedaemo'nian  army  of  more  than  double 
that  number.  (B.  C.  July  8,  371.)  Epammon' das  afterwards  in- 
vaded Laconia,  and  appeared  before  the  very  gates  of  Sparta,  where 
a  hostile  force  had  not  been  seen  during  five  hundred  years ;  and  at 
Mantinea  he  defeated  the  enemy  in  the  most  sanguinary  contest  ever 
fought  between  Grecians.  (B.  C.  362.)  But  Epaminon' das  fell  in 
the  moment  of  victory,  and  the  glory  of  Thebes  perished  with  him. 
A  general  peace  was  soon  after  established,  on  the  single  condition 
that  each  State  should  retain  its  respective  possessions. 

41.  Four  years  after  the  battle  of  Mantinea  the  Grecian  States 
again  became  involved  in  domestic  hostilities,  known  as  the  Sacred 
War,  the  second  in  Grecian  history  to  which  that  epi-  VIIL  SECOND 
thet  was  applied.3-  During  the  preceding  war,  the  Pho-  SACRED  WAR. 
cians,3  although  in  alliance  with  Thebes  by  treaty,  had  shown  such  a 
predilection  in  favor  of  Sparta,  that  the  animosity  of  the  Thebans 
was  roused  against  their  reluctant  ally,  and  they  availed  themselves 
of  the  first  opportunity  to  show  their  resentment.  The  Phocians 
having  taken  into  cultivation  a  portion  of  the  plain  of  Del'  phos, 
which  was  deemed  sacred  to  Apollo,  the  Thebans  caused  them  to 
be  accused  of  sacrilege  before  the  Amphictyon'  ic  council,  which  con- 
demned them  to  pay  a  heavy  fine.  The  Phocians  refused  obedience, 
and,  encouraged  by  the  Spartans,  on  whom  a  similar  penalty  had 
been  imposed  for  their  treacherous  occupation  of  the  Theban  citadel, 
took  up  arms  to  resist  the  decree,  and,  under  their  leader,  Philome- 
lus,  plundered  the  sacred  treasures  of  Del'  phos  to  obtain  the  means 
for  carrying  on  the  war. 

1.  Ttg'  yra  was  a  small  village  of  Boeotia,  near  the  northern  shore  of  the  Copaic  Lake. 
(Map  No.  I.) 

2.  Leuc'  tra  (now  Lefka)  was  a  small  town  of  Bceotia,  about  ten  miles  south-west  from 
Thebes,  and  four  or  five  miles  from  the  Corinthian  Gulf.    It  is  now  only  a  heap  of  ruins. 
(Map  No.  I.) 

3.  Phocis  was  a  small  tract  of  country,  bounded  on  the  north  by  Thes'  saly,  east  by  Bceotia, 
south  by  the  Corinthian  Gulf,  and  west  by  Locris,  JStolia,  and  Doris.    (Map  No.  I.) 

a.  The  first  sacred  war  was  carried  on  against  the  inhabitants  of  the  town  of  Cris'  sa,  on  th« 
northern  shore  of  the  Corinthian  Gulf,  in  the  time  of  Solon.  The  Crisseans  were  charged  witk 
extortion  and  violence  towards  the  strangers  who  passed  through  their  territory  on  their  way 
to  the  Delphic  sanctuary.  "  Cris'  sa  was  razed  to  the  ground,  its  harbor  choked  up,  and  its 
fruitful  plain  turned  into  a  wilderness."—  Thirwall,  i.  152. 


92  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PAKT  I. 

42.  The  Thebans,  Locrians,1  Thessalians,  and  nearly  all  the  States 
of  Northern  Greece,  leagued  against  the  Phocians,  while  Athens 
and  Sparta  declared  in  their  favor,  but  gave  them  little  active  as- 
sistance. At  first  the  Thebans,  confident  in  their  strength,  put 
their  prisoners  to  death,  as  abettors  of  sacrilege ;  but  Philomelus 
retaliated  so  severely  upon  some  Thebans  who  had  fallen  into  his 
power,  as  to  prevent  a  repetition  of  the  crime.  After  the  war  had 
continued  five  years,  a  new  power  was  brought  forward  on  the 
theatre  of  Grecian  history,  in  the  person  of  Philip,  who  had  recently 
established  himself  on  the  throne  of  Mac'  edon,  and  whom  some  of 
the  Thessalian  allies  of  Thebes  applied  to  for  aid  against  the  Pho- 
cians. The  interference  of  Philip  forms  an  important  epoch  in 
Grecian  affairs,  at  which  we  interrupt  our  narrative  to  trace  the 
growth  of  the  Macedonian  monarchy  down  to  the  time  when  its 
history  became  united  with  that  of  its  southern  neighbors. 


SECTION  II. 

GRECIAN   HISTORY   FROM   THE   ESTABLISHMENT   OF   PHILIP   ON   THE   THRONE    OF 
MAC'  EDON   TO    THE   REDUCTION    OF    GREECE    TO   A   ROMAN   PROVINCE : 

360  TO  146  B.  c.  =  214  YEARS. 

ANALYSIS.  1.  Geographical  account  of  Macedonia. — 2.  Early  history  of  Macedonia.  Gre- 
cian rulers.  PHILIP  OF  MAC'  EDON.— 3.  Philip's  residence  at  Thebes.— 4.  His  usurpation  of  the 
kingdom  of  Mac'  edon.  His  wars  with  the  Illyr'  ians  and  other  tribes.  His  first  efforts  against 
the  Phocians. — 5.  Philip  reduces  Phocis.  Decree  of  the  Amphictyon'  ic  council  against  Phocis. 
Growing  influence  of  Philip.— 6.  The  ambitious  projects  of  Philip.  [Illyr'ia.  Epirus.  Acar- 
nania.] — 7.  Rupture  between  Philip  and  the  Athenians.  [Chersoaesus.]  Devotion  of  the 
orator  JEs'  chines  to  Philip.  [Amphis'  sa.]  Philip  throws  off  the  mask.  [Elateia.] — 8.  Thebes 
and  Athens  prepare  to  oppose  him.  Dissensions.— 9.  The  masterly  policy  of  Philip.  The  con- 
federacy against  him  dissolved  by  the  battle  of  Chaeronea.  [Chaeronea.j — 10.  Philip's  treatment 
of  the  Thebans  and  the  Athenians.  General  congress  of  the  Grecian  States,  and  death  of 
Philip. 

11.  ALEXANDER  succeeds  Philip.  He  quells  the  revolt  against  him.  His  cruel  treatment  of 
the  Thebans. — 12.  Servility  of  Athens.  Preparations  of  Alexander  for  his  career  of  Eastern 
conquest.— 13.  Results  of  his  first  campaign.  [Gran'  icus.  Halicarnasyus.]— 14.  He  resumes 
his  march  in  the  spring  of  333.  Defeats  Darius  at  Is' sus.  [Cappadocia.  Cilic' ia.  Is'sus.^ 
Results  of  the  battle.  Effect  of  Alexander's  kindness. — 15.  Reduction  of  Palestine.  [Gaza.] 
Expedition  into  Egypt.  [Alexandria.]  Alexander  returns  and  crosses  the  Euphrates  in  search 
of  Darius.— 16.  The  opposing  forces  at  the  battle  of  Arbela.  [Arbela.  India.]— 17.  Results  of 
the  battle,  and  death  of  Darius. — 18.  Alexander's  residence  at  Babylon.  His  march  beyond 

1.  The  Locrians  proper  inhabited  a  small  territory  on  the  northern  shore  of  the  Corinthian 
Gulf,  west  of  Phocis.  There  were  other  Locrian  tribes  north-east  of  Phocis,  whose  territory 
bordered  on  the  Euboa'  an  Gulf.  (Map  No.  I.) 


CHAP.  IV.]  GRECIAN  HISTORY.  93 

the  Indus.  [Hyphasis  R.]-19.  His  return  to  Persia.  [Persian  Gulf.  Gedr&sia.]  His  meas- 
ures for  consolidating  his  empire.— 20.  His  sickness  and  death.— 21.  His  character.— 22.  As 
judged  of  by  his  actions.  The  results  of  his  conquests.  [Seleiicia.]— 23.  Contentions  that  followed 
his  death.— 24.  Grecian  confederacy  against  Maced6nian  supremacy.  Sparta  and  Thebes.  Athens 
is  finally  compelled  to  yield  to  Antip'  ater.— 25.  Cassan'  der's  usurpation.  Views  and  conquests 
of  Antig'  onus.  Final  dissolution  of  the  Macedonian  empire.  [Ip'  sus.  Phryg'  ia.] 

26.  The  four  kingdoms  that  arose  on  the  ruins  of  the  empire.  Those  of  Egypt  and  Syria  the 
most  powerful.— 27.  The  empire  of  Cassan' der.  Usurpation  of  Demetrius.  Character  of  his 
government.  The  war  carried  on  against  him.— 28.  Unsettled  state  of  Mac'  edon,  Greece,  and 
Western  Asia.— 29.  Celtic  invasion  of  Mac'  edon.  [Adriat1  ic.  Pannonia.]— 30.  Second  Celtic 
invasion.  The  Celts  are  repelled  by  the  Ph6cians.  Death  of  Brennus,  their  chief.— 31.  Antig'- 
onus,  son  of  Demetrius,  recovers  the  throne  of  his  father.  Is  invaded  by  Pyr'rhus,  king  of 
Epirus. — 32.  Pyr'rhus  marches  into  Southern  Greece.  Is  repulsed  by  the  Spartans.  He  enters 
Ar'  gos.  His  death.— 33.  Remarks  on  the  death  of  Pyr'  rhus.  Ambitious  views  of  Antig'  onus 

34.  THE  ACHJE'AN  LBAGUE.  Aratus  seizes  Sicyon,  which  joins  the  league.— 35.  Aratua 
rescues  Corinth,  which  at  first  joins  the  league.  Conduct  of  Athens  and  Sparta. — 36.  Antig'- 
onus  II.— 37.  League  of  the  ^Etolians,  who  invade  the  Messenians.  [jEtolia.]  Defeat  of  Ara- 
tus. General  war  between  the  respective  members  of  the  two  leagues. — 38.  Results  of  this 
war.  The  war  between  the  Romans  and  Carthaginians.  Policy  of  Philip  II.  of  Mac'  edon. — 
39.  He  enters  into  an  alliance  with  the  Carthaginians.  His  defeat  at  Apollonia.  [Apollonia.] 
— 40.  He  causes  the  death  of  Aratus.  Roman  intrigues  in  Greece. — 41.  Overthrow  of  Philip's 
power.  The  Romans  promise  independence  to  Greece.— 42.  Remarks  on  the  sincerity  of  the 
promise.  Treatment  of  the  ^Etolians.  Extinction  of  the  Macedonian  monarchy.  [Pyd'  na.] 
—43.  Unjust  treatment  of  the  Achae'  ans.  Roman  ambassadors  insulted.— 44.  The  Achae'  an 
war,  and  reduction  of  Greece  to  a  Roman  province.  Remarks  of  Thirwall. — 45.  Henceforward 
Grecian  history  is  absorbed  in  that  of  Rome.  Condition  of  Greece  since  the  Persian  wars.  In 
ihe  days  of  Strabo. 

COTEMPORARY  HISTORY.— 1.  Cotemporary  annals  of  other  nations :— Persians— Egyptians.— 
HISTORY  OF  THE  JEWS. — 2.  Rebuilding  of  the  second  temple  of  Jerusalem.  The  Jews  during 
the  reigns  of  Xerxes  and  Artaxerxes.  Nehemiah's  administration.— 3.  Judea  a  part  of  the  sat' 
rapy  of  Syria.  Judea  after  the  division  of  Alexander's  empire.  Judea  invaded  by  Ptolemy 
Soter. — 4.  Judea  subject  to  Egypt.  Ptolemy-Philadelphus.  The  Jews  place  themselves  under 
the  rule  of  Sj  ria.— 5.  Civil  war  among  the  Jews.  Antiochus  plunders  Jerusalem.  Attempts  to 
establish  the  Grecian  polytheism. — 6.  Revolt  of  the  Mac'  cabees. — 7.  Continuation  of  the  war 
with  Syria.  [Bethoron.]  Death  of  Judas  Maccabeus.— 8.  The  Syrians  become  masters  of  the 
country.  Prosperity  of  the  Jews  under  Simon  Maccabeus.— 9.  The  remaining  history  of  the 
Jews. 

10.  GRECIAN  COLONIES.  Those  of  Thrace,  Mac'  edon,  and  Asia  Minor.  Of  Italy,  Sicily,  and 
Cyrenaica.  11.  MAGNA  GR.ECIA.  Early  settlements  in  western  Italy  and  in  Sicily.  [Cumaj. 
Neap'olis.  Nax'os.  Gela.  Messana.  Agrigen' turn.] — 12.  On  the  south-eastern  coast  of 
Italy.  History  of  Syb'  aris,  Crotona,  and  Taren'  turn.  [Description  of  the  same.]— 13.  First  two 
centuries  of  Sicilian  history.  [Him' era.]  Gela  and  Agrigen' turn.  The  despot  Gelo. — 14.  Grow- 
ing power  of  Syracuse  under  his  authority.— 15.  The  Carthaginians  in  Sicily— defeated  by  Gelo. 
[Panor'  mus.] — 16.  Hiero  and  Thrasybiilus.  [,<Etna.]  Revolution  and  change  of  government. — 
17.  Civil  commotions  and  renewed  prosperity.  [Kamarina.] — 18.  Syracuse  and  Agrigen'  turn  at 
the  time  of  the  breaking  out  of  the  Peloponnesian  war.  The  lon'ic  and  Dorian  cities  of  Sicily 
during  the  struggle.  Sicilian  congress. — 19.  Quarrel  between  the  cities  of  Selinusand  Eges'ta. 
[Description  of  the  same.]  The  Athenian  expedition  to  Sicily.  [Cat'  ana.] — 20.  Events  up  to 
the  beginning  of  the  siege  of  Syracuse. — 21.  Death  of  Lam'  achus,  and  arrival  of  Gylip'  pus,  the 
Spartan.— 22.  Both  parties  reinforced— various  batiks— total  defeat  of  the  Athenians.— 23.  Car- 
thaginian encroachments  in  Sicily— resisted  by  Dionys'  ius  the  Elder.  Division  between  the 
Greek  and  Carthaginian  territories.  [Him' era.]— 24.  The  administration  of  Timoleon.  Of 
Agath'  ocles.  The  Romans  become  masters  of  Sicily. 

25.  CYRENA' ICA.— Colonized  by  Lacedaemonians.  Gyrene  its  chief  city.  Its  ascendancy  over 
the  Libyan  tribes.  War  with  the  Egyptians.— 26.  Tyranny  of  Agesilaus— founding  of  Bar'  ca 
— the  war  which  followed.  Agesilaus.  Civil  dissensions.  Camby'ses. — 27.  Subsequent  his- 
tory of  Cyrene  and  Bar'  ca.  Distinguished  Cyreneans.  Cyreneans  mentioned  In  Bible  history. 


94  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART! 

1.  MAC'EDON,  or  Macedonia,  whose  boundaries  varied  greatly  at 
different  times,  had  its  south-eastern  borders  on  the  JE*r  gean  Sea, 
while  farther  north  it  was  bounded  by  the  river  Stry'  mon,  which 
separated  it  from  Thrace,  and  on  the  south  by  Thes'  saly  and  Epi- 
rus.     On  the  west  Macedonia  embraced,  at  times,  many  of  the  II- 
lyrian  tribes  which  bordered  on  the  Adriatic.     On  the  north  the 
natural  boundary  was  the  mountain  chain  of  Ha6r  mus.     The  prin- 
cipal river  of  Macedonia  was  the  Axius  (now  the  Yardar),  which  fell 
into  the  Therniaic  Gulf,  now  called  the  Gulf  of  Salon'  iki. 

2.  The  history  of  Macedonia  down  to  the  time  of  Philip,  the 
father  of  Alexander  the  Great,  is  involved  in  great  obscurity.     The 
early  Macedonians  appear  to  have  been  an  Illyr'  ian  tribe,  differ- 
ent in  race  and  language  from  the  Hellenes  or  Greeks  :  but  Herod'; 
otus  states  that  the  Macedonian  monarchy  was  founded  by  Greeks 
from  Ar'  gos ;    and   according  to  Greek  writers,  twelve  or  fifteen 

i.  PHILIP  OF  Grecian  princes  reigned  there  before  the  accession  of 
MAO'EDOX    Philip,  who  took  charge  of  the  government  about  th& 

year  360  B.  C.,  not  as  monarch,  but  as  guardian  of  the  infant  son 

of  his  elder  brother. 

3.  Philip  had  previously  passed  several  years  at  Thebes,  as  a 
hostage,  where  he  eagerly  availed  himself  of  the  excellent  oppor- 
tunities which  that  city  afforded  for  the  acquisition  of  various  kinds 
of  knowledge.     He  successfully  cultivated  the  study  of  the  Greek 
language ;  and  in  the  conversation  of  such  generals  and  statesmen 
as  Epaminon'  das,  Pelop'  idas,  and  their  friends,  became  acquainted 
with  the  details  of  the  military  tactics  of  the  Greeks,  and  learned 
the  nature  and  working  of  their  democratical  institutions.     Thus, 
with  the  superior  mental  and  physical  endowments  which  nature  had 
given  him,  he  became  eminently  fitted  for  the  part  which  he  after- 
wards bore  in  the  intricate  game  of  Grecian  politics. 

4.  After  Philip  had  successfully  defended  the  throne  of  Mac'  edon 
during  several  years,  in  behalf  of  his  nephew,  his  military  successes 
enabled  him  to  take  upon  himself  the  kingly  title,  probably  with  the 
unanimous  consent  of  both  the  army  and  the  nation.     He  annexed 
several  Thracian  towns  to  his  dominions,  reduced  the  Illyr'  ians  and 
other  nations  on  his  northern  and  western  borders,  and  was  at  times 
an  ally,  and  at  others  an  enemy,  of  Athens.     At  length,  during  the 
sacred  war  against  the  Phocians,  the  invitation  which  he  received 
from  the  Thessalian  allies  of  Thebes,  as  already  noticed,  afforded 
him  a  pretence,  which  he  had  long  coveted,  for  a  more  active  inter- 


CHAP.  IV.]  GRECIAN  HISTORY.  95 

ference  in  the  affairs  of  his  southern  neighbors.  On  entering  Thes'- 
saly,  however,  on  his  southern  march,  he  was  at  first  repulsed  by  the 
Phocians  and  their  ajlies,  and  obliged  to  retire  into  Macedonia,  but, 
soon  returning  at  the  head  of  a  more  numerous  army,  he  defeated 
the  enemy  in  a  decisive  battle,  and  would  have  marched  upon  Phocis 
at  once  to  terminate  the  war,  but  he  found  the  pass  of  Thermop'  ylse 
strongly  guarded  by  the  Athenians,  and  thought  it  prudent  to  with- 
draw his  forces. 

5.  Still  the  sacred  war  lingered,  although  the  Phocians  desired 
peace ;  but  the  revengeful  spirit  of  the  Thebans  was  not  allayed ; 
Philip  was  again  urged  to  crush  the  profaners  of  the  national  re- 
ligion, and  having  succeeded,  in  spite  of  the  warnings  of  the  patriotic 
Demosthenes,  in  lulling  the  suspicions  of  the  Athenians  with  pro- 
posals of  an  advantageous  peace,  he  marched  into  Phocis,  and  com- 
pelled the  enemy  to  surrender  at  discretion.     The  Amphictyon'  ic 
council,  being  now  reinstated  in  its  ancient  authority,  with  the  power 
of  Philip  to  enforce  its  decrees,  doomed  Phocis  to  lose  her  inde- 
pendence forever,  to  have  her  cities  levelled  with  the  ground,  and 
her  population,  after  being  distributed  in  villages  of  not  more  than 
fifty  dwellings,  to  pay  a  yearly  tribute  of  sixty  talents  to  the  temple, 
until  the  whole  amount  of  the  plundered  treasure  should  be  restored. 
Finally,  the  two  votes  which  the   Phocians  had  possessed  in  the 
Amphictyon'  ic  council  were  transferred  to  the  king  of  Mac'  edon 
and  his  successors.     The  influence  which  Philip  thus  obtained  in 
the  councils  of  the  Grecians  paved  the  way  for  the  overthrow  of 
their  liberties. 

6.  From  an  early  period  of  his  career  Philip  had  aspired  to  the 
sovereignty  of  all  Greece,  as  a  secondary  object  that  should  prepare 
the  way  for  the  conquest  of  Persia,  the  great  aim  and  end  of  all  his 
ambitious  projects ;  and  after  the  close  of  the  sacred  war  he  accord- 
ingly exerted  himself  to  extend  his  power  and  influence,  either  by 
arms  or  negotiation,  on  every  side  of  his  dominions;  but  his  in- 
trigues in  At'  tica,  and  among  the  Peloponnesian  States,  were  for  a 
time  counteracted  by  the  glowing  and  patriotic  eloquence  of  the 
Athenian  Demosthenes,   the  greatest  of  Grecian  orators.     In  his 
military  operations   Philip  ravaged   Illyr' ia1 — reduced    Thes' saly 
more  nearly  to  a  Macedonian  province — conquered  a  part  of  the 

1.  The  term  Illyr'  io,  or  Illyr'  icum  was  applied  to  the  country  bordering  on  the  eastern  shore 
of  the  Adriatic,  and  extending  from  the  northern  extremity  of  the  Gulf  south  to  the  borders 
of  Epirus.  (Map  No.  VIII.) 


96  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART  L 

Thracian  territory — extended  his  power  into  Epirus  and  Acarnania1 
— and  would  have  gained  a  footing  in  E'  lis  and  Achaia,  on  the 
western  coast  of  the  Peloponnesus,  had  it  not  been  for  the  watchful 

jealousy  of  Athens,  which  concerted  a  league  among  several  of  the 
States  to  repel  his  encroachments. 

7.  The  first  open  rupture  with  the  Athenians  occurred  while 
Philip  was  engaged  in  subduing  the  Grecian  cities  on  the  Thracian 
coast  of  the  Hel'  lespont,  in  what  was  called  the  Thracian  Chersone- 
sus.3     A  little  later,  the  Amphictyon'  ic  council,  through  the  influ- 
ence of  JEs'  chines,  an   orator  second   only  to  Demosthenes,  but 
secretly  devoted  to  the  interests  of  the  king  of  Mac'  edon,  appointed 
Philip  to  conduct  a  war  against  Amphis'  sa,3  a  Locrian  town,  which 
had  been  convicted  of  a  sacrilege  similar  to  that  of  the  Phocians. 
It  was  now  that  Philip,  hastily  passing  through  Thrace  at  the  head 
of  a  powerful  army,  first  threw  off  the  mask,  and  revealed  his  de- 
signs  against   the   liberties   of   Greece   by  seizing   and   fortifying 
Elateia4  the  capital  of  Phocis,  which  was  conveniently  situated  for 
commanding  the  entrance  into  Bceotia. 

8.  The  Thebans  and  the  Athenians,  suddenly  awaking  from  their 
dream  of  security,  from  which  all  the  eloquent  appeals  of  Demosthe- 
nes had  not  hitherto  been  able  to  arouse  them,  prepared  to  defend 
their  territories  from  invasion ;  but  most  of  the  Peloponnesian  States 
kept  aloof  through  indifference,  rather  than  through  fear.     Even  in 
Thebes  and  Athens  there  were  parties  whom  the  gold  and  persua- 
sions of  Philip  had  converted  into  allies;    and  when  the  armies 
marched  forth  to  battle,  dissensions  pervaded   their   ranks.     The 
spirit  of  Grecian  liberty  had  already  been  extinguished. 

9.  The  masterly  policy  of  Philip  still  led  him  to  declare  that  the 
sacred  war  against  Amphis'  sa,  with  the  conduct  of  which  he  had 


1.  Acarnania,  lying  south  of  Epirus,  also  bordered  on  the  Adriatic,  or  Ionian  sea.    From 
^tolia  on  the  east  it  was  separated  by  the  Achelolis,  probably  the  largest  river  in  Greece. 
The  Acarnanians  were  almost  constantly  at  war  with  the  ^Etolians,  and  were  far  behind  the 
rest  of  the  Greeks  in  mental  culture.    (Map  No.  I.) 

2.  The  Thracian  Chersonesus  ("Thracian  peninsula")  was  a  peninsula  of  Thrace,  between 
the  Melian  Gulf  (now  Gulf  of  Saros)  and  the  Hel'  lespont.    The  fertility  of  its  soil  early  attracted 
the  Grecians  to  its  shores,  which  soon  became  crowded  with  flourishing  and  popular  cities. 
(Map  No.  III.) 

3.  rfmphis'  sa,  the  chief  town  of  Locris,  was  about  seven  miles  west  from  Delphi,  near  the 
head  of  the  Crissean  Gulf,  now  Gulf  of  Salona,  a  branch  of  the  Corimhian  Gun".    The  modern 
town  of  Salona  represents  the  ancient  Amphis'  sa.    (Map  No.  I.) 

4.  Elateia,  a  city  in  the  north-east  of  Phocis,  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Cephis'  sus,  was  about 
twenty-five  miles  north-east  from  Delphi.    Its  ruins  are  to  be  seen  on  a  site  called  Elephta. 
(Map  No.  I.) 


CHAP.  IV  J  GRECIAN  HISTORY.  97 

« 

been  intrusted  by  the  Amphictyon' ic  council,  was  his  only  object; 
and  he  had  a  plausible  excuse  for  entering  Bceotia  when  the  The- 
bans  and  Athenians  appeared  as  the  allies  of  a  city  devoted  by  the 
gods  to  destruction.  At  Chaeronea1  the  hostile  armies  met,  nearly 
equal  in  number ;  but  there  was  no  Per'  icles,  nor  Epaminon'  das,  to 
match  the  warlike  abilities  of  Philip  and  the  young  prince  Alex- 
ander, the  latter  of  whom  commanded  a  wing  of  the  Macedonian 
army.  The  day  was  decided  against  the  Grecians,  although  their 
loss  in  battle  was  not  large ;  but  the  event  broke  up  the  feeble  con- 
federacy against  Philip,  and  left  each  of  the  allied  States  at  his 
mercy. 

10.  "While  Philip  treated  the  Thebans  with  some  severity,  and 
obliged  them  to  ransom  their  prisoners,  and  resign  a  portion  of 
their  territory,  he  exercised  a  degree  of  lenity  towards  the  Athen- 
ians which  excited  general  surprise — offering  them  terms  of  peace 
which  they  themselves  would  scarcely  have  ventured  to  propose  to 
him.     He  next  assembled  a  congress  of  all  the  Grecian  States,  at 
Corinth,  for  the  purpose  of  settling  the  affairs  of  Greece.     Here  all 
his  proposals  were  adopted,  war  was  declared  against  Persia,  and 
Philip  was  appointed  commander-in-chief  of  the  Grecian  forces  ;  but 
flrhile  he  was  making  preparations  for  his  great  enterprise  he  was 
Assassinated  on  a  public  occasion  by  a  Macedonian  nobleman,  in  re- 
venge for  some  private  wrong. 

1 1 .  Alexander,  the  son  of  Philip,  then  at  the  age  of  twenty  years, 
succeeded  his  father  on  the  throne  of  Mac'  edon.     At  once  the  Illyr'- 
ians,  Thracians,  and  other  northern  tribes  that  had  been 

made  tributary  by  Philip,  took  up  arms  to  recover  their     DER  THE 
independence ;  but  Alexander  quelled  the  spirit  of  re-      GREAT. 
volt  in  a  single  campaign.     During  his  absence  on  this  expedition,  the 
Grecian  States,  headed  by  the  Thebans  and  Athenians,  made  prepara- 
tions to  shake  off  the  yoke  of  Mac'  edon ;  but  Alexander,  whose  marches 
were  unparalleled  for  their  rapidity,  suddenly  appeared  in  their  midst. 
Thebes,  the  first  object  of  his  vengeance,  was  taken  by  assault,  in 
which  six  thousand  of  her  warriors  were  slain.     Ever  distinguished 
by  her  merciless  treatment  of  her  conquered  enemies,  she  was  now 

1.  The  plain  of  Chaironea,  on  which  the  battle  was  fought,  is  on  the  southern  bank  of  the 
Cephia'  sii3  river,  in  BcEotia,  a  few  miles  from  its  entrance  into  the  Copaic  lake.  In  the  year 
447  B.  C.  the  Athenians  had  been  defeated  on  the  same  spot  by  the  Boeotians ;  and  in  the 
year  86  B.  C.  the  same  place  witnessed  a  bloody  engagement  between  the  Romans,  under 
Sylla,  and  the  troops  of  Mithridates.  (Map  No.  I.) 

7 


98  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART  I. 

doomed  to  suffer  the  extreme  penalties  of  war  which  she  had  often 
inflicted  on  others.  Most  of  the  city  was  levelled  with  the  ground, 
and  thirty  thousand  prisoners,  besides  women  and  children,  were  con- 
demned to  slavery. 

12.  The  other  Grecian  States  which  had  provoked  the  resentment 
of  Alexander,  hastily  renewed  their  submission ;  and  Athens,  with 
servile  homage,  sent  an  embassy  to  congratulate  the  youthful  hero  on 
his  recent  successes.     Alexander  accepted  the  excuses  of  all,  renewed 
the  confederacy  which  his  father  had  formed,  and  having  intrusted 
the  government  of  Greece  and  Mac'  edon  to  Antip'  ater,  one  of  his 
generals,  set  out  on  his  career  of  eastern  conquest,  at  the  head  of  an 
army  of  only  thirty-five  thousand  men,  and  taking  with  him  a  treasury 
of  only  seventy  talents  of  silver.     He  had  even  distributed  nearly  all 
the  remaining  property  of  his  crown  among  his  friends  ;  and  when  he 
was  asked  by  Perdic'  cas  what  he  had  reserved  for  himself,  he  an- 
swered, "  MY  HOPES." 

13.  Early  in  the  spring  of  the  year  334,  Alexander  crossed  the 
Hel'  lespont,  and  a  few  days  later  defeated  an  immense  Persian  army 
on  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Gran'  icus,1  with  the  loss  on  his  part  of 
only  eighty-five  horsemen  and  thirty  light  infantry.      Proceeding 
thence  south  towards  the  coast,  the  gates  of  Sardis  and  Eph'  esus 
were  thrown  open  to  him ;  and  although  at  Miletus  and  Halicar- 
nas'  sus2  he  met  with  some  resistance,  yet  before  the  close  of  the 
first  campaign  he  was  undisputed  master  of  all  Asia  Minor. 

14.  Early  in  the  following  spring  (B.  C.  333),  he  directed  his 
inarch  farther  eastward,  through  Cappadocia3  and  Cilic'  ia,4  and  on 
the  coast  of  the  latter,  near  the  small  town  of  Is'  sus,5  again  met 

1.  The  Gran'  icus,  the  same  as  the  Turkish  Demotiko,  is  a  a  small  stream  of  Mys'  ia,  in  Asia 
Minor,  which  flows  from  Mount  I'  da,  east  of  Troy,  northward  into  the  Propon'  tis,  or  Sea  of 
Marmora.     (Map  No.  IV.) 

2.  Halicarnas'  sus,  the  principal  city  of  Caria,  was  situated  on  the  northern  shore  of  the 
Ccr'  amic  Gulf,  now  Gulf  of  Kos,  one  hundred  miles  south  from  Smyrna.    Halicarnas'  sus  was 
fche  birth-place  of  Herod'  otus  the  historian,  of  Dionys'  ius  the  historian  and  critic,  and  of  Hera- 
clitus  the  poet.    It  was  Artemis'  ia,  queen  of  Caria,  who  erected  the  splendid  mausoleum,  or 
tomb,  to  her  husband,  Mausolus.    The  Turkish  town  of  Boodroom  is  on  the  site  of  the  ancient 
Halicarnas'  sus.    Near  the  modern  town  are  to  be  seen  old  walls,  exquisite  sculptures,  frag- 
ments of  columns,  and  the  remains  of  a  theatre  two  hundred  and  eighty  feet  hi  diameter, 
which  seems  to  have  had  thirty-six  rows  of  marble  seats.    (Map  No.  IV.) 

3.  Cappadocia  was  an  interior  province  of  Asia  Minor,  south-east  of  Galatia.    (Map  No.  IV.) 

4.  Cilic'  ia  was  south  of  Cappadocia,  on  the  coast  of  the  Mediterranean.    (Map  No.  IV.) 

5.  Is'  sus  (now  Aiasse,  or  Urzin)  was  a  sea-port  town  of  Cilic'  ia,  at  the  north-eastern  ex- 
tremity of  the  Mediterranean,  and  at  the  head  of  the  Gulf  of  Is'  sus.    The  plain  between  the 
sea  and  the  mountains,  where  the  battle  was  fought,  was  less  than  two  miles  in  width, — a  suf- 
ficient space  for  the  evolutions  of  the  Mac'  edonian  phalanx,  but  not  large  enough  for  the  man- 
oeuvres of  so  great  an  army  as  that  of  Darius.    ( Map  No.  IV.) 


CHAP.  IV.]  GRECIAN  HISTORY.  99 

the  Persian  army,  numbering  seven  hundred  thousand  men,  and 
commanded  by  Darius  himself,  king  of  Persia.  In  the  battle  which 
followed,  Alexander,  as  usual,  led  on  -his  army  in  person,  and  fought 
in  the  thickest  of  the  fight.  The  result  was  a  total  rout  of  the  Per- 
sians, with  a  loss  of  more  than  a  hundred  thousand  men,  while  that 
of  the  Greeks  and  Macedonians  was  less  than  five  hundred.  The 
Persian  monarch  fled  in  the  beginning  of  the  engagement,  leaving 
his  mother,  wife,  daughters,  and  an  infant  son,  to  the  mercy  of  the 
victor,  who  treated  them  with  the  greatest  kindness  and  respect. 
When,  afterwards,  Darius  heard,  at  the  same  time,  of  the  generous 
treatment  of  his  wife,  who  was  accounted  the  most  beautiful  woman 
in  Asia, — of  her  death  from  sudden  illness,  and  of  the  magnificent 
burial  which  she  had  received  from  the  conqueror, — he  lifted  up  his 
hands  to  heaven  and  prayed,  that  if  his  kingdom  were  to  pass  from 
himself,  it  might  be  transferred  to  Alexander. 

15.  The  conqueror  next  directed  his  march  southward  through 
northern  Syria  and  Palestine.  At  Damascus  a  vast  amount  of 
treasure  belonging  to  the  king  of  Persia  fell  into  his  hands :  the 
city  of  Tyre,  after  a  vigorous  siege  of  seven  months,  and  a  desperate 
resistance,  was  taken  by  storm,  and  thirty  thousand  of  'the  Tyrians 
sold  as  slaves.  (B.  C.  332.)  After  the  fall  of  Tyre,  all  the  cities 
of  Palestine  submitted,  except  Gaza,1  which  made  as  obstinate  a  de- 
fence as  Tyre,  and  was  as  severely  punished.  From  Palestine  Alex 
ander  proceeded  into  Egypt,  which  was  eager  to  throw  off  the  Per- 
sian tyranny,  and  he  took  especial  care  to  conciliate  the  priests  by 
the  honors  which  he  paid  to  the  Egyptian  gods.  After  having 
founded  a  new  city,  which  he  named  Alexandria,3  and  crossed  the 

1.  Gaza,  an  early  Philistine  city  of  great  natural  strength  in  the  south-western  part  of  Palestine, 
was  sixteen  miles  south  of  Ascalon,  and  but  a  short  distance  from  the  Mediterranean.    The 
place  was  called  Constantia  by  the  Romans,  and  is  now  called  Rassa  by  the  Arabs.  ( Map  No.  VL) 

2.  Alexandria  is  about  fourteen  miles  south-west  from  the  Canopic,  or  most  western  branch 
of  the  Nile,  and  is  built  partly  on  the  ridge  of  land  between  the  sea  and  the  bed  of  the  oML 
Lake  Mareotis,  and  partly  on  the  peninsula  (formerly  island)  of  Pharos,  which  projects  into 
the  Mediterranean.    Alexandria,  the  site  of  which  was  most  admirably  chosen  by  its  founder, 
IB  the  only  port  on  the  Egyptian  coast  that  has  deep  water,  and  that  is  accessible  at  all  sea- 
sons.   Lake  Mareotis,  which  for  many  ages  after  the  Greek  and  Roman  dominion  in  Egypt 
was  mostly  dried  up,  and  whose  bed  was  lower  than  the  surface  of  the  Mediterranean,  had  no 
outlet  to  the  sea  until  the  English,  in  the  year  1801,  opened  a  passage  into  it  from  the  Bay 
of  Aboukir,  when  it  soon  resumed  its  ancient  extent.    The  ancient  canal  from  Alexandria  to  the 
Nile,  a  distance  of  forty-«ight  miles,  was  reopened  in  1819.    While  the  commerce  of  the  Indies 
was  carried  on  by  way  of  the  Red  Sea  and  the  Isthmus  of  Suez,  Alexandria  was  a  great  com- 
mercial emporium,  but  it  rapidly  declined  after  the  discovery  of  the  passage  to  India  by  way 
of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.    It  is  probable  that  the  commerce  of  the  east,  through  the  agency 
of  steam,  will  again  flow,  to  a  great  extent,  in  the  ancient  channel,  and  that  Alexandria  Trill 
again  become  a  great  commercial  emporium.    (Map  No.  V.) 


100  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART  I 

Libyan  desert  to  consult  the  oracle  of  Jupiter  Am'  mon,  he  returned 
to  Palestine,  when,  learning  that  Darius  was  making  vast  prepara- 
tions to  oppose  him,  he  crossed  the  Euphrates,  and  directed  his 
march  into  the  very  heart  of  the  Persian  empire,  declaring  that  "  the 
world  could  no  more  admit  two  masters  than  two  suns." 

16.  On  a  beautiful  plain  twenty  miles  distant  from  the  town  of 
Arbela,1  whence  the  battle  derives  its  name,  the  Persian  monarch, 
surrounded  by  all  the  pomp  and  luxury  of  Eastern  magnificence,  had 
collected  the  remaining  strength  of  his  empire,  consisting  of  an 
army,  as  stated  by  some  authors,  of  more  than  a  million  of  foot 
soldiers,  and  forty  thousand  cavalry,  besides  two  hundred  scythed 
chariots,  and  fifteen  elephants  brought  from  the  west  of  India.2     To 
oppose  this  force  Alexander  had  only  forty  thousand  foot  soldiers, 
and  seven  thousand  cavalry,  but  they  were  well  armed  and  discip- 
lined, confident  of  victory,  and  led  by  an  able  general  who  had  never 
experienced  a  defeat,  and  who  directed  the  operations  of  the  battle 
in  person.  (B.  C.  331.) 

17.  Darius  sustained  the  conflict  with  better  judgment  and  more 
courage  than  at  Is'  sus,  but  the  cool  intrepidity  of  the  Macedonian 
phalanx  was  irresistible,  and  the  field  of  battle  soon  became  a  scene 
of  slaughter,  in  which,  some  say,  forty  thousand,  and  others,  three 
hundred  thousand  of  the  barbarians  were  slain,  while  the  loss  of 
Alexander  did  not  exceed  five  hundred  men.     Although  Darius  es- 
caped with  a  portion  of  his  body-guard,  yet  the  result  of  the  battle 
decided  the  contest,  and  gave  to  Alexander  the  dominion  of  the  Per- 
sian empire.     Not  long  after,  Darius  himself  was  slain  by  one  of 
his  own  officers. 

18.  Soon  after  the  battle  of  Arbela,  Alexander  proceeded  to 
Babylon,  and  during  four  years  remained  in  the  heart  of  Persia,  re 
ducing  to  subjection  the  chiefs  who  still  struggled  for  independence, 
and  regulating  the  government  of  the  conquered  provinces.     Am- 
bitious of  farther  conquests,  he  passed  the  Indus,  and  invaded  the 
country  of  the  Indian  king  Porus,  whom  he  defeated  in  a  sanguinary 
engagement,  and  took  prisoner.     When  brought  into  the  presence 
of  Alexander,  and  asked  how  he  would  be  treated,  he  replied,  "  Like 
a  king ;"  and  so  pleased  was  the  conqueror  with  the  lofty  demeanor 

1.  Arbela  was  about  forty  miles  east  of  the  Tigris,  and  twenty  miles  south-east  from  the 
plain  of  Gaugamela,  where  the  battle  was  fought.    Gaugamela,  a  small  hamlet,  was  a  short 
distance  south-east  from  the  site  of  Nineveh. 

2.  The  term  India  was  applied  by  the  ancient  geographers  to  all  that  part  of  Asia  which  is 
east  of  the  river  Indus.    (Map  No.  V.) 


CHAP.  IV.]  GRECIAN  HISTORY.  101 

of  the  captive,  and  with  the  valor  which  he  had  shown  in  battle,  that 
he  not  only  re-instated  him  in  his  royal  dignity,  but  conferred  upon 
him  a  large  addition  of  territory.  Alexander  continued  his  march 
eastward  until  he  reached  the  Hyphasis,1  the  most  eastern  tributary 
of  the  Indus,  when  his  troops,  seeing  no  end  of  their  toils,  refused 
to  follow  him  farther,  and  he  was  reluctantly  forced  to  abandon  the 
career  of  conquest  which  he  had  marked  out  for  himself  to  the 
eastern  ocean. 

19.  Resolving  to  return  into  Central  Asia  by  a  new  route,  he  de- 
scended the  Indus  to  the  sea,  whence,  after  sending  a  fleet  with  a 
portion  of  his  forces  around  through  the  Persian  Gulf2  to  the  Eu- 
phrates, he  marched  with  the  rest  of  his  army  through  the  barren 
wastes  of  Gedrosia,8  and  after  much  suffering  and  considerable  loss, 
arrived  once  more  in  the  fertile  provinces  of  Persia.  For  some  time 
after  his  return  his  attention  was  engrossed  with  plans  for  organizing, 
on  a  permanent  basis,  the  government  of  the  mighty  empire  which 
he  had  won.  Aiming  to  unite  the  conquerors  and  the  conquered, 
so  as  to  form  out  of  both  a  nation  independent  alike  of  Macedonian 
and  of  Persian  prejudices,  he  married  Statira,  the  oldest  daughter  of 
Darius,  and  united  his  principal  officers  with  Persian  and  Median 
women  of  the  noblest  families,  while  ten  thousand  of  his  soldiers 
were  induced  to  follow  the  example  of  their  superiors. 

20.  But  while  he  was  occupied  with  these  cares,  and  with  dreams 
of  future  conquests,  his  career  was  suddenly  terminated  by  death. 
On  setting  out  to  visit  Babylon,  soon  after  the  decease  of  an  inti- 
mate friend,  which  had  caused  a  great  depression  of  his  spirits,  he 
was  warned  by  the  magicians  that  Babylon  would  be  fatal  to  him ; 
but  he  proceeded  to  the  city,  where,  haunted  by  gloomy  forebodings 
and  superstitious  fancies,  he  endeavored  to  dispel  his  melancholy  by 
indulging  more  freely  in  the  pleasures  of  the  table.  Excessive  drink 
ing  at  length  brought  to  a  crisis  a  fever,  which  he  had  probably  con 

1.  The  Hyphasis,  now  called  Beyah,  or  Seas,  is  the  most  eastern  tributary  of  the  Indui 
The  Sutledge,  which  enters  the  Beyah  from  the  east,  has  been  mistaken  by  some  writers  fortl 
ancient  Hyphasis.    (Map  No.  V.) 

2.  The  Persian  Gulf  is  an  extensive  arm  of  the  Indian  ocean,  separating  Southern  Perau* 
from  Arabia.    During  a  long  period  it  was  the  thoroughfare  for  the  commerce  between  tV>j 
western  world  and  India.    The  navigation  of  the  Gulf,  especially  along  the  Arabian  coast,  *• 
tedious  and  difficult,  owing  to  its  numerous  islands  and  reefs.    The  Bahrein  islands,  near  f  *e 
Arabian  shore,  are  celebrated  for  their  pearl  fisheries,  which  yield  pearls  of  the  value  of  more 
than  a  million  dollars  annually.    (Map  No.  V.) 

3.  Gedrdsia,  corresponding  to  the  modern  Persian  province  of  Mekran,  is  a  sandy  and  barren 
region,  extending  along  the  shore  of  the  Indian  Ocean  from  the  river  Indus  to  the  moutu  of 
the  Persian  Gulf.    (Map  No.  V.) 


1-02  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART  L 

tracted  in  the  marshes  of  Assyria,  and  which  suddenly  terminated  his 
life  in  the  thirty-third  year  of  his  age,  and  the  thirteenth  of  his 
reign.  (B.  0.  May,  324.) 

21.  The  character  of  Alexander  has  afforded  matter  for  much  discus- 
sion, and  is,  to  this  day,  a  subject  of  dispute.     At  times  he  was 
guilty  of  remorseless  and  unnecessary  cruelty  to  the  vanquished,  and 
in  a  fit  of  passion  he  slew  the  friend  who  had  saved  his  life ;  but  on 
other  occasions  he  was  distinguished  by  an  excess  of  lenity,  and  by 
the  most  noble  generosity  and  benevolence.     His  actions  and  char- 
acter were  indeed  of  a  mixed  nature,  which  is  the  reason  that  some 
have  regarded  him  as  little  more  than  a  heroic  madman,  while  others 
give  him  the  honor  of  vast  and  enlightened  views  of  policy,  which 
aimed  at  founding,  among  nations  hitherto  barbarous,  a  solid  and 
flourishing  empire. 

22.  If  we  are  to  judge  by  his  actions,  however,  rather  than  by  his 
supposed  moral  motives,  he  was,  in  reality,  one  of  the  greatest  of 
men ;  great,  not  only  in  the  vast  compass  and  persevering  ardor  of 
his  ambition,  which  "  wept  for  more  worlds  to  conquer,"  but  great  in 
the  objects  and  aims  which  ennobled  it,  and  great  because  his  adven- 
turous spirit  and  personal  daring  never  led  him  into  deeds  of  rash- 
ness ;  for  his  boldest  military  undertakings  were  ever  guided  by 
sagacity  and  prudence.     The  conquests  of  Alexander  were  highly 
beneficial  in  their  results  to  the  conquered  people  ;  for  his  was  the 
first  of  the  great  monarchies  founded  in  Asia  that  contained  any  ele- 
ment of  moral  and  intellectual  progress — that  opened  a  prospect  of 
advancing  improvement,  and  not  of  continual  degradation,  to  its 
subjects.     To  the  commercial  world  it  opened  new  countries,  and 
new  channels  of  trade,  and  gave  a  salutary  stimulus  to  industry  and 
mercantile  activity :  nor  were  these  benefits  lost  when  the  empire 
founded  by  Alexander  broke  in  pieces  in  the  hands  of  his  successors ; 
for  the  passages  which  he  opened,  by  sea  and  by  land,  between  the 
Euphrates  and  the  Indus,  had  become  the  highways  of  the  commerce 
of  the  Indies  ;  Babylon  remained  a  famous  port  until  its  rival,  Seleu'- 
cia,1  arose  into  eminence  ;  and  Alexandria  long  continued  to  receive 
and  pour  out  an  inexhaustible  tide  of  wealth. 

1.  Selcu'  cia,  built  by  Seleu'  cus,  one  of  Alexander's  generals,  was  situated  on  the  western 
bank  of  the  Tigris,  about  forty-five  miles  north  of  Babylon.  Seleu'  cus  designed  it  as  a  free 
Grecian  city ;  and  many  ages  after  the  fall  of  the  Macedonian  empire,  it  retained  the  charac- 
teristics of  a  Grecian  colony, — arts,  military  virtue,  and  the  love  of  freedom.  When  at  the 
height  of  its  prosperity  it  contained  a  population  of  six  hundred  thousand  citizens,  governed  by 
a  senate  of  three  hundred  nobles. 


CHAP.  IV.]  GRECIAN  HISTORY.  103 

23.  The  sudden  death  of  Alexander  left  the  government  in  a  very 
unsettled  condition.    As  he  had  appointed  no  successor,  several  of  his 
generals  contended  for  the  throne,  or  for  the  regency  during  the 
minority  of  his  sons ;  and  hence  arose  a  series  of  intrigues,  and 
bloody  wars,  which,  in  the  course  of  twenty-three  years,  caused  the 
destruction  of  the  entire  family  of  Alexander,  and  ended  in  the  dis- 
solution of  the  Macedonian  empire. 

24.  When  intelligence  of  the  death  of  Alexander  reached  Greece, 
the  country  was  already  on  the  eve  of  a  revolution  against  Antip '- 
ater ;  and  Demosthenes,  still  the  foremost  advocate  of  liberty,  now 
found  little  difficulty  in  uniting  several  of  the  States  with  Athens  hi 
a  confederacy  against  Macedonian  supremacy.     Sparta,  however,  was 
too  proud  to  act  under  her  ancient  rival,  and  Thebes  no  longer  ex- 
isted.    Antip'  ater  attempted  to  secure  the  straits  of  Thermop'  ylso 
against  the  confederates,  but  he  was  met  by  Leos'  thenes,  the  Athe- 
nian general,  and  defeated.     Eventually,  however,  Antip'  ater,  having 
received  strong  reinforcements  from  Mac'  edon,  attacked  the  confeder- 
ates, and  completely  annihilated  their  army.     Athens  was  compelled 
to  abolish  her  democratic  form  of  government,  to  receive  Macedonian 
garrisons  in  her  fortresses,  and  to  surrender  a  number  of  her  most 
famous  orators,  including  Demosthenes.     The  latter,  to  avoid  falling 
into  the  hands  of  Antip'  ater,  terminated  his  life  by  poison. 

25.  Antip'  ater,  at  his  death,  left  the  government  in  the  hands  of 
Polysper'  chon,  as  regent  during  the  minority  of  a  son  of  Alexander  j 
but  Cassan'  der,  the  son  of  Antip'  ater,  soon  after  usurped  the  sover- 
eignty of  Greece  and  Mac'  edon,  and,  for  the  greater  security  of  his 
power,  caused  all  the  surviving  members  of  the  family  of  Alexander 
to  be  put  to  death.     Antig'  onus,  another  of  Alexander's  generals, 
had  before  this  time  overrun  Syria  and  Asia  Minor,  and  his  am- 
bitious views  extended  to  the  undivided  sovereignty  of  all  the  coun- 
tries which  had  been  ruled  by  Alexander.     Four  of  the  most  powerful 
of  the  other  generals,  Ptol'  emy,  Seleu'  cus,  Lysim'  achus,  and  Cas- 
san' der,  formed  a  league  against  him,  and  fought  with  him  the 
famous  battle  of  Ip'  sus,1  in  Phryg'  ia,a  which  ended  in  the  defeat 
and  death  of  Antig'  onus,  the  destruction  of  the  power  which  he  had 
raised,  and  the  final  dissolution  of  the  Macedonian  empire,  three 
hundred  and  one  years  before  the  Christian  era. 

1.  Ip'  sus  was  a  city  of  Phryg'  ia,  near  the  southern  boundary  of  Galatia,  bul  its  exact  lo- 
cality is  unknown.    (Map  No.  IV.) 

2.  Phryg'  ia  was  the  central  province  of  western  Asia  Minor.    (Maps  Nos.  IV.  and  V.) 


104  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART  I 

26.  A  new  partition  of  the  provinces  was  now  made  into  four  in- 
dependent kingdoms.     Ptol'emy  was  confirmed  in  the  possession  of 
Egypt,  together  with  Lib'  ya,  and  part  of  the  neighboring  territories 
of  Arabia ;  Seleu'  cus  received  the  countries  embraced  in  the  east- 
ern conquests  of  Alexander,  and  the  whole  region  between  the  coast 
of  Syria  and  the  Euphrates  ;  but  the  whole  of  this  vast  empire  soon 
dwindled   into  the   Syrian  monarchy :    Lysim'  achus  received  the 
northern  and  western  portions  of  Asia  Minor,  as  an  appendage  to  his 
kingdom  of  Thrace ;  while  Cassan'  der  received  the  sovereignty  of 
Greece  and  Mac'  edon.     Of  these  kingdoms,  the  most  powerful  were 
Syria  and  Egypt ;  the  former  of  which  continued  und^r  the  dynasty 
of  the  Seleu'  cidae,  and  the  latter  under  that  of  the  Ptol'  emies,  until 
both  were  absorbed  in  the  growing  dominion  of  the  Roman  empire. 
Of  the  kingdom  of  Thrace  under  Lysim'  achus,  we  shall  have  occa- 
sion to  speak  in  its  farther  connection  with  Grecian  history. 

27.  Cassan'  der  survived  the  establishment  of  his  power  only  four 
years.     After  his  death  his  two  sons  quarrelled  for  the  succession, 
and  called  in  the  aid  of  foreigners  to  enforce  their  claims.     Deme- 
trius, son  of  Antig'  onus,  having  seized  the  opportunity  of  inter- 
ference in  their  disputes,  cjit  off  the  brother  who  had  invited  his  aid, 
and  made  himself  master  of  the  throne  of  Mac'  edon,  which  was  en- 
joyed by  his  posterity,  except  during  a  brief  interruption  after  his 
death,  down  to  the  time  of  the  Roman  conquest.    Demetrius  possessed 
in  addition  to  Mac'  edon,  Thes'  saly,  At'  tica,  and  Breotia,  together 
with  a  great  portion  of  the  Peloponnesus ;  but  his  government  was 
that  of  a  pure  military  despotism,  which  depended  on  the  army  for 
support,  wholly  independent  of  the  good  will  of  the  people.     Aim- 
ing to  recover  his  father's  power  in  Asia,  he  excited  the  jealousy  of 
Seleu'  cus,  king  of  Syria,  who  was  able  to  induce  Lysim'  achus,  of 
Thrace,  and  Pyr'  rhus,  king  of  Epirus,  to  commence  a  war  against 
him.      The  latter   twice  overran   Macedonia,  and  even  seized  the 
throne,  which  he  held  during  a  few  months,  while  Demetrius  was 
driven  from  the  kingdom  by  his  own  rebellious  subjects ;  but  his  son 
Antig'  onus  maintained  himself  in  Peloponnesus,  waiting  a  favorable 
opportunity  of  placing  himself  on  the  throixe  of  his  father. 

28.  During  a  number  of  years  Mac'  edon,  Greece,  and  Western 
Asia,  were  harassed  with  the  wars  excited  by  the  various  aspirants 
to  power.     Lysim'  achus  was  defeated  and  slain  in  a  war  with  Se- 
leu' cus ;    and   the   latter,    invading   Thrace,   was   assassinated   by 
Ptol'  emy  Cerau'  nus,  who  then  usurped  the  government  of  Thra  e 


CHAP.  IV.]  GRECIAN  HISTORY.  105 

and  Mac'  edon.  In  this  situation  of  affairs,  a  storm,  unseen  in  the 
distance,  but  which  had  long  been  gathering,  suddenly  burst  upon 
Mac'  edon,  threatening  to  convert,  by  its  ravages,  the  whole  Grecian 
peninsula  into  a  scene  of  desolation. 

29.  A  vast  horde  of  barbarians  of  the  Celtic  race  had  for  some 
time  been  accumulating  around  the  head  waters  of  the  Adriat'  ic,* 
making  Pannonia3  the  chief  seat  of  their  power.      Influenced  by 
hopes  of  plunder,  rather  than  of  conquest,  they  suddenly  appeared 
on  the  frontiers  of  Mac'  edon,  and  sent  an  embassy  to  Cerau'  nus, 
offering  peace  if  he  were  willing  to  purchase  it  by  tribute.      A 
haughty  defiance  from  the  Macedonian  served  only  to  quicken  the 
march  of  the  invaders,  who  defeated  and  killed  Cerau'  nus  in  a  great 
battle,  and  so  completely  routed  his  army  that  almost  all  were  slain 
or  taken.     (B.  C.  280.)     The  conquerors  then  overran  all  Mac' edon 
to  the  borders  of  Thes'  saly,  and  a  detachment  made  a  devastating 
inroad  into  the  rich  vale  of  the  Peneus.     The  walled  towns  alone, 
which  the  barbarians  had  neither  the  skill  nor  the  patience  to  reduce 
by  siege,  held  out  until  the  storm  had  spent  its  fury,  when  the  Celts, 
scattered  over  the  country  in  plundering  parties,  having  met  with 
some  reverses,  gradually  withdrew  from  a  country  where  there  was 
little  left  to  tempt  their  cupidity. 

30.  In  the  following  year  (279  B.  C.)  another  band  of  Celts,  esti- 
mated at  two  hundred  thousand  men,  under  the  guidance  of  their 
principal  Brenn  or  chief,  called  Bren'  nus,  overran  Macedonia  with 
little  resistance,  and  passing  through  Thessaly,  threatened  to  extend 
their  ravages  over  southern  Greece ;  but  the  allied  Grecians,  under 
the  Athenian  general,  Cal'lipus,  met  them  at  Thermop'  ylse,  and  at 
first  repulsed  them  with  considerable  loss.     Eventually,  however, 
the  secret  path  over  the  mountains  was  betrayed  to  the  Celts  as  it 
had  been  to  the  Persian  army  of  Xerxes,  and  the  Grecians  were 
forced  to  retreat.     A  part  of  the  barbarian  army,  under  Bren'  nus, 
then  marched  into  Phocis,  for  the  purpose  of  plundering  Delphi; 
but  their  atrocities  roused  against  them  the  whole  population,  and 
they  found  their  entire  march,  over  roads  mountainous  and  difficult, 

1.  The  Adriat'  ic  or  Hadriatic  (now  most  generally  called  the  Gulf  of  Venice)  is  that  large 
arm  of  the  Mediterranean  sea  which  lies  between  Italy  and  the  opposite  shores  of  lllyr'  ia, 
Epirus,  and  Greece.    The  southern  portion  of  the  gulf  is  now,  as  anciently,  called  the  Ionian 
sea.    The  Adriat'  ic  derived  its  name  from  the  once  flourishing  sea-port  town  of  A'  dria  north 
of  the  river  Po.    The  harbor  of  A'  dria  has  long  been  filled  up  by  the  mud  and  other  deposits 
brought  down  by  the  rivers,  and  the  town  is  now  nineteen  miles  inland.    (Map  No.  VIII.) 

2.  Pannonia,  afterwards  a  Roman  province,  was  north  of  lllyr'  ia,  having  the  Danube  for  ite 
northern  and  eastern  boundary.    (Map  No.  VIII  &  IX.) 


106  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART  I. 

beset  with  enemies  burning  for  revenge.  The  invaders  also  suffered 
greatly  from  the  cold  and  storms  in  the  defiles  of  the  mountains.  It 
was  said  that  the  gods  fought  for  the  sacred  temple,  and  that  an 
earthquake  rent  the  rocks,  and  brought  down  huge  masses  on  the 
heads  of  the  assailants.  Certain  it  is  that  the  invaders,  probably 
acted  upon  by  superstitious  terror,  were  repulsed  and  disheartened. 
Bren'  nus,  who  had  been  wounded  before  Delphi,  is  said  to  have  killed 
himself  in  despair  ;  and  only  a  remnant  of  the  barbarians  regained 
their  original  seats  on  the  Adriat'  ic. 

31.  After  the  repulse  of  the  Celts,  Antig'  onus,  the  son  of  Deme- 
trius, was  able  to  gain  possession  of  the  throne  of  Mac'  edon,  but  he 
found  a  formidable  competitor  in  Pyr'  rhus,  king  of  Epirus,  who  re- 
solved to  add  Mac'  edon,  and,  if  possible,  the  whole  of  Greece  to  his 
own  dominion.     Pyr'  rhus  had  no  sooner  returned  from  his  famous 
expedition  into  Italy,  of  which  we  shall  have  occasion  to  speak  in 
Roman  history,3-  than  he  seized  a  pretext  for  declaring  war  against 
Antig'  onus,  and  invaded  Macedonia  with  his  small  army,  (274  B.  C.) 
the  remnant  of  the  forces  which  he  had  led  against  Rome,  but  which 
he  now  strengthened  with  a  body  of  Celtic  mercenaries.     When 
Antig'  onus  marched  against  him,  many  of  his  troops,  who  had  little 
affection  or  respect  for  their  king,  went  over  to  Pyr'  rhus,  whose 
celebrated  military  prowess  had  won  their  admiration. 

32.  Antig'  onus  then  retired  into  Southern  Greece,  whither  he 
was  followed  by  Pyr' rhus,  who  professed  that  the  object  of  his  expe- 
dition was  merely  to  restore  the  freedom  of  the  cities  which  were  held 
in  subjection  by  his  rival;   but  when  he   reached  the  borders  of 
Laconia  he  laid  aside  the  mask,  and  began  to  ravage  the  country, 
and  made  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  surprise  Sparta,  which  was  lit- 
tle prepared  for  defence.     He  then  marched  to  Ar'  gos,  whither  he 
had  been  invited  by  one  of  the  rival  leaders  of  the  people,  but  he 
found  Antig'  onus,  at  the  head  of  a  strong  force,  encamped  on  one 
of  the  neighboring  heights.     Pyr'  rhus  gained  entrance  into  the  city 
by  night,  through  treachery,  but  at  the  same  time  the  troops  of  Antig'- 
onus  were  admitted  from  an  opposite  quarter — the  citizens  arose  in 
arms,  and  a  fierce  struggle  was  carried  on  in  the  streets  until  day- 
light, when  Pyr'  rhus  himself  was  slain  (272  B.  C.)  by  the  hand  of  an 
Ar'give  woman,  who,  exasperated  at  seeing  him  about  to  kill  her  son, 
hurled  upon  him  a  ponderous  tile  from  the  house-top.     The  greater 
part  of  the  army  of  Pyr' rhus,  chiefly  composed  of  Macedonians, 

a.  See  page  149. 


CHAP.  IV.]  GRECIAN  HISTORY.  107 

then  went  over  to  their  former  sovereign,  who  soon  after  gained  the 
throne  of  Mac'  edon,  which  he  held  until  his  death. 

33.  The  death  of  Pyr'  rhus  forms  an  important  epoch  in  Grecian 
history,  as  it  put  an  end  to  the  struggle  for  power  among  Alexander's 
successors  in  the  West,  and  left  the  field  clear  for  the  final  contest 
between  the  liberty  of  Greece  and  the  power  of  Mac'  edon,  which 
was  only  terminated  by  the  ruin  of  both.     When  Antig' onus  re- 
turned to  Mac'  edon,  its  acknowledged  sovereign,  he  cherished  the 
hope  of  ultimately  reducing  all  Greece  to  his  sway,  little  dreaming 
that  the  power  centered  in  a  recent  league  of  a  few  Achae'  an  cities 
was  destined  to  become  a  formidable  adversary  to  his  house. 

34.  The  Achce'  an  League  comprised  at  first  twelve  towns  of 
Achaia,  which  were  associated  together  for  mutual  safety,  forming  a 
little  federal  republic — all  the  towns  having  an  equality  IIL  ACH^'  ^ 
of  representation  in  the  general  government,  to  which      LEAGUE. 
all  matters  affecting  the  common  welfare  were  intrusted,  each  town 
at  the  same  time  retaining  the  regulation  of  its  own  domestic  policy. 
The  Achae'  an  league  did  not  become  of  sufficient  political  importance 
to  attract  the  attention  of  Antig'  onus  until  about  twenty  years  after 
the  death  of  Pyr'  rhus,  when  Aratus,  an  exile  from  Sic'  yon,  at  the 
head  of  a  small  band  of  followers,  surprised  the  city  by  night,  and 
without  any  bloodshed  delivered  it  from  the  dominion  of  the  tyrants 
who,   under    Macedonian   protection,   had  long  oppressed  it  with 
despotic  sway.  (251  B.  C.)     Fearful  of  the  hostility  of  Antig'onus, 
Aratus  induced  Sic'  yon  to  join  the  Achae'  an  league,  and  although 
its  power  greatly  exceeded  that  of  any  Achae'  an  town,  it  claimed  no 
superiority  of  privilege  over  the  other  members  of  the  confederacy, 
but  obtained  only  one  vote  in  the  general  council  of  the  league ;  a 
precedent  which  was  afterwards  strictly  adhered  to  in  the  admission 
of  other  cities.     Aratus  received  the  most  distinguished  honors  from 
the  Achae'  ans,  and,  a  few  years  after  the  accession  of  Sic'  yon,  was 
placed  at  the  head  of  the  armies  of  the  confederacy.  (B.  C.  246.) 

35.  Corinth,  the  key  to  Greece,  having  been  seized  by  a  stratagem 
of  Antig'  onus,  and  its  citadel  occupied  by  a  Macedonian  garrison, 
was  rescued  by  a  bold  enterprise  of  Aratus,  and  induced  to  join  the 
league.    (243  B.  C.)     Other  cities  successively  gave  in  their  adhe- 
rence, until  the  confederacy  embraced  nearly  the  whole  of  Pelopon- 
nesus.    Although  Athens  did  not  unite  with  it,  yet  Aratus  obtained 
the  withdrawal  of  its  Macedonian  garrison.     Sparta  opposed  the 
league — induced  Ar'  gos  and  Corinth  to  withdraw  from  it — and  by 


103  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART  I. 

her  successes  over  the  Achae'  ans,  eventually  induced  them  to  call  in 
the  aid  of  the  Macedonians,  their  former  enemies. 

36.  Antig'onus  II.,  readily  embracing  the  opportunity  of  restor 
ing  the  influence  of  his  family  in  Southern  Greece,  marched  against 
the   Lacedaemonians,   over  whom   he   obtained   a  decisive  victory, 
which  placed  Sparta  at  his  mercy.     But  he  used  his  victory  moder- 
ately, and  granted  the  Spartans  peace  on  liberal  terms.     On  his 
death,  which  occurred  soon  after,  he  was  succeeded  on  the  throne 
of  Mac'  edon  by  his  nephew  and  adopted  son,  Philip  II.,  a  youth  of 
only  seventeen. 

37.  The  ^Etolians,1  the  rudest  of  the  Grecian   tribes,  who  had 
acquired  the  character  of  a  nation  of  freebooters  and  pirates,  had 
at  this  time  formed  a  league  similar  to  the  Achae'  an,  and  counting 
on  the  inexperience  of  the  youthful  Philip,  and  the  weakness  of  the 
Achae'  ans,   began  a  series  of  unprovoked  aggressions  on  the  sur- 
rounding States.     The  Messenians,  whose  territory  they  had  invaded 
by  way  of  the  western  coast  of  the  Peloponnesus,  called  upon  the 
Achae'  ans  for  assistance,  but  Aratas,  going  to  their  relief,  was  attack- 
ed unexpectedly,  and  defeated.     Soon  after,  the  youthful  Philip  was 
placed  at  the  head  of  the  Achae'  an  League,  when  a  general  war  be- 
gan between  the  Macedonians,  Achae' ans,  and  their  confederates, 
on  the  one  side,  and  the  jEtolians,  who  were  aided  by  the  Spartans 
and  E'  leans,  on  the  other. 

38.  The  war  continued  four  years,  and  was  conducted  with  great 
cruelty  and  obstinacy  on  both  sides ;  but  Philip  and  the  Achae'  ans 
were  on  the  whole  successful,  and  the  JEtolians  and  their  allies  be- 
came desirous  of  peace,  while  new  and  ambitious  views  more  eagerly 
inclined  Philip  to  put  an  end  to  the  unprofitable  contest.     At  this 
time  the  Carthaginians  and  Romans  were  contending  for  mastery 
in  the  second  Punic  war,  and  Philip  began  to  view  the  struggle  as 
one  in  which  an  alliance  with  one  of  the  parties  would  be  desirable, 
by  opening  to  himself  prospects  of  future  conquest  and  glory.     By 
siding  with  the  Carthaginians,  who  were  the  most  distant  party,  and 
from  whom  he  would  have  less  to  fear  than  from  the  Romans,  he 
hoped  to  be  able  eventually  to  insure  to  himself  the  sovereignty  of 
all  Greece,  and  to  make  additions  to  Macedonia  on  the  side  of  Italy. 
He  therefore  proposed  terms  of  peace  to  the  .ZEtolians  ;  and  a  treaty 

1.  JEtdlia  was  a  country  of  Northern  Greece,  bounded  on  the  north  by  Thes'  saly,  on  the 
east  by  Doris,  Phocis,  and  Locris,  on  the  south  by  the  Corinthian  Gulf,  and  on  the  west  by 
Acarnania.  It  was  in  general  a  rough  and  mountainous  country,  although  some  of  the  valley* 
were  remarkable  for  their  fertility.  (Map  No.  I.) 


CHAP.  IV.]  GRECIAN  HISTORY.  109 

was  concluded  at  Naupac'  tus,  which  left  all  the  parties  in  the  war  In 
the  enjoyment  of  their  respective  possessions.  (217  B.  C.) 

39.  After  the  great  battle  of  Can'  nae,a  which  seemed  to  have  ex- 
tinguished the  last  hopes  of  Rome,  Philip  sent  envoys  to  Hannibal, 
the  Carthaginian  general,  and  concluded  with  him  a  treaty  of  strict 
alliance.     He  next  sailed  with  a  small  fleet  up  the  Adriat'  ic,  and 
while  besieging  Appollonia,1  a  town  in  Illyr'  ia,  was  met  and  defeated 
by  the  Roman  praetor,  M.  Valerius,  who  had  been  sent  to  succor 
the  Illyr 'ians.  (215  B.  C.)     Philip  was  forced  to  burn  his  ships, 
and  retreat  over  land  to  Macedonia,  leaving  his  baggage,  and  the 
arms  of  many  of  his  troops,  in  the  enemy's  hands.     Such  was  the 
unfortunate  issue  of  his  first  encounter  with  the  Roman  soldiery. 

40.  Soon  after  his  return  to  Macedonia,  finding  Aratus  in  the 
way  of  his  projects  against  the  liberties  of  Southern  Greece,  he 
contrived  to  have  the  old  general  removed  by  slow  poison  ; — a  crime 
which  filled  all  Greece  with  horror  and  indignation.     In  the  mean- 
time, the  Romans,  while  recovering  ground  in  Italy,  contrived  to 
keep  Philip  busy  at  home,  by  inciting  the  JEtolians  to  violate  the 
recent  treaty,  and  inducing  Sparta  and  E'  lis  to  join  in  a  war  against 
Mac'edon.      Still  Philip,  supported  for  awhile  by  the  Achae'ans, 
under  their  renowned  leader,  Philopoe'  men,  maintained  his  ground, 
until,  first,  the  Athenians,  no  longer  able  to  protect  their  fallen  for- 
tunes, solicited  aid  from  the  Romans ;  and  finally,  the  Achse'  ans 
themselves,  being  divided  into  factions,  accepted  terms  of  peace. 

41.  Philip  continued  to  struggle  against  his  increasing  enemies, 
until,  being  defeated  in  a  great  battle  with  the  Romans,b  he  pur- 
chased peace  by  the  sacrifice  of  the  greater  part  of  his  navy,  the 
payment  of  a  tribute,  and  the  resignation  of  his  supremacy  over  the 
Grecian  States.     At  the  celebration  of  the  Isth'  mian  games  at 
Corinth  the  terms  of  the  Roman  senate  were  made  known  to  the 
Grecians,  who  received,  with  the  height  of  exultation,  the  proclama- 
tion that  the  independence  of  Greece  was  restored,  under  the  au- 
spices of  the  Roman  arms.  (f§6  B.  C.) 

42.  Probably  nothing  was  farther  from  the  intention  of  the  Roman 
senate  than  to  allow  the  Grecian  States  to  regain  their  ancient  power 
and  sovereignty,  and  it  was  sufficient  to  damp  the  joy  of  the  more 

1.  J3poll6nia  was  situated  on  the  northern  side  of  the  river  Aous  (now  Vojutza)  near  its 
mouth.  Its  ruins  still  retain  the  name  of  Pollini.  ApollonSa  was  founded  by  a  colony  from 
Corinth  and  Corcyra,  and,  according  to  Strabo,  was  renowned  for  the  wisdom  of  its  laws. 

a.  See  p.  158.  b.  Battle  of  Cynocephalae,  197  B.  C.    S«e  p.  161. 


110  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART! 

considerate  that  the  boon  of  freedom  which  Rome  affected  to  bestow 
was  tendered  by  a  master  who  could  resume  it  at  his  pleasure.  At 
the  first  opportunity  of  interference,  therefore,  which  opened  to  the 
Romans,  the  jEtolians,  who  had  espoused  the  cause  of  Antiochus, 
king  of  Syria,  the  enemy  of  Rome,  were  reduced  to  poverty  and  de- 
prived of  their  independence.  At  a  later  period  Per'  seus,  the  suc- 
cessor of  Philip  on  the  throne  of  Mac'  edon,  being  driven  into  a  war 
by  Roman  ambition,  finally  lost  his  kingdom  in  the  battle  of  Pyd'  na,1 
in  which  twenty  thousand  Macedonians  were  slain,  and  ten  thousand 
taken  prisoners,  while  the  Roman  army,  commanded  by  Lucius 
jEmil'ius  Paulus,  lost  scarcely  a  hundred  men.  (168  B.  C.)  The 
Macedonian  monarchy  was  extinguished,  and  Per'  seus  himself,  a 
wanderer  from  his  country,  was  taken  prisoner  in  an  island  of  the 
jE'gean,  and  conveyed  to  Rome  to  grace  the  triumph  of  the  con- 
queror. 

43.  Soon  after  the  fall  of  Per'  seus,  the  Achae'  ans  were  charged 
with  having  aided  him  in  the  war  against  Rome,  and,  without  a 
shadow  of  proof,  one  thousand  of  their  worthiest  citizens,  among 
whom  was  the  historian  Polyb'  ius,  were  sent  to  Rome  to  prove  their 
innocence  of  this  charge  before  a  Roman  tribunal.     (167  B.    C.) 
Here  they  were  detained  seventeen  years  without  being  able  to  obtain 
a  hearing,  when  three  hundred  of  the  number,  the  only  surviving 
remnant  of  the  thousand,  were  finally  restored  to  their  country.     The 
exiles  returned,  burning  with  vengeance  against  the  Romans  ;  other 
causes  of  animosity  arose;    and  when  a  Roman  embassy,  sent  to 
Corinth,  declared  the  will  of  the  Roman  senate  that  the  Achae'  an 
League  should  be  reduced  to  its  original  limits,  a  popular  tumult 
arose,  and  the  Roman  ambassadors  were  publicly  insulted. 

44.  War  soon  followed.     The  Achae'  ans  and  their  allies  were  de- 
feated by  the  consul  Mum'  mius  near  Corinth,  and  that  city,  then  the 
richest  in  Greece,  after  being  plundered  of  its  treasures,  was  con- 
signed to  the  flames.     The  last  blow  to  the  liberties  of  the  Hellenic 
race  had  been  struck,  and  all  Greece,  a.s  far  as  Epirus  and  Macedo- 
nia, now  become  a  Roman  province,  under  the  name  of  Achaia. 
(146  B.  C.)     "  The  end  of  the  Achse'  an  war,"  says  Thirwall,  "  was 
the  last  stage  of  the  lingering  process  by  which  Rome  enclosed  her 
victim  in  the  coils  of  her  insidious  diplomacy,  covered  it  with  the 

1.  Pyd'  na  was  a  city  near  the  south-eastern  extremity  of  Macedonia,  on  the  western  shore  of 
the  Thermaic  Gulf,  (now  Gulf  of  Saloniki.)  The  ancient  Pydna  is  now  called  Kidros.  Dr. 
Clarke  observed  here  a  vast  mound  of  earth,  which  he  considered,  with  much  probability,  as 
marking  the  site  of  the  great  battle  fought  there  by  the  Romans  and  Macedonians.  (Map  No.  I.) 


CHAP.  VI.]  JEWISH  HISTORY.  1 1 1 

slime  of  her  sycophants  and  hirelings,  crushed  it  when  it  began  to 
struggle,  and  then  calmly  preyed  upon  its  vitals." 

45.  We  have  now  arrived  at  the  proper  termination  of  Grecian 
history.  Niebuhr  has  remarked,  that,  "  as  rivers  flow  into  the  sea, 
so  does  the  history  of  all  the  nations,  known  to  have  existed  pre- 
viously in  the  regions  around  the  Mediterranean,  terminate  in  that 
of  Rome."  Henceforward,  then,  the  history  of  Greece  becomes  in- 
volved in  the  changing  fortunes  of  the  Roman  empire,  to  whose  early 
annals  we  shall  now  return,  after  a  brief  notice  of  the  cotemporary 
history  of  surrounding  nations.  With  the  loss  of  her  liberties  the 
glory  of  Greece  had  passed  away.  Her  population  had  been  gradu- 
ally diminishing  since  the  period  of  the  Persian  wars  ;  and  from  the 
epoch  of  the  Roman  conquest  the  spirit  of  the  nation  sunk  into  de- 
spondency, and  the  energies  of  the  people  gradually  wasted,  until,  no 
later  than  the  days  of  Strabo,1  Greece  existed  only  in  the  remembrance 
of  the  past.  Then,  many  of  her  cities  were  desolate,  or  had  sunk  to 
insignificant  villages,  while  Athens  alone  maintained  her  renown  for 
philosophy  and  the  arts,  and  became  the  instructor  of  her  conquer- 
ors ; — large  tracts  of  land,  once  devoted  to  tillage,  were  either  barren, 
or  had  been  converted  into  pastures  for  sheep,  and  vast  herds  of 
cattle;  while  the  rapacity  of  Roman  governors  had  inflicted  upon 
the  sparse  population  impoverishment  and  ruin. 

COTEMPORARY  HISTORY:  490  TO  146  B.  C. 

1.  Of  the  cotemporary  annals  of  other  nations  during  the  authentic 
period  of  Grecian  history,  there  is  little  of  importance  to  be  nar- 
rated beyond  what  will  be  found  connected  with  Roman  affairs  in  a 
subsequent  chapter ;  although  the  Grecian  cities  of  Italy,  Sicily,  and 
Cyrenaica,  considered  not  as  dependent  colonies  of  the  parent  State,  but 
as  separate  powers,  will  require  some  further  notice.  Of  the  history 
of  the  Medes  and  Persians  we  have  already  given  the  most  interesting 
portion.  Of  Egyptian  history  little  is  known,  beyond  what  has  been 
narrated,  until  the  beginning  of  the  dynasty  of  the  Ptolemies  (301 
B.  C.,)  and  of  the  events  from  that  period  down  to  the  time  of  Ro- 
man interference  in  the  affairs  of  Egypt,  we  have  room  for  only  occa- 
sional notices,  as  connected  with  the  more  important  L  HISTORY 
histories  of  other  nations.  Of  the  civil  annals  of  the  OF  THE  JKWS- 
Jews  we  shall  give  a  brief  sketch,  so  as  to  continue,  from  a  preced- 

1.  Strabo  was  a  celebrated  geographer,  born  at  Amasia  in  Pontus,  about  the  year  54  B.  C. 


112  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART! 

ing  chapter,  the  history  of  Judea  down  to  the  time  when  that  country 
became  a  province  of  the  Roman  empire. 

2.  It  has  been  stated  that  the  rebuilding  of  the  second  temple  of 
Jerusalem  was  completed  during  the  reign  of  Darius  Hystas'pes, 
about  twenty-five  years  before  the  commencement  of  the  war  between 
the  Greeks  and  Persians.     During  the  following  reign  of  Xerxes,  the 
Jews  appear  to  have  been  treated  by  their  masters  with  respect,  and 
also  during  the  early  part  of  the  reign  of  Artaxerx'  es  Longimanus, 
who  had  taken  for  his  second  wife  a  Jewish  damsel  named  Esther, 
the  niece  of  the  Jew  Mor'  decai,  one  of  the  officers  of  the  palace. 
The  story  of  Haman,  the  wicked  minister  of  the  king,  is  doubtless 
familiar  to  all  our  readers.     After  the  Jews  had  been  delivered  from 
the  wanton  malice  of  Haman,  Nehemiah,  also  an  officer  in  the  king's 
palace,  obtained  for  them  permission  to  rebuild  the  walls  of  the  holy 
city,  and  was  appointed  governor  over  Judea.     "With  the  close  of 
the  administration  of  Nehemiah  the  annals  embraced  in  the  Old 
Testament  end,  and  what  farther  reliable  information  we  possess  of 
the  history  of  the  Jews  down  to  the  time  of  the  Roman  conquest  is 
mostly  derived  from  Josephus. 

3.  After  Nehemiah,  Judea  was  joined  to  the  satrapy  of  Syria,  al- 
though the  internal  government  was  still  administered  by  the  high- 
priests,  under  the  general  superintendence  of  Persian  officers — the 
people  remaining  quiet  under  the  Persian  government.     After  the 
division  of  the  vast  empire  of  Alexander  among  his  generals,  Judea, 
lying  between  Syria  and  Egypt,  and  being  coveted  by  the  monarchs 
of  both,  suffered  greatly  from  the  wars  which  they  carried  on  against 
each  other.     At  one  time  the  Egyptian  monarch,  Ptol'  emy  Soter, 
having  invaded  the  country,  stormed  Jerusalem  on  the  Sabbath  day, 
when  the  Jews,  from  superstitious  motives,  would  not  defend  their 
city,  and   transported  a  hundred  thousand  of  the   population   to 
Egypt, — apparently,  however,  as  colonists,  rather  than  as  prisoners. 

4.  During  the  reigns  of  Ptol'  emy  Soter,  Ptol'  emy  Philadel' phus, 
Ptol'  emy  Euer'  getes,  and  Ptol'  emy  Philop'  ater,  Judea  remained 
subject  to  Egypt,  but  was  lost  by  Ptol'  emy  Epiph'  anes.     Ptol'  emy 
Philadel'  phus,  by  his  generous  treatment  of  the  Jews,  induced  large 
numbers  of  them  to  settle  in  Egypt.     He  was  an  eminent  patron  of 
learning,  and  caused  the  septuagint  translation  of  the  scriptures  tc>  be 
made,  and  a  copy  to  be  deposited  in  the  famous  library  which  he  es- 
tablished at  Alexandria.     On  the  accession  of  Ptol'  emy  Epiph'  anes 
to  the  throne,  (204  B.  C.)  at  the  age  of  only  five  years,  Antioclms 


CHAP.  IV.]  JEWISH  HISTORY.  113 

r  »« 

the  Great,  king  of  Syria,  easily  persuaded  the  Jewd  to  place  them- 
selves under  his  rule,  and  in  return  for  their  confidence  in  him  he 
conferred  such  favors  upon  Jerusalem  as  he  knew  were  best  calculated 
to  win  the  hearts  of  the  people. 

5.  Antiochus  Epiph'  anes,  the  successor  of  Antiochus  the  Great, 
having  invaded  Egypt,  a  false  rumor  of  his  death  was  brought  to 
Jerusalem,  whereupon  a  civil  war  broke  out  between  two  factions  of 
the  Jews  who  had  long  been  quarrelling  about  the  office  of  the  higli- 
priesthood.     The  tumult  was  quelled  by  the  return  of  Antiochus, 
who,  exasperated  on  learning  that  the  Jews  had  made  public  rejoic- 
ings at  his  supposed  death,  marched  against  Jerusalem,  which  he 
plundered,  as  if  he  had  taken  it  by  storm  from  an  enemy.     ( 169  B.  C.) 
He  even  despoiled  the  temple  of  its  holy  vessels,  and  carried  off  the 
treasures  of  the  nation  collected  there.     Two  years  later  he  attempted 
to  carry  out  the  plan  of  reducing  the  various  religious  systems  of  his 
empire  to  one  single  profession,  that  of  the  Grecian  polytheism.     He 
polluted  the  altar  of  the  temple — put  a  stop  to  the  daily  sacrifice — 
to  the  great  festivals — to  the  rite  of  circumcision — burned  the  copies 
of  the  law — and  commanded  that  the  temple  itself  should  be  convert- 
ed into  an  edifice  sacred  to  the  Olympian  Jvipiter. 

6.  These  acts,  and  the  insolent  cruelties  with  which  they  were  ac- 
companied, met  with  a  fierce  and  desperate  resistance  from  the  brave 
family  of  the  Mac'  cabees,a  or  Asmoneans,  who,  under  their  heroic 
leader  Judas,  first  fled  to  the  wilderness,  and  the  caves  of  the  moun- 
tians,  where  they  were  joined  by  numerous  bands  of  their  exasperated 
countrymen,  who,  ere  long,  began  to  look  upon  Judas  as  an  instru- 
ment appointed  by  heaven  for  their  deliverance.     Thoroughly  ac- 
quainted with  every  impregnable  cliff  and  defile  of  his  mountain- 
land,  Judas  was  successful  in  every  encounter  in  which  he  chose  to 
engage  with  the  Syrians : — by  rapid  assaults  he  made  himself  master 
of  many  fortified  places,  and  within  three  years  after  the  pollution 
of  the  temple  he  had  driven  out  of  Judea  four  generals  at  the  head 
of  large  and  regular  armies.     He  then  went  up  to  Jerusalem,  and 
although  a  fortress  in  the  lower  city  was  still  held  by  a  Syrian  garri- 
son, he  restored  the  walls  and  doors  of  the  temple,  caused  the  daily 
sacrifice  to  be  renewed,  and  proclaimed  a  solemn  festival  of  eight  days 
on  the  joyful  occasion. 

a.  The  appellation  of  Mac'  cabees  was  given  them  from  the  initial  letters  of  the  text  displayed 
on  their  standard,  which  was,  Mi  Chamoka  Baalim,  Jahoh  I  "  Who  is  like  unto  thee  among 
the  gods,  O  Lord  !"— from  Exod.  xv.  11. 

8 


114  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART! 

7.  The  war  with  Syria  continued  during  the  brief  reign  of  the 
youthful  son  of  Antiochus  Epiph'  anes,  and  was  extended  into  the 
subsequent  reign  of  Demetrius  Soter,  (B.  C.   162,)  who  sent  two 
powerful  armies  into  Judea,  the  first  of  which  was  defeated  in  the 
defile  of  Bethoron,1  and  its  general  slain.     Another  army  was  more 
successful,  and  Judas  himself  fell,  after  having  destroyed  a  multi- 
tude of  his  enemies ;  but  his  body  was  recovered,  and  he  was  buried 
in  the  tomb  of  his  fathers.     "  And  all  Israel  mourned  him  with  a 
great  mourning,  and  sorrowed  many  days,  and  said,  How  is  the 
mighty  fallen  that  saved  Israel." 

8.  After  the  death  of  Judas  a  time  of  great  tribulation  followed; 
the  Syrians  became  masters  of  the  country,  and  Jonathan,  the  brother 
of  Judas,  the  new  leader  of  the  patriotic  band,  was  obliged  to  retire 
to  the  mountains,  where  he  maintained  himself  two  years,  while  the 
cities  were  occupied  by  Syrian  garrisons.     Eventually,  during  the 
changing  revolutions  in  the  Syrian  empire  itself,  Jonathan  was  en- 
abled to  establish  himself  in  the  priesthood,  and  under  his  adminis- 
tration Judea  again  became  a  flourishing  State.     Being  at  length 
treacherously  murdered  by  one  of  the  Syrian  kings,  (B.  0.  143,)  his 
brother  Simon  succeeded  to  the  priesthood,  and  during  the  seven 
years  in  which  he  judged  Israel,  general  prosperity  prevailed  through- 
out the  land.     "  The  husbandmen  tilled  the  field  in  peace,  and  the 
earth  gave  forth  her  crops,  and  the  trees  of  the  plain  their  fruits. 
The  old  men  sat  in  the  streets ;  all  talked  together  of  their  blessings, 
and  the  young  men  put  on  the  glory  and  the  harness  of  war." 

9.  The  remaining  history  of  the  Jews,  from  the  time  of  Simon 
down  to  the  formation  of  Judea  into  a  Roman  province,  is  mostly 
occupied  with  domestic  commotions,  whose  details  would  possess 
little  interest  for  the   general   reader.     The   circumstances   which 
placed  Judea  under  the  sway  of  the  Romans  will  be  found  detailed 
in  their  connection  with  Roman  history. 

10.  Before  the  beginning  of  the  "authentic  period"  of  Grecian 
history,  various  circumstances,  such  as  the  desire  of  adventure,  com- 

n.  GRECIAN  mercial  interests,  and,  not  unfrequently,  civil  dissensions 

COLONIES,     at  home,  led  to  the  planting  of  Grecian  colonies  on  many 

distant  coasts  of  the  Mediterranean.     Those  of  Thrace,  Mac'  edon, 

and  Asia-Minor,  were  ever  intimately  connected  with  Greece  proper, 

in  whose  general  history  theirs  is  embraced ;  but  the  Greek  cities 

1.  Bethdron  was  a  village  about  ten  miles  north-west  from  Jerusalem. 


CHAP.  IV.]  GRECIAN  COLONIES.  115 

of  Italy,  Sicily,  and  Cyrenaica,  were  too  far  removed  from  the  drama 
that  was  enacting  around  the  shores  of  the  jE'gean  to  be  more  than 
occasionally  and  temporarily  affected  by  the  changing  fortunes  of  the 
parent  States.  Nevertheless,  a  brief  notice  of  those  distant  settle- 
ments that  eventually  rivalled  even  Athens  and  Sparta  in  power  and 
resources,  cannot  be  uninteresting,  and  it  will  serve  to  give  the  reader 
more  accurate  views,  than  he  would  otherwise  possess,  of  the  extent 
and  importance  of  the  field  of  Grecian  history. 

11.  At  an  early  period  the  shores  of  southern  Italy  and  Sicily 
were  peopled  by  Greeks;  and  so  numerous  and  powerful  did  the 
Grecian  cities  in  those  countries  become,  that  the  whole  were  comprised 
by  Strabo  and  others  under  the  appellation  Magna  IIL  MAGNA 
Grcecia  or  "  Great  Greece" — an  appropriate  name  for  a  GR^CIA. 
region  containing  many  cities  far  superior  in  size  and  population  to 
any  in  Greece  itself.  The  earliest  of  these  distant  Grecian  settle- 
ments appear  to  have  been  made  at  Ciimae,1  and  Neap'  olis,a  on  the 
western  coast  of  Italy,  about  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  century. 
Nax'  os,3  on  the  eastern  coast  of  Sicily,  was  founded  about  the  year 
735  B.  C. ;  and  in  the  following  year  some  Corinthians  laid  the 
foundation  of  Syracuse.  Gela,4  on  the  western  coast  of  the  island, 
and  Messana6  on  the  strait  between  Italy  and  Sicily,  were  foundeC 

1.  Cum«E,  a  city  of  Campania,  on  the  western  coast  of  Italy,  a  short  distance  north-west  from 
Neapolis,  and  about  a  hundred  and  ten  miles  south-east  from  Rome,  is  supposed  to  have  been 
founded  by  a  Grecian  colony  from  Eubos'  a  about  the  year  1050  B.  C.    Cumse  was  built  on  a 
rocky  hill  washed  by  the  sea ;  and  the  same  name  is  still  applied  to  the  ruins  that  lie  scattered 
around  its  base.    Some  of  the  most  splendid  fictions  of  Virgil  relate  to  the  Cumaean  Sibyl, 
whose  cave,  hewn  out  of  solid  rock,  actually  existed  on  the  top  of  the  hill  of  Cumae.    (Map 
No.  VIII.) 

2.  Weap'  olis,  (a  Greek  word  meaning  the  new  city,)  now  called  Naples,  was  founded  by  a 
colony  from  Cumae.    It  ia  situated  on  the  north  side  of  the  Bay  of  Naples,  in  the  immediate 
vicinity  of  Mount  Vesuvius,  one  hundred  and  eighteen  miles  south-east  from  Rome.    (Map 
No.  VIII.) 

3.  JVaz'cs  was  north-east  from  Mount  ^Etna,  and  about  equi-distant  from  Messana  and 
Cat'  ana.    Nax1  os  was  twice  destroyed ;  first  by  Dionysius  the  Elder,  and  afterwards  by  the 
Siculi ;  after  which  Tauromenium  was  built  on  its  site.    The  modern  Taormina  occupies  the 
Bite  of  the  ancient  city.    (Map  No.  VIII.) 

4.  Gela  wus  on  the  southern  coast  of  Sicily,  a  short  distance  from  the  sea,  on  a  river  of  the 
same  name,  and  about  sixty  miles  west  from  Syracuse.    On  the  site  of  the  ancient  city  stands 
the  modern  Terra  Nova,    (Map  No.  VIII.) 

5.  Messana,  still  a  city  of  considerable  extent  under  the  name  of  Messina,  was  situated  at 
the  north-eastern  extremity  of  the  island  of  Sicily,  on  the  ttrait  of  its  own  name.    It  was  re- 
garded by  the  Greeks  as  the  key  of  the  island,  but  the  circumstance  of  its  commanding  position 
always  made  it  a  tempting  prize  to  the  ambitious  and  powerful  neighboring  princes.    It  under- 
went a  great  variety  of  changes,  under  the  power  of  the  Syracusans,  Carthaginians,  and  Ro- 
mans.   It  was  treacherously  seized  by  the  Mamertini,  (see  p.  152)  who  slew  the  males,  and  took 
the  wives  and  children  as  their  property,  and  called  the  city  Mamertina.    Finally,  a  portion  of 
the  inhabitants  called  in  the  aid  of  the  Romans,  and  thus  began  the  first  Punic  war.    C265  B.  C.) 


116  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART  L 

soon  after.     Agrigen'  turn,1  on  the  south-western  coast,  was  founded 
about  a  century  later. 

12.  In  the  meantime  the  Greek  cities  Syb' aris,  Crotona,'  and 
Taren'  turn,4  had  been  planted,  and  had  rapidly  grown  to  power  and 
opulence,  on  the  south-eastern  coast  of  Italy.  The  territorial  do- 
minions of  Syb'  aris  and  Crotona  extended  across  the  peninsula  from 
sea  to  sea.  The  former  possessed  twenty-five  dependent  towns,  and 
ruled  over  four  distinct  tribes  or  nations.  The  territories  of  Crotona 
were  still  more  extensive.  These  two  Grecian  States  were  at  the 
maximum  of  their  power  about  the  year  560  B.  C. — the  time  of  the 
accession  of  Pisis'  tratus  at  Athens ;  but  they  quarrelled  with  each 
other,  and  the  result  of  the  fatal  contest  was  the  ruin  of  Syb'  aris, 
510  B.  C.  At  the  time  of  the  invasion  of  Italy  by  Pyr'rhus,  (see 
p.  149.)  Crotona  was  still  a  considerable  city,  extending  on  both  sides 
of  the  ./Esarus,  and  its  walls  embracing  a  circumference  of  twelve 
miles.  Taren'  turn  was  formed  by  a  colony  from  Sparta  about  the 
year  707, — soon  after  the  first  Messenian  war.  No  details  of  its  his- 
tory during  the  first  two  hundred  and  thirty  years  of  its  existence 


"The  modem  city  has  a  most  imposing  appearance  from  the  sea,  forming  a  fine  circular 
sweep  about  two  miles  in  length  on  the  west  shore  of  its  magnificent  harbor,  from  which  it 
rises  in  the  form  of  an  amphitheatre ;  and  being  built  of  white  stone,  it  strikingly  contrasts 
with  the  dark  fronts  that  cover  the  forests  in  the  background."  (Map  No.  VIII.) 

1.  Jigrigeri  turn  was  situated  near  the  southern  shore  of  Sicily,  about  midway  of  the  island. 
Next  to  Syracuse  it  was  not  only  one  of  the  largest  and  most  famous  cities  of  Sicily,  but  of  the 
ancient  world ;  and  its  ruins  are  still  imposingly  grand  and  magnificent.    The  modern  town 
of  Qirgenti  lies  adjacent  to  the  ruins,  from  which  it  is  separated  by  the  small  river  Arcagas. 
(Map  No.  VHI.) 

2.  Syb'  aris  was  a  city  of  south-eastern  Italy  on  the  Tarentine  Gulf.    Crotona  was  about 
seventy  miles  south  of  it.    Pythogoras  resided  at  Crotona  during  the  latter  years  of  his  life ; 
and  Milo,  the  most  celebrated  athlete  of  antiquity,  was  a  native  of  that.  city.    The  Sybarites 

were  noted  for  the  excess  to  which  they  carried  the  refinements  of  luxury  and  sensuality. 

The  events  which  led  to  the  destruction  of  Syb'  aris,  about  510  B.  C.,  are  thus  related.    A 
democratical  party,  having  gained  the  ascendancy  at  Syb'  aris,  expelled  five  hundred  of  the 
principal  citizens,  who  sought  refuge  at  Crotona.    The  latter  refusing,  by  the  advice  of  Pytha- 
goras, to  give  up  the  fugitives,  a  war  ensued.    Milo  led  out  the  Crotoniats,  ten  thousand  in 
number,  who  were  met  by  three  hundred  thousand  Syb'  arites  ;  but  the  former  gained  a  com- 
plete victory,  and  then,  marching  immediately  to  Syb'  aris,  totally  destroyed  the  city.    (Map 
No.  VIII.) 

3.  Taren'  turn,  the  emporium  of  the  Greek  towns  of  Italy,  was  an  important  commercial 
city  near  the  head  of  the  gulf  of  the  same  name.    It  stood  on  what  was  formerly  an  isthmus, 
but  which  is  now  an  island,  separating  the  gulf  from  an  inner  bay  fifteen  or  sixteen  miles  in 
circumference.    The  early  Tarentiues  were  noted  for  their  military  skill  and  prowess,  and  for 
the  cultivation  of  literature  and  the  arts  ;  but  their  wealth  and  abundance  so  enervated  their 
minds  and  bodies,  and  corrupted  their  morals,  that  even  the  neighboring  barbarians,  who  had 
hated  and  feared,  learned  eventually  to  despise  them.    The  Tarentines  fell  an  easy  prey  to  the 
Romans,  after  Pyrrhus  had  withdrawn  from  Italy.    (See  p.  150.)    The  modern  town  of  Tor  unto, 
containing  a  population  of  about  eighteen  thousand  inhabitants,  occupies  the  site  of  the  ancient 
city.    (Map  No.  VIII.) 


CHAP.  IV.]  GRECIAN  COLONIES.  1 17 

are  known  to  us ;  but  in  the  fourth  century  B.  C.  the  Tarentmes 
stand  foremost  among  the  Italian  Greeks. 

13.  During  the  first  two  centuries  after  the  founding  of  Nax'  os  in 
Sicily,  Grecian  settlements  were  extended  over  the  eastern,  southern, 
and  western  sides  of  the  island,  while  Him'  era1  was  the  only  Gre- 
cian town  on  the  northern  coast.     These  two  hundred  years  were  a 
period  of  prosperity  among  the  Sicilian  Greeks,  who  did  not  yet  ex- 
tend their  residences  over  the  island,  but  dwelt  chiefly  in  fortified 
towns,  and  exercised  authority  over  the  surrounding  native  popula- 
tion, which  gradually  became  assimilated  in  manners,  language,  and 
religion,  to  the  higher  civilization  of  the  Greeks.     During  the  sixth 
century  before   the   Christian  era,  the   Greek  cities  in  Sicily  and 
southern  Italy  were  among  the  most  powerful  and  flourishing  that 
bore  the  Hellenic  name.     Gela  and  Agrigen'  turn,  on  the  south  side 
of  Sicily,  had  then  become  the  most  prominent  of  the  independent 
Sicilian  governments ;  and  at  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century  we 
find  Gelo,  a  despot,  or  self-constituted  ruler  of  the  former  city,  sub- 
jecting other  towns  to  his  authority,  and  finally  obtaining  possession 
of  Syracuse,  which  he  made  the  seat  of  his  empire,  (485  B.  C.) 
leaving  Gela  to  be  governed  by  his  brother  Hiero,  the  first  Sicilian 
ruler  of  that  name. 

14.  Gelo  strengthened  the  fortifications  and  greatly  enlarged  the 
limits  of  Syracuse,  while,  to  occupy  the  enlarged  space,  he  dis- 
mantled many  of  the  surrounding  towns,  and  transported  their  inhab- 
itants to  his  new  capital,  which  now  became,  not  only  the  first  city 
in  Sicily,  but,  according  to  Herod'  otus,  superior  to  any  other  Helle- 
nic power;  for  we  are  told  that  when,  in  481  B.  C.,  the  Corinthians 
solicited  aid  from  Gelo  to  resist  the  invasion  of  Xerxes,  the  Syracu- 
sans  could  offer  twenty  thousand  heavy  armed  soldiers,  and,  in  all,  an 
army  of  thirty  thousand  men,  besides  furnishing  provisions  for  the 
entire  Grecian  host  so  long  as  the  war  might  last ;  but  as  Gelo  de- 
manded to  be  constituted  commander-in-chief  of  all  the  Greeks  in 
the  war  against  the  Persians,  the  terms  were  not  agreed  to. 

15.  During  the  invasion  of  Greece  by  Xerxes,  a  formidable  Car- 
thaginian force  under  Hamil'  car,  said  to  consist  of  three  hundred 
thousand  men,  landed  at  Panor'  mus,s  a  Carthaginian  sea-port  on  the 


1.  Him'  era  was  on  the  northern  coast  of  Sicily,  near  the  mouth  of  the  river  of  the  same 
name,  one  hundred  and  ten  miles  north-west  from  Syracuse.  The  modern  town  of  Termini, 
at  the  mouth  of  the  river  Leonardo,  occupies  the  site  of  the  ancient  city.  (Map  No.  VIII.) 

a.  Panor'  mtts,  supposed  to  have  been  first  settled  by  Phoenicians,  was  in  the  north-western 


118  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART  L 

northern  coast  of  the  island,  and  proceeded  to  attack  the  Greek  city 
of  Him' era.  (480  B.  C.)  Gelo,  at  the  head  of  fifty-five  thousand 
men,  marched  to  the  aid  of  his  brethren ;  and  in  a  general  battle 
which  ensued,  the  entire  Carthaginian  force  was  destroyed,  or  com- 
pelled to  surrender,  Hamil'  car  himself  being  numbered  among  the 
slain.  The  victory  of  Him'  era  procured  for  Sicily  immunity  from 
foreign  war,  while  at  the  same  time  the  defeat  of  Xerxes  at  Sal'  amis 
dispelled  the  terrific  cloud  that  overhung  the  Greeks  in  that  quarter. 

16.  On  the  death  of  Gelo,  a  year  after  the  battle  of  Him'  era,  the 
government  fell  into  the  hands  of  his  brother  Hiero,  a  man  whose 
many  great  and  noble  qualities  were  alloyed  by  insatiable  cupidity 
and  ambition.     The  power  of  Hiero,  not  inferior  to  that  of  Gelo, 
was  probably  greater  than  that  of  any  other  Grecian  ruler  of  that 
period.     Hiero  aided  the  Greek  cities  of  Italy  against  the  Carthagi- 
nian and   Tyrrhenian  fleets ;  he  founded  the  city  of  JEt'  na,1  and 
added  other  cities  to  his  government.     He  died  after  a  reign  of  ten 
years,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  brother  Thrasybdlis,  whose  cruelties 
led  to  his  speedy  dethronement,  which  was  followed,  not  only  by  the 
extinction  of  the  Gelonian  dynasty  at  Syracuse,  but  by  an  extensive 
revolution  in  the  other  Sicilian  cities,  resulting,  after  many  years  of 
civil  dissensions,  in  the  expulsion  of  the  other  despots  who  had  relied 
for  protection  on  the  great  despot  of  Syracuse,  and  the  establish- 
ment of  governments  more  or  less  dernocratical   throughout   the 
island. 

17.  The  Gelonian  dynasty  had  stripped  of  their  possessions,  and 
banished,  great  numbers  of  citizens,  whose  places  were  filled  by  for- 
eign mercenaries  ;  but  the  popular  revolution  reversed  many  of  these 
proceedings,  and  restored  the  exiles ;  although,  in  the  end,  adherents 
of  the  expelled  dynasty  were  allowed  to  settle  partly  in  the  territory 
of  Messana,  and  partly  in  Kamarina.2     After  the  commotions  at- 
tendant on  these  changes  had  subsided,  prosperity  again  dawned  on 

part  of  Sicily,  and  had  a  good  and  capacious  harbor.  It  early  passed  into  the  hands  of  the 
Carthaginians,  and  was  their  stronghold  in  Magna  Graecia.  It  is  now  called  Palermo,  and  is 
the  capital  city  and  principal  sea-port  of  Sicily,  having  a  population  of  about  one  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  inhabitants.  It  is  built  on  the  south-west  side  of  the  Bay  of  Palermo,  in  a  plain, 
which,  from  its  luxuriance,  and  from  its  being  surrounded  by  mountains  on  three  sides,  has 
been  termed  the  "  golden  shell,"  conca  d>  oro.  (Map  No.  VIII.) 

1.  JEt'  na,  first  called  Jnessus,  was  a  small  town  on  the  southern  declivity  of  Mount  MV  na, 
near  Cat'  ana.    The  ancient  site,  now  marked  with  ruins,  bears  the  name  Castro.    (Map  No. 
VIII.) 

2.  Kamarina  was  on  the  southern  ccast,  about  fifty  miles  south-west  from  Syracuse,  and 
twenty  miles  south-east  from  Gela. 


CHAP.  IV.]  GRECIAN  COLONIES.  119 

Sicily,  and  the  subsequent  period  of  more  than  fifty  years,  to  the 
time  of  the  flder  Dionysius,  has  been  described  as  by  far  the  best 
and  happiest  portion  of  Sicilian  history. 

18.  At  the  time  of  the  breaking  out  of  the  Peloponnesian  war, 
431  B.  C.,  Syracuse  was  the  foremost  of  the  Sicilian  cities  in  power 
and  resources.    Agrigen'  turn  was  but  little  inferior  to  her,  while  in  her 
foreign  commerce  and  her  public  monuments  the  latter  was  not  sur- 
passed by  any  Grecian  city  of  that  age.     In  the  great  Peloponnesian 
struggle,  the  Ion7  ic  cities  of  Sicily,  few  in  number,  very  naturally 
sympathized  with  Athens,  and  the  Dorian  cities  with  Sparta ;  and  in 
the  fifth  year  of  the  war  we  find  the  Ion'  ic  cities  soliciting  Athens 
for  aid  against  Syracuse  and  her  allies.     Successive  expeditions  were 
sent  out  by  Athens,  and  soon  nearly  all  Sicily  was  involved  in  the 
war,  when  at  length,  in  424  B.  C.,  a  congress  of  the  Sicilian  cities 
decided  upon  a  general  peace  among  themselves,  to  the  great  dissat- 
isfaction of  the  Athenians,  who  were  already  anticipating  important 
conquests  on  the  island. 

19.  A  few  years  later,  (417  B.  C.,)  a  quarrel  broke  out  between 
the  neighboring  Sicilian  cities  Selinus  and  Eges'  ta,1  the  latter  of 
which,  although  not  of  Grecian  origin,  had  formerly  been  in  alliance 
with  Athens.     Selinus  was  aided  by  the  Syracusans ;  and  Eges'  ta 
applied  to  Athens  for  assistance,  making  false  representations  of  her 
own  resources,  and  enlarging  upon  the  dangers  to  be  apprehended 
from  Syracusan  aggrandizement  as  a  source  of  strength  to  Sparta, 
The  Athenian  Nic'  ias,  most  earnestly  opposed  any  farther  interven- 
tion in   Sicilian  affairs ;  but  the  counsels  of  Alcibiades  prevailed, 
and  in  the  summer  of  415  B.  C.,  the  largest  armament  that  had  ever 
left  a  Grecian  port  sailed  on  the  most  distant  enterprize  that  Athens 
had  ever  undertaken,  under  the  command  of  three  generals,  Nic'  ias, 
Lam'  achus,  and  Alcibiades ;  but  the  latter  was  recalled  soon  after 
the  fleet  had  reached  Cat'  ana,1  on  the  eastern  coast  of  the  island. 


1.  Selinus  was  a  flourishing  city  of  more  than  thirty  thousand  inhabitants,  on  the  southern 
shore  of  the  western  part  of  the  island.    Its  ruins  may  still  be  seen  near  what  is  called  Torre 
di  Pollv.ce.    Eges'  ta,  called  by  the  Romans  Segesta,  was  on  the  northern  coast,  near  the 
modern  Alcamo.    Selinus  and  Eges'  ta  were  engaged  in  almost  continual  wars  with  each  other. 
After  the  Athenian  expedition  the  Egestans  called  to  their  assistance  the  Carthaginians,  who 
took,  plundered,  and  nearly  destroyed  Selinus ;  but  Eges'  ta,  under  Carthaginian  rule,  expe- 
rienced a  fate  but  little  better.    (Map  No.  VIII.) 

2.  Cat'  ana,  now  Catania  was  at  the  southern  base  of  Mount  JEf  na,  thirty-two  miles  north 
from  Syracuse.    The  distance  from  the  city  to  the  summit  of  the  mountain  was  thirty  miles. 
Catania  has  been  repeatedly  destroyed  by  earthquakes,  and  by  torrents  of  liquid  fire  from  the 
neighb*  ring  volcano  ;  but  it  has  risen  like  the  fabled  phoenix,  more  splendid  from  its  ashes, 


120  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART! 


20.  From   Cat'  ana  Nic'  ias  sailed  around  the  northern  coast  to 
Eges'  ta,  whence  he  marched  the  land  forces  back  through  the  island 
to  Cat'  ana,  having  achieved  nothing  but  the  acquisition  of  a  few  in- 
significant towns,  while  the  Syracusans  improved  the  time  in  making 
preparations  to  receive  the  invaders.     At  length,  about  the  last  of 
October,  Nic'  ias  sailed  with  his  whole  force  to  Syracuse — defeated 
the  Syracusans  in  the  battle  which  followed — and  then  went  into 
winter  quarters  at  Nax'  os ;  but  in  the  spring  he  returned  to  his 
former  station  at  Cat'  ana,  soon  after  which  he  commenced  a  regular 
siege  of  Syracuse. 

21.  In  a  battle  which  was  fought  on  the  grounds  south  of  the  city, 
towards  the  river  Aniipus,  Lam'  achus  was  slain,  although  the  Athe- 
nians were  victorious.     Nic'  ias  continued  to  push  forward  his  suc- 
cesses, and  Syracuse  was  on  the  point  of  surrendering,  when  the  ar- 
rival of  the  Spartan  general  Gylip'pus  at  once  changed  the  fortune 
of  war,  and  the  Athenians  were  soon  shut  up  in  their  own  lines. 

22.  At  the  solicitation  of  Nic'  ias  a  large  re  enforcement,  commanded 
by  the  Athenian  general  Demosthenes,  was  sent  to  his  assistance  in 
the  spring  of  413;  but  at  the  same  time  the  Spartans  reenforced 
Gylip'  pus,  and,  in  addition,  sent  out  a  force  to  ravage  At'  tica. 
During  the  summer  many  battles,  both  on  land  and  in  the  harbor  of 
Syracuse,  were  fought  by  the  opposing  forces,  in  nearly  all  of  which 
the  Syracusans  and  their  allies  were  victorious ;  and,  in  the  end,  the 
entire  Athenian  force  in  Sicily,  numbering  at  the  time  not  less  than 
forty  thousand  men,  was  destroyed.     "  Never  in  Grecian  history," 
says  Thucyd'  ides,  "  had  ruin  so  complete  and  sweeping,  or  victory 
so  glorious  and  unexpected,  been  witnessed." 

23.  Soon  after  the  termination  of  the  contest  between  the  Athe- 
nians and  Syracusans,  the  Carthaginians  again  sought  an  opportunity 
of  invading  the  island,  and  established  themselves   over  its  entire 
western  half;  but  they  were  ably  resisted  by  Dionysius  the  Elder, 
"  tyrant  of  Syracuse,"  who  was  proclaimed  chief  of  the  republic 
about  405  B.  C. ;  and  it  was  owing  to  his  exertions  that  any  part 
of  the  island  was  saved  from  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy 
It  was  at  length  agreed  that  the  river  Him'  era1  should  form  the 
limit  between  the  Grecian  territories  on  the  east  and  the  Carthagi- 

and  is  still  a  beautiful  city.  The  streets  are  paved  with  lava  ;  and  houses,  palaces,  churches, 
and  convents,  are  built  of  it.  Remains  of  ancient  temple?,  aqueducts,  baths,  &C.,  are  numer- 
ous. The  environs  are  fruitful,  and  well  cultivated.  (Map  No.  VIII.) 

1.  The  river  Him'  era  here  mentioned,  now  the  Salso,  falls  into  the  Mediterranean  on  the 
southern  coast,  to  the  west  of  Gela.    (Map  No.  VIII.) 


CHAP.  IV.]  GRECIAN  COLONIES.  121 

nian  dependencies  on  the  west ;  but  the  peace  was  soon  broken  by 
the  Carthaginians,  who,  amid  the  civil  dissensions  of  the  Greeks, 
sought  every  opportunity  of  extending  their  dominion  over  the  entire 
island. 

24.  Subsequently  the  aspiring  power  of  Carthage  was  checked  by 
Timoleon,  and  afterwards  by  Agath'  ocles.     The  former,  a  Corinthian 
by  birth,  having  made  himself  master  of  the  almost  deserted  Syra- 
cuse, about  the  year  340  B.  C.,  restored  it  to  some  degree  of  its 
former  glory.     He  defeated  the  Carthaginians  in  a  great  battle,  and 
established  the  affairs  of  government  on  so  firm  a  basis  that  the 
whole  of  Sicily  continued,  many  years  after  his-  death,  in  unusual 
quiet  and  prosperity.     Agath'  ocles  usurped  the  sovereignty  of  Syra- 
cuse by  the  murder  of  several  thousand  of  its  principal  citizens  in 
the  year  317  B.  C.     He  maintained  his  power  twenty-eight  years. 
Having  been  defeated  by  the  Carthaginians,  and  being  besieged  in 
Syracuse,  with  a  portion  of  his  army  he  passed  over  to  Africa,  where 
he  sustained  himself  during  four  years.     In  the  year  306  he  con- 
cluded a  peace  with  the  Carthaginians.    He  died  by  poison,  289  B.  C., 
leaving  his  influence  in  Sicily  and  southern  Italy  to  his  son-in-law, 
the  famous  Pyr'  rhus,  king  of  Epirus.     After  the  death  of  Agath'- 
ocles,  the  Carthaginians  gained  a  decided  ascendancy  in  Sicily,  when 
the  Romans,  alarmed  by  the  movements  of  so  powerful  a  neighbor, 
and  being  invited  over  to  the  assistance  of  a  portion  of  the  people 
of  Messana,  commenced  the  first  Punic  war,  (265  B.  C.,)  and  after  a 
struggle  of  twenty -four  years  made  themselves  masters  of  the  whole 
of  Sicily, — nearly  a  hundred  years  before  the  reduction  of  Greece 
itself  to  a  Roman  province. 

25.  On  the  northern  coast  of  Africa,  within  the  district  of  the 
modern   Barca,  the   important  Grecian   colony  of   Cyrenaica1  was 
planted    by   Lacedaemonian    settlers  from    Thera,3   an         1Yt 
island  of  the  JE'gsen,  about  the  yoar  630  B.  C.     Its  CYBENA'IOA. 
chief  city,   Cyrene,  was  about  ten   miles  from   the  sea,  having  a 
sheltered  port  called  Apollonia,  itself  a  considerable  town.     Over 
the  Libyan  tribes  between  the  borders  of  Egypt  and  the  Great 
Desert,  the  Cyreneans  exercised  an  ascendancy  similar  to  that  which 
Carthage  possessed  over  the  tribes  farther  westward.     About  the 
year  550  B.  C.,  one  of  the  neighboring  Libyan  kings,  finding  the 
Greeks  rapidly  encroaching  upon  his  territories,  declared  himself 

1.  Cyrendico,  see  p.  70. 

3.  Thera,  now  Santorim,  belonged  to  the  clustd  called  the  Sporades.    (Map  No.  IIL) 


122  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART  I 

subject  to  Egypt,  when  a  large  Egyptian  army  marched  to  his  assist- 
ance, but  the  Egyptians  experienced  so  complete  a  defeat  that  few 
of  them  ever  returned  to  their  own  country.  We  find  that  the  next 
Egyptian  king,  Amasis,  married  a  Cyrenean. 

26.  Soon  after  the  defeat  of  the  Egyptians,  the  tyranny  of  the 
Cyrenean  king,  Agesilaus,  led  to  a  revolt  among  his  subjects,  who, 
being  joined  by  some  of  the  neighboring  tribes,  founded  the  city  of 
Bar'ca,  about  seventy  miles  to  the  westward  of  Gyrene.     In  the 
war  which  followed,  a  great  battle  was  fought  with  the  allies  of  Bar'  ca, 
in  which  Agesilaus  was  defeated,  and  seven  thousand  of  his  men  were 
left  dead  on  the  field.     The  successor  of  Agesilaus  was  deposed  from 
the  kingly  office  by  the  people,  who,  in  imitation  of  the  Athenians, 
then  established  a  republican  government,  (543  B.  C.,)  under  the  di- 
rection of  Demonax,  a  wise  legislator  of  Mantinea.     But  the  son  of 
the  deposed  monarch,  having  obtained  assistance  from  the  people  of 
Samos,  regained  the  throne  of  Cyrene,  about  the  time  that  the  Per- 
sian prince  Camby'  ses  conquered  Egypt.     Both  the  Cyrenean  and 
the  Barcan  prince  sent  their  submission  to  the  great  conqueror.    Soon 
after  this  event  the  Persian  satrap  of  Egypt  sent  a  large  force  against 
Bar'  ca,  which  was  taken  by  perfidy,  and  great  numbers  of  the  in- 
habitants were  carried  away  into  Persian  slavery. 

27.  At  a  later  period,  Cyrene  and  Bar'  ca  fell  under  the  power  of 
the  Carthaginian  •-  they  subsequently  formed  a  dependency  of  Egypt ; 
and  in  the  year  76  B.  C.,  they  were  reduced  to  the  condition  of  a 
Roman  province.     Cyrene  was  the  birth-place  of  the  poet  Callim'- 
achus ;  of  Eratos'  thenes  the  geographer,  astronomer,  and  mathema- 
tician ;  and  of  Carneades  the  sophist.     Cyrenean  Jews  were  present 
at  Jerusalem  on  the  day  of  pentecost :  it  was  Simon,  a  Cyrenean 
Jew,  whom  the  soldiers  compelled  to  bear  the  Saviour's  cross ;  and 
Christian  Jews  of  Cyrene  were  among  the  first  preachers  of  Chris- 
tianity to  the  Greeks  of  Antioch.     (Matthew,  xxvii.  32  :  Mark,  xv. 
21 :  Acts,  ii.  10 :  vi.  9  :  xi.  20.) 


CHAE  V.]  ROMAN  HISTORY.  123 


CHAPTER   V. 

ROMAN  HISTORY: 

FROM  THE  FOUNDING  OF  ROME,  753  B.  O,  TO  THE  CONQUESTS  OF  GREECE  AND 
CARTHAGE,  146  B.  C.  =  607  YEARS. 

SECTION  I. 

EARLY  ITALY:  ROME  UNDER  THE  KINGS:  ENDING  510  B.  c. 

ANALYSIS.  1.  ITALY— names  and  extent  of.— 2.  Mountains,  and  fertile  plains.— 3.  Climate.— 
4.  Principal  States  and  tribes.— 5.  Our  earliest  information  of  Italy.  Etruscan  civilization. 
[The  Etruscans.  The  Tiber.]— 6.  Southern  Italy  and  Sicily  colonized  by  Greeks.  The  rise  of 
Rome,  between  the  Etruscans  on  the  one  side  and  the  Greeks  on  the  other.— 7.  Sources  and 
character  of  early  Roman  history. — 8.  The  Roman  legends,  down  to  the  founding  of  Alba. — 
[Lavin'ium  Latium.  Alba.]— 9.  The  Roman  legends  continued,  down  to  the  saving  of 
Rom'  ulus  and  Remus. — 10.  To  the  death  of  Amu'lius. — 11.  Auguries  for  selecting  the  site  and 
name  of  a  city.— 12.  The  FOUNDING  OF  ROME.  [Description  of  Ancient  and  Modern  Rome.]— 
13.  Stratagem  of  Romulus  to  procure  wives  for  his  followers.  [Sabines.] — 14.  WAR  WITH  THE 
SABINES.  Treachery  and  fate  of  Tarpeia.— 15.  Reconciliation  and  union  of  the  Sabines  and 
Romans.  Death  of  Tullius.  [Laurentines.]— 16.  The  intervening  period,  to  the  death  of 
Rom'  ulus.  Death  of  Rom'  ulus. 

17.  Rule  of  the  senators.  Election  of  NUMA,  the  2d  king.  His  institutions,  and  death. 
[Janus.] — 18.  Reign  of  TUL'  LIUS  HOSTIL'  ius,  the  3d  king,  and  first  dawn  of  historic  truth. — 
19.  Legend  of  the  Horatii  and  Curiatii.— 20.  Tragic  death  of  Horatia.  Submission,  treachery, 
and  removal  of  the  Albans.  Death  of  TuT  lius. — 21.  The  reign  of  AN'  cus  MAR'  TIUS,  the  4th 
king.  [Ostia.]— 22.  TARQUIN  THE  ELDER,  the  5th  king.  His  origin.  Unanimously  called  to 
the  throne.  [Tarquin' ii.]— 23.  His  wars.  His  public  works.  His  death.— 24.  SER'VIUS 
TUL'  LIUS,  the  6th  king.  Legends  concerning  him.  Wars,  &c. — 25.  Division  of  the  people 
into  centuries.  Federal  union  with  the  Latins.  Administration  of  Justice,  &c.— 26.  Displeas- 
ure of  the  patricians,  and  murder  of  Servius. — 27.  The  reign  of  TARQUIN  THE  PROUD,  the  7th 
king.  His  reign  disturbed  by  dreams  and  prodigies. — 28.  The  dispute  between  Sextus,  his 
brothers,  and  Collatinus.  How  settled.  [Ardea  Collatia.]— 29.  The  story  of  Lucretia,  and 
banishment  of  the  Tarquins. 

1.  ITALY,  known  in  ancient  times  by  the  names  Hespena,  Ausonia, 
Satur'  nia,  and  (Enotria,  comprises  the  whole  of  the  central  penin- 
sula of  southern  Europe,  extending  from  the  Alps  in  a     i.  ITALT. 
southern  direction  nearly  seven  hundred  and  seventy  miles,  with  a 
breadth  varying  from  about  three  hundred  and  eighty  miles  in  north- 
ern Italy,  to  less  than  eighty  near  its  centre. 

2.  The  mountains  of  Italy  are  the  Alps  on  its  north-western  bound- 
ary, and  the  Apennines,  which  latter  pass  through  the  peninsula  nearly 
in  its  centre,  and  send  off  numerous  branches  on  both  sides.     They 
are  much  less  rugged  than  the  Alps,  and  abound  in  rich  forests  and 


124  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART! 

pasture  land.  But  though  for  the  most  part  mountainous,  Italy  has 
some  plains  of  considerable  extent  and  extraordinary  fertility.  Of 
these  the  most  extensive,  and  the  richest,  is  that  of  Lombardy  in  the 
north,  watered  by  the  river  Po  and  its  numerous  branches,  embrac- 
ing an  area  of  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  in  length,  with  a 
breadth  varying  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  and  twenty  miles,  and  now 
containing  a  vast  number  of  cities.  The  next  great  plain  stretches 
along  the  western  coast  of  central  Italy  about  two  hundred  miles, 
from  the  river  Arno  in  Tuscany,  to  Terracina,  sixty  miles  south-east 
from  Rome.  Although  this  plain  was  once  celebrated  for  its  fertility, 
and  was  highly  cultivated  and  populous,  it  is  now  comparatively  a 
desert,  a  consequence  of  the  prevalence  of  malaria,  which  infects 
these  districts  to  such  an  extent  as  to  render  them  at  certain  portions 
of  the  year  all  but  uninhabitable.  The  third  great  plain  (the  Apii- 
lian)  lies  along  the  eastern  coast,  towards  the  southern  extremity  of 
the  peninsula,  and  includes  the  territory  occupied  by  the  ancient 
Darmians  Peucetians,  and  Messapians.  A  great  portion  of  this  plain 
has  a  sandy  and  thirsty  soil,  and  is  occupied  mostly  as  pasture  land 
in  winter.  The  plain  of  Naples,  on  the  western  coast,  is  highly  fer- 
tile, and  densely  peopled. 

3.  The  climate  of  Italy  is  in  general  delightful,  the  excessive 
heats  of  summer  being  moderated  by  the  influence  of  the  mountains 
and  the  surrounding  seas,  while  the  cold  of  winter  is  hardly  ever 
extreme.     In  the  Neapolitan  provinces,  which  lie  in  the  latitude  of 
central  and  southern  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey,  snow  is  rare,  and 
the  finest  fruits  are  found  in  the  valleys  throughout  the  winter.     At 
the  very  southern  extremity  of  Italy,  which  is  in  the  latitude  of 
Richmond,  Virginia,   the  thermometer  never  falls  to  the  freezing 
point.     From  a  variety  of  circumstances  it  appears  that  the  climate 
of  Italy  has  undergone  a  considerable  change,  and  that  the  winters 
are  now  less  cold  than  formerly ;   although  probably  the  summer- 
heat  was  much  the  same  in  ancient  times  as  at  present. 

4.  The  principal  States  of  ancient  Italy  were  Cisal'pine  Gaul, 
Etrnria,  Um-'bria,  Picenum,  Latium,  Campania,  Sam'nium,  Apulia, 
Calabria,  Lucania,  and  Brutiorum  A'  ger, — the  situation  of  which, 
together  with  the  names  of  the  principal  tribes  that  inhabited  them, 
may  be  learned  from  the  map  of  Ancient  Italy  accompanying  this 
volume.     (See  Maps  Nos.  VIII.  and  X.) 

5.  The  earliest  reliable  information  that  we  possess  of  Italy  rep- 
resents the  ca  untry  in  the  possession  of  numerous  independent  tribes, 


CHAP.  V.]  ROMAN  HISTORY.  125 

many  of  which,  especially  those  in  the  southern  part  of  the  peninsula, 
were,  like  the  early  Grecians,  of  Pelas'  gic  origin.  Of  these  tribes,  the 
Etrurians  or  Etrus'  cans,1  inhabiting  the  western  coasts  above  the 
Tiber,"  were  the  most  important ;  as  it  appears  that,  before  the 
founding  of  Rome,  they  had  attained  to  a  considerable  degree  of 
power  and  civilization  ;  and  two  centuries  after  that  event  they  were 
masters  of  the  commerce  of  the  western  Mediterranean.  Many 
works  of  art  attributed  to  them  still  exist,  in  the  walls  of  cities,  in 
vast  dikes  to  reclaim  lands  from  the  sea,  and  in  subterranean  tunnels 
cut  through  the  sides  of  hills  to  let  off  the  lakes  which  had  formed  in 
the  craters  of  extinct  volcanoes. 

6.  It  appears  that  during  the  height  of  Etrus'  can  power  in  Italy, 
the  southern  portions  of  the  peninsula,  together  with  Sicily,  first 
began  to  be  colonized  by  Grecians,  who  formed  settlements  at  Cumse 
and  Neap'  olis,  as  early  as  the  tenth  or  eleventh  century  before  the 
Christian  era,  and  at  Taren'  turn,  Crotona,  Nax'  os,  and  Syracuse, 
in  the  latter  part  of  the  eighth  century;  and  such  eventually  be- 
came the  number  of  the  Grecian  colonies  that  all  southern  Italy, 
in  connection  with  Sicily,  received  the  name  of  Magna  Grecia.  (See 
p.  115.)  But  while  the  old  Etrurian  civilization  remained  nearly 
stationary,  fettered,  as  in  ancient  Egypt,  by  the  sway  of  a  sacerdotal 
caste,  whose  privileges  descended  by  inheritance, — and  while  the 
Greek  colonies  were  dividing  and  weakening  their  power  by  allowing 
to  every  city  an  independent  sovereignty  of  its  own,  there  arose  on 
the  western  coast,  between  the  Etrus'  cans  on  the  one  side  and  the 
Greeks  on  the  other,  the  small  commonwealth  of  Rome,  whose  power 
ere  long  eclipsed  that  of  all  its  rivals,  and  whose  dominion  was  des- 
tined, eventually,  to  overshadow  the  world. 

1.  The  Etrbrians,  or  Etrus'  cans,  were  the  inhabitants  of  Etruria,  a  celebrated  country  of 
Italy,  lying  to  the  north  and  west  of  the  Tiber.    They  were  farther  advanced  in  civilization 
than  any  of  their  European  cotemporaries,  except  the  Greeks,  but  their  origin  is  involved  in 
obscurity,  and  of  their  early  history  little  is  known,  as  their  writings  have  long  since  perished,  and 
their  hieroglyphic  inscriptions  on  brass  are  utterly  unintelligible.     (Maps  Nos.  VIH.  and  X.) 

2.  The  river  Tiber,  called  by  the  ancient  Latins  fibula,  and  by  the  Greeks  Tkymbris,  the 
most  celebrated,  though  not  the  largest  river  of  Italy,  rises  in  the  Tuscan  Apennines,  and  has 
a  general  southerly  course  about  one  hundred  and  thirty  miles  until  it  reaches  Rome,  when  it 
turns  south-west,  and  enters  the  Mediterranean  by  two  months,  seventeen  miles  from  Rome, 
terminating  in  a  marshy  pestiferous  tract.    Its  waters  have  a  yellowish  hue,  being  discolored 
by  the  mud  with  which  they  are  loaded.    Anciently  the  Tiber  was  capable  of  receiving  vessels 
of  considerable  burden  at  Rome,  and  small  boats  to  within  a  short  distance  of  its  source,  but 
the  entrance  of  the  river  from  the  sea,  and  its  subsequent  navigation,  have  become  so  difficult, 
that  the  harbor  of  Ostia  at  its  mouth  has  long  been  relinquished,  and  Civita  Vecchia  is  now 
the  port  of  Rome,  althougl  at  the  distance  of  thirty-six  miles  north,  with  which  it  is  connected 
merely  by  a  road.    (Maps  Nos.  VIII.  and  X.) 


126  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PAKT  L 

7.  What  historians  have  related  of  the  founding  of  Rome,  and  of 
the  first  century,  at  least,  of  its  existence,  has  been  drawn  from 
numerous  traditionary  legends,  known,  from  their  character,  to  be 
mostly  fabulous,  and  has  therefore  no  valid  claims  to  authenticity. 
Still  it  is  proper  to  relate,  as  an  introduction  to  what  is  better  known, 
the  story  most  accredited  by  the  Romans  themselves,  and  contained 
in  their  earliest  writings,  while  at  the  same  time  we  express  the 
opinion  that  it  has  little  or  no  foundation  in  truth.a 

8.  The  Roman  legends  state  that,  immediately  after  the  fall  of 
Troy,  .ZEneas,  a  celebrated  Trojan  warrior,  escaping  from  his  devoted 
country,  after  seven  years  of  wanderings  arrived  on  the  western  coast 
of  Italy,  where  he  established  a  colony  of  his  countrymen,  and  built 
the  city  of  Lavin'  ium.1     From  Latinus,  a  king  of  the  country,  whom 
he  had  slain  in  battle,  and  whose  subjects  he  incorporated  with  his 
own  followers,  the  united  people  were  called  Latini  or  Latins,  and 
their  country  Ldtium?     After  the  lapse  of  thirty  years,  which  were 
occupied  mostly  in  wars  with  neighboring  tribes,  the  Latins,  now  in- 
creased to  thirty  hamlets,  removed  their  capital  to  Alba,3  a  new  city 
which  they  built  on  the  Alban  Mount,  and  which  continued  to  be  the 
head  of  the  confederate  people  during  three  centuries. 

9.  The  old  Roman  legends  go  on  to  state,  that,  at  an  uncertain 
date,  Procas,  king  of  Alba,  left  two  sons  at  his  death,  and  that 
Numitor  the  elder,  being  weak  and  spiritless,  suffered  Amulius  the 
younger  to  wrest  the  government  from  him,  to  murder  the  only  son, 
and  to  consecrate  the  daughter  of  his  brother  to  the  service  of  the 
temple,  in  the  character  of  a  vestal  virgin.     But  the  attempts  of 
Amulius  to  remove  all  claimants  of  the  throne  were  fruitless,  for 
Syl'  via,  the  daughter  of  Numitor,  became  the  mother  of  twin  sons, 

1.  Lavin'  ium,  a  city  of  Latium,  was  about  eighteen  miles  south  of  Rome.    The  modern 
village  of  Practice^  about  three  miles  from  the  coast,  is  supposed  to  occupy  the  site  of  the 
ancient  city.    (Maps  Nos.  VIII.  and  X.) 

2.  Ancient  Latium  extended  from  the  Tiber  southward  along  the  coast  about  fifty  miles,  to 
the  Circaean  promontory.    It  was  afterwards  extended  farther  south  to  the  river  Liris,  and  at  a 
still  later  period  to  the  Vulturnus.    The  early  inhabitants  of  Latium  were  the  Latins,  (also  a 
general  term  applied  to  all  the  inhabitants  of  Latium,)  Rutulians,  Hernicians,  and  Volscians. 
(Maps  Nos.  VIII.  and  X.) 

3.  Alba  appears  to  have  been  about  fifteen  miles  south-east  from  Rome,  on  the  eastern  shore 
of  the  Alban  lake,  aad  on  the  western  declivity  of  the  Alban  Mount.    The  modern  villa  of 
Palazzuolo  is  supposed  to  mark  the  site  of  the  ancient  Alban  city.    ( Map  No.  X.) 

a.  "The  Trojan  legend  is  doubtless  a  home  sprung  fable,  having  not  the  least  historical  truth, 
nor  even  the  slightest  historical  importance."— Niebuhr's  Rom.  Hist.,  i.  p.  107. 

"  Niebuhr  has  shown  the  early  history  of  Rome  to  be  unworthy  of  credit,  and  made  it  impos- 
sible for  any  one  to  revive  the  old  belief." — Anthon's  Clas.  Diet. ;  article  Rome. 


CHAP.  V.]  ROMAN  HISTORY.  127 

Rom'  ulus  and  Remus,  by  Mars,  the  god  of  war.  Amiilius  ordered 
that  the  mother  and  her  babes  should  be  drowned  in  the  Tiber ;  but 
while  Syl'  via  perished,  the  infants,  placed  in  a  cradle  of  rushes,  float- 
ed to  the  shore,  where  they  were  found  by  a  she  wolf,  which  carried 
them  to  her  den,  and  nursed  them  as  her  own  offspring. 

10.  After  awhile  the  children  were  discovered  by  the  wife  of  a 
shepherd,  who  took  them  to  her  cottage  on  the  Palatine  hill,  where 
they  grew  up  with  her  twelve  sons, — and  being  the  stoutest  and 
bravest  of  the  shepherd  lads,  they  became  their  leaders  in  every 
wild  foray,  and  finally  the  heads  of  rival  factions — the  followers  of 
Rom'  ulus  being  called  Quinctil'  ii,  and  those  of  Remus  Fabii.     At 
length  Remus  having  been  seized  and  dragged  to  Alba  as  a  robber, 
the  secret  of  the  royal  parentage  of  the  youths  was  made  known  to 
Rom'  ulus,  who  armed  a  band  of  his  comrades  and  rescued  Remus 
from  danger.     The  brothers  then  slew  the  king  Amiilius,  and  the 
people  of  Alba  again  became  subject  to  Numitor. 

11.  Rom' ulus  and  Remus  next  obtained  permission  from  their 
grandfather  to  build  a  city  for  themselves  and  their  followers  on  the 
banks  of  the  Tiber ;  but  as  they  disputed  about  the  location  and 
name  of  the  city,  each  desiring  to  call  it  after  his  own  name,  they 
agreed  to  settle  their  disputes  by  auguries.     Each  took  his  station 
at  midnight  on  his  chosen  hill,  Rom' ulus  on  the  Pal'atine,  and 
Remus  on  the  Av'  entine,  and  there  awaited  the  omens.     Remus 
had  the  first  augury,  and  saw  six  vultures  flying  from  north  to  south ; 
but  scarcely  were  the  tidings  brought  to  Rom'  ulus  when  a  flock  of 
twelve  vultures  flew  past  the  latter.     Each  claimed  the  victory,  but 
the  party  of  Rom'  ulus,  being  the  stronger,  confirmed  the  authority 
of  their  leader. 

12.  Rom'  ulus  then  proceeded  to  mark  out  the  limits  of  the  city 
by  cutting  a  furrow  round  the  foot  of  the  Pal'  atine  hill,  which  he 
inclosed,  on  the  line  thus  drawn,  with  a  wall  and  ditch.  n.  FOUNDING 
But  scarcely  had  the  walls  begun  to  rise  above  the  sur-     OF  ROME. 
face,  when  Remus,  still  resenting  the  wrong  he  had  suffered,  insult- 
ingly leaped  over  the  puny  rampart,  and  was  immediately  slain, 
either  by  Rom'  ulus  or  one  of  his  followers.     His  death  was  regard- 
ed as  an  omen  that  no  one  should  cross  the  walls  but  to  his  destruc- 
tion.    Soon  the  slight  defences  were  completed,  and  a  thousand  rude 
huts  marked  the  beginning  of  the  "  eternal  city  RoME,"1  within  whose 

1.  See  description  of  Rome  page 582  and  Map.  No.  X. 

<  :  :    ..<       •'_'.  ..  .     :;=;:^.^A 


128  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART  L 

limits  strangers  from  every  land,  exiles,  and  even  criminals,  and 
fugitives  from  justice,  found  an  asylum.  The  date  usually  assigned 
for  the  founding  of  the  city  is  the  753d  year  before  the  Christian  era. 

13.  But  the  Romans,  as  we  must  now  call  the  dwellers  on  the 
Pal'  atine,  were  without  wives ;  and  the  neighboring  tribes  scorn- 
fully declined  intermarriages  with  this  rude  and  dangerous  horde. 
After  peaceful  measures  had  failed,  Rom'  ulus  resorted  to  stratagem. 
He  proclaimed  a  great  festival ;  and  the  neighboring  people,  es- 
pecially the  Lat'  ins  and  Sabines,3  came  in  numbers,  with  their 
wives  and  daughters,  to  witness  the  ceremonies ;  but  while  they  were 
intent  on  the  spectacle,  the  Roman  youths  rushed  in,  and  forcibly 
bore  off  the  maidens,  to  become  wives  of  the  captors. 

14.  War  followed  this   outrage,  and  the  forces  of  three  Latin 
cities,  which  had  taken  up  arms  without  concert,  were  successively 
defeated.     At  last  the  Sabine  king,  Titus  Tatius,  brought  a  power- 

iii  WAR  ^  armv  against  Rome,  which  Rom'  ulus  was  unable  to 
WITH  THE  resist  in  the  open  field,  and  he  therefore  retreated  to 
SA  BINES.  fae  cjtv^  wnfle  ke  fortified  and  garrisoned  the  Capitoline 
hill,  over  against  the  Pal7  atine  on  the  north,  intrusting  the  command 
of  it  to  one  of  his  most  faithful  officers.  But  Tarpeia,  the  daughter 
of  the  commander,  dazzled  by  the  golden  bracelets  of  the  Sabines, 
agreed  to  open  a  gate  of  the  fortress  to  the  enemy  on  condition  that 
they  should  give  her  what  they  bore  on  their  left  arms — meaning 
their  golden  ornaments.  Accordingly  the  gate  was  opened,  but  the 
traitress  expiated  her  crimes  by  her  death ;  for  the  Sabines  over- 
whelmed her  with  their  shields  as  they  entered,  these  also  being 
carried  on  their  left  arms.  To  this  day  Roman  peasants  believe 
that  in  the  heart  of  the  Capitoline  hill  the  fair  Tarpeia  is  still  sitting, 
bound  by  a  spell,  and  covered  with  the  gold  and  jewels  of  the  Sa- 
bines. 

15.  The  Sabines  next  tried  in  vain  to  storm  the  city,  and  Rom'- 
ulus  made  equally  fruitless  attempts  to  recover  the  fortress  which  he 
had  lost.     While  both  parties  thus  maintained  their  positions,  the 
Sabine  women,  now  reconciled  to  their  lot,  and  no  longer  wishing  for 
revenge,  but  for  a  reconciliation  between  their  parents  and  husbands, 
rushed  in  between  the  combatants,  and  by  earnest  supplications  in- 

1.  The  territory  of  the  Sabines  lay  to  the  north-east  of  Rome.  At  the  time  when  its  limits 
were  most  clearly  defined  it  was  separated  from  Latium  on  the  south  by  the  river  Anio,  from 
Etroria  by  the  Tiber,  from  Umbria  by  the  river  Nar,  and  from  Picenum  on  the  east  by  the 
Apennines.  (Maps  Nos.  VUI.  and  X.) 


CHAP.V.]  ROMAN  HISTORY.  129 

duced  them  to  agree  to  a  suspension  of  hostilities,  which  terminated 
in  a  treaty  of  peace.  The  Sabines  and  Romans  were  henceforth  to 
form  one  nation,  having  a  common  religion,  and  Rom' ulus  and 
Tatius  were  to  reign  jointly.  Not  long  after,  Tatius  was  slain  by 
some  Laurentines1  on  the  occasion  of  a  national  sacrifice  at  Lavin'- 
ium,  and  henceforward  Rom'  ulus  ruled  over  both  nations. 

16.  At  this  point  in  Roman  history,  remarks  Niebuhr,  the  old 
Roman  legend,  or  poetic  lay,  is  suspended  until  the  death  of  Rom'- 
ulus ;  while  the  intervening  period  has  been  filled  by  subsequent  writers 
with  accounts  of  Etrus'  can  wars,  which  find  no  place  in  the  ancient 
legend,  and  which  are  probably  wholly  fictitious.     Just  before  the 
death  of  Rom'  ulus,  who  is  said  to  have  ruled  thirty-seven  years,  the 
poetic  lay  is  resumed.     It  relates  that,  while  the  king  was  reviewing 
his  people,  the  sun  withdrew  his  light,  and  Mars,  descending  in  a 
whirlwind  and  tempest,  bore  away  his  perfected  son  in  a  fiery  chariot 
to  heaven,  where  he  became  a  god,  under  the  name  of  Quirinus.a 
(B.  C.  716.) 

17.  The  legend  further  relates  that  after  the  death  of  Rom'ulus, 
the  chosen  senators,  or  elders  of  the  people,  who  were  also  called 
patres,  or  fathers,  retained 'the  sovereign  power  in  their     iv.  NUMA. 
hands  during  a  year ;  but  as  the  people  demanded  a  king,  it  was 
finally  agreed  that  the  Romans  should  choose  one  from  the  Sabine 
part  of  the  population.     The  election  resulted  in  the  choice  of  the 
wise  and  pious  Numa  Pompil'  ius,  who  had  married  the  daughter  of 
Tatius.     After   Numa  had  assured  himself  by  auguries  that  the 
gods  approved  of  his  election,  his  first  care  was  to  regulate  the  laws 
of  landed  property,  by  securing  the  hereditary  possession  of  land  to 
the  greatest  possible  number  of  citizens,  thereby  establishing  the 
most  permanent  basis  of  civil  order.     He  then  regulated  the  ser- 
vices of  religion,  pretending  that  he  received  the  rituals  of  the  law 
from  the  goddess  Egeria  :  he  also  built  the  temple  of  Janus  ;a  and 


1.  The  Laurentines  were  the  people  of  Lauren'  turn,  the  chief  city  of  Latium,    Lauren'  turn 
was  eighteen  miles  south  from  Rome,  on  the  coast,  and  near  the  spot  now  called  Paterno. 
(Maps  Nos.  VIII.  and  X.) 

2.  Janus  was  an  ancient  Italian  deity,  whose  origin  is  traced  back  to  India.    He  was  repre- 
sented sometimes  with  two  faces  looking  in  opposite  directions,  and  sometimes  with  four.    Hfe 
was  the  god  of  the  year,  and  also  of  the  day,  and  had  charge  of  the  gates  of  heaven  through 

a.  Niebuhr  deals  severely  with  those  writers  who,  in  attempting  to  deduce  historic  truth 
from  this  poetical  fiction,  have  made  the  supposition  that,  instead  of  an  eclipse,  there  was  a, 
tempest,  and  that  the  senators  themselves  tore  Rom'  ulus  to  pieces,  (See  Niebuhr,  i.  127-6 — 
also  SchmiU'  Rome,  p.  20.) 

9 


130  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PAUT  i. 

after  a  quiet  and  prosperous  reign  of  forty-two  years  he  fell  asleep 
full  of  days  and  peaceful  honors.  (673  B.  C.)  The  legend  adds 
that  the  goddess  Egeria,  through  grief  for  his  loss,  melted  away  in 
tears  into  a  fountain. 

18.  The  death  of  Numa  was  followed  by  another  interregnum, 
after  which  the  young  and  warlike  Tullus  Hostilius  was  chosen  king. 
A  gleam  of  historic  truth  falls  upon  his  reign,  and  the    v.  TULLUS 
purely  poetic  age  of  Roman  story  here  begins  to  disap-    HOSTILIUS. 
pear  in  our  confidence  that  such  a  king  as  Tullus  Hostilius  actually 
existed,  and  that  during  his  reign  the  Albans  became  united  with 
the  Romans.     Still,  the  story  of  the  Alban  war,  and  of  subsequent 
wars  during  the  life  of  Tullus,  retain  much  of  legendary  fiction,  des 
titute  of  historic  certainty. 

19.  A  tradition  of  the  Alban  war,  preserved  by  the  early  poets, 
relates,  that  when  the  armies  of  Rome  and  Alba  were  drawn  up 
against  each  other,  their  leaders  agreed  to  avert  the  battle  by  a 
combat  between  three  twin  brothers  on  the  one  side,  and  three  on 
the  other,  whose  mothers  happened  to  be  sisters,  although  belonging 
to  different  nations.     The  Roman  brothers  were  called  Horatii,  and 
the  Albans  Curiatii.     Meeting  in  deadly  encounter  between  the  two 
armies,  two  of  the  Horatii  fell,  but  the  third,  still  unwounded,  re- 
sorted to  stratagem,  and,  pretending  to  flee,  was  followed  at  unequal 
distances  by  the  wounded  Curiatii,  when,  suddenly  turning  back,  he 
overcame  them  in  succession. 

20.  A  mournful  tragedy  followed.     At  the  gate  of  the  city  the 
victor  was  met  by  his  sister  Horatia,  who,  having  been  affianced  to 
one  of  the  Curiatii,  and  now  seeing  her  brother  exultingly  bearing 
off  the  spoils  of  the  slain,  and,  among  the  rest,  the  embroidered 
cloak  of  her  betrothed,  which  she  herself  had  woven,  gave  way  to  a 
burst  of  grief  and  lamentation,  which  so  incensed  her  brother  that 
he  slew  her  on  the  spot.     For  this  act  he  was  condemned  to  death, 
but  was  pardoned  by  the  interference  of  the  people,  although  they 
ordered  a  monument  to  be  raised  on  the  spot  where  Horatia  fell. 
By  the  terms  of  an  agreement  made  before  the  combat  the  Albans 
were  to  submit  to  the  Romans ;  but  not  long  after  this  event  they 
showed  evidence  of  treachery,  when,  by  order  of  Tullus,  their  city 


which  the  sun  passes  ;  and  hence  all  gates  and  doors  on  earth  were  sacred  to  him.  January, 
the  first  month  in  the  religious  year  of  the  Romans,  was  named  after  him.  His  temples  at 
Borne  were  numerous,  and  in  time  of  war  the  gates  of  the  principal  one  were  open,  but  in 
time  of  peace  they  were  closed  to  keep  wars  within. 


CHAP  V.]  ROMAN  HISTORY.  131 

was  levelled  to  the  ground,  and  the  people  were  removed  to  the 
Caelian  hill,  adjoining  the  Pal'  atine  on  the  east.  After  a  reign  of 
thirty-two  years,  Tullus  and  all  his  family  are  said  to  have  been 
killed  by  lightning.  (642  B.  C.) 

21.  We  find  the  name  of  Ancus  Martius,  said  to  have  been  a 
grandson  of  Numa,  next  on  the  list  of  Roman  kings.     He  is  rep- 
resented both  as  a  warrior,  and  a  restorer  of  the  ordi-    ^  ANCUS 
nances  and  rituals  of  the  ceremonial  law,  which  had  fallen     MARTIUS. 
into  disuse  during  the  reign  of  his  predecessor.     He  subdued  many 
of  the  Latin  towns — founded  the  town  and  port  of  Ostia1 — built  the 
first  bridge  over  the  Tiber — and  established  that  principle  of  the 
Roman  common  law,  that  the  State  is  the  original  proprietor  of  all 
lands  in  the  commonwealth.     The  middle  of  his  reign  is  said  to  have 
been  the  era  of  the  legal  constitution  of  the  plebeian  order,  and  the 
assignment  of  lands  to  this  body  out  of  the  conquered  territories. 
He  is  said  to  have  reigned  twenty-four  years. 

22.  The  fourth  king  of  Rome  was  Tarquinius  Priscus,  or  Tarquin 
the  Elder.     The  accounts  of  his  reign  are  obscure  and  conflicting. 
By  some  his  parents  are  said  to  have  fled  from  Corinth  to  Tarquin'  ii,* 
a  town  of  Etruria,  where  Tarquin  was  born :  by  others  yii.  TARQUIN 
he  is  said  to  have  been  of  Etruscan  descent ;  but  Niebuhr  THE  ELDER. 
believes  him  to  have  been  of  Latin  origin.     Having  taken  up  his 
residence  at  Rome  at  the  suggestion  of  his  wife  Tanaquil,  who  was 
celebrated  for  her  skill  in  auguries,  he  there  became  distinguished 
for  his  courage,  and  the  splendor  in  which  the  lived ;  and  his  liber- 
ality and  wisdom  so  gained  him  the  favor  of  the  people  that,  when 
the  throne  became  vacant,  he  was  called  to  it  by  the  unanimous 
voice  of  the  senate  and  citizens.     (617  B.  C.) 

23.  Tarquin  is  said  to  have  carried  on  successful  wars  against  the 
Etrus'  cans,  Latins,  and  Sabines,  and  to  have  reduced  all  those  people 
under  the  Roman  dominion ;  but  his  reign  is  chiefly  memorable  on 
account  of  the  public  works  which  he  commenced  for  the  security 
and  improvement  of  the  city.     Among  these  were  the  embanking  of 

1.  Os~  tie,  the  early  port  and  harbor  of  Rome,  once  a  place  of  great  wealth,  population,  and 
importance,  was  situated  on  the  east  side  of  the  Tiber,  near  its  mouth,  fifteen  miles  from 
Rome.    Os'  tia,  which  still  retains  its  ancient  name,  is  now  a  miserable  village  of  scarcely  a 
hundred  inhabitants,  and  is  almost  uninhabitable,  from  Malaria ;  the  fever  which  it  engenders 
carrying  off  annually  nearly  all  whom  necessity  confines  to  this  pestilential  region  during  the 
hot  season.    The  harbor  of  Os'  tia  is  now  merely  a  shallow  pool.   (Maps  N-  >9.  VIII.  and  X.) 

2.  Tarquin'  it,  one  of  the  most  powerful  cities  of  Etruria,  was  about  fi  rty  miles  north-west 
from  Rome,  on  the  left  bank  of  the  river  Marta,  several  miles  from  its  mouth.    The  ruins  of 
Turchina  mark  the  site  of  the  ancient  city.    (Maps  Nos.  VIII.  and  X.) 


132  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PAKT  L 

the  Tiber ;  the  sewers,  which  yet  remain,  for  draining  the  marshes 
and  lakes  in  the  vicinity  of  the  capital ;  the  porticos  around  the 
market-place,  the  race-course  of  the  circus,  and  the  foundations  of  the 
city  walls,  which  were  of  hewn  stone.  It  is  said  that  Tarquin,  after 
a  reign  of  thirty-eight  years,  was  assassinated  at  the  instigation  of 
the  sons  of  Ancus  Martius,  who  feared  that  he  would  secure  the  suc- 
cession to  his  son-in-law  Servius  Tullius,  his  own  favorite,  and  the 
darling  of  the  Roman  people.  (579  B.  C.) 

24.  Notwithstanding  the  efforts  of  the  sons  of  Ancus  Martius,  the 
senate  and  the  people  decided  that  Servius  should  rule  over  them. 
The  birth  of  this  man  is  said,  in  the  old  legends,  to  have  vm  SERVius 
been  very  humble,  and  his  infancy  to  have  been  attended      TULLIUS. 
with  marvellous  omens,  which  foretold  his  future  greatness.     Of  his 
supposed  wars  with  the  revolted  Etrus'  cans  nothing  certain  is  known ; 
but  his  renown  as  a  law-giver  rests  on  more  substantial  grounds  than 
his  military  fame. 

25.  The  first  great  political  act  of  his  reign  was  the  institution  of 
the  census,  and  the  division  of  the  people  into  one  hundred  and  ninety- 
three  centuries,  whose  rights  of  suffrage  and  military  duties  were 
regulated  on  the  basis  of  property  qualifications.     The  several  Latin 
communities  that  had  hitherto  bean  allied  with  the  Romans  by  treaty 
he  now  incorporated  with  them  by  a  federal  union ;  and  to  render 
that  union  more  firm  and  lasting,  he  induced  the  confederates  to 
unite  in  erecting  a  temple  on  Mount  Aventine  to  the  goddess  Diana, 
and  there  unitedly  to  celebrate  her  worship.     He  also  made  wise 
regulations  for  the  impartial  administration  of  justice,  prohibited 
bondage  for  debt,  and  relieved  the  people  from  the  oppressions  with 
which  they  already  began  to  be  harassed  by  the  higher  orders. 

26.  His  legislation  was  received  with  displeasure  by  the  patricians ; 
and  when  it  was  known  that  Servius  thought  of  resigning  the  crown,  and 
establishing  a  consular  form  of  government,  which  would  have  rendered 
a  change  of  his  laws  difficult,  a  conspiracy  was  formed  for  securing 
the  throne  to  Tarquinius,  surnamed  the  Proud,  a  son  of  the  former 
king,  who  had  married  a  daughter  of  Servius.     The  old  king  Servius 
was  murdered  by  the  agents  of  Tarquin,  and  his  body  left  exposed 
in  the  street,  while  his  wicked  daughter  Tullia,  in  her  haste  to  con- 
gratulate her  husband  on  his  success,  drove  her  chariot  over  her 
father's  corpse,  so  that  her  garments  were  stained  with  his  blood. 
(535  B.  G.) 

27.  The  reign  of  Tarquinius  Superbus,  or  the  Proud,  was  distill- 


CHAP.  V.]  ROMAN  HISTORY.  133 

guished  by  a  series  of  tyrannical  usurpations,  which  made  his  name 
odious  to  all  classes ;  for  although  he  at  first  gratified  his  supporters 
by  diminishing  the  privileges  of  the  plebeians,  or  the  Ix  TABQUnf 
common  people,  he  soon  made  the  patricians  themselves  TDE  PROUD. 
feel  the  weight  of  his  tyranny.  The  laws  of  Servius  were  swept 
away — the  equality  of  civil  rights  abolished — and  even  the  ordinances 
of  religion  suffered  to  fall  into  neglect.  But  although  Tarquin  was 
a  tyrant,  he  exalted  the  Roman  name  by  his  successful  wars,  and 
alliances  with  the  surrounding  nations.  In  the  midst  of  his  successes, 
however,  he  was  disturbed  by  the  most  fearful  dreams  and  appalling 
prodigies.  He  dreamed  that  the  sun  changed  its  course,  rising  in 
the  west ;  and  that  when  the  two  rams  were  brought  to  him  for  sac- 
rifice, one  of  them  pushed  him  down  with  its  horns.  At  one  time  a 
serpent  crawled  from  the  altar  and  seized  the  flesh  which  he  had 
brought  for  sacrifice  :  a  flock  of  vultures  attacked  an  eagle's  nest  in 
his  garden,  threw  out  the  unfledged  eaglets  upon  the  ground  and 
drove  the  old  birds  away ;  and  when  he  sent  to  Delphi  to  consult  the 
oracle,  the  responses  were  dark  and  fearful. 

28.  The  reverses  threatened  were  brought  upon  him  by  the  wick- 
edness of  Sextus,  one  of  his  sons.     It  is  related  that  while  the  Ro- 
mans were    besieging  Ardea,1  a   Rutulian   city,  Sextus,   with   his 
brothers  Titus  and  Aruns,  and  their  cousin  Collatinus,  happened  to 
be  disputing,  over  their  wine,  about  the  good  qualities  of  their  wives, 
when,  to  settle  the  dispute,  they  agreed  to  visit  their  homes  by  sur- 
prise, and,  seeing  with  their  own  eyes  how  their  wives  were  then  em- 
ployed, thus  decide  which  was  the  worthiest  lady.     So  they  hastily 
rode,  first  to  Rome,  where  they  found  the  wives  of  the  three  Tar- 
quins  feasting  and  making  merry.     They  then  proceeded  to  Collatia,8 
thi  residence  of  Collatinus,  where,  although  it  was  then  late  at  night, 
they  found  his  wife  Lucretia,  with  her  maids  around  her,  all  busy 
working  at  the  loom.     On  their  return  to  the  camp  all  agreed  that 
Lucretia  was  the  worthiest  lady. 

29.  But  a  spirit  of  wicked  passion  had  seized  upon  Sextus,  and  a 
few  days  later  he  went  alone  to  Collatia,  and  being  hospitably  lodged 
in  his  kinsman's  house,  violated  the  honor  of  Lucretia.     Thereupon 

1.  Jirdea,  a  city  of  Latium,  and  the  capital  of  the  Rutulians,  was  about  twenty-four  miles 
•outh  from  Rome,  and  three  miles  from  the  sea.    Some  ruins  of  the  ancient  city  are  still  visible, 
and  bear  the  name  of  Ardea.    (Maps  Nos.  VIII.  and  X.) 

2,  Colldtia,  a  town  of  Latiura,  was  near  the  south  bank  of  the  river  Anio,  twelve  or  thirteen 
miles  east  from  Rome.    Its  rubis  may  still  be  traced  on  a  hill  which  has  obtained  the  name  of 

(Maps  No*  VIII.  and  X.) 


134  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PABT  L 

she  sent  in  haste  for  her  father,  and  husband,  and  other  relatives, 
and  having  told  them  of  the  wicked  deed  of  Sextus,  and  made  them 
swear  that  they  would  avenge  it,  she  drew  a  knife  from  her  bosom 
and  stabbed  herself  to  the  heart.  The  vow  was  renewed  over  the 
dead  body,  and  Lucius  Junius  Brutus,  who  had  long  concealed  patri- 
otic resolutions  under  the  mask  of  pretended  stupidity,  and  thus 
saved  his  life  from  the  jealousy  of  Tarquin,  exhibited  the  corpse  to 
the  people,  whom  he  influenced,  by  his  eloquence,  to  pronounce  sen- 
tence of  banishment  against  Tarquin  and  his  family,  and  to  declare 
that  the  dignity  of  king  should  be  abolished  forever.  (510  B.  C.) 


SECTION  II. 

THE   ROMAN   REPUBLIC,    FROM  THE   ABOLITION    OF   ROYALTY,    610  B.O., 

TO   THE   BEGINNING   OF   THE   WARS   WITH   CARTHAGE: 

263  B.  C.  =  247  YEARS. 

ANALYSIS.  L  Royalty  abolished.  The  laws  of  Servius  reestablished.  CONSULS  elected.— 
2.  Aristocratic  character  of  the  government.  The  struggle  between  the  patricians  and  ple- 
beians begins.— 3.  Extent  of  Roman  territory. — 4.  Conspiracy  in  favor  of  the  Tarquins.  ETRUS^ 
CAN  WAR.— 5.  Conflicting  accounts.  Legend  of  the  Etrus'  can  war.  [Clusium.]— 6.  The  storj 
of  Mutius  Scaev'  ola. — 7.  Farther  account  of  the  Roman  legend.  The  probable  truth. — 8.  Hu- 
miliating condition  of  the  plebeians  after  the  Etrus  can  war. — 9.  Continued  contentions.  The 
office  of  DICTATOR. — 10.  Circumstances  of  the  first  PLEBEIAN  INSURRECTION.  [Volscians.] — 11. 
Confusion.  Withdrawal  of  the  Plebeians.  [Mons  Sacer.]— 12.  The  terms  of  reconciliation. 
Office  and  power  of  the  TRIBUNES. — 13.  League  with  the  Latins  and  Hernicians. — 14.  VOL- 
SCIAN  AND  ^EQUIAN  WARS.  Contradictory  statements.  [^Equians.  Corioli.]  Proposal  of 
Coriolanus. — 15.  His  trial — exile — and  war  against  the  Romans. — 16.  The  story  of  Cincinatus. — 
17.  The  public  lands — and  the  fate  of  Spurius  Cassius. — 18.  Continued  demands  of  the  people. 
Election  and  office  of  THE  DECEM'  VIRS.— 19.  The  laws  of  the  decem'  virs.— 20.  The  decem'- 
virs  are  continued  in  office — their  additional  laws — and  tyranny. — 21.  The  story  of  Virginia. — 
22.  Overthrow  of  the  decem'  virs,  and  death  of  Appius. — 23.  Plebeian  innovations.  The  office 
of  CENSORS.— 24.  Rome,  as  viewed  by  the  surrounding  people.  Circumstances  that  led  to  the 
WAR  WITH  VEIL  [Situation  of  Veii.]— 25.  Destruction  of  Veii,  and  extension  of  Roman 
territory. 

26.  GALLIC  INVASION.  Circumstances  of  the  introduction  of  the  Gauls  into  Italy.  [Cisalpine 
Gaul.] — 27  The  Roman  ambassadors.  Conduct  of  Brennus. — 28.  The  Romans  defeated  by  the 
Gauls.  General  abandonment  of  Rome.  [The  Allia.  Roman  Forum.] — 29.  Entrance  of  the 
Gauls  into  the  city.  Massacre  of  the  Senators.  Rome  plundered  and  burned.— 30  Vain  at- 
tempt* to  storm  the  citadel.  The  Roman  legend  of  the  expulsion  of  the  Gauls.  The  more 
probable  account.  [The  Venetians.]— 31.  The  rebuilding  of  Rome.— 32.  Renewal  of  the  PLK- 
BKIAN  AND  PATRICIAN  CONTESTS.  Philanthropy  and  subsequent  history  of  Manlius.— 33.  Con- 
tinued oppression  of  the  plebeians.— 34.  Great  reforms  made  by  Licinius  Stolo  and  Lucius  Sex- 
tus. The  office  of  PR *:TOR.— 35.  Progress  of  the  Roman  power.  The  Samnite  confederacy 
[The  Samnites.]— 36.  FIRST  SAMNITE  WAR.  [Cap'ua.]  League  with  the  Samnites.  Latin 
war.— 37  SECOND  SAMNITE  WAR.— Defeat  of  the  Romans,  and  renewed  alliance.  [Caudine 


CHAP.  V.]  ROMAN  HISTORY.  135 

Forks.]— 38.  The  senate  declares  the  treaty  void.  Magnanimity  of  Pontius.— 39.  The  THIRD 
SAMNITE  WAR.  Fate  of  Pontius.  [Um'bria.]— 40.  WAR  WITH  THE  TARENTINKS  AND  PYR' 
RHUS.— 41.  First  encounter  of  Pyr'rhus  with  the  Romans.— 42.  Pyr'  rhus  attempts  negotiation. 
His  second  battle. — 43.  Story  of  the  generosity  of  Fabricius,  and  magnanimity  of  Pyr'rhus. 
Pyr'  rhus  passes  over  to  Sicily— returns,  and  renews  the  war— is  defeated— and  abandons  Italy, 
Roman  supremacy  over  all  Italy.  [Rubicon.  Arnua.  Tuscan  Sea.]— 44.  Alliance  with  Egypt. 
Sicilian  affairs.  Widening  circle  of  Roman  history. 

1.  As  narrated  at  the  close  of  the  previous  section,  royalty  was 
abolished  at  Rome,  after  an  existence  of  two  hundred  and  forty 
years.     The  whole  Roman  people  took  an  oath  that  whoever  should 
express  a  wish  to  rule  as  king  should  be  declared  an  outlaw.     The 
laws  of  Servius  were  reestablished,  and,  according  to  the 

code  which  he  had  proposed,  the  royal  power  was  in- 
trusted to  two  consuls,8-  annually  elected.     The  first  chosen  were 
Butus  and  Collatinus. 

2.  From  the  expulsion  of  the  Tarquins,  and  the  downfall  of  mon- 
archy, is  dated  the  commencement  of  what  is  called  the  Roman 
Republic.     Yet  the  government  was  at  this  time  entirely  aristo- 
cratical ;  for  all  political  power  was  in  the  hands  of  the  nobility, 
from  whom  the  consuls  were  chosen,  and  there  was  no  third  party 
to  hold  the  balance  of  power  between  them  and  the  people.     Hence 
arose  a  struggle  between  these  two  divisions  of  the  body  politic ; 
and  it  was  not  until  the  balance  was  properly  adjusted  by  the  in- 
creased privileges  of  the  plebeians,  and  a  more  equal  distribution  of 
power,  that  the  commonwealth  attained  that  strength  and  influence 
which  preeminently  exalted  Rome  above  the  surrounding  nations. 

3.  The  territory  possessed  by  Rome  under  the  last  of  the  kings 
is  known,  from  a  treaty  made  with  Carthage  in  the  first  year  of  the 
Republic,  to  have  extended  at  least  seventy  miles  along  the  coast 
south  of  the  Tiber.     Yet  all  this  sea-coast  was  destined  to  be  lost 
to  Rome  by  civil  dissensions  and  bad  government,  before  her  power 
was  to  be  firmly  established  there. 

a.  The  consuls  had  at  first  nearly  the  same  power  as  the  kings ;  and  all  other  magistrates 
were  subject  to  them,  except  the  tribunes  of  the  people.  They  summoned  the  meetings  of  the 
senate  and  of  the  assemblies  of  the  people— they  had  the  chief  direction  of  the  foreign  affairs 
of  the  government — they  levied  soldiers,  appointed  most  of  the  military  officers,  and,  in  time 
of  war,  had  supreme  command  of  the  armies.  In  dangerous  conjunctures  they  were  armed 
with  absolute  power  by  a  decree  of  the  senate  that  "  they  should  take  care  that  the  republic 
receives  no  harm."  Their  badges  of  office  were  the  toga  prtBtexta,  or  mantle  bordered  with 
purple,  and  an  ivory  sceptre  ;  and  when  they  appeared  in  public  they  were  accompanied  by 
twelve  officers  called  lictors,  each  of  whom  carried  a  bundle  of  rods,  (fas'ces,)  with  an  axe 
(securis)  placed  in  the  middle  of  them ; — the  former  denoting  the  power  of  scourging,  or  of 
ordinary  punishment,— and  the  latter,  the  power  of  life  and  death. 


136  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART  I. 

4.  The  efforts  of  Tarquin  to  recover  the  throne  gave  rise  to  a  con- 
spiracy among  some  of  the  younger  patricians  who  had  shared  in 
the  tyrant's  extortions.     Among  the  conspirators  were  the  sons  of 
Brutus  ;  and  the  duty  of  pronouncing  their  fate  devolved  upon  the 
consul  their  father,  who,  laying  aside  parental  affection,  and  acting 
the  part  of  the  magistrate  only,  condemned  them  to  death.     The 
11.  ETRUS'CAN  cause  of  the  Tarquins  was  also  espoused  by  the  Etrus'- 

WAR.        cans,  to  whom  they  had  fled  for  protection,  and  thus  a  war 
was  kindled  between  the  two  people. 

5.  The  accounts  of  the  events  and  results  of  this  war  are  exceed- 
ingly conflicting.     The   ancient  Roman  legend  relates  that  when 
Porsenna,  king  of  Clusium,1  the  most  powerful  of  the  Etrus' can 
princes,  led  an  overwhelming  force  against  Home,  the  Romans  were 
at  first  repulsed,  and  fled  across  a  wooden  bridge  over  the  Tiber ; 
and  that  the  army  was  saved  by  the  valor  of  Horatius  Codes,  who 
alone  defended  the  pass  against  thousands  of  the  enemy,  until  the 
bridge  was  broken  down  in  the  rear,  when  he  plunged  into  the  stream, 
and,  amid  a  shower  of  darts,  safely  regained  the  opposite  shore. 

6.  It  is  farther  related,  that  when  Porsenna  had  reduced  Rome 
to  extremities  by  famine,  a  young  man,  Mutius  Scaev'  ola,  undertook, 
with  the  approbation  of  the  Senate,  to  assassinate  the  invading  king. 
Making  his  way  into  the  Etrus'  can  camp,  he  slew  one  of  the  king's 
attendants,  whom  he  mistook  for  Porsenna.     Being  disarmed,  and 
threatened  with  torture,  he  scornfully  thrust  his  right  hand  into  the 
flame,  where  he  held  it  until  it  was  consumed,  to  show  that  the  rack 
had  no  terrors  for  him.     The  king,  admiring  such  heroism,  gave  him 
his  life  and  liberty,  when  Scaev'  ola  warned  him,  as  a  token  of  grati- 
tude, to  make  peace,  for  that  three  hundred  young  patricians,  as  brave 
as  himself,  had  conspired  to  destroy  him,  and  that  he,  Scsev'  ola,  had 
only  been  chosen  by  lot  to  make  the  first  attempt. 

7.  The  Roman  legend  asserts  that  Porsenna,  alarmed  for  his  life, 
offered  terms  of  peace,  which  were  agreed  upon.    And  yet  it  is  known, 
from  other  evidence,  that  the  Romans,  about  this  time,  surrendered 
their  city,  and  became  tributary  to  the  Etrus'  cans ;  and  it  is  prob- 
able that  when,  soon  after,  Porsenna  was  defeated  in  a  war  with  the 
Latins,  the  Romans  embraced  the  opportunity  to  regain  their  inde- 
pendence. 

8.  It  was  only  while  the  attempts  of  the  Tarquins  to  regain  the 

1.  Clusium,  now  Chiusi,  was  a  town  of  Etriiria,  situated  on  the  western  bank  of  the  river 
Clanis,  a  tributary  of  the  Tiber,  about  eighty-five  miles  north-west  from  Rome.  (Map  No.  VIII.) 


CHAB.V.]  ROMAN  HISTORY.  137 

throne  excited  alarm,  and  the  Etrus'  can  war  continued,  that  the  gov- 
ernment under  the  first  consuls  was  administered  with  justice  and 
moderation.  When  these  dangers  were  over,  the  patricians  again 
began  to  exert  their  tyranny  over  the  plebeians,  and  as  nearly  all 
the  wealth  of  the  State  had  been  engrossed  by  the  former,  the  latter 
were  reduced  to  a  condition  differing  little  from  the  most  abject 
slavery.  A  decree  against  a  plebeian  debtor  made  not  only  him, 
but  his  children  also,  slaves  to  the  creditor,  who  might  imprison, 
scourge,  or  otherwise  maltreat  them. 

9.  The  contentions  between  the  patricians  and  plebeians  were  at 
length  carried  to  such  an  extent,  that  in  time  of  war  the  latter  re- 
fused to  enlist ;  and  as  the  consuls,  for  some  cause  now  unknown, 
could  not  be  confided  in,  the  plebeians  were  induced  to  consent  to 
the  creation  of  a  dictator,  who,  during  six  months,  had  m.  OFFICE  OF 
supreme  power,  not  only  over  patricians,  plebeians,  and     DICTATOR. 
consuls,  but  also  over  the  laws  themselves.     Under  a  former  law  of 
Valerius  the  people  had  the  right  of  appeal  from  a  sentence  of  the 
consul  to  a  general  assembly  of  the  citizens ;  but  from  the  decision 
of  the  dictator  there  was  no  appeal,  and  as  he  was  appointed  by  the 
Senate,  this  office  gave  additional  power  to  the  patrician  order.a 

10.  During  a  number  of  years  dictators  continued  to  be  appointed 
in  times  of  great  public  danger ;  but  they  gave  only  a  temporary 
calm  to  the  popular  dissensions.     It  was  during  a  war  with  the  Vol- 
sciaus1  and  Sabines  that  the  long-accumulating  resentment  of  the 
plebeians  against  the  patricians  first  broke  forth  in  open  jv.  PLEBEIAN 
insurrection.     An  old  man,  haggard  and  in  rags,  pale  INSURRECTION. 
and  famishing,  escaping  from  his  creditor's  prison,  and  bearing  the 
marks  of  cruel  treatment,  implored  the  aid  of  the  people.     A  crowd 
gathered  around  him.     He  showed  them  the  scars  that  he  had  re- 
ceived in  war,  and  he  was  recognized  as  a  brave  captain  who  had 
fought  for  his  country  in  eight  and  twenty  battles.     His  house  and 
farm-yard  having  been  plundered  by  the  enemy  in  the  Etrus'  can  war, 

1.  The  Volscians  were  the  most  southern  of  the  tribes  that  inhabited  Latium.  Their  terri- 
tory, extending  along  the  coast  southward  from  Antium  about  fifty  miles,  swarmed  with  cities 
filled  with  a  hardy  and  warlike  race.  (Maps  Nos.  VIII.  and  X.) 

a.  The  office  of  dictator  had  existed  at  Alba  and  other  Latin  towns  long  before  this  time. 
The  authority  of  all  the  other  magistrates,  except  that  of  the  tribunes,  (see  p.  138,;  ceased  us 
BOOB  as  the  dictator  was  appointed.  He  had  the  power  of  life  and  death,  except  per- 
haps in  the  case  of  knights  and  senators,  and  from  his  decision  there  was  no  appeal ;  but  for 
any  abuse  of  his  power  he  might  be  called  to  account  after  his  resignation  or  the  expiration  of 
his  term  of  office.  At  first  the  dictator  was  taken  from  the  patrician  ranks  only ;  but  about  the 
year  356  B.  C.  it  was  opened  by  C.  Marcius  to  the  plebeians  also.  See  Niebuhr's  Rome,  i.  270 


138  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART  L 

famine  had  first  compelled  him  to  sell  his  all,  and  then  to  borrow ; 
and  when  he  could  not  pay,  his  creditors  had  obtained  judgment 
against  him  and  his  two  sons,  and  had  put  them  in  chains.  (495 
B.  C.) 

11.  Confusion  and  uproar  spread  through  the  city.     All  who  had 
been  pledged  for  debt  were  clamorous  for  relief ;  the  people  spurned 
the  summons  to  enlist  in  the  legions ;  compulsion  was  impossible, 
and  the  Senate  knew  not  how  to  act.     At  length  the  promises  of  the 
consuls  appeased  the  tumult ;  but  finally  the  plebeians,  after  having 
been  repeatedly  deceived,  deserted  their  officers  in  the  very  midst 
of  war,  and  marched  in  a  body  to  Mons  Sacer,1  or  the  Sacred  Mount, 
within  three  miles  of  Rome,  where  they  were  joined  by  a  vast  mul- 
titude of  their  discontented  brethren.  (493  B.  C.) 

12.  After  much  negotiation,  a  reconciliation  was  finally  effected 
on  the  terms  that  all  contracts  of  insolvent  debtors  should  be  can- 
celled ;  that  those  who  had  incurred  slavery  for  debt  should  recover 
their  freedom ;  that  the  Valerian  law  should  be  enforced,  and  that 
two  annual  magistrates,  (afterwards  increased  to  five,)  called  trib- 

v.  TRIBUNES  unes*  whose  persons  were  to  be  inviolable,  should  be 

OF  THE      chosen  by  the  people  to  watch  over  their  rights,  and  pre- 

°PLE-     vent;  anv  akuses  of  authority.     It  will  be  seen  that  the 

power  of  the  tribunes,  so  humble  in  its  origin,  eventually  acquired  a 

preponderating  influence  in  the  State,  and  laid  the  foundation  of 

monarchical  supremacy.15 

13.  During  the  same  year  that  the  office  of  the   tribunes  was 
created,  a  perpetual  league  was  made  with  the  Latins,  (493  B.  C.) 
and  seven  years  later  with  the  Hernicians,  who  inhabited  the  north- 
eastern parts  of  Latium,  both  on  terms  of  perfect  equality  in  the 
contracting  parties,  and  not,  as  before,  on  the  basis  of  Roman  supe- 

1.  The  Mons  Sacer,  or  "  Sacred  Mountain,"  is  a  low  range  of  sandstone  hills  extending 
along  the  right  bank  of  the  Anio,  near  its  confluence  with  the  Tiber,  about  three  miles  from 
Rome.  (Maps  Nos.  VIII.  and  X.) 

a.  The  tribunes  of  the  people  wore  no  external  marks  of  distinction ;  but  an  officer  called 
arator  attended  them,  to  clear  the  way  and  summon  people.    Their  chief  power  at  first  con- 
sisted in  preventing,  or  arresting,  by  the  word  veto,  "  I  forbid,"  any  measure  which  they 
thought  detrimental  to  the  interests  of  the  people. 

b.  After  the  plebeians  had  withdrawn  to  the  "  Sacred  Mount,"  the  Senate  despatched  an 
embassy  of  ten  men,  headed  by  Menenius  Agrippa,  to  treat  with  the  insurgents.    Agrippa  ia 
said,  on  this  occasion,  to  have  related  to  the  people  the  since  well-known  fable  of  the  Belly  and 
the  Members.    The  latter,  provoked  at  seeing  all  the  fruits  of  their  toil  and  care  applied  to 
the  use  of  the  belly,  refused  to  perform  any  more  labor ;  in  consequence  of  which  the  whole 
body  was  in  danger  of  perishing.    The  people  understood  the  moral  of  the  fable,  and  were 
ready  to  enter  upon  a  negotiation. 


CHAP.  VI.]  ROMAN  HISTORY.  139 

riority.  These  leagues  made  with  cities  that  were  once  subject  to 
the  Romans,  show  that  the  Roman  power  had  been  greatly  dimin- 
ished by  the  plebeian  and  aristocratic  contentions  in  the  early  years 
of  the  Republic. 

14.  In  the  interval  between  these  treaties,  occurred  important 
wars  with  the  Volscians  and  ./Equians.1     The  historical  VI>  VOLSCIAN 
contradictions  of  this  period  are  so  numerous,  that  little    AND  MQVI- 
reliance  can  be  placed  on  the  details  of  these  wars ;  but     AN  A 

it  is  evident  that  the  Volscians  and  ^Equians  were  defeated,  and  that 
Caius  Marcius,  a  Roman  nobleman,  acquired  the  surname  of  Coriola- 
nus  from  his  bravery  at  the  capture  of  the  Volscian  town  of  Corioli3 
and  that  Lucius  Quinctius,  called  Cincinnatus,  acquired  great  dis- 
tinction by  his  conduct  of  the  war  against  the  ^Equians.  Coriolanus 
belonged  to  the  patrician  order,  and  was  an  enemy  of  the  tribunes ; 
and  it  is  related  that  when,  during  a  famine,  a  Sicilian  prince  sent  a 
large  supply  of  corn  to  relieve  the  distresses  of  the  citizens,  Coriola- 
nus proposed  in  the  Senate  that  the  plebeians  should  not  share  in 
the  subsidy  until  they  had  surrendered  the  privileges  which  they  had 
acquired  by  their  recent  secession. 

15.  The  rage  of  the  plebeians  was  excited  by  this  proposition,  and 
they  would  have  proceeded  to  violence  against  Coriolanus,  had  not 
the  tribunes  summoned  him  to  trial  before  the  assembly  of  the  peo- 
ple.    The  senators  made  the  greatest  efforts  to  save  him,  but  the 
commons  condemned  him  to  exile.     Enraged  by  this  treatment,  he 
went  over  to  the  Volscians — was  appointed  a  general  in  their  armies 
— and,  after  defeating  the  Romans  in  several  engagements,  laid  siege 
to  the  city,  which  must  have  surrendered  had  not  a  deputation  of 
Roman  matrons,  headed  by  the  wife  and  the  mother  of  Coriolanus, 
prevailed  upon  him  to  grant  his  countrymen  terms  of  peace.     It  is 
said  that  on  his  return  to  the  Volsciaus  he  lost  his  life  in  a  popular 
tumult ;  but  a  tradition  relates  that  he  lived  to  a  very  advanced  age, 
and  that  he  was  often  heard  to  exclaim,  "  How  miserable  is  the  con- 
dition of  an  old  man  in  banishment." 

16.  It  is  related  that  during  the  war  with  the  JEquians  the  enemy 
had  surrounded  the  Roman  consul  in  a  defile,  where  there  was  neither 
forage  for  the  horses  nor  food  for  the  men.     In  this  extremity,  the 

1.  The  JZquians  dwelt  principally  in  the  upper  valley  of  the  Anio,  north  of  that  stream,  and 
between  the  Sabines  and  the  M  arsi.    (Maps  Nos.  VIII.  and  X.) 

2.  Corioli  is  supposed  to  have  been  about  twenty-two  or  twenty-three  miles  south-east  from 
Rome.    A  hill  now  known  by  the  name  of  Monte  Oiove,  is  thought,  with  some  degree  of  prob- 
ability, to  represent  the  site  of  thia  ancient  Volscian  city.    (Map  No.  X.) 


i40  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART! 

Senate  and  people  chose  Cincinnatus  dictator,  and  sending  in  haste 
to  inform  him  of  his  election,  the  deputies  found  him  at  work  in  his 
field,  dressed  in  the  plain  habit  of  a  Roman  farmer.  After  he  had 
put  on  his  toga,  or  cloak,  that  he  might  receive  the  message  of  the 
Senate  in  a  becoming  manner,  he  was  saluted  as  dictator,  and  con- 
ducted into  the  city.  He  soon  raised  an  army,  surrounded  the  enemy, 
and  took  their  whole  force  prisoners,  and  at  the  end  of  sixteen  days, 
having  accomplished  the  deliverance  of  his  country,  resigned  his 
power,  and  returned  to  the  peaceful  pursuits  of  private  life.a 

17.  The  first  acquisitions  of  territory  made  by  the  Romans  appear 
to  have  been  divided  among  the  people  at  large ;  but  of  late  the  con- 
quered lands  had  been  suffered  to  pass,  by  connivance,  occupation,  or 
purchase,  chiefly  into  the  hands  of  the  patricians.     The  complaints 
of  th§  plebeians  on  this  subject  at  length  induced  one  of  the  consuls, 
Spurius  Cassius,  to  propose  a  division  of  recently-conquered  lands 
into  small  estates,  for  the  poorer  classes,  who,  he  maintained,  were 
justly  entitled  to  their  proportionate  share,  as  their  valor  and  labors 
had  helped  to  acquire  them.     But  while  this  proposition  alarmed 
the  Senate  and  patricians  with  danger  to  their  property,  the  motives 
of  Cassius  appear  to  have  been  distrusted  by  all  classes,  for  he  was 
charged  with  aiming  at  kingly  power,  and,  being  convicted,  was  ig- 
nominiously  beheaded,  and  his  house  razed  to  the  ground.  (458  B.  C.) 

18.  Still  the  people  continued  to  demand  a  share  in  the  conquered 
lands,  now  forming  the  estates  of  the  wealthy,  and,  as  the  only  way 
of  evading  the  difficulty,  the  Senate  kept  the  nation  almost  constantly 
involved  in  war.     During  thirty  years  succeeding  the  death  of  Cas- 
sius, the  history  of  the  Republic  is  occupied  with  desultory  wars 
waged  against  the  jEquians  and  Volscians,  and  with  continued  strug- 
gles between  the  patricians  and  plebeians.     At  length  the  tribunes 
succeeded  in  getting  their  number  increased  from  five  to  ten,  when 
the  Senate,  despairing  of  being  able  to  divert  the  people  any  longer 
from  their  purpose,  consented  to  the  appointment  of  ten  persons, 

vii.  THE     hence  called  decent  virs,  who  were  to  compile  a  body  of 
DECEMvias.  laws  for  the  commonwealth,  and  to  exercise  all  the  pow- 
ers of  government  until  the  laws  should  be  completed.     (451  B.  C.) 

19.  After  several  months'  deliberation,  this  body  produced  a  code 

a.  It  should  be  remarked  here,  that  the  story  of  Cincinnatus  formed  the  subject  of  a  beauti- 
ful poem,  to  the  substance  of  which  most  writers  have  given  the  credit  of  historical  authen- 
ticity, although  Niebuhr  has  shown  that  the  truth  of  the  legend  will  not  stand  the  test  of 
criticism.  (See  Niebuhr,  vol.  ii.  pp.  125-6.  and  Arnold's  Rome,  i.  pp.  131-5,  and  notes.) 


CHAP.V.]  ROMAN  HISTORY.  Ul 

, 
of  laws,  engraven  on  ten  tables,  which  continued,  down  to  the  time 

of  the  emperors,  to  be  the  basis  of  the  civil  and  penal  jurisprudence 
of  the  Roman  people,  though  almost  concealed  from  view  under  the 
enormous  mass  of  additions  piled  upon  it.  The  new  constitution 
aimed  at  establishing  the  legal  equality  of  all  the  citizens,  and  there 
was  a  show  of  dividing  the  great  offices  of  State  equally  between  patri- 
cians and  plebeians,  but  the  exact  character  of  the  ten  tables  cannot 
now  be  satisfactorily  distinguished  from  two  others  that  were  sub- 
sequently enacted. 

20.  After  the  task  of  the  decemvirs  had  been  completed,  all  classes 
united  in  continuing  their  office  for  another  year  ;  and  an  equal  num- 
ber of  patricians  and  plebeians  was  elected ;  but  the  former  appear 
to  have  sought  seats  in  the  government  for  the  purpose  of  overthrow- 
ing the  constitution.     The  decemvirs  now  threw  off  the  mask,  and 
enacted  two  additional  tables  of  laws,  by  which  the  plebeians  were 
greatly  oppressed,  for,  among  the  laws  attributed  to  the  twelve  tables, 
we  find  that  although  all  classes  were  liable  to  imprisonment  for 
debt,  yet  the  pledging  of  the  person  affected  plebeians  only, — that  the 
latter  were  excluded  from  the  enjoyment  of  the  public  lands, — that 
their  intermarriage  with  patricians  was  prohibited, — and  that  consuls 
could  be  elected  from  the  patrician  order  only.     Moreover,  the  de- 
cemvirs now  refused  to  lay  down  the  powers  of  government  which 
had  been  temporarily  granted  them,  and,  secretly  supported  by  the 
patricians,  ruled  without  control,  thus  establishing  a  tyrannical  oli- 
garchy. 

21.  At  length  a  private  injury  accomplished  what  wrongs  of  a 
more  public  nature  had  failed  to  effect.     Appius  Claudius,  a  leading 
decemvir,  had  fallen  in  love  with  the  beautiful  Virginia,  daughter  of 
Virginius,  a  patrician  officer ;  but  finding  her  betrothed  to  another,  in 
order  to  accomplish  his  purpose  he  procured  a  base  dependant  to 
claim  her  as  his  slave.     As  had  been  concerted,  Virginia  was  brought 
before  the  tribunal  of  Appius  himself,  who,  by  an  iniquitous  decision, 
ordered  her  to  be  surrendered  to  the  claimant.    It  was  then  that  the 
distracted  father,  having  no  other  means  of  preserving  his  daughter's 
honor,  stabbed  her  to  the  heart  in  the  presence  of  the  court  and  the 
assembled  people.  (448  B.  C.) 

22.  A  general  indignation  against  the  decemvirs  spread  through  the 
city ;  the  army  took  part  with  the  people ;  the  power  of  the  decem- 
virs was  overthrown  ;  and  the  ancient  forms  of  government  were  re- 
stored ;  while  additional  rights  were  conceded  to  the  commons,  by 


142  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART  L 

giving  to  their  votes,  in  certain  cases,  the  authority  of  law.  Appius, 
having  been  impeached,  died  in  prison,  probably  by  his  own  hand, 
before  the  day  appointed  for  his  trial. 

23.  Other  plebeian  innovations  followed.     After  a  difficult  strug- 
gle the  marriage  law  was  repealed,  (B.  C.  445,)  and  two  years  later 
military  tribunes,  with  consular  powers,  were  chosen  from  the  ple- 
beian ranks.     One  important  duty  of  the  consuls  had  been  the  taking 
of  the  census  once  in  every  five  years,  and  a  new  distribution  of  the 
people,  at  such  times,  among  the  different  classey  or  ranks,  according 
to  their  property,  character,  and  families.     But  the  patricians,  un- 
willing that  this  power  should  devolve  upon  the  plebeians,  stipulated 
that  these  duties  of  the  consular  office  should  be  disjoined  from  the 
military  tribuneship,  and  conferred  upon  two  new  officers  of  patrician 

vm.  OFFICE  birth,  who  were  denominated  censors  ;a    and  thus  the 
OF  CENSORS,  long-continued  efforts  of  the  people  to  obtain,  from  their 

own  number,  the  election  of  officers  with  full  consular  powers,  were 

defeated. 

24.  But  while  dissensions  continued  to  mark  the  domestic  councils 
of  the  Romans  with  the  appearance  of  divided  strength  and  wasted 
energies,  the  state  of  affairs  presented  a  different  aspect  to  the  sur- 
rounding people.     They  saw  in  Rome  only  a  nation  of  warriors  that 
had  already  recovered  the  strength  it  had  lost  by  a  revolutionary 
change  of  government,  and  that  was  now  marching  on  to  increased 
dominion  without  any  signs  of  weakness  in  the  foreign  wars  it  had  to 
maintain.     Veii,1  the  wealthiest  and  most  important  of  the  Etruscan 
cities,  had  long  been  a  check  to  the  progress  of  the  Romans  north  of 
the  Tiber,  and  had  often  sought  occasion  to  provoke  hostilities  with 

ix.  WAR     the  young  republic.     At  length  the  chief  of  the  people 
WITH  VEIL   Of  y^ij  put  to  death  the  Roman  ambassadors ;  and  the 
Roman  Senate,  being  refused  satisfaction  for  the  outrage,  formally 
resolved  that  Veii  should  be  destroyed. 

25.  The  Etruscan  armies  that  marched  to  the  rolief  of  Veii  were 

1.  Vkii,  numerous  remains  of  which  still  exist,  was  about  twelve  miles  north  from  Rome,  ai 
a  place  now  known  by  the  name  oiVInsola  Farnese.  (Maps  Nos.  VIII.  and  X.) 

a.  An  important  duty  of  the  censors  was  that  of  inspecting  the  morals  of  the  people.  They 
had  the  power  of  inflicting  various  marks  of  disgrace  upon  those  who  deserved  it, — such  as  ex- 
cluding a  senator  from  the  senate-house — depriving  a  knight  of  his  public  horse  if  he  did  not 
take  proper  care  of  it ; — and  of  punishing,  in  various  ways,  those  who  did  not  cultivate  their 
grounds  properly — those  who  lived  too  long  unmarried — and  those  who  were  of  dissolute  mor- 
als. They  had  charge,  also,  of  the  public  works,  and  of  letting  out  the  public  lands.  The 
offv-e  of  censor  was  esteemed  highly  honorable.  In  allusion  to  the  severity  with  which  Cato 
the  Elder  discharged  its  duties,  he  is  commonly  styled,  at  the  present  day,  "  Cato  the  Censor." 


CHAP.  V.]  ROMAN  HISTORY.  143 

repeatedly  defeated  by  the  Roman  legions,  and  the  people  of  Veil 
were  finally  compelled  to  shut  themselves  up  in  their  city,  which  was 
taken  by  the  Roman  dictator,  Camillus,  after  a  blockade  and  siege 
of  nearly  ten  years.  (396  B.  C.)  The  spoil  taken  from  the  con- 
quered city  was  given  to  the  army,  the  captives  were  sold  for  the 
benefit  of  the  State,  and  the  ornaments  and  images  of  the  gods  were 
transferred  to  Rome.  The  conquerors  also  wreaked  their  vengeance 
on  the  towns  which  had  aided  Veii  in  the  war,  and  the  Roman  territory 
was  extended  farther  north  of  the  Tiber  than  at  any  previous  period. 

26.  But  while  the  Romans  were  enjoying  the  imaginary  security 
which  these  successful  wars  had  given  them,  they  were  suddenly  as- 
sailed by  a  new  enemy,  which  threatened  the  extinction  of  the  Ro- 
man name.     During  the  recent  Etruscan  wars,  a  vast  horde  of  barba- 
rians of  the  Gallic  or  Celtic  race  had  crossed  the  Alps    Xi  GALLIO 
from  the  unknown  regions  of  the  north,  and  had  sat  down     INVASION. 
in  the  plains  of  Northern  Italy,  in  the  country  known  as  Cisalpine 
Gaul.1     Tradition  relates  that  an  injured  citizen  of  Clusinm,  an 
Etruscan  city,  went  over  the  mountains  to  these  Gauls,  taking  with 
him  a  quantity  of  the  fruits  and  wines  of  Italy,  and  promised  these 
rude  people  that  if  they  would  leave  their  own  inhospitable  country 
and  follow  him,  the  land  which  produced  all   these   good  things 
should  be  theirs,  for  it  was  inhabited  by  an  un warlike  race ;  where- 
upon the  whole  Gallic  people,  with  their  women  and  children,  crossed 
the  Alps,  and  marched  direct  to  Clusium.  (391  B.  C.) 

27.  Certain  it  is  that  the  people  of  Clusium  sought  aid  from  the  Ro- 
mans, who  sent  three  of  the  nobility  to  remonstrate  with  the  Brennus, 
or  chieftain  of  the  Gauls,  but  as  the  latter  treated  them  with  derision, 
they  forgot  their  sacred  character  as  ambassadors,  and  joined  the 
Clusians  in  a  sally  against  the  besiegers.      Immediately  Brennus 
ordered  a  retreat,  that  he  might  not  be  guilty  of  shedding  the  blood 
of  ambassadors,  and  forthwith  demanded  satisfaction  of  the  Roman 
senate ;  and  when  this  was  refused  he  broke  up  his  camp  before 
Clusium  and  took  up  his  march  for  Rome  at  the  head  of  seventy 
thousand  of  his  people. 

28.  Eleven  miles  from  the  city,  on  the  banks  of  the  Al'  ia,1  a  battle 

1.  Cisalpine  Gaul,  meaning  "Gaul  this  side  of  the  Alps,"  to  distinguish  it  from  "  Gaul  be- 
yond the  Alps,"  embraced  all  that  portion  of  Northern  Italy  that  was  watered  by  the  river  Po 
and  its  numerous  tributaries,  extending  south  on  the  Adriatic  coast  to  the  river  Rubicon,  and 
oil  the  Tuscan  coast  to  the  river  Macra.    (Map  No.  IX.) 

2.  The  M'  ia,  now  the  jJio,  was  a  small  stream  that  flowed  into  the  Tiber  from  the  east, 
about  ten  miles  north-east  from  Rome.    (Map  No.  X.> 


i44  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PAKT  I. 

f  *        f"  f     -  •    +"t 

was  fought,  and  the  Romans,  forty  thousand  in  number,  were  defeat- 
ed. (390  B.  C.)  Brennus  meditated  a  sudden  march  to  Rome  to  con- 
summate his  victory,  but  his  troops,  abandoning  themselves  to  pillage, 
rioting,  and  drunkenness,  refused  to  obey  the  voice  of  their  leader, 
and  thus,  the  attack  being  delayed,  the  existence  of  the  Roman  na- 
tion was  saved.  The  defeat  on  the  Al'  ia  had  rendered  it  impossible 
to  defend  the  city,  but  a  thousand  armed  Romans  took  possession  of 
the  capitol  and  the  citadel,  and  laying  in  a  store  of  provisions  deter- 
mined to  maintain  their  post  to  the  last  extremity,  while  the  mass  of 
the  population  sought  refuge  in  the  neighboring  towns,  bearing  with 
them  their  riches,  and  the  principal  objects  of  their  religious  venera- 
tion. But  while  the  rest  of  the  people  quitted  their  homes,  eighty 
priests  and  patricians  of  the  highest  rank,  deeming  it  intolerable  to 
survive  the  republic  and  the  worship  pf  the  gods,  sat  down  in  the 
Forum,1  in  their  festal  robes,  awaiting  death. 

29.  Onward  came  the  Gauls  in  battle   array,  with   horns   and 
trumpets  blowing,  but  finding  the  walls  deserted,  they  burst  open  the 
gates  and  entered  the  city,  which  they  found  desolate  and  death-like. 
They  marched  cautiously  on  till  they  came  to  the  Forum,  where,  in 
solemn  stillness,  sat  the  aged  priests,  and  chiefs  of  the  senate,  look- 
ing like  beings  of  another  world.     The  wild  barbarians,  seized  with 
awe  at  such  a  spectacle,  doubted  whether  the  gods  had  not  come 
down  to  save  the  city  or  to  avenge  it.     At  length  a  Gaul  went  up  to 
one  of  the  priests  and  gently  stroked  his  white  beard,  but  the  old  man 
indignantly  repelled  the  insolence  by  a  stroke  of  his  ivory  sceptre. 
He  was  cut  down  on  the  spot,  and  his  death  was  the  signal  of  a 
general  massacre.     Then  the  plundering  commenced  :  fires  broke  out 
in  several  quarters ;  and  in  a  few  days  the  whole  city,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  a  few  houses  on  the  Pal'  atine,  was  burnt  to  the  ground.1 
(390  B.  C.) 

30.  The  Gauls  made  repeated  attempts  to  storm  the  citadel,  but 
in  vain.     They  attempted  to  climb  up  the  rocks  in  the  night,  but 
the  cackling  of  the  sacred  geese  in  the  temple  of  Jtino  awoke  Mar- 
cus Man'lius,  who  hurled  the  foremost  Gaul  headlong   down  the 

1.  The  Roman  Forum  was  a  large  open  space  between  the  Capitoline  and  Pal'  atine  hills,  sur- 
rounded by  porticos,  shops,  &c.,  where  assemblies  of  the  people  were  generally  held,  justice 
administered,  and  public  business  transacted.  It  is  now  a  mere  open  space  strewed  for  the 
most  part  with  ruins,  which,  in  the  course  of  centuries,  have  accumulated  to  such  an  extent  as 
to  raise  the  surface  from  fifteen  to  twenty  feet  above  its  ancient  level.  Seep.  582. 

a.  Different  writers  have  given  the  date  of.  the  taking  of  Rome  by  the  Gauls,  from  388  to 
i.C. 


CHAP.  V.]  ROMAN   HISTORY.  145 

precipice,  and  prevented  the  ascent  of  those  who  were  mounting  after 
him.  At  length  famine  began  to  be  felt  by  the  garrison.  But  the 
host  of  the  besiegers  was  gradually  melting  away  by  sickness  and 
want,  and  Brennus  agreed,  for  a  thousand  pounds  of  gold,  to  quit 
Rome  and  its  territory.  According  to  the  old  Roman  legend,  Ca- 
mil'  lus  entered  the  city  with  an  army  while  the  gold  was  being 
weighed,  and  rudely  accosting  Brennus,  and  saying,  "  It  is  the  custom 
of  us  Romans  to  ransom  our  country,  not  with  gold,  but  with  iron," 
ordered  the  gold  to  be  carried  back  to  the  temple,  whereupon  a  bat- 
tle ensued,  and  the  Gauls  were  driven  from  the  city.  A  more  proba- 
ble account,  however,  relates  that  the  Gauls  were  suddenly  called 
home  to  protect  their  own  country  from  an  invasion  of  the  Venetians.1 
According  to  Polybius  this  great  Gallic  invasion  took  place  in  the 
same  year  that  the  "  peace  of  Antalcidas"  was  concluded  between 
the  Greeks  and  Persians.  (See  p.  89.) 

31.  The  walls  and  houses  of  Rome  had  now  to  be  built  anew,  and 
so  great  did  the  task  appear  that  the  citizens  clamored  for  a  removal 
to  Veii ;  but  the  persuasion  of  Camil'  lus,  and  a  lucky  omen,  in- 
duced them  to  remain  in  their  ancient  situation.     Yet  they  were  not 
allowed  to  rebuild  their  dwellings  in  peace,  for  the  surrounding  na- 
tions, the  Sabines  only  excepted,  made  war  upon  them ;  but  their 
attacks  were  repelled,  and  one  after  another  they  were  made  to  yield 
to  the  sway  of  Rome,  which  ultimately  became  the  sovereign  city  of 
Italy. 

32.  Soon  after  the  rebuilding  of  the  city  the  old  contests  between 
the  patricians  and  plebeians  were  renewed,  with  all  their  former  vio- 
lence.    The  cruelties  exercised  towards  helpless  credit-  xi.  PLEBEIAN 
ors  appear  to  have  aroused  the  sympathies  of  the  patrician  ^j^™1 
Man'  lius,  the  brave  defender  of  the  capitol,  for  he  sold       TESTS. 
the  most  valuable  part  of  his  inheritance,  and  declared  that  so  long 
as  a  single  pound  remained  no  Roman  should  be  carried  into  bondage 
for  debt.     Henceforward  he  was  regarded  as  the  patron  of  the  poor, 
but  for  some  hasty  words  was  thrown  into  prison  for  slandering  the 
government,  and  for  sedition.     Released  by  the  clamors  of  the  mul- 
titude, he  was  afterwards  accused  of  aspiring  to  kingly  authority ; 
and  the  more  common  account  states  that  he  was  convicted  of  treason, 
and  sentenced  to  be  thrown  headlong  from  the  Tarpeian  rock,  the 
scene  of  his  former  glory.     But  another  account  states  that,  being 

I.  The  Venetians  were  a  people  of  ancient  Italy  who  dwelt  north  of  the  mouths  of  the  Po, 
around  the  head-waters  of  the  Adriatic.    (Map  No.  VIII.) 

10 


146  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART! 

in  insurrection,  and  in  possession  of  the  capitol,  a  treacherous  slave 
hurled  him  down  the  precipice.3-     (384  B.  C.) 

33.  The  plebeians  mourned  the  fate  of  Man'  lius,  but  his  death 
was  a  patrician  triumph.     The  oppression  of  the  plebeians  now  in- 
creased, until  universal  distress  prevailed :  debtors  were  every  day 
consigned  to  slavery,  and  dragged  to  private  dungeons ;  the  number 
of  free  citizens  was  visibly  decreasing ;  those  who  remained  were  re- 
duced to  a  state  of  dependence  by  their  debts,  and  Rome  was  on  the 
point  of  degenerating  into  a  miserable  oligarchy,  when  her  decline 
was  arrested  by  the  appearance  of  two  men  who  changed  the  fate 
of  their  country  and  of 'the  world. 

34.  The  authors  of  the  great  reform  in  the  constitution  were  Li- 
cinius  Stolo  and  Lucius  Sextius.     Confining  themselves  strictly  to 
the  paths  permitted  by  the  laws,  they  succeeded,  after  a  struggle  of 
five  years  against  every  species  of  fraud  and  violence,  in  obtaining 
for  the  plebeians  an  acknowledgment  of  their  rights,  and  all  possible 
guarantees  for  their  preservation.     (376  to  371  B.  C.)     The  history 
of  the  struggle  would  be  too  long  for  insertion  here.     As  on  a  former 
occasion,  it  was  only  in  the  last  extremity,  when  the  people  had 
taken  up  arms,  and  gathered  together  upon  the  Aventine,  that  the 
patrician  senate  yielded  its  sanction  to  the  three  bills  brought  forward 
by  Licinius.     The  first  abolished  the  military  tribuneship,  and  gained 
for  the  plebeians  a  share  in  the  consulship  :  the  second  regulated  the 
shares,  divisions,  and  rents,  of  the  public  lands  :  the  third  regulated 
the  rate  of  interest,  gave  present  relief  to  unfortunate  debtors,  and 
secured  personal  freedom  against  the  rapacity  of  creditors.     To  save 

xii.  OFFICE  something  from  the  general  wreck  of  their  power,  the 
OF  PRAETOR,  patricians  stipulated  that  the  judicial  functions  of  the 
consul  should  be  exercised  by  a  new  officer  with  the  title  of  Prcetor* 
chosen  from  the  patrician  order ;  yet  within  thirty -five  years  after 
the  passage  of  the  laws  of  Licinius,  not  only  the  prsetorship,  but  the 
dictatorship  also,  was  opened  to  the  plebeians. 

35.  The  legislation  of  Licinius  freed  Rome  from  internal  dissen- 
sions, and  gave  new  development  to  her  strength  and  warlike  ener 

1.  Thepraitors  were  judicial  magistrates,— officers  answering  to  the  modern  chief-justice  o 
chancellor.  The  modern  English  forms  of  judicial  proceedings  in  the  trial  of  causes  are  mostl; 
taken  from  those  observed  by  the  Roman  praetors.  At  first  but  one  praetor  was  chosen ;  after 
wards,  when  foreigners  became  numerous  at  Rome,  another  praetor  was  added  to  administe 
justice  to  them,  or  between  them  and  the  citizens.  In  later  times  subordinate  judges,  callei 
provincial  praetors,  were  appointed  to  administer  justice  in  the  provinces. 

a.  See  Niebuhr,  i.  275. 


CHAP.  V.]  ROMAN   HISTORY.  147 

gies.  Occasionally  the  Gauls  came  down  from  the  north  and  made 
inroads  upon  the  Roman  territories,  but  they  were  invariably  driven 
back  with  loss ;  while  the  Etrus'  cans,  almost  constantly  at  war  with 
Rome,  grew  less  and  less  formidable,  from  repeated  defeats.  On  the 
south,  however,  a  new  and  dangerous  enemy  appeared  in  the  Sam- 
nite1  confederacy,  now  in  the  fulness  of  its  strength,  and  in  extent 
of  territory  and  population  far  superior  to  Rome  and  her  allies. 

36.  Cap'  ua,a  a  wealthy  city  of  Campania,  having  obtained  from 
Rome  the  promise  of  protection  against  the  Samnites,    xm  FIBgT 
the  latter  haughtily  engaged  in  the  war,  and  with  a  larger      SAMNITE 
army  than  Rome  could  muster  invaded  the  territory  of 
Campania,  but  in  two  desperate  battles  were  defeated  by  the  Ro- 
mans.    Two  years  later  the   Samnites   proffered  terms  of  peace, 
which  were  accepted.     (341  B.  C.)     A  league  with  the  Samnites  ap- 
pears to  have  broken  the  connection  that  nad  long  existed  between 
Rome  and  Latium,  and  although  the  latter  was  willing  to  submit  to 
a  common  government,  and  a  complete  union  as  one  nation,  yet  the 
Romans,  rejecting  all  compromise,  haughtily  determined  either  that 
their  city  must  be  a  Latin  town,  or  the  Latins  be  subject  to  Rome. 
The  result  of  the  Latin  war  was  the  annexation  of  all  Latium,  and 
of  Campania  also,  to  the  territory  of  the  Republic.     (338  B.  C.) 

37.  The  Samnites  were  alarmed  at  these  successes,  and  Roman 
encroachments  soon  involved  the  two  people  in  another  war.     The 
Samnites  lost  several  battles,  but  under  their  able  general  Pontius 
they  effectually  humbled  the  pride  of  Rome.     The  armies  of  the 
two  Roman  consuls,  amounting  to  twenty  thousand  men,  XIV   8ECOND 
while  passing  through  a  narrow  defile  call  the  Caudine      SAMNITE 
Forks,3  were  surrounded  by  the  enemy,  and  in  this  situa-       WAR' 
tion,  unable  either  to  fight  or  to  retreat,  were  obliged  to  surrender. 
(321  B.  C.)     The  terms  of  Pontius  were  that  the  Roman  soldiers 
should  be  allowed  to  return  to  their  homes,  after  passing  under  tho 

1.  The  Samnites  dwelt  at  the  distance  of  about  ninety  miles  south-east  from  Rome,  their 
territory  lying  between  Apulia  on  the  east  and  Campania  and  Latium  on  the  west.    (Maps 
Nos.  VIII.  and  X.) 

2.  Cap'  ;ea.  the  capital  of  Campania,  was  about  three  miles  from  the  left  bank  of  the  rirer 
Vultur'  nus,  (now  Vulturno,)  about  one  hundred  and  five  miles  south-east  from  Rome.    The 
remains  of  its  ancient  amphitheatre,  said  to  have  been  capable  of  containing  one  hundred 
thousand  spectators,  and  some  of  its  tombs,  &c.,  attest  its  ancient  splendor  and  magnificence. 
Two  and  a  half  miles  from  the  site  of  the  ancient  city,  is  the  modern  city  of  Cap'  ua,  on  the 
'eft  bank  of  the  Vulturno.    ( Map  No.  VIII.) 

3.  The  Caudine  Forks  were  a  narrow  pass  in  the  Samnite  territory,  about  thirty-five  miles 
north-east  from  the  Cap'  ua.   The  present  valley  of  Jlrpaia,  (or  Forchia  di  Arpaia,)  not  far  from 
Benevento,  is  thought  to  answer  to  this  pass. 


148  ANCIENT   HISTORY.  [PAKT  L 

yoke;  that  there  should  be  a  renewal  of  the  ancient  equal  alliance 
between  Rome  and  Samnium,  and  a  restoration  of  all  places  that 
had  been  dependent  upon  Samnium  before  the  war.  For  the  fulfil- 
ment of  these  stipulations  the  consuls  gave  their  oaths  in  the  name 
of  the  republic,  and  Pontius  retained  six  hundred  Roman  knights  as 


38.  But  notwithstanding  the  recent  disaster,  and  the  hard  fate 
that  might  be  anticipated  for  the  hostages,  the  Roman  senate  imme- 
diately declared  the  peace  null  and  void,  and  decreed  that  those  who 
had  sworn  to  it  should  be  given  up  to  the  Samnites,  as  persons  who 
had  deceived  them.     In  vain  did  Pontius  demand  either  that  the 
whole  army  should  be  again  placed  in  his  power,  or  that  the  terms 
of  capitulation  should  be  strictly  fulfilled ;  but  he  showed  magna- 
nimity of  soul  in  refusing  to  accept  the  consuls  and  other  officers 
whom  the  Romans  would  have  given  up  to  his  vengeance.     Not  long 
after,  the  six  hundred  hostages  were  restored,  but  on  what  conditions 
is  unknown. 

39.  The  war,  being  again  renewed,  was  continued  with  brief  inter- 
vals of  truce,  during  a  period  of  thirty  years ;  and  although  the  Sam- 

xv  THIRD  n^es  were  a*  times  aided  by  Umbrians,1  Etrus'cans, 
SAMNITE  and  Gauls,  the  desperate  valor  of  the  Romans  repeatedly 
WAR.  triumphed  over  all  opposition.  The  last  great  battle, 
which  occurred  fifty-one  years  from  the  commencement  of  the  first 
Samnite  war,  and  which  decided  the  contest  between  Rome  and 
Samnium,  has  no  name  in  history,  and  the  place  where  it  was 
fought  is  unknown,  but  its  importance  is  gathered  from  the  common 
statement  that  twenty  thousand  Samnites  were  left  dead  on  the  field 
and  four  thousand  taken  prisoners,  and  that  among  the  latter  was 
Pontius  himself.  (B.  C.  292.)  He  was  led  in  chains  to  grace  the 
triumph  of  the  Roman  general,  but  the  senate  tarnished  its  honor 
by  ordering  the  old  man  to  execution.  (291  B.  C.)  One  year  after 
the  defeat  of  Pontius,  the  Samnites  submitted  to  the  terms  dictated 
by  the  conquerors.  (290  B.  C.) 

40.  The  Samnite  wars  had  made  the  Romans  acquainted  with  the 
Grecian  cities  on  the  eastern  coast,  and  it  was  not  long  before  they 

xvi.  WAR    f°un(l  a  pretext  for  war  with  Taren'  turn,  the  wealthiest 

WITH  THE    of  the  Greek  towns  of  Italy.     The  Tarentines,  abandoned 

*ES'  to  ease  and  luxury,  had  often  employed  mercenary  Gre- 

1.  Urn'  bria,  the  territory  of  the  Umbrians,  was  east  of  Etruria,  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Tiber, 
and  north  of  the  Sabine  territory.    (Maps  Nos.  VIII.  and  X.) 


CHAP.  V.]  ROMAJ*  HISTORY.  149 

cian  troops  in  their  wars  with  the  rude  tribes  by  which  they  were 
surrounded,  and  now,  when  pressed  by  the  Romans,  they  again  had 
recourse  to  foreign  aid,  and  applied  for  protection  to  Pyr'  rhus,  king 
of  Epirus,  who  has  previously  been  brought  under  our  notice  in  con- 
nection with  events  in  Grecian  history.  (See  p.  106.) 

4 1 .  Pyr'  rhus,  ambitious  of  military  fame,  accepted  the  invitation 
of  the  Tarentines,  and  passed  over  to  Taren'  turn  at  the  head  of  an 
army  of  nearly  thirty  thousand  mea,  having  among  his  forces  twenty 
elephants,  the  first  of  those  animals  that  had  been  seen  in  Italy.     In 
the  first  battle,  which  was  fought  with  the  consul  Laevinus,  seven 
times  was  Pyr'  rhus  beaten  back,  and  to  his  elephants  he  was  finally 
indebted  for  his  victory.     (280  B.  C.)     The  valor  and  military  skill 
of  the  Romans  astonished  Pyr'  rhus,  who  had  expected  to  encounter 
only  a  horde  of  barbarians.     As  he  passed  over  the  field  of  battle 
after  the  fight,  and  marked  the  bodies  of  the  Romans  who  had  fallen 
in  their  ranks  without  turning  their  backs,  and  observed  their  counte- 
nances, stern  even  in  death,  he  is  said  to  have  exclaimed  in  admira- 
tion :  "  With  what  ease  I  could  conquer  the  world  had  I  the  Ro- 
mans for  soldiers,  or  had  they  me  for  their  king." 

42.  Pyr'  rhus  now  tried  the  arts  of  negotiation,  and  for  this  pur- 
pose sent  to  Rome  his  friend  Cineas,  the  orator,  who  is  said  to  have 
won  more  towns  by  his  eloquence  than  Pyr'  rhus  by  his  arms ;  but 
all  his  proposals  of  peace  were  rejected,  and  Cineas  returned  filled 
with  admiration  of  the  Romans,  whose  city  he  said,  was  a  temple, 
and  their  senate  an  assembly  of  kings.     The  war  was  renewed,  and 
in  a  second  battle  Pyr'  rhus  gained  a  dearly-bought  victory,  for  he 
left  the  flower  of  his  troops  on  the  field.     "  One  more  such  victory," 
he  replied  to  those  who  congratulated  him,  "  and  I  am  undone  " 
(279  B.  C.) 

43.  It  is  related  that  while  the  armies  were  facing  each  other  the 
third  time,  a  letter  was  brought  to  Fabricius,  the  Roman  consul  and 
commander,  from  the  physician  of  Pyr'  rhus,  offering,  for  a  suitable 
reward,  to  poison  the  king,  and  that  Fabricius  thereupon  nobly  in- 
formed Pyr' rhus  of  the  treachery  that  was  plotted  against  him. 
When  the  message  was  brought  to  Pyr'  rhus,  he  was  astonished  at 
the  generosity  of  his  enemy,  and  exclaimed,  "  It  would  be  easier 
to  turn  the  sun  from  his  course  than  Fabricius  from  the  path  of 
honor."     Not  to  be  outdone  in   magnanimity  he  released  all  his 
prisoners  without  ransom,  and  soon  after,  withdrawing  his  forces, 
passed  over  into  Sicily,  where  his  aid  had  been  requested  by  the 


150  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PAKT  L 

Greek  cities  against  the  Carthaginians.  (276  B.  C.  See  p.  1 2 1 .)  Re- 
turning to  Italy  after  an  absence  of  three  years,  he  renewed  hostili- 
ties with  the  Romans,  but  was  defeated  in  a  great  battle  by  the  consul 
Curius  Dentatus,  after  which  he  left  Italy  with  precipitation,  and 
sought  to  renew  his  broken  fortunes  in  the  Grecian  wars.  The  de- 
parture of  Pyr'  rhus  was  soon  followed  by  the  fall  of  Tar  en'  turn, 
and  the  establishment  of  Roman  supremacy  over  all  Italy,  from  the 
Rubicon1  and  the  Arnus,2  on  the  northern  frontier  of  Umbria  and 
Etruria,  to  the  Sicilian  straits,  and  from  the  Tuscan3  sea  to  the 
Adriat'  ic. 

44.  Sovereigns  of  all  Italy,  the  Romans  now  began  to  extend  their 
influence  abroad.  Two  years  after  the  defeat  of  Pyr'  rhus,  Ptol'  emy 
Philadelphus,  king  of  Egypt,  sought  the  friendship  and  alliance  of 
Rome  by  embassy,  and  the  Roman  senate  honored  the  proposal  by 
sending  ambassadors  in  return,  with  rich  presents,  to  Alexandria. 
An  interference  with  the  affairs  of  Sicily,  soon  after,  brought  on  a 
war  with  Carthage,  at  this  time  a  powerful  republic,  superior  in 
strength  and  resources  to  the  Roman.  From  this  period  the  Roman 
annals  begin  to  embrace  the  histories  of  surrounding  nations,  and 
the  circle  rapidly  enlarges  until  all  the  then  known  world  is  drawn 
within  the  vortex  of  Roman  ambition. 


SECTION   III. 


THE   ROMAN    REPUBLIC,    FROM   THE    BEGINNING    OF   THE    CARTHAGINIAN   WARS, 

263    B.  C  ,    TO   THE    REDUCTION    OF    GREECE    AND    CARTHAGE    TO   THE 

CONDITION    OF    ROMAN    PROVINCES:   146  B.  C.  =  117  YEARS. 

ANALYSIS.  1.  Geographical  account  of  CARTHAGE.  [Tunis.]— 2.  African  dominions  of 
Carthage.  Foreign  possessions.  Trade.  [Sardinia.  Corsica.  Balearic  Isles.  Malta.]— 3. 
Circumstances  of  Roman  interference  in  the  affairs  of  Sicily. — 4.  Commencement  of  the  FIRST 
PUNIC  WAR.  The  Carthaginians  driven  from  Sicily.  The  Romans  take  Agrigentum.— 5.  The 
Carthaginians  ravage  Italy.  Building  of  the  first  Roman  fleet.  First  naval  encounter  with  the 

1.  The  Rubicon,  which  formed  in  part  the  boundary  between  Italy  proper  and  Cisalpine 
Gaul,  is  a  small  stream  which  falls  into  the  Adriat1  ic,  eighteen  or  twenty  miles  south  of  Rav- 
enna.    (Map  No.  VIII.) 

2.  The  river  rfrnus  (now  the  Arno)  was  the  boundary  of  Etruria  on  the  north  until  the  time 
of  Augustus.    On  both  its  banks  stood  Florentia,  the  modern  Florence ;  and  eight  miles  from 
its  mouth,  on  its  right  bank,  stood  Piste,  the  modern  Pisa.    (Map  No.  VIII.) 

3.  The  Tuscan  Sea  was  that  part  of  the  Mediterranean  which  extended  along  the  coast  of 
Etruria,  or  Tuscany.    (Map  No.  VIII.) 


CHAP.  V.j  ROMAN  HISTORY.  151 

Carthaginians.— 6.  Roman  design  of  carrying  the  war  into  Africa.  Second  defeat  of  the  Car- 
thaginians.—7.  Regulus  invades  the  Carthaginian  territory.  His  first  successes,  and  final  de- 
feat. [Hermaean  promontory.  Clypea.] — 8.  Roman  disasters  on  the  sea.  Reduction  of  the 
Roman  fleet.  Roman  victory  in  Sicily.— 9.  Regulus  is  sent  to  Rome  with  proposals  of  peace. 
His  return  to  Carthage,  and  subsequent  fate.— 10.  Subsequent  events  of  the  war.  Conditions 
of  the  peace,  and  extension  of  the  Roman  dominion. 

11.  General  peace.  Circumstances  that  led  to  the  ILLYR'IAN  WAR.  [fllyr'ians.] — 12.  Re- 
sults of  the  war.  Gratitude  of  the  Greeks.  WAR  WITH  THE  GAULS.  [Clastidium.]— 13.  Ham'- 
ilcar's  designs  upon  Spain.  His  enmity  to  the  Romans.  [Spain.]— 14.  Progress  of  the  Cartha- 
ginians in  Spain.  Hannibal's  conquests  there.  Roman  embassy  to  Carthage.  [Saguutum. 
Iberus.  Catalonia.] 

15.  Opening  of  the  SECOND  PUNIC  WAR.  Plans  of  the  opposing  generals.  Hannibal's  march 
to  Italy.  Battles  on  the  Ticinus  and  the  Trebia,  [Gaul.  Marseilles.  Turin.  Ticinus.  Nu- 
midia.  R.  Po.  Trebia.]— 16.  Battles  of  Trasimenus  and  Cannae.  [Trasimenus.  Cannae.]— 17. 
Defection  from  the  cause  of  Rome.  Courage,  and  renewed  efforts,  of  the  Romans.— 18.  Hanni- 
bal at  Capua.  Successful  tactics  of  Fabius  Maximus.  Hasdrubal.  Fall  of  Syracuse.  [Metaurus. 
Archimedes.]— 19.  Scipio  carries  the  war  into  Africa.  His  successes.  Recall  of  Hannibal, 
from  Italy.  [Utica.]— 20.  Confidence  of  the  Carthaginians  in  Hannibal.  Battle  of  Zama.  The 
terms  of  peace.  Triumph  of  Scipio.  [Zama.] 

21.  The  distresses  which  the  war  had  brought  upon  the  Romans.  Their  unconquerable 
spirit,  and  renewed  prosperity.— 22.  State  of  the  world— favorable  to  the  advancement  of  the 
Roman  republic.— 23.  A  GRECIAN  WAR. — 24.  SYRIAN  WAR.  Terms  of  the  peace.  Disposal  of 
the  conquered  provinces.  [Magnesia.  Pergamus.]— 25.  The  fate  of  Hannibal  and  Scipio.— 26. 
Reduction  of  Greece.  THE  THIRD  PUNIC  WAR.  Relations  of  the  Carthaginians  and  Romans 
since  the  battle  of  Zama. — 27.  Condition  of  Carthage.  Roman  armament.  Demands  of  the 
Romans.— 28.  The  exasperated  Carthaginians  prepare  for  war.— 29.  Events  and  results  of  the 
contest.  Destruction  of  Carthage,  146  B.  C. 


1.  Carthage,  believed  to  have  been  founded  by  a  Phoenician  colony 
from  Tyre  in  the  ninth  century  before  the  Christian  era,  was  situated 
on  a  peninsula  of  the  northern  coast  of  Africa,  about 

,       '  .,  ,.  T  .  .  .         I.    CARTHAGE. 

twelve  miles,  according  to  Livy,  north-east  irom  the 
modern  city  of  Tunis,1  but,  according  to  some  modern  writers, 
only  three  or  four  miles.  Probably  the  city  extended  over  a  great 
part  of  the  space  between  Tunis  and  Cape  Carthage.  Its  harbor 
was  southward  from  the  city,  and  was  entered  from  what  is  now  the 
Gulf  of  Tunis. 

2.  The  Carthaginians  early  assumed  and  maintained  a  dominion 
over  the  surrounding  Libyan  tribes.     Their  territory  was  bounded 
on   the  east  by  the  Grecian  Cyrenaica;    their   trading  posts  ex- 
tended westward  along  the  coast  to  the  pillars  of  Hercules;  and 
among   their  foreign  possessions  may  be   enumerated  their  depen- 


1.  Tunis  is  about  four  miles  from  the  sea,  and  three  miles  south-west  from  the  ruins  of 
ancient  Cartbage.  Among  these  ruins  have  been  discovered  numerous  reservoirs  or  large 
cisterns,  and  the  remains  of  a  grand  aqueduct  which  brought  water  to  the  city  from  a  distance 
of  at  least  fifty  miles.  According  to  Strabo,  Tunis,  or  Tunes,  existed  before  the  foundation  of 
Carthage.  The  chief  events  in  the  history  of  Tunis  are  its  numerous  seiges  and  captures. 
(See  pp.  335-510.  Map  No.  VIIL) 


152  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART  L 

dencies  in  south-western  Spain,  in  Sicily,  and  in  Sardinia,1  Corsica,3 
the  Balearic  Isles,3  and  Malta.4  It  is  believed  that  they  carried  on 
an  extensive  caravan  trade  with  the  African  nations  as  far  as  the 
Niger ;  and  it  is  known  that  they  entered  into  a  commercial  treaty 
with  Rome  in  the  latter  part  of  the  sixth  century ;  yet  few  details 
of  their  history  are  known  to  us  previous  to  the  beginning  of  the 
first  Carthaginian  war  with  Syracuse,  about  480  B.  C. 

3.  At  the  time  to  which  we  have  brought  down  the  details  of  Ro- 
man history,  the  Mamertines,  a  band  of  Campanian  mercenaries, 
who  had  been  employed  in  Sicily  by  a  former  king,  having  estab- 
lished themselves  in  the  island,  and  obtained  possession  of  Messana, 
by  fraud  and  injustice,  quarrelled  among  themselves,  one  party  seek- 
ing the  protection  of  Carthage,  and  the  other  that  of  Rome.     The 
Greek  towns  of  Sicily  were  for  the  most  part  already  in  friendly  al- 
liance with  the  Carthaginians,  who  had  long  been  aiming  at  the  com- 
plete possession  of  the  island ;  and  the  Romans  did  not  hesitate  to 
avail  themselves  of  the  most  trifling  pretexts  to  defeat  the  ambitious 
designs  of  their  rivals. 

4.  The  first  Punic a  war  commenced  263  years  B.  C.,  eight  years 
ii.  FIRST     after  the  surrender  of   Taren'  turn,  when  the   Romans 

PUNIC  WAR.   made  a  descent  upon  Sicily  with  a  large  army  under  the 

1.  Sardinia  is  a  hilly  but  fertile  island  of  the  Mediterranean,  about  one  hundred  and  thirty 
miles  south-west  from  the  nearest  Italian  coast.    At  an  early  period  the  Carthaginians  formed 
settlements  there,  but  the  shores  of  the  island  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Romans  in  the  interval 
between  the  first  and  second  Punic  wars,  237  B.  C.    The  inhabitants  of  the  interior  bravely  de- 
fended themselves,  and  were  never  completely  subdued  by  the  Roman  arms.    (Map  No.  VIII.) 

2.  Corsica  lies  directly  north  of  Sardinia,  from  which  it  is  separated  by  the  strait  of  Bonifacio, 
ten  miles  in  width  in  the  narrowest  part.    Some  Greeks  from  Phocis  settled  here  at  an  early 
period,  but  were  driven  out  by  the  Carthaginians.    The  Romans  took  the  island  from  the  latter 
231  B.  C.     (Map  No.  VIII.) 

3.  The  Balearic  Isles  were  those  now  known  as  Majorca  and  Minorca,  the  former  of  which 
is  one  hundred  and  ten  miles  east  from  the  coast  of  Spain.    By  some  the  ancient  Ebusus,  now 
/pica,  is  ranked  among  the  Baleares.    The  term  Balearic  is  derived  from  the  Greek  word 
ballein,  "to  throw,1' — alluding  to  the  remarkable  skill  of  the  inhabitants  in  using  the  sling. 
At  an  early  date  the  Phoenicians  formed  settlements  in  the  Baleares.    They  were  succeeded  by 
the  Carthaginians,  from  whom  the  Romans,  under  Q.  Metellus,  conquered  these  islands  123 
B.  C.    (Map  No.  IX.) 

4.  Malta,  whose  ancient  name  was  Melita,  is  an  island  of  the  Mediterranean,  sixty  miles 
south  from  Sicily.    The  Phoenicians  early  planted  a  colony  here.    It  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
Carthaginians  about  four  hundred  years  before  the  Christian  era,  and  in  the  second  Punic  war 
it  was  conquered  by  the  Romans,  who  made  it  an  appendage  of  their  province  of  Sicily.    See 
also  p.  469.    (Map  No.  VIIL) 

a.  The  term  Punic  means  simply  "  Carthaginian."  It  is  a  word  of  Greek  origin,  phoinikes, 
in  its  sense  of  purple,  which  the  Greeks  applied  to  Phoenicians  and  Carthaginians,  in  allusion 
to  the  famous  purple  or  crimson  of  Tyre,  the  parent  city  of  Carthage.  The  Romans,  adapting 
the  word  to  the  analogy  of  the  Latin  tongue,  changed  it  to  Punicus,  whence  the  English  word 
Punic. 


CHAP.  V.]  ROMAN   HISTORY.  153 

command  of  the  consul  Claudius.  After  they  had  gained  possession  of 
Messana,  in  the  second  year  of  the  war,  Hiero,  king  of  Syracuse, 
the  second  of  the  name,  deserted  his  former  allies  and  joined  the 
Romans,  and  ere  long  the  Carthaginians  were  driven  from  their  most 
important  stations  in  the  island,  although  their  superior  naval  power 
still  enabled  them  to  retain  the  command  of  the  surrounding  seas, 
and  the  possession  of  all  the  harbors  in  Sicily.  The  Carthaginians 
fortified  Agrigentum,  a  place  of  great  natural  strength  ;  yet  the  Ro- 
mans besieged  the  city,  which  they  took  by  storm,  after  defeating  an 
immense  army  that  had  been  sent  to  its  relief.  (262  B.  C.) 

5.  But  while  the  Sicilian  towns  submitted  to  the  Roman  arms,  a 
Carthaginian  fleet  of  sixty  ships  ravaged  the  coast  of  Italy ;  and  the 
Romans  saw  the  necessity  of  being  able  to  meet  the  enemy  on  their 
own  element.     Unacquainted  with  the  building  of  large  ships,  they 
must  have  been  obliged  to  renounce  their  design  had  not  a  Cartha- 
ginian ship  of  war  been  thrown  upon  the  Italian  coast  by  a  storm 
From  the  model  thus  furnished  a  hundred  and  thirty  ships  were 
built  within  sixty  days  after  the  trees  had  been  felled.     The  Cartha- 
ginians ridiculed  the  awkwardness  and  clumsiness  of  their  structure, 
and  thought  to  destroy  the  whole  fleet  in  a  single  encounter  ;  but  the 
Roman  commander,  having  invented  an  elevated  draw-bridge,  with 
grappling  irons,  for  the  purpose  of  close  encounter  and  boarding, 
boldly  attacked  the  enemy,  and  took  or  destroyed  forty-five  of  the 
Carthaginian  vessels  in  the  first  battle,  while  not  a  single  Roman  ship 
was  lost.     (260  B.  C.) 

6.  After  the  war  had  continued  eight  years  with  varied  success,  in- 
volving in  its  ravages  not  only  Sicily,  but  Sardinia  and  Corsica  also, 
a  Roman  armament  of  three  hundred  and  thirty  ships,  intrusted  to 
the  command  of  the  consuls  Regulus  and  Manlius,  was  prepared  for 
the  great  enterprise  of  carrying  the  war  into  Africa.     But  the  Car- 
thaginians met  these  preparations  with  equal  efforts,  and  under  their 
two  greatest  commanders,  Hanno  and  Hamil'  car,  went  out  to  meet 
the  enemy  with  three  hundred  and  fifty  ships,  which  carried  no  less 
than  a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  men.     In  the  engagement  that 
followed,  the  rude  force  of  the  Romans,  aided  by  their  boarding 
bridges,   overcame  all   the  advantages  of   naval  art  and  practice. 
Again  the  Carthaginians  were  defeated, — more  than  thirty  of  their 
ships  being  sunk,  and  sixty-four,  with  all  their  crews,  taken.     (256 
B  C.) 

7.  Regulus  proceeded  to  Africa,  and  landing  on  the  eastern  coast 


154  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PAET  1. 

of  the  Hermsean  promontory1  took  Clyp'  ea2  by  storm,  conquered 
Tunis,  received  the  submission  of  seventy-four  towns,  and  laid  waste 
the  country  to  the  very  gates  of  Carthage.  An  embassy  sued  for 
peace  in  the  Roman  camp ;  but  the  terms  offered  by  Regulus  were 
little  better  than  destruction  itself,  and  Carthage  would  probably 
have  perished  thus  early,  had  not  foreign  aid  unexpectedly  come  to 
her  assistance.  All  of  a  sudden  we  find  Xanthip'pus,  a  Spartan 
general,  with  a  small  body  of  Grecian  troops,  among  the  Carthagi- 
nians, promising  them  victory  if  they  would  give  him  the  conduct  of 
the  war.  A  presentiment  of  deliverance  pervaded  the  people,  and 
Xanthip'  pus,  after  having  arranged  and  exercised  the  Carthaginian 
army  before  the  city,  went  out  to  meet  the  greatly  superior  forces  of 
the  Romans,  and  gained  a  complete  victory  over  them.  (255  B.  C.) 
Regulus  himself  was  taken  prisoner,  and,  out  of  the  whole  Roman 
army,  only  two  thousand  escaped,  and  shut  themselves  up  in  Clyp'ea. 
Of  Xanthip'  pus  nothing  is  known  beyond  the  events  connected  with 
this  Carthaginian  victory. 

8.  A  Roman  fleet,  sent  to  bring  off  the  garrison  of  Clyp'  ea,  gained 
a  signal  success  over  the  Carthaginians  near  the  Hermaean  promon- 
tory, but  on  the  return  voyage,  while  off  the  southern  coast  of  Sicily, 
was  nearly  destroyed  by  a  tempest.     Another  fleet  that  had  laid 
waste  the  Libyan  coast  experienced  a  similar  fate  on  its  return, — a 
hundred  and  fifty  ships,  and  the  whole  booty,  being  swallowed  up  in 
the  waves.     The  Romans  were  discouraged  by  these  disasters,  and 
for  a  time  abandoned  the  sea  to  their  enemies,  the  senate  having  at 
one  time  decreed  that  the  fleet  should  not  be  restored,  but  limited 
to  sixty  ships  for  the  defence  of  the  Italian  coast  and  the  protection 
of  transports.     Still  the  war  was  continued  on  the  land,  and  in  Sicily 
the  Roman  consul  Metellus  gained  a  great  victory  over  the  Cartha- 
ginians near  Panor'  mus,  killing  twenty  thousand  of  the  enemy,  and 
taking  more  than  a  hundred  of  their  elephants.     (250  B.  C.)     This 
was  the  last  great  battle  of  the  first  Punic  war,  although  the  contest 
was  continued  in  Sicily,  mostly  by  a  series  of  slowly-conducted  siege?, 
eight  years  longer. 

9.  Soon  after  the  defeat  at  Panor'  mus,  the  Carthaginians  sent  an 
embassy  to  Rome  with  proposals  of  peace.     Regulus  was  taken  from 

1.  The  Hermann  promontory,  or  "  promontory  of  Mercury,"  is  the  same  as  the  modern  Cape 
JBon,  usually  called  the  northern  cape  of  Africa,  at  a  distance  of  about  forty-five  miles  north- 
east from  the  site  of  Carthage.    (Map  No.  VIII.) 

2.  Clyp'  ea,  now  rfklib'  ia,  was  situated  on  the  peninsula  which  terminates  in  Cape  Bon,  a 
•hort  distance  south  from  the  cape.    (Map  No.  VIII.) 


CHAP.  V.]  ROMAN  HISTORY.  155 

his  dungeon  to  accompany  the  embassy,  the  Carthaginians  trusting 
that,  weary  of  his  long  captivity,  he  would  urge  the  senate  to  accept 
the  proffered  terms ;  but  the  inflexible  Roman  persuaded  the  senate 
to  reject  the  proposal  and  continue  the  war,  assuring  his  countrymen 
that  the  resources  of  Carthage  were  already  nearly  exhausted. 
Bound  by  his  oath  to  return  as  a  prisoner  if  peace  were  not  con- 
cluded, he  voluntarily  went  back  to  his  dungeon.  It  is  generally 
stated  that  after  his  return  to  Carthage  he  was  tortured  to  death  by 
the  exasperated  Carthaginians.  But  although  his  martyrdom  has 
been  sung  by  Roman  poets,  and  his  self-sacrifice  extolled  by  orators, 
there  are  strong  reasons  for  believing  that  he  died  a  natural 
death.a 

10.  The  subsequent  events  of  the  first  Punic  war,  down  to  within 
a  year  of  its  termination,  were  generally  unfortunate  to  the  Romans; 
but  eventually  the  Carthaginian  admiral  lost  nearly  his  whole  fleet 
in  a  naval  battle.     (241   B.  C.)     Again  the  Carthaginians,  having 
exhausted  the  resources   of  their  treasury,   and   unable    to    equip 
another  fleet,  sought  pea,ce,  which  was  finally  concluded  on  the  con- 
ditions that  Carthage  should  evacuate  Sicily,  and  the  small  islands 
lying  between  it  and  Italy,  pay  three  thousand  two  hundred  talents 
of  silver,  and  restore  the  Roman  prisoners  without  ransom.     (B.  C. 
240.)     Sicily  now  became  a  Roman  province  ;  Corsica  and  Sardinia 
were  added  two  years  later ;  and  the  sway  of  Rome  was  extended 
over  all  the  important  islands  which  Carthage  had  possessed  in  the 
Mediterranean. 

1 1.  Soon  after  the  termination  of  the  first  Punic  war,  Rome  found 
herself  at  peace  with  all  the  world,  and  the  temple  of  Janus  was 
shut  for  the  second  time  since  the  foundation  of  the  city.   IIL  1LLYa'- 
But  the  interval  of  repose  was  brief.     A  war  soon  broke     IAN  WAR- 
out  with  the  Illyr'  ians,1  which  led  the  Roman  legions,  for  the  first 
time,  across  the  Adriat'  ic.     (229  B.  C.)     The  Illyr'  ians  had  com- 
mitted numerous  piracies  on  the  Italian  coasts,  and  when  ambassa- 
dors were  sent  to  demand  reparation,  Teu'  ta,  the  Illyr'  ian  queen, 
told  them  that  piracy  was  the  national  custom  of  her  subjects,  and 
she  could  not  forbid  them  what  was  their  right  and  privilege.     One 
of  the  ambassadors  thereupon  told  her  that  it  was  the  custom  of  the 

1.  The  Illyr'  ians  were  inhabitants  of  Ulyr'  ia  or  Illyr'  icum,  a  country  bordering  on  the 
Adriat'  ic  sea,  opposite  Italy,  and  bordered  on  the  south-east  by  Epirus  and  Macedonia,  (jl/op 
No.  VHL) 

a.  Ntebuhr,  B.  iii.  p.  275,  and  iv.  70. 


156  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PAET  L 

Romans  to  do  away  with  bad  customs ;  and  so  incensed  was  the 
queen  at  his  boldness  that  she  procured  his  assassination. 

1 2.  The  Illyr'  ians,  after  successive  defeats,  were  glad  to  conclude 
a  peace  with  the  Romans,  and  to  abandon  their  piracies,  both  on  the 
Italian  and  Grecian  coasts.     (228  B.  C.)     Several  Greek  communi- 
ties showed  themselves  grateful  for  the  favor ;  a  copy  of  the  treaty 
was  read  in  the  assembly  of  the  Achaean  league  ;  and  the  Corinthians 
conferred  upon  the  Romans  the  right  of  taking  part  in  the  Isthmian 
games.     Roman  encroachments  on  the  territory  of  the  Gauls  next 

iv  WAR     brought  on  a  war  with  that  fierce  people,  and  a  vast  swarm 
WITH  THE    of  the  barbarians  poured  down  upon  Italy,  and  advanced 
GAULS.       irresistibly  as  far  as   Clusium,  a  distance  of  only  three 
days'  journey  from  Rome.     (226  B.  C.)     After  four  years  continu- 
ance the  war  was  ended  by  a  great  victory  gained  over  the  Gauls  by 
Claudius  Marcellus,  at  Clastid'  ium,1  where  the  noted  Gallic  leader, 
Viridomarus,  was  slain.     (222  B.  C.) 

13.  While  Rome  was  thus  engaged,  events  were  secretly  ripening 
for  another  war  with  Carthage.     Hamil'  car,  the  soul  of  the  Cartha- 
ginian councils,  and  the  sworn  enemy  of  Rome,  had  turned  his  eyes 
to  Spain,u  with  the  view  of  forming  a  province  there  which  should 
compensate  for  the  loss  of  Sicily  and  Sardinia.     "  I  have  three  sons," 
said  this  veteran  warrior,  "  whom  I  shall  rear  like  so  many  lion's- 
whelps  against  the  Romans."     When  he  set  out  for  Spain,  where 
Carthage  then  had  several  colonies,  he  took  his  son  Hannibal,  then 
only  nine  years  of  age,  to  the  altar,  and  made  him  swear  eternal 
enmity  to  Rome. 

14.  In  a  few  years  the  Carthaginians  gained  possession  of  all  the 
south  of  Spain,  and  Hamil' car  being  dead,  the  youthful  Hannibal, 
who  proved  himself  the  greatest  general  of  antiquity,  was  appointed 
to  the  command  of  their  armies.     The  rapid  progress  of  his  Spanish 
conquests  alarmed  the  Romans.     When  the  people  of  Sagun'  turn,8 

1.  Claitid'  ium,  (now  Chiasteggio,}  was  in  that  part  of  Cisalpine  Gaul  called  Liguria.  south 
of  the  river  Po,  and  a  short  distance  south-east  from  the  modern  Pavia.    (See  Pavia,  Map  No. 
VIII.) 

2.  Spain,  (consisting  of  the  present  Spain  and  Portugal,)  called  by  the  Greeks  Iberia,  and  by 
the  Romans  Hispania,  embraced  all  the  great  peninsula  in  the  south-west  of  Europe.    The 
divisions  by  which  it  is  best  known  in  ancient  history  are  those  of  Tarraconensis,  Lusitania^ 
and  B&tica,  which  were  made  during  the  reign  of  Augustus,  when,  for  the  first  time,  the 
country  was  wholly  subdued  by  the  Romans.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

3.  Sagun'  turn  was  built  on  a  hill  of  black  marble  in  the  east  of  Spain,  about  four  miles  from 
the  Mediterranean,  and  fifteen  miles  north-east  from  the  modern  Valencia.    Half  way  up  the 
hill  are  still  to  be  seen  the  ruins  of  a  theatre,  forming  an  exact  semi-circle,  and  capable  of 
accommodating  nine  thousand  spectators.    Other  ruins  are  found  in  the  vicinity.    The  oastlo  or 


CHAP.  V.]  ROMAN  HISTORY.  157 

a  Grecian  city  on  the  eastern  coast,  found  themselves  exposed  to  his 
rage,  they  applied  to  Rome  for  aid ;  but  the  ambassadors  of  the 
latter  power,  who  had  been  sent  to  remonstrate  with  Hannibal,  were 
treated  with  contempt ;  and  Sagun'  turn,  after  a  siege  of  eight  months, 
was  taken.  (219  B.  C.)  Hannibal  then  crossed  the  Iberus,1  and 
invaded  the  tribes  of  Catalonia,2  which  were  in  alliance  with  Rome. 
A  Roman  embassy  was  then  sent  to  Carthage  with  the  preposterous 
demand  that  Hannibal  and  his  army  should  be  delivered  up  as  satis- 
faction for  the  trespass  upon  Roman  territory ;  and  when  this  was 
refused,  the  Roman  commissioners,  according  to  the  prescribed  form 
of  their  country,  made  the  declaration  of  war.  Both  parties  were 
already  prepared  for  the  long-anticipated  contest.  (218  B.  C.) 

15.  The  plan  of  Hannibal,  at  the  opening  of  the  second  Punic 
war,  was  to  carry  the  war  into  Italy ;  while  that  of  the  Roman  con- 
suls, Publius  Scipio  and  Seinpronius,  was  to  confine  it  to  Spain,  and 
to  attack  Carthage.     Hannibal  quickly  passed  over  the    v.  SECOND 
Pyrenees,  and  rapidly  traversing  the  lower  part  of  Gaul,3   PUNIC  WAE- 
though  opposed  by  the  warlike  tribes  through  which  his  march  lay, 
and  avoiding  the  army  of  Scipio,  which  had  landed  at  Marseilles,4 
crossed  the  Alps  at  the  head  of  nearly  thirty  thousand  men,  and  had 
taken  Turin5  by  storm  before  Scipio  could  return  to  Italy  to  oppose 

citadel  on  the  top  of  the  hill  haa  been  successively  occupied  by  the  Sagun'  tines,  Carthaginians, 
Romans,  Moors,  and  Spaniards.  Along  the  foot  of  the  hill  has  been  built  the  modern  town  of 
Murviedro,  now  containing  a  population  of  about  six  thousand  inhabitants.  (Map  No.  XIII.) 

1.  Iberus,  now  the  Ebro,  rises  in  the  north  of  Spain,  in  the  country  of  the  ancient  Cantabri, 
and  flows  with  a  south-eastern  course  into  the  Mediterranean  sea.    Before  the  second  Punic 
•war  this  river  formed  the  boundary  between  the  Roman  and  Carthaginian  territories ;  and,  in 
the  time  of  Charlemagne,  between  the  Moorish  and  Christian  dominions.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

2.  Catalonia  is  the  name  by  which  the  north-eastern  part  of  Spain  has  long  been  known,  and 
it  is  now  a  province  of  modern  Spain.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

3.  Gaul  embraced  nearly  the  same  territory  as  modern  France.    When  first  known  it  was 
divided  among  the  three  great  nations  of  the  Belgae,  the  Celtae,  and  the  Aquitani,  but  the 
Romans  called  all  the  inhabitants  Gauls,  while  the  Greeks  called  them  Celts.   The  Celts  proper 
inhabited  the  north-western  part  of  the  country,  the  Belgae  the  north-eastern  and  eastern,  and 
the  Aquitani  the  south-western.    The  divisions  by  which  Gaul  is  best  known  in  ancient  history 
are  Lugdunensis,  Belgica,  Aquitania,  and  Narbonensis,— called  the  "Four  Gauls,"  which  were 
established  by  the  Romans  after  the  conquest  of  the  country  by  Julius  Caesar.    As  far  back  as 
we  can  penetrate  into  the  history  of  western  Europe,  the  Gallic  or  Celtic  race  occupied  nearly 
all  Gaul,  together  with  the  two  great  islands  north-west  of  the  country,  one  of  which,  (England 
and  Scotland)  they  called  Alb-in,  "  White  Island,"  and  the  other  (Ireland)  they  called  Er-in, 
*  Isle  of  the  West."    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

4.  Marseilles,  anciently  called  Massila,  was  originally  settled  by  a  Greek  colony  from 
Phocis.    It  is  now  a  large  commercial  city,  and  sea  port  of  the  Mediterranean,  situated  in  a 
beautiful  plain  on  the  east  side  of  the  bay  of  the  Gulf  of  Lyons.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

5.  Turin,  called  by  the  Romans  Augusta  Taurinorum,  now  a  large  city  of  north-western 
Italy,  is  situated  on  the  northern  or  western  side  of  the  river  Po,  eighty  miles  south-west  of 
Milan.    (Map  No.  VIII.) 


158  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PAST  L 

his  progress.  In  a  partial  encounter  on  the  Ticinus1  the  Roman 
cavalry  was  beaten  by  the  Spanish  and  Numidian  horsemen,2  and 
Scipio,  who  had  been  severely  wounded,  retreated  across  the  Po3  to 
await  the  arrival  of  Sempronius  and  his  army.  Soon  after,  the 
entire  Roman  army  was  defeated  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Trebia,4 
when  the  hesitating  Gauls  at  once  espoused  the  cause  of  the  victors. 
(218  B.  C.) 

16.  In  the  following  year  Hannibal  advanced  towards  Rome,  and 
Sempronius,  falling  into  an  ambuscade  near  Lake  Trasimenus,6  was 
slain,  and  his  whole  army  cut  to  pieces.     (217  B.  C.)     In  another 
campaign,    Hannibal,   after   passing   Rome,    and    penetrating   into 
southern  Italy,  having  increased  his  army  to  fifty  thousand  men,  de- 
feated the  consuls  jEmilius  and  Varro  in  a  great  battle  at  Cannse.8 
(216  B.  C.)     The  Romans,  whose  numbers  exceeded  those  of  the 
enemy,  lost,  in  killed  alone,  according  to  the  lowest  calculation,  more 
than  forty-two  thousand  men.     Among  the  slain  was  j33milius,  one 
of  the  consuls. 

17.  The  calamity  which  had  befallen  Rome  at  Cannae  shook  the 
allegiance  of  some  of  her   Italian  subjects,  and  the  faith  of  her 
allies;  many  of  the  Grecian  cities,  hoping  to  recover  their  inde- 
pendence, made  terms  with  the  victors ;  Syracuse  deserted  the  cause 
of  Rome ;  and  Philip  of  Mac'  edon  sent  an  embassy  to  Italy  and 
formed  an  alliance  with  Hannibal.     (See  p.  109.)     But  the  Romans 
did  not  despond.     They  made  the  most  vigorous  preparations  to 
carry  on  the  war  in  Sicily,  Sardinia,  Spain,  and  Africa,  as  well  as 
in  Italy :  they  formed  an  alliance  with  the  Grecian  States  of  .ZEtolia, 
and  thus  found  sufiicient  employment  for  Philip  at  home,  and  in  the 

1.  The   Ticinus,  now  Ticino,  enters  the  Po  from  the  north  about  twenty  miles  south-west 
from  Milan.    Near  its  junction  with  the  Po  stood  the  ancient  city  of  Ticinum,  now  called 
Pavia.    (Map  No.  VIU.) 

2.  Numidia  was  a  country  of  northern  Africa,  adjoining  the  Carthaginian  territory  on  tho 
west,  and  embracing  the  eastern  part  of  the  territory  of  modern  Algiers.    (Map  No.  IX.) 

3.  The  river  Po,  the  Erid'  anus  or  Padus  of  the  ancients,  rises  in  the  Alps,  on  the  confines 
of  France ;  and,  flowing  eastward,  receives  during  its  long  course  to  the  Adriat'  ic,  a  vast  num- 
ber of  tributary  streams.    It  divides  the  great  plain  of  Lombardy  into  two  nearly  equal  parts. 
(Map  No.  VIII.) 

4.  The  Trebia  is  a  southern  tributary  of  the  Po,  which  enters  that  stream  near  the  modern 
city  of  Piazenza,  (anciently  called  Placentia)  thirty-five  miles  south-east  from  Milan.    (Map 
No.  VIII.) 

5.  Lake  Trasimenus,  (now  called  Perugia,)  was  in  Etruria,  near  the  Tiber,  eighty  miles 
north  from  Rome.    (Map  No.  VIII.) 

6.  Cannes,  an  ancient  city  of  Apulia,  was  situated  near  the  river  Aufldus  (now  Ofanto)  five 
or  six  miles  from  the  Adriat'  ic.  The  scene  of  the  great  battle  between  the  Romans  and  Cartha- 
ginians is  marked  by  the  name  of  campo  di  sangue,  "  field  of  blood ;"  and  spears,  heads  of 
lances,  and  other  pieces  of  armor,  still  continue  to  be  turned  up  by  the  plough.  (Map  No.  VIII.) 


CHAP.  V.]  ROMAN  HISTORY.  159 

end  reduced  him  to  the  hurailating  necessity  of  making  a  separate 
peace. 

1 8.  From  the  field  of  Cannae  Hannibal  led  his  forces  to  Cap'  ua, 
which  at  once  opened  its  gates  to  receive  him,  but  his  veterans  were 
enervated  by  the  luxuries  and  debaucheries  of  that  licentious  city. 
In  the  meantime  Fabius  Maximus  had  been  appointed  to  the  com- 
mand of  the  Roman  army  in  Italy,  and  by  a  new  and  cautious  system 
of  tactics — by  avoiding  decisive  battles — by  watching  the  motions 
of  the  enemy,  harassing  their  march,  and  intercepting  their  con- 
voys, he  gradually  wasted  the  strength  of  Hannibal,  who  at  length 
summoned  to  his  assistance  his  brother  Has'  drubal,  who  had  been 
contending  with  the   Scipios   in   Spain.      Has'  drubal   crossed  the 
Pyrenees  and  the  Alps  with  little  opposition,  but  on  the  banks  of 
the  Metaurus1  he  was  entrapped  by  the  consuls  Livius  and  Nero, — 
his  whole  army  was  cut  to  pieces,  and  he  himself  wag  slain.     (B.  C. 
207.)     His  gory  head,  thrown  into  the  camp  of  Hannibal,  gave  the 
latter  the  first  intelligence  of  this  great  misfortune.     Before  this 
event  the  ancient  city  of  Syracuse  had  been  taken  by  storm  by  the 
Romans,  after  the  siege  had  been  a  long  time  protracted  by  the  me- 
chanical skill  of  the  famous  Archimedes. a 

19.  At  length  the  youthful  Cornelius  Scipio,  the  son  of  Publius 
Scipio,  having   driven   the   Carthaginians  from   Spain,  and   being 
elected  consul,  gained  the  consent  of  the  senate  to  carry  the  war 
into  Africa,  although  this  bold  measure  was  opposed  by  the  age  and 
experience  of  the  great  Fabius.     Soon  after  the  landing  of  Scipio 
near  Utica,8  Massinis/  sa,  king  of  the  Numidians,  who  had  previously 

1.  The  Metaurus,  now  the  Metro,  was  a  river  of  Umbria,  which  flowed  into  the  Adriat'  ic. 
The  battle  was  fought  on  the  left  bank  of  the  river,  at  a  place  now  occupied  by  the  village  of 
Fossombronc.     (Map  No.  VIII.) 

2.  The  city  of  Utica  stood  on  the  banks  of  the  river  Bagrada,  (now  the  Mejerdah,)  a  few 
miles  north-west  from  Carthage.    Its  ruins  are  to  be  seen  at  the  present  day  near  the  port  of 
Farina.     (Map  No.  VIII.) 

a.  Archimedes,  the  most  celebrated  mathematician  among  the  ancients,  was  a  native  of  Syra- 
cuse. He  was  highly  skilled  in  astronomy,  mechanics,  geometry,  hydrostatics,  and  optics,  in 
all  of  which  he  produced  many  extraordinary  inventions.  His  knowledge  of  the  principle  of 
specific  gravities  enabled  him  to  delect  the  fraudulent  mixture  of  silver  in  the  golden  crown  of 
Hiero,  king  of  Syracuse,  by  comparing  the  quantity  of  water  displaced  by  equal  weights  of 
gold  and  silver.  The  thought  occurred  to  him  upon  observing,  while  he  was  injhe  bath,  that 
he  displaced  a  bulk  of  water  equal  to  his  own  body.  He  was  so  highly  excited  by  the  dis- 
covery, that  he  is  said  to  have  run  naked  out  of  the  bath  into  the  street,  exclaiming  eureka ! 
"  I  have  found  it."  His  acquaintance  with  the  power  of  the  lever  is  evinced  by  his  famous 
declaration  to  Hiero  :  "Give  me  where  I  ma*--  i:and,  and  I  will  move  the  world."  At  the  time 
of  the  siege  of  Syracuse  he  is  said  to  have  fired  the  Roman  fleet  by  means  of  immense  reflect- 


160  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART! 

been  in  alliance  with  the  Carthaginians,  went  over  to  the  Romans, 
and  aided  in  surprising  and  burning  the  Carthaginian  camp  of  Has'- 
drubal,  still  another  general  of  that  name.  Both  Tunis  and  Utica 
were  next  besieged  ;  the  former  soon  opened  its  gates  to  the  Romans, 
and  the  Carthaginian  senate,  in  despair,  recalled  Hannibal  from 
Italy,  for  the  defence  of  the  city.  (202  B.  C.) 

20.  Peace,  which  Hannibal  himself  advised,  might  even  now  have 
been  made  on  terms  honorable  to  Carthage,  had  not  the  Carthagi- 
nians, elated  by  the  presence  of  their  favorite  hero,  and  confident 
of  his  success,  obstinately  resisted  any  concession.     Both  generals 
made  preparations  for  a  decisive  engagement,  and  the  two  armies 
met  on  the  plains  of  Zama  j1  but  the  forces  of  Hannibal  were  mostly 
raw  troops,  while  those  of  Scipio  were  the  disciplined  legions  that 
had  so  often  conquered  in  Spain.     Hannibal  showed  himself  worthy 
of  his  former  fame ;  but  after  a  hard-fought  battle  the  Romans  pre- 
vailed, and  Carthage  lost  the  army  which  was  her  only  reliance. 
Peace  was  then  concluded  on  terms  dictated  by  the  conqueror.     Car- 
thage consented  to  confine  herself  to  her  African  possessions,  to  keep 
no  elephants  in  future  for  purposes  of  war,  to  give  up  all  prisoners 
and  deserters,  to  reduce  her  navy  to  ten  small  vessels,  to  undertake 
no  war  without  the  consent  of  the  Romans,  and  to  pay  ten  thousand 
talents  of  silver.     (202  B.  C.)     Scipio,  on  his  return  home,  received 
the  title  of  Africanus,  and  was  honored  with  the  most  magnificent 
triumph  that  had  ever  been  exhibited  at  Rome. 

21.  The  second  Punic  war  had  brought  even  greater  distress  upon 
the  Roman  people  than  upon  the  Carthaginians,  for  during  the  six- 
teen years  of  Hannibal's  occupation  of  Italy  the  greater  part  of  the 
Roman  territory  had  lain  waste,  and  was  plundered  of  its  wealth, 
and  deserted  by  its  people  ;  and  famine  had  often  threatened  Rome 
itself;  while  the  number  of  the  Roman  militia  on  the  rolls  had 
been  reduced  by  desertion,  and  the  sword  of  the  enemy,  from  two 
hundred  and  seventy  thousand  nearly  to  the  half  of  that  number. 
Yet  in  their  greatest  adversity  the  Roman  people  had  never  given 
way  to  despair,  nor  shown  the  smallest  humiliation  at  defeat,  nor 
manifested  the  least  design  of  concession ;  and  when  the  pressure  of 
war  was  removed,  this  same  unconquerable    spirit   rapidly  raised 
Rome  to  a  state  of  prosperity  and  greatness  which  she  had  never  at- 
tained before. 

1.  The  city  of  Zama,  the  site  of  which  is  occupied  by  the  modern  village  of  Zowarin,  was 
about  a  hundred  miles  southwest  from  Carthage.    (Map  No.  VIII.) 


CHAP.  V.]  ROMAN   HISTORY.  161 

22.  The  state  of  the  world  was  now  highly  favorable  for  the  ad- 
vancement of  a  great  military  republic,  like  that  of  Rome,  to  univer- 
sal dominion.     In  the  East,  the  kingdoms  formed  from  the  fragments 
of  Alexander's  mighty  empire  were  either  still  engaged  in  mutual 
wars,  or  had  sunk  into  the  weakness  of  exhausted  energies;  the 
Grecian  States  were  divided  among  themselves,  each  being  ready  to 
throw  itself  upon  foreign  protection  to  promote  its  own  immediate 
interests ;  while  in  the  West  the  Romans  were  masters  of  Spain ; 
their  colonies  were  rapidly  encroaching  on  the  Gallic  provinces ;  and 
they  had  tributaries  among  the  nations  of  Northern  Africa. 

23.  The  war  with  Carthage  had  scarcely  ended  when  an  embassy 
from  Athens  solicited  the  protection  of  the  Romans  against  the  power 
of  Philip  II.  of  Mac'  edon ;  and  war  being  unhesitatingly    Vi.  A  GRK- 
declared  against  Philip,  Roman  diplomacy  was  at  once    CIAN  WAK- 
plunged  into  the  maze  of  Grecian  politics.     (B.  C.  201.)     After  a 
war  of  four  years  Philip  was  defeated  in  the  decisive  battle  of 
Cynoceph'  alae,  (B.  C.  197,)  and  forced  to  submit  to  such  terms  as 
the  conquerors  pleased  to  dictate ;  and  at  the  Isthmian  games  the 
Greeks  received  with  gratitude  the  declaration  of  their  freedom  under 
the  protection  of  Rome.     When,  therefore,  a  few  years  later,  the 
jEtolians,  dissatisfied  with  the  Roman  policy,  invited  Antiochus  of 
Syria  into  Europe,  and  that  monarch  had  made  himself  master  of 
Eubce'  a,  a  plausible  pretext  was  again  offered  for  Roman  inter- 
ference :  and  when  the  ^Etolians  had  been  reduced,  Antiochus  driven 
back,  and  Greece  tranquillized  upon  Roman  terms,  an  Asiatic  war 
was  open  to  the  cupidity  of  the  Romans. 

24.  After  a  brief  struggle,  Antiochus,  completely  overthrown  in 
the  general  battle  of  Magnesia,1  (B.  C.  191,)  purchased  a  peace  by 
surrendering  to  the  Romans  all  those  portions  of  Asia  VII.  8yRiAN 
Minor  bounded  on  the  east  by  Bithyn'ia,  Galatia,  Cap-       WAR- 
padocia,  and  Cilic'ia,a  pledging  himself  not  to  interfere  in  the  affairs 
of  the  Roman  allies  in  Europe — giving  up  his  ships  of  war,  and 
paying  fifteen  thousand  talents  of  silver.     The  Romans  now  erected 
the  conquered  provinces,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  Greek  maritime 
towns,  into  a  kingdom  which  they  conferred  upon  Eumenes,  their 

1.  JHagnlsia,  (now  Manisa,)  a  city  of  Lydia,  was  situated  on  the  southern  side  of  the  river 
Hermus,  (now  Kodus,)  twenty-eight  miles  north-east  from  Smyrna.  The  modern  Manisa  i» 
one  of  the  neatest  towns  of  Asia  Minor,  and  contains  a  population  of  about  thirty  thousand 
inhabitants.  There  was  another  Magnesia,  now  in  ruins,  fifty  miles  south-east  from  Smyrna. 
(Map  No.  IV.) 

a.  See  Map  of  Asia  Minor,  No.  VI. 
11 


162  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PAKT  L 

ally,  a  petty  prince  of  Per'  gamus,1  while  to  the  Rhodians,  also  their 
allies,  they  gave  the  provinces  of  Lye'  ia  and  Caria.a 

25.  Soon  after  the  close  of  the  second  Punic  war,   Hannibal, 
having  incurred  the  enmity  of  some  of  his  countrymen,  retired  to 
Syria,  where  he  joined  Antiochus  in  the  war  against  Rome.    A  clause 
in  the  treaty  with  the  Syrian  monarch  stipulated  that  Hannibal 
should  be  delivered  up  to  the  Romans ;  but  he  avoided  the  danger 
by  seeking  refuge  at  the  court  of  Prusias,  king  of  Bithyn'  ia,  where 
he  remained  about  five  years.     An  embassy  was  finally  sent  to  de- 
mand him  of  Prusias,  who,  afraid  of  giving  offence  to  the  Romans, 
agreed  to  give  him  up,  but  the  aged  veteran,  to  avoid  falling  into  the 
hands  of  his  ungenerous  enemies,  destroyed  himself  by  poison,  in  the 
sixty-fifth  year  of  his  age.     The  same  year  witnessed  the  death  of 
his  great  rival  and  conqueror  Scipio.     (B.  C.  183.)b     The  latter, 
on  his  return  from  carrying  on  the  war  against  Antiochus,  was 
charged  with  secreting  part  of  the  treasure  received  from  the  Syrian 
king.     Scorning  to  answer  the  unjust  accusation,  he  went  as  an  exile 
into  a  country  village  of  Italy,  where  he  soon  after  died. 

26.  The  events  that  led  to   the  overthrow  of  the  Macedonian 
monarchy,  and  the  reduction  of  Greece  to  a  Roman  province,  have 

vni.  THIRD  been  related  in  a  former  chapter.0  Already  the  third 
PUNIC  WAR.  Punic  war  was  drawing  to  a  close,  and  the  same  year 
that  Greece  lost  her  liberties  under  Roman  dominion,  witnessed  the 
destruction  of  the  miserable  remains  of  the  once  proud  republic  of 
Carthage.  During  the  fifty  years  that  had  elapsed  since  the  battle 
of  Zama,  the  conduct  of  the  Carthaginians  had  not  afforded  the  Ro- 
mans any  cause  whatever  for  complaint,  and  amicable  relations  be- 
tween the  two  people  might  still  have  continued ;  but  the  expediency 
of  a  war  with  Carthage  was  a  favorite  topic  of  debate  in  the  Roman 
senate,  and  it  is  said  that,  of  the  many  speeches  which  the  elder  Cato 
made  on  this  subject,  all  ended  with  the  sentence,  delenda  est  Car- 
tkago,  "  Carthage  must  be  destroyed." 

27.  Carthage,  still  a  wealthy,  but  feeble  city,  had  long  been  har- 
assed by  the  encroachments  of  Massinis'  sa,  king  of  Numid'  ia,  who 

1.  The  Per' gamus  here  mentioned,  the  most  important  city  of  Mysia,  was  situated  in  the 
southern  part  of  that  country,  in  a  plain  watered,  by  two  small  rivers  which  united  to  form  the 
Caicus.  (Map  No.  IV.) 

a.  See  Map  of  Asia  Minor,  No.  VI. 

b.  Some  of  the  ancients  placed  the  death  of  Hannibal  one  or  two  years  later.    The  dates  of 
Scipio's  death  vary  from  183  to  187. 

c.  See  p.  110. 


OHAP.V.J  ROMAN  HISTORY.  163 

appears  to  have  been  instigated  to  hostile  acts  by  the  Romans ;  and 
although  Massinis'  sa  had  wrested  from  Carthage  a  large  portion  of 
her  territory,  yet  the  Romans,  seeking  a  pretext  for  war,  called  Car- 
thage to  account  for  her  conduct,  and  without  waiting  to  listen  to 
expostulation  or  submission,  sent  an  army  of  more  than  eighty 
thousand  men  to  Sicily,  to  be  there  got  in  readiness  for  a  descent 
upon  the  African  coast.  (149  B.  C.)  At  Sicily  the  Carthaginan 
ambassadors  were  received  by  the  consuls  in  command  of  the  army,  and 
required  to  give  up  three  hundred  children  of  the  noblest  Carthaginian 
families  as  hostages ;  and  when  this  demand  had  been  complied  with 
the'  army  crossed  over  and  landed  near  Carthage.  The  Carthagi- 
nians were  now  told  that  they  must  deliver  up  all  their  arms  and 
munitions  of  war ;  and,  hard  as  this  command  was,  it  was  obeyed.* 
The  perfidious  Romans  next  demanded  that  the  Carthaginians  should 
abandon  their  city,  allow  its  walls  to  be  demolished,  and  remove  to 
a  place  ten  miles  inland,  where  they  might  build  a  new  city,  but 
without  walls  or  fortifications. 

28.  When  these  terms  were  made  known  to  the   Carthaginian 
senate,  the  people,  exasperated  to  madness,  immediately  put  to  death 
all  the  Romans  who  were  in  the  city,  closed  the  gates,  and,  for  want 
of  other  weapons,  collected  stones  on  the  battlements  to  repel  the 
first  attacks  of  the  enemy.     Hasdrubal,  who  had  been  banished  be- 
cause he  was  an  enemy  of  the  Romans,  was  recalled,  and  unexampled 
exertions  made  for  defence  :  the  brass  and  iron  of  domestic  utensils 
were  manufactured  into  weapons  of  war,  and  the  women  cut  off  their 
long  hair  to  be  converted  into  strings  for  the  bowmen  and  cordage 
for  the  shipping. 

29.  The  Romans  had  not  anticipated  such  a  display  of  courage 
and  patriotism,  and  the  war  was  prolonged  until  the  fourth  year 
after  its  commencement.     It  was  the  struggle  of  despair  on  the  part 
of  Carthage,  and  could  end  only  in  her  destruction.     The  city  was 
finally  taken  by  Scipio  jEmilianus,  the  adopted  son  of  the  great 
Africanus,  when  only  five  thousand  citizens  were  found  within  its 
walls,  fifty  thousand  having  previously  surrendered  on  different  occa- 
sions, and  been  carried  away  into  slavery.     Hasdrubal  begged  his 
life,  which  was  granted  only  that  he  might  adorn  the  triumph  of 
the  Roman  general ;  but  his  wife,  reproaching  him  for  his  cowardice, 
threw  herself  with  her  children  into  the  flames  of  the  temple  in 

a.  "  Roman  commissioners  were  sent  into  the  city,  who  carried  away  two  thousand  cata- 
pults, and  two  hundred  thousand  suits  or  armor." 


164  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART! 

which  she  had  taken  refuge.  The  walls  of  Carthage  were  levelled 
to  the  ground,  the  buildings  of  the  city  were  burned,  a  part  of  the 
Carthaginian  territory  was  given  to  the  king  of  Numid'  ia,  and  the 
rest  became  a  Roman  province.  (146  B.  C.)  Thus  perished  the 
republic  of  Carthage,  after  an  existence  of  nearly  eight  hundred 
years, — like  Greece,  the  victim  of  Roman  ambition. 


We  give  below  a  description  of  Jerusalem,  which  was  omitted  by  mistake  in  its  proper 
place. 

Jerusalem,  a  famous  city  of  southern  Palestine,  and  long  the  capital  of  the  kingdom  of 
Judah,  is  situated  on  a  hill  in  a  mountainous  country,  between  two  small  valleys,  in  on«  of 
which,  on  the  west,  the  brook  Gihon  runs  with  a  south-eastern  course,  to  join  the  brook 
Kedron  in  the  narrow  valley  of  Jehoshaphat,  east  of  the  city.  The  modern  city,  built  about 
three  hundred  years  ago,  is  entirely  surrounded  by  walls,  barely  two  and  a-half  miles  in 
circuit,  and  flanked  here  and  there  with  square  towers.  The  boundaries  of  the  old  city  varied 
greatly  at  different  times ;  and  they  are  so  imperfectly  marked,  the  walls  having  been  wholly 
destroyed,  that  few  facts  can  be  gathered  respecting  them.  The  interior  of  the  modern  city  is 
divided  by  two  valleys,  intersecting  each  other  at  right  angles,  into  four  hills,  on  which  history, 
sacred  and  profane,  has  stamped  the  imperishable  names  of  Zion,  Acra,  Bezeiha,  and  Moriah. 
Mount  Zion,  on  the  south-west,  the  "  City  of  David,"  ia  now  the  Jewish  and  Armenian  quarter : 
Acra,  or  the  lower  city,  on  the  north-west,  is  the  Christian  quarter ;  while  the  Mosque  of  Omar, 
with  it«  sacred  enclosure,  occupies  the  hill  of  Moriah,  which  was  crowned  by  the  House  of  the 
Lord  built  by  Solomon.  West  of  the  Christian  quarter  of  the  city  is  Mount  Calvary,  the  scene 
of  the  Saviour's  crucifixion ;  and  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  valley  of  Jehoshaphat  is  the  Mount 
of  Olives,  on  whose  western  slope  are  the  gardens  of  Gethsemane,  enclosed  by  a  wall,  and  still 
in  a  sort  of  ruined  cultivation.  A  little  west  of  Mount  Zion,  and  near  the  base  of  Mount  Cal- 
vary, is  the  pool  of  Gihon,  near  which  *'  Zadok  the  priest  and  Nathan  the  prophet  anointed 
Solomon  king  over  Israel."  South  of  Mount  Zion  is  the  valley  of  Hinnom,  watered  by  the 
brook  Gihon.  A  short  distance  up  the  valley  of  Jehoshaphat,  and  issuing  from  beneath  the 
walls  of  Mount  Moriah,  is 

"  Siloa's  brook,  that  flow'd 
Fast  by  the  oracles  of  God." 

Jerusalem  and  its  suburbs  abound  with  many  interesting  localities,  well  authenticated  as  the 
scenes  of  events  connected  with  the  history  of  the  patriarchs,  and  the  sufferings  of  Christ ;  but 
to  hundreds  of  others  shown  by  the  monks,  minute  criticism  denies  any  claims  to  our  respect. 
Considered  as  a  modern  town,  the  city  is  of  very  little  importance :  its  population  is  about  ten 
thousand,  two-thirds  of  whom  are  Mohammedans :  it  has  no  trade — no  industry  whatever — 
nothing  to  give  it  commercial  importance,  except  the  manufacture,  by  the  monks,  of  shells, 
beads,  and  relics,  large  quantities  of  which  are  shipped  from  the  port  of  Jaffayjior  Italy,  Spain, 
and  Portugal. 

Jerusalem  is  generally  believed  to  be  identical  with  the  Salem  of  which  Melchisedek  waa 
king  in  the  time  of  Abraham.  When  the  Israelites  entered  the  Holy  Land  it  was  in  the 
possession  of  the  Jebusites ;  and  although  Joshua  took  the  city,  the  citadel  on  Mount  Zion  waa 
held  by  the  Jebusites  until  they  were  dislodged  by  David,  who  made  Jerusalem  the  metropolis 
of  his  kingdom. 


OHAP.  VL1  ROMAN  HISTORY.  165 


CHAPTER    VI. 

ROMAN  HISTORY: 

FROM   THE    CONQUEST   OF   GREECE   AND    CARTHAGE,    146  B.  0.,    TO   THBJ 
COMMENCEMENT    OF   THE   CHRISTIAN   EKA. 

ANALYSIS.  1.  Situation  of  SPAIN  AFTER  THE  FALL  OF  CARTHAGK.  [Oeltiberians.  Lust- 
tanians.]— 2.  Character,  exploits,  and  death  of  Viriathus.— 3.  Subsequent  history  of  the  Lusitft- 
nians.  War  with  the  Numan'  tians.  [Numan'  tia.] — 4.  SERVILE  WAR  IN  SICILY.  Situation  of 
Sicily.  Events  of  the  Servile  war. — 5.  DISSENSIONS  OF  THE  GRACCHI.  Corrupt  state  of  society 
at  Rome.— 6.  Country  and  city  population.— 7.  Efforts  of  the  tribunes.  Character  and  efforts 
of  Tiberius  Gracchus.  Condition  of  the  public  lands. — 8.  The  agrarian  laws  proposed  by 
Tiberius.— 9.  Opposed  by  the  nobles,  but  finally  passed.  Triumvirate  appointed  to  enforce 
them.  Disposition  of  the  treasures  of  At'  talus. — 10.  Circumstances  of  the  death  of  Tiberius. — 
11.  Continued  opposition  of  the  aristocracy— tribuneship  of  Caius  Gracchus— and  circumstances 
of  his  death.— 12.  Condition  of  Rome  after  the  fall  of  the  Gracchi.— 13.  Profligacy  of  the  Ro- 
man senate,  and  circumstances  of  the  first  JUOURTHINE  WAR.— 14.  Renewal  of  the  war  with 
Jugurtha.  Events  of  the  war,  and  fate  of  Jugurtha.  [Mauritania.] — 15.  GERMANIC  INVASION. 
[Cimbri  and  Teu' tones.]  Successive  Roman  defeats.  [Danube.  Noreja.]  16.  Marius,  ap- 
pointed to  the  command,  defeats  the  Teu'  tones.  [The  Rhone.  Aix.]  17.  The  Cimbri.  Great- 
ness of  the  danger  with  which  Rome  was  threatened.— 18.  THE  SOCIAL  WAR.— 19.  FIRST 
MITHRIDATIC  WAR.  [Pontus.  Eu'  menes.  Per'  gamus.] — 20.  Causes  of  the  Mithridatic  war, 
and  successes  of  Mithridates. — CIVIL  WAR  BETWEEN  MA'  RIUS  AND  SYLLA. — 22.  Triumph  of 
the  Marian  faction.  Death  and  character  of  Marius.— 23.  Continuance  of  the  civil  war. 
Events  in  the  East.  Sylla  master  of  Rome.— 23.  Proscription  and  massacres.  Death  of  Sylla. 
— 25.  The  Marian  faction  in  Spain.  SERVILE  WAR  IN  ITALY. 

26.  SECOND  AND  THIRD  MITHRIDATIC  WARS.  Lucullus.  Manil'  ius,  and  the  Manil'  Ian 
law.— 27.  Pompey's  successes  in  the  East.  Reduction  of  Palestine.  Death  of  Mithridates.— 28. 
CONSPIRACY  OF  CATILINE.  Situation  of  Rome  at  this  period.  Character  and  designs  of  Catiline. 
Circumstances  that  favored  his  schemes.  By  whom  opposed. — 29.  Cicero  elected  consul. 
Flight,  defeat,  and  death  of  Catiline. — 30.  THE  FIRST  TRIUMVIRATE.  Division  of  power. — 31. 
Caesar's  conquests  in  Gaul,  Germany,  and  Britain.  Death  of  Crassus.  Rivalry  between  Caesar 
and  Pompey.  [The  Rhine.  Parthia.] — 32.  Commencement  of  the  CIVIL  WAR  BETWEEN  C.T.SAR 
AND  POMPEY.  Flight  of  the  latter.  [Raven1  na.J— 33.  Caesar's  successes.  Sole  dictator.  His 
defeat  at  Dyrrach'  ium.— 34.  Battle  of  Pharsalia.  Flight,  and  death  of  Pompey.  [Pharsalia. 
Peleu'  sium.]— 35.  Cleopatra.  Alexandrine  war.  Reduction  of  Pontus.  [Pharos.]— 36.  Caesar's 
clemency.  Servility  of  the  senate.  The  war  in  Africa,  and  death  of  Cato.  [Thapsus.]— 37. 
Honors  bestowed  upon  Caesar.  Useful  changes— reformation  of  the  calendar.— 38.  The  war  in 
Spain.  [Munda.]— 39.  Caesar,  dictator  for  life.  His  gigantic  projects.  He  is  suspected  of 
aiming  at  sovereign  power.— 40.  Conspiracy  against  him.  His  death.— 41.  Conduct  of  Brutus. 
Mark  Antony's  oration.  Its  effects. — 42.  Ambition  of  Antony.  Civil  war.  SECOND  TRIUMVI- 
RATE. The  proscription  that  followed. — 43.  Brutus  and  Cassius.  Their  defeat  at  Philippi. 
[Philippi.j— 44.  Antony  in  Asia  Minor,— at  the  court  of  Cleopatra.  [Tarsus.]  Civil  war  in 
Italy. — 45.  Antony's  return.  Reconciliation  of  the  rivals,  and  division  of  the  empire  among 
them.  [Brundiisium.] — 46.  The  peace  is  soon  broken.  Sextius  Pompey.  Lep'idus.  Antony. 
—47.  The  war  between  Octavius  and  Antony.  Battle  of  Actium,  and  disgraceful  flight  of 
Antony. — 48.  Death  of  Antony  and  Cleopatra. — 49.  OCTA'  viug  SOLE  MASTER  OF  THE  ROMAN 
WORLD.  Honors  and  offices  conferred  upon  him.  Character  of  his  government. — 50.  Success* 
ful  wars,— followed  by  a  general  peace.  Extent  of  the  Roman  empire.  Birth  of  the  Saviour. 


166  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART  L 

1.  AFTER  the  fall  of  Carthage  and  the  Grecian  republics,  which 
were  the  closing  events  of  the  preceding  chapter,  the  attention  of 
the  Roman  people  was  for  a  time  principally  directed  to  Spain. 

When,  near  the  close  of  the  second  Punic  war,  the  Car- 

*  AFTER  THE    thagmian  dominion  in  Spain  ended,  that  country  was  re- 

FALL  OF     garded  as  being  under  Roman  jurisdiction ;  although, 

CARTHAGE.       ?  i    ,1         •  T     .          •    •     -L          e    ,1         T» 

beyond  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  Roman  garrisons, 
the  native  tribes,  the  most  prominent  of  which  were  the  Celtiberians1 
and  Lusitanians,2  long  maintained  their  independence. 

2.  At  the  close  of  the  third  Punic  war,  Viriathus,  a  Lusitanian 
prince,  whose  character  resembles  that  of  the  Wallace  of  Scotland, 
had  triumphed  over  the  Roman  legions  in  several  engagements,  and 
had  already  deprived  the  republic  of  nearly  half  of  her  possessions  in 
the  peninsula.     During  eight  years  he  bade  defiance  to  the  most  for- 
midable hosts,  and  foiled  the  ablest  generals  of  Rome,  when  the 
Roman  governor  Cae'  pio,  unable  to  cope  with  so  great  a  general, 
treacherously  procured  his  assassination.3-     (B.  C.  140.) 

3.  Soon  after  the  death  of  Viriathus  the  Lusitanians  submitted  to 
a  peace,  and  many  of  them  were  removed  from  their  mountain  fast- 
nesses to  the  mild  district  of  Valen'  cia,3  where  they  completely  lost 
their  warlike  character  ;  but  the  Numan'  tians4  rejected  with  scorn 
the  insidious  overtures  of  their  invaders,  and  continued  the  war. 
Two  Roman  generals,  at  the  head  of  large  armies,  were  conquered 
by  them,  and  on  both  occasions  treaties  of  peace  were  concluded 
with  the  vanquished,  in  the  name  of  the  Roman  people,  but  after- 

1.  The  Celtiberians,  whose  country  was  sometimes  called  Celtiberia,  occupied  the  greatest  part 
of  the  interior  of  Spain  around  the  head  waters  of  the  Tagus. 

2.  The  Lusitanians,  whose  country  was  called  Lusitania,  dwelt  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  and 
when  first  known,  principally  between  the  rivers  Douro  and  Tagus. 

3.  The  modern  district  or  province  of  Valencia  extends  about  two  hundred  miles  along  the 
south-eastern  coast  of  Spain.    The  city  of  Valencia,  situated  near  the  mouth  of  the  river 
Guadalaviar,  (the  ancient  Tusia,)  is  its  capital.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

4.  JYuman'  tia,  a  celebrated  town  of  the  Celtiberiaus,  was  situated  near  the  source  of  the 
river  Douro,  and  near  the  site  of  the  modern  village  of  Chavaler,  and  about  one  hundred  and 
twenty-five  miles  north-east  from  Madrid. 

a.  Virathus,  at  first  a  shepherd,  called  by  the  Romans  a  robber,  then  a  guerilla  chief,  and 
finally  an  eminent  military  hero,  aroused  the  Lusitanians  to  avenge  the  wrongs  and  injuries  in- 
flicted upon  them  by  Roman  ambition.  He  was  unrivalled  in  fertility  of  resources  under  defeat, 
skill  in  the  conduct  of  his  troops,  and  courage  in  the  hour  of  battle.  Accustomed  to  a  free 
life  in  the  mountains,  he  never  indulged  himself  with  the  luxury  of  a  bed :  bread  and  meat 
were  his  only  fo 3d,  and  water  his  only  beverage;  and  being  robust,  hardy,  adroit,  always 
cheerful,  and  dreading  no  danger,  he  knew  how  to  avail  himself  of  the  wild  chivalry  of  his 
countrymen,  and  to  keep  alive  in  them  the  spirit  of  freedom.  During  eight  years  he  constantly 
harassed  the  Roman  armies,  and  defeated  many  Roman  generals,  several  of  whom  lost  their 
lives  in  battle.  His  name  still  lives  in  the  aongs  and  legends  of  early  Spain. 


CHAP.  VI]  ROMAN  HISTORY.  167 

wards  rejected  by  the  Roman  senate.  Scip'  io  jSSmilianus,  at  the 
head  of  sixty  thousand  men,  was  then  sent  to  conduct  the  war,  and 
laying  siege  to  Numan'  tia,  garrisoned  by  less  than  ten  thousand 
men,  he  finally  reduced  the  city,  but  not  until  the  Numan'  tians, 
worn  out  by  toil  and  famine,  and  finally  yielding  to  despair,  had  de- 
stroyed all  their  women  and  children,  and  then,  setting  fire  to  their 
city,  had  perished,  almost  to  a  man,  on  their  own  swords,  or  in  the 
flames.  (B.  C.  133.)  The  destruction  of  Numan' tia  was  followed 
by  the  submission  of  nearly  all  the  tribes  of  the  peninsula,  and  Spain 
henceforth  became  a  Roman  province. 

4.  Two  years  before  the  fall  of  Numan'  tia,  Sicily  had  become  the 
theatre  of  a  servile  war,  which  merits  attention  principally  on  ac- 
count of  the  view  it  gives  of  the   state  of  the  conquered  countries 
then  under  the  jurisdiction  of  Rome.     The  calamities  which  usually 
follow  in  the  train  of  long-continued  war  had  swept  away  n>  SERVILK 
most  of  the  original  population  of  Sicily,  and  a  large       WA*. 
portion  of  the  cultivated  lands  in  the  island  had  been  added,  by  con- 
quest, to.  the  Roman  public  domain,  which  had  been  formed  into 
large  estates,  and  let  out  to  speculators,  who  paid  rents  for  the  same 
into  the  Roman  treasury.     In  the  wars  of  the.  Romans,  and  indeed 
of  most  nations  at  this  period,  large  numbers  of  the  captives  taken 
in  war  were  sold  as  slaves ;  and  it  was  by  slave  labor  the  estates  in 
Sicily  were  cultivated.     The  slaves  in  Sicily  were  cruelly  treated, 
and  as  most  of  them  had  once  been  free,  and  some  of  high  rank,  it 
is  not  surprising  that  they  should  seek  every  favorable  opportunity 
to  rise  against  their  masters.     When  once,  therefore,  a  revolt  had 
broken  out,  it  spread  rapidly  over  the  whole  island.     Seventy  thou 
sand  of  the  slaves  were  at  one  time  under  arms,  and  in  four  success- 
ive campaigns  four  Roman  praetorian  armies  were  defeated.     The 
most  frightful  atrocities  were  perpetrated  on  both  sides,  but  the  re- 
bellion was  finally  quelled  by  the  destruction  of  most  of  those  who 
had  taken  part  in  it.     (B.  C.  133.) 

5.  "While  these  events  were  occuring  in  the  Roman  provinces,  af- 
fairs in  the  capital,  generally  known  in  history  as  the  "  dissensions 

of  the  Gracchi,"  were  fast  ripening  for  civil  war.     More 

3        .  .     in.  DISSEN- 

than  two  hundred  years  had  elapsed  since  the  animosi-      BION8  OF 

ties  of  patricians  and  plebeians  were  extinguished  by  an        THE 

.,1.1  1,1  11        „       GRACCHI. 

equal  participation  m  public  honors ;  but  the  wealth  of 
conquered   provinces,  and   the  numerous   lucrative   and   honorable 
offices,  both  civil  and  military,  that  had  been  created,  had  produced 


168  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PAKT  L 

corruption  at  home,  by  giving  rise  to  factions  which  contended  for 
the  greatest  share  of  the  spoils,  while,  apart  from  these,  new  dis- 
tinctions had  arisen,  and  the  rich  and  the  poor,  or  the  illustrious  and 
the  obscure,  now  formed  the  great  parties  in  the  State. 

6.  As  the  nobles  availed  themselves  of  the  advantages  of  their 
station  to  accumulate  wealth  and  additional  honors,  the  large  slave 
plantations  increased  in  the  country  to  the  disparagement  of  free 
labor,  and  the  detriment  of  small  landholders,  whose  numbers  were 
constantly  diminishing,  while   the   city  gradually  became  crowded 
with  an  idle,  indigent,  and  turbulent  populace,  attracted  thither  by 
the  frequent  cheap  or  gratuitous  distributions  of  corn,  and  by  the 
frequency  of  the  public  shows,  and  made  up,  in  part,  of  emancipated 
slaves,  who  were  kept  as  retainers  in  the  families  of  their  former 
masters.     So  long  as  large  portions  of  Italy  remained  unsettled, 
there  was  an  outlet  for  the  redundancy  of  this  growing  populace  ;  but 
the  entire  Italian  territory  being  now  occupied,  the  indigent  could 
no  longer  be  provided  for  in  the  country,  and  the  practice  of  colo- 
nizing distant  provinces  had  not  yet  been  adopted. 

7.  The  evils  of  such  a  state  of  society  were  numerous  and  for- 
midable, and   such   as   to   threaten  the   stability  of  the  republic. 
Against  the  increasing  political  influence  of  the  aristocracy,  the 
tribunes  of  the  people  had  long  struggled,  but  rather  as  factious 
demagogues  than  as  honest  defenders  of  popular  rights.     At  length 
Tiberius  Grac'  chus,  a  tribune,  and  grandson  of  Scipip  Africanus, 
one  of  the  noblest  and  most  virtuous  among  the  young  men  of  his 
time,  commenced  the  work  of  reform  by  proposing  to  enforce  the 
Liciniau  law,  which  declared  that  no  individual  should  possess  more 
than  five  hundred  jugers,a  (about  two  hundred  and  seventy-five  acres) 
of  the  public  domain.     This  law  had  been  long  neglected,  so  that 
numbers  of  the  aristocracy  now  cultivated  vast  estates,  the  occupancy 
of  which  had  perhaps  been  transmitted  from  father  to  son  as  an  in- 
heritance, or  disposed  of  by  purchase  and  sale ;  and  although  the 
republic  still  retained  the  fee  simple  in  such  lands,  and  could  at  any 
time  legally  turn  out  the  occupants,  it  had  long  ceased  to  be  thought 
probable  that  its  rights  would  ever  be  exercised. 

8.  The  law  of  Tiberius  Grac'  chus  went  even  beyond  strict  legal  jus- 
tice, by  proposing  that  buildings  and  improvements  on  the  public  lands 
should  be  paid  for  out  of  the  public  treasury.     The  impression  has 
generally  prevailed  that  the  Agrarian  laws  proposed  by  Tiberius 

a.  A  juger  was  nearly  five-ninths  of  our  acre. 


CHAP.  VI]  ROMAN  HISTORY.  169 

Grac'  chus  were  a  direct  and  violent  infringement  of  the  rights  of 
private  property ;  but  the  genius  and  learning  of  Niebuhr  have 
shown  that  they  effected  the  distribution  of  public  lands  only,  and 
not  those  of  private  citizens  ;  although  there  were  doubtless  instances 
where,  incidentally,  they  violated  private  rights. 

9.  When  the  senators  and  nobles,  who  were  the  principal  land- 
holders, perceived  that  their  interests  were  attacked,  their  exaspera- 
tion was  extreme ;  and  Tiberius,  whose  virtues  had  hitherto  been  ac- 
knowledged by  all,  was  denounced  as  a  factious  demagogue,  a  disturber 
of  the  public  tranquillity,  and  a  traitor  to  the  conservative  interests 
of  the  republic.     When  the  law  of  Tiberius  was  about  to  be  put  to 
the  vote  in  the  assemblies  of  the  people,  the  corrupt  nobles  engaged 
Octavius,  one  of  the  tribune's  colleagues,  to  forbid  the  proceedings ; 
but  the  people  deposed  him  from  the  tribuneship,  and  the  agrarian 
law  was  passed.     A  permanent  triumvirate,  or  committee  of  three, 
consisting  of  Tiberius  Grac'  chus,  his  brother  Cams,  and  Ap'  pius 
Clau'  dius,  was  then  appointed  to  enforce  the  law.     About  the  same 
time  a  law  was  passed,  providing  that  the  treasures  which  At'  talus, 
king  of  Per'  gamus,  had  recently  bequeathed  to  the  Roman  people, 
should  be  distributed  among  the  poorer  citizens,  to  whom  lands  were 
to  be  assigned,  in  order  to  afford  them  the  means  of  purchasing  the 
necessary  implements  of  husbandry. a 

10.  At  the  expiration  of  the  year  of  his  tribuneship,  Tiberius 
offered  himself  for  reelection,  conscious  that  unless  shielded  by  the 
sacredness  of  the  office  of  tribune,  his  person  would  no  longer  be 
safe  from  the  resentment  of  his  enemies.     After  two  of  the  tribes 
had  voted  in  his  favor,  the  opposing  party  declared  the  votes  illegal, 
and  the  disputes  which  followed  occupied  the  day.     On  the  following 
morning  the  people  again  assembled  to  the  election,  when  a  rumor 
was  circulated  that  some  of  the  nobles,  accompanied  by  bands  of 
armed  retainers,  designed  to  attack  the  crowd  and  take  the  life  of 
Tiberius.     A  tumult  ensued,  and  a  false  report  was  carried  to  the 
senate,  then  in  session,  that  Tiberius  had  demanded  a  crown  of  the 
people.     The  senate  seized  upon  this  pretext  for  violent  interference ; 
but  when  the  consul  refused  to  disturb  the  people  in. their  legal  as- 
sembly, the  senators  rose  in  a  body,  and,  headed  by  Scip'  io  Nasica, 

a.  In  133  B.  C.  Af  talus  Philometer  bequeathed  his  kingdom  and  all  his  treasures  to  the  Ro- 
man people.  At'  taliu  was  one  of  the  worst  specimens  of  Eastern  despots,  and  took  great 
delight  in  dispatchirg  his  nearest  relatives  by  poison.  The  Romans  had  long  looked  upon 
his  kingdom  as  their  property,  and  his  will  was  probably  drawn  up  by  Roman  dictation. 


170  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART  L 

and  accompanied  by  a  crowd  of  armed  dependants,  proceeded  to  the 
assembly,  where  a  conflict  ensued,  in  which  Tiberius  and  about  three 
hundred  of  his  adherents  were  slain.  (B.  C.  132.) 

1 1.  Notwithstanding  this  disgraceful  victory,  and  the  persecutions 
that  followed  it,  the  ruling  party  could  not  abolish  the  triumvirate 
which  had  been  appointed  to  execute  the  law  of  Tiberius.     During 
ten  years,  however,  little  was  accomplished  by  the  popular  party, 
owing  to  the  powerful  opposition  of  the  aristocracy ;  but  after  Caius 
Grac'  chus,  a  younger  brother  of  Tiberius,  had  been  elected  tribune, 
the  cause  of  the  people  received  a  new  impulse  ;  an  equitable  division 
of  the  public  lands  was  commenced,  and  many  salutary  reforms  were 
made  in  the  administration  of  the  government.     But,  at  length, 
Caius  being  deprived  of  the  tribuneship  by  false  returns  and  bribery, 
and  his  bitter  enemy  Opim'  ius  having  been  elected  consul  by  the 
aristocratic  faction,  and  afterwards  appointed  dictator  by  the  senate, 
the  followers  of  Caius  were  driven  from  the  city  by  armed  violence, 
and  three  thousand  of  their  number  slain.     (B.  C.  120.)     The  head 
of  Caius  was  thrown  at  the  feet  of  Opimr  ius,  who  had  offered  for  it 
a  reward  of  its  weight  in  gold.a 

12.  Thus  ended  what  has  been  termed  the  "  dissensions  of  the 
Gracchi;"  and  with  that  noble  family  perished  the  freedom  of  the 
republic.     An  odious  aristocracy,  which  derived  its  authority  from 
wealth,  now  ruled  the  State  :  the  tribunes,  becoming  rich  themselves, 
no  longer  interposed  their  authority  between  the  people  and  their 
Oppressors ;  while  the  lower  orders,  reduced  to  a  state  of  hopeless 
subjection,  and  despairing  of  liberty,  became  factious  and  turbulent, 
and  ere  long  prepared  the  way,  first  for  the  tyranny  of  a  perpetual 
dictatorship,  and  lastly  for  the  establishment  of  a  monarchy  on  the 
ruins  of  the  commonwealth. 

13.  The  profligacy  and  corruption  of  the  senate  were  manifest  in 
the  events  that  led  to  the  Jugur'  thine  war,  which  began  to  embroil 

a.  Tiberius  and  Caius  Grac  chus,  though  of  the  noblest  origin,  and  of  superior  natural  en- 
dowments, are  said  to  have  been  indebted  more  to  the  judicious  care  of  their  widowed  mother 
Cornelia,  than  to  nature,  for  the  excellence  of  their  characters.  This  distinguished  Roman 
matron,  the  daughter  of  Scip'  io  Africanus  the  Elder,  occupies  a  high  rank  for  the  purity  and 
excellence  of  her  private  character,  as  well  as  for  her  noble  and  elevated  sentiments.  The  fol- 
lowing anecdote  of  Cornelia  is  often  cited.  A  Campanian  lady  who  was  at  the  time  on  a  visit 
to  her,  having  displayed  to  Cornelia  some  very  beautiful  ornaments  which  she  possessed,  de- 
sired the  latter,  in  return,  to  exhibit  her  own.  The  Roman  mother  purposely  detained  her  in 
conversation  until  her  children  returned  from  school,  when,  pointing  to  them,  she  exclaimed, 
"  There  are  my  ornaments."  She  bore  the  untimely  death  of  her  sons  with  great  magnanimity, 
and  in  honor  of  her  a  statue  was  afterwards  erected  by  the  Roman  people,  bearing  for  an  in- 
scription the  words,  "  Cornelia,  mother  of  the  OroccAz." 


CHAP.  VL]  ROMAN  HISTORY.  171 

the  republic  soon  after  the  fall  of  the  Grac'  chi.  The  Numid'  ian 
king  Micip'  sa,  the  son  of  Massinis'  sa,  had  divided  Iv.  JUGUB'- 
his  kingdom,  on  his  death-bed,  between  his  two  sons  THINE  WAR. 
Hiemp'  sal  and  Adher'  bal,  and  his  nephew  Jugur'  tha ;  but  the 
latter,  resolving  to  obtain  possession  of  the  whole  inheritance,  soon 
murdered  Hiemp'  sal,  and  compelled  Adher'  bal  to  take  refuge  in 
Rome.  The  senate,  won  by  the  bribes  of  the  usurper,  decreed  a 
division  of  the  kingdom  between  the  two  claimants,  giving  to  Jugur'  tha 
the  better  portion ;  but  the  latter  soon  declared  war  against  his  cousin, 
and,  having  gained  possession  of  his  person,  put  him  to  death.  The 
senate  could  no  longer  avoid  a  declaration  of  war  against  Jugur' tha; 
but  he  would  have  escaped  by  an  easy  peace,  after  coming  to  Rome 
to  plead'  his  own  cause,  had  he  not  there  murdered  another  relative, 
whom  he  suspected  of  aspiring  to  the  throne  of  Numid'  ia.  (B.  C. 
109.) 

14.  Jugur' tha  was  allowed  to  return  to  Africa;  but  his  briberies 
of  the  Roman  senators  were  exposed,  and  the  war  against  him  was 
begun  anew.     After  he  had  defeated  several  armies,  Metel'  lus  drove 
him  from  his  kingdom,  when  the  Numid'  ian  formed  an  alliance  with 
Bac'  chus,  king  of  Mauritania,1  but  their  united  forces  were  success- 
ively routed  by  the  consul  Marius,  formerly  a  lieutenant  in  the  army 
of  Metel'  lus,  but  who,  after  obtaining  the  consulship,  had  been  sent 
to  terminate  the  war.     Eventually  the  Moorish  king  betrayed  Jugur'- 
tha  into  the  hands  of  the  Romans,  as  the  price  of  his  own  peace  and 
security,  (B.  C.   106,)  and  the  captive  monarch,  after  gracing  the 
triumph  of  Marius,  was  condemned  to  be  starved  to  death  in  prison. 

15.  Soon  after  the  fall  of  Jugur' tha,  Marius  was  recalled  from 
his  command  in  Africa  to  defend  the  northern  provinces  of  Italy 
against  a  threatened  invasion  from  immense  hordes  of  the  Cim"  bri 
and  Teu'  tones,8-  German  nations,  who,  about  the  year  v.  GERMANIC 
113,  had  crossed  the  Danube*  and  appeared  on  the  east-     INVASION 

1.  Mauritania  was  an  extensive  country  of  Northern  Africa,  west  of  Numid'  ia,  embracing 
the  present  Morocco  and  part  of  Algiers.    (Map  No.  IX.) 

2.  The  Danube,  the  largest  river  in  Europe,  except  the  Volga,  rises  in  the  south-western  part 
of  Germany,  in  the  Duchy  of  Baden,  only  about  thirty  miles  from  the  Rhine,  and  after  a  general 
south-eastern  course  of  nearly  eighteen  hundred  miles,  falls  into  the  Black  Sea.  (Map  No.  VIII.) 

a.  The  barbarian  torrent  of  the  dm'  bri  and  Teu'  tones  appears  to  have  originated  beyond 
the  Elbe.  The  original  seat  of  the  Cim'  bri  was  probably  the  Cimbrian  peninsula,  so  called  by 
the  Romans, — the  same  as  the  modern  Jutland,  or  Denmark.  Opinions  differ  concerning  the 
Teu' tones,  some  believing  them  to  have  been  the  collective  wanderers  of  many  tribes  between 
the  Vistula  and  the  Elbe,  while  others  fix  their  original  seats  in  northern  Scandinavia— that  is, 
in  the  north  of  Sweden  and  Norway. 


172  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PAKT  L 

ern  declivities  of  the  Alps,  where  the  Romans  guarded  the  passes 
into  Italy.  The  first  year  of  the  appearance  of  these  unknown 
tribes,  from  which  is  dated  the  beginning  of  German  history  ,a  they 
defeated  the  Roman  consul  Papir'  ius  Car'  bo,  near  Noreja,1  in  the 
mountains  of  the  present  Styr'  ia.  Proceeding  thence  towards  south- 
ern Gaul  they  demanded  a  country  from  the  Romans,  for  which  they 
promised  military  assistance  in  war ;  but  when  their  request  was  re- 
fused they  determined  to  obtain  by  the  sword  what  was  denied  them 
by  treaty.  Four  more  Roman  armies  were  successively  vanquished 
by  them,  the  last  under  the  consuls  Man'  lius  and  Cse'  pio  in  the  year 
105,  with  the  prodigious  loss  of  80,000  Roman  soldiers  slain,  and 
40,000  of  their  slaves. 

16.  Fortunately  for  the  Romans,  the  enemy,  after  this  great  vic- 
tory, turned  aside  towards  the  south  of  France  and  Spain,  while 
Marius,  who  had  been  appointed  to  the  command  of  the  northern 
army,  marching  over  the  Alps  towards  Gaul,  formed  a  defensive 
camp  on  the  Rhone.2     The  Germans,  returning,  in  vain  tempted 
Marius  to  battle,  after  which  they  divided  into  two  bands,  the  Cim'- 
bri  taking  up  their  march  for  Italy,  while  the  Teu'  tones  remained 
opposed  to   Marius.     But  when  the  Teu'  tones  saw  that  their  chal- 
lenge for  battle  was  not  accepted,  they  also  broke  up,  and  marching 
past  the  Romans,  jeeringly  asked  them  "  if  they  had  any  commissions 
to  send  to  their  wives."     Marius  followed  at  their  side,  keeping  upon 
the  heights,  but  when  he  had  arrived  at  the  present  town  of  Aix,3  in  the 
south  of  France,  some  accidental  skirmishing  at  the  outposts  of  the 
two  armies  brought  on  a  general  battle,  which  continued  two  days, 
and  in  which  the  nation  of  the  Teu'  tones  was  nearly  annihilated, 
(B.  C.  102,) — two  hundred  thousand  of  them  being  either  killed  or 
taken  prisoners. 

1 7.  In  the  meantime  the  consul  Catul'  Ius  had  been  repulsed  by 
the  Cim'  bri  in  northern  Italy,  and  driven  south  of  the  Po.     Marius 
hastened  to  his  assistance,  and  their  united  forces  now  .advanced 
across  the  Po,  and  defeated  the  Cim'  bri  in  a  great  battle  on  the  Rau- 

1.  JVore/fl,  or  JVoreia,  was  the  capital  of  the  Roman  province  of  JVortcwm.    The  site  of  this 
city  is  in  the  present  Austrian  province  of  Styria,  about  sixty  miles  north-east  from  Laybach. 
(Map  No.  VIII.) 

2.  The  Rhone  rises  in  Switzerland,  passes  through  the  Lake  of  Geneva,  and  after  uniting 
with  the  Saone  flows  south  through  the  south-eastern  part  of  France,  and  discharges  its  waters 
by  four  mouths  into  the  Mediterranean.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

3.  j3zx,  called  by  the  Romans  rfquce  Sextos,  is  situated  in  a  plain  sixteen  miles  north  of  Mar- 
seilles.   (Map  No.  XIII.) 

a.  Kohlrausch's  Germany,  p.  43 


CHAP.  VI]  ROMAN  HISTORY  173 

dian  plains.8-  (B.  C.  101.)  Thus  ended  the  war  with  the  German 
nations.  The  danger  with  which  it  for  a  time  threatened  Rome  was 
compared  to  that  of  the  great  Gallic  invasion,  nearly  three  hundred 
years  before.  The  Romans,  in  gratitude  to  their  deliverer,  now 
styled  Marius  the  third  founder  of  the  city. 

1 8.  A  still  more  dangerous  war,  called  the  social  war,  soon  after  broke 
out  betweea  the  Romans  and  their  Italian  allies,  caused      VI  THE 
by  the  unjust  treatment  of  the  latter,  who,  forming  part  of  SOCIAL  WAR. 
the  commonwealth,  and  sharing  its  burdens,  had  long  in  vain  de- 
manded for  themselves  the  civil  and  political  privileges  that  were 
enjoyed  by  citizens  of  the  metropolis.     The  war  continued  three 
years,  and  Rome  would  doubtless  have  fallen,  had  she  not,  soon  after 
the  commencement  of  the  struggle,  granted  the  Latin  towns,  more 
than  fifty  in  number,  all  the  rights  of  Roman  citizens,  and  thus  se- 
cured their  fidelity.     (90  B.  C.)b     The  details  of  this  war  are  little 
known,  but  it  is  supposed  that,  during  its  continuance,  more  than 
three  hundred  thousand  Italians  lost  their  lives,  and  that  many 
flourishing  towns  were  reduced  to  heaps  of  ruins.     The  Romans 
were  eventually  compelled  to  offer  the  rights  of  citizenship  to  all 
that  should  lay  down  their  arms ;  and  tranquillity  was  thus  restored 
to  most  of  Italy,  although  the  Samnites  continued  to  resist  until 
they  were  destroyed  as  a  nation. 

19.  While  these  domestic  dangers  were  threatening  Rome,  an  im- 
portant African  war  had  broken  out  with  Mithridates,  king  of  Pontus.1 
It  has  been  related  that  in  the  time  of  Antiochus  the    . 

VII.     rlRST 

Great,  king  of  Syria,  the  Romans  obtained,  by  conquest  MITHRIDATIO 
and  treaty,  the  western  provinces  of  Asia  Minor,  most 
of  which  they  conferred  upon  one  of  their  allies,  Enmenes,  king  of 
Per'gamus,  and  that  At' talus,  a  subsequent  prince  of  Per'gamus, 
gave  back  these  same  provinces,  by  will,  to  the  Roman  people.    (See 
p.  161  and  p.  169.) 

20.  The  Romans,  thus  firmly  established  in  Asia  Minor,  saw  with 
jealousy  the  increasing  power  of  Mithridates,  who,  after  reducing 
the  nations  on  the  eastern  coasts  of  the  Black  Sea,  ha'd  added  to  his 

1.  Pontus  was  a  country  of  Asia  Minor,  on  the  south-eastern  coast  of  the  Euxine,  having 
Colchis  on  the  east,  and  Paphlagonia  and  Galatia  on  the  west. 

a.  The  exact  locality  is  unknown,  but  it  was  on  a  northern  branch  of  the  Po,  between  Ver- 
celli  and  Verona,  probably  near  the  present  Milan.    Some  say  near  Vercelli,  on  the  west  bank 
of  the  Sessites. 

b.  This  was  done  by  the  celebrated  Lex  Julia,  or  Julian  law,  proposed  by  L.  Julius  Caesar. 


174  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [!>ABT  I 

dominions  on  the  west,  Paphlagonia  and  Cappadocia,a  which  he 
claimed  by  inheritance.  Nicomedes,  king  of  Bithyn'  ia,  disputing 
with  him  the  right  to  the  latter  provinces,  appealed  to  the  Roman 
senate,  which  declared  that  the  disputed  districts  should  be  free 
States,  subject  to  neither  Nicomedes  nor  Mithridates.  The  latter 
then  entered  into  an  alliance  with  Tigranes,  king  of  Armenia, — 
seized  the  disputed  provinces — drove  Nicomedes  from  his  kingdom — 
defeated  two  large  Roman  armies,  and,  in  the  year  88,  before  the 
end  of  the  social  war,  had  gained  possession  of  all  Asia  Minor.  All 
the  Greek  islands  of  the  ^Bgean,  except  Rhodes,  voluntarily  sub- 
mitted to  him,  and  nearly  all  the  Grecian  States,  with  Athens, 
throwing  off  the  Roman  yoke,  placed  themselves  under  his  protection. 
Mithridates  had  received  a  Greek  education,  and  was  looked  .upon 
as  a  Grecian,  which  accounts  for  the  readiness  with  which  the  Greeks 
espoused  his  cause. 

21.  The  Roman  senate  gave  the  command  of  the  Mithridatic  war 
to  Sylla,  a  man  of  great  intellectual  superiority,  but  of  profligate 
morals,  who  had  served  under  Marius  against  Jugur'  tha  and  the 

VIIL  CIVIL    Cim'  bri,  and  had  rendered  himself  eminent  by  his  ser- 
WAR  BE-     yices  in  the  social  war.     The  ambitious  Marius,  though 

TWEEX  MA  -  ,,  .  .  „    ~     ,,         ,        ,     , 

RIUS  AND  raore  than  twenty  years  the  senior  ot  oylla,  had  long 
SYLLA.  regarded  the  latter  as  a  formidable  rival,  and  now  he 
succeeded  in  obtaining  a  decree  of  the  people,  by  which  the  com- 
mand was  transferred  from  Sylla  to  himself.  Sylla,  then  at  the 
head  of  an  army  in  the  Samnite  territory,  immediately  marched 
against  Rome,  and  entering  the  city,  broke  up  the  faction  of  Marius, 
who,  after  a  series  of  romantic  adventures,  escaped  to  Africa.b 
(88  B.  C.) 

22.  Scarcely  had  Sylla  departed  with  his  army  for  Greece,  to  carry 
on  the  war  against  Mithridates,  when  a  fierce  contest  arose  within 

a.  See  Map  of  Asia  Minor,  No.  IV. 

b.  Marius  fled  first  to  Ostia,  and  thence  along  the  sea-coast  to  Mintur'  nae,  where  he  was  put 
on  shore,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Liris,  and  abandoned  by  the  crew  of  the  vessel  that  carried  him. 
After  in  vain  seeking  shelter  in  the  cottage  of  an  old  peasant,  he  was  forced  to  hide  himself  in 
the  mud  of  the  Pontine  marshes ;  but  he  was  discovered  by  his  vigilant  pursuers,  dragged  out, 
and  thrown  into  a  dungeon  at  Mintur'  nae.    No  one,  however,  had  the  courage  to  put  him  to 
death  ;  and  the  magistrates  of  Mintur'  nae  therefore  sent  a  public  slave  into  the  prison  to  kill 
him ;  but  as  the  barbarian  approached  the  hoary  warrior  his  courage  failed  him,  and  the  Min- 
tur' nians,  moved  by  compassion,  put  Marius  on  board  a  boat  and  transported  him  to  Africa. 
Being  set  down  at  Carthage,  the  Roman  governor  of  the  district  sent  to  inform  him  that  unless 
he  left  Africa  he  should  treat  him  as  a  public  enemy.    "  Go  and  tell  him,"  replied  the  wanderer, 
"  that  you  have  seen  the  exile  Marius  sitting  on  the  ruins  of  Carthage."    In  the  following  year 
during  the  absence  of  Sylla,  he  returned  to  Italy.    For  localities  of  Pontine  Marshes,  Liris, 
and  Mintur'  n<B,  see  Map  No.  X. 


CHAP.  VI]  ROMAN  HISTORY.  175 

the  city  between  the  partisans  of  Sylla  and  Marius ;  one  of  the  con- 
suls, Cinna,  espousing  the  cause  of  the  latter,  and  the  other,  Octa- 
vius,  that  of  the  former.  Cinna  recalled  the  aged  Marius ;  both 
parties  flew  to  arms  ;  and  all  Italy  became  a  prey  to  the  horrors  of 
civil  war.  (B.  G.  87.)  The  senate  and  the  nobles  adhered  to  Octa- 
vius ;  but  Rome  was  besieged,  and  compelled  to  surrender  to  the 
adverse  faction.  Then  commenced  a  general  massacre  of  all  the  op- 
ponents of  Marius,  which  was  continued  five  days  and  nights,  until 
the  streets  ran  with  blood.  Having  gratified  his  revenge  by  this 
bloody  victory,  Marius  declared  himself  consul,  without  going  through 
the  formality  of  an  election,  and  chose  Cinna  to  be  his  colleague ; 
but  sixteen  days  later  his  life  was  terminated  by  a  sudden  fever,  at 
the  age  of  seventy-one  years.  Marius  has  the  character  of  having 
been  one  of  the  most  successful  generals  of  Rome ;  but  after  having 
borne  away  many  honorable  offices,  and  performed  many  noble  ex- 
ploits, he  tarnished  his  glory  by  a  savage  and  infamods  old  age. 

23.  During  three  years  after  the  death  of  Marius,  Sylla  was  con 
ducting  the  war  in  Greece  and  Asia,  while  Italy  was  completely  in 
the  hands  of  the  party  of  Cinna.     The  latter  even  sent  an  army  to 
Asia  to  attack  Sylla,  and  was  preparing  to  embark  himself,  when  he 
was  slain  in  a  mutiny  of  his  soldiers.     In  the  meantime  Sylla,  hav- 
ing taken  Athens  by  storm,  and  defeated  two  armies  of  Mithridates, 
concluded  a  peace  with  that  monarch ;  (84  B.  C.,)  and  having  induced 
the  soldiers  sent  against  him  to  join  his  standard,  he  returned  to  Italy 
at  the  head  of  thirty  thousand  men  to  take  vengeance  upon  his  ene- 
mies, who  had  collected  an  army  of  four  hundred  and  fifty  cohorts, 
numbering  one  hundred  and  eighty  thousand  men,a  to  oppose  him. 
(B.  C.  83.)     But  none  of  the  generals  of  this  vast  army  were  equal, 
in  military  talents,  to  Sylla ;  their  forces  gradually  deserted  them, 
and  after  a  short  but  severe  struggle,  Sylla  became  master  of  Rome. 

24.  A  dreadful  proscription  of  his  enemies  followed,  far  exceed- 
ing the  atrocities  of  Marius ;  for  Sylla  filled  not  only  Rome,  but 
all  Italy,  with  massacres,  which,  in  the  language  of  the  old  writers, 
had  neither  numbers  nor  bounds.     He  caused  himself  to  be  appointed 
dictator  for  an  unlimited  time,  (B.  C.  81,)  reestablished  the  govern- 
ment on  an  aristocratical  basis,  and  after  having  ruled  nearly  three 
years,  to  the  astonishment  of  every  one  he  resigned  his  power,  and 
retired  to  private  life.     He  died  soon  after,  of  a  loathsome  disease, 

a.  "From  the  time  of  Marius,  the  Roman  military  forces  are  always  counted  by  cohorts  or 
email  battalions,  each  containing  four  hundred  and  twenty  men." — Niebuhr,  iv.  195, 


176  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART! 

at  the  age  of  sixty  years,  leaving,  by  his  own  direction,  the  following 
characteristic  inscription  to  be  engraved  on  his  tomb.  "  Here  lies 
Sylla,  who  was  never  outdone  in  good  offices  by  his  friend,  nor  in 
acts  of  hostility  by  his  enemy."  (B.  C.  77.) 

25.  A  Marian  faction,  headed  by  Sertorius,  a  man  of  great  mili- 
tary talents,  still  existed  in  Spain,  threatening  to  sever  that  province 
from  Rome,  and  establish  a  new  kingdom  there.     After  Sertorius 
had  defeated  several  Roman  armies,  the  youthful  Pompey,  after- 
wards surnamed  the  Great,  was  sent  against  him ;  but  he  too  was 
vanquished,  and  it  was  not  until  the  insurgents  had  been  deprived  of 
their  able  leader  by  treachery,  that  the  rebellion  was  quelled,  and 
Spain  tranquillized.     (B.  C.  70.)     During  the  continuance  of  the 
Spanish  war,  a  formidable  revolt  of  the  slaves,  headed  by  Spar'tacus, 

ix  SERVILE  a  celebrated  gladiator,  had  broken  out  in  Italy.     At  first 
WAR  IN      Spar'  tacus  and  his  companions  formed  a  desperate  band 
ITALY.        Q£  JQjjjjgj.g  an(j  murderers,  but  their  numbers  eventually 
increased  to  a  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  men,  and  three  praeto- 
rian and  two  consular  armies  were  completely  defeated  by  them. 
The  war  lasted  upwards  of  two  years,  and  at  one  time  Rome  itself 
was  in  danger  ;  but  the  rebels,  divided  among  themselves,  were  finally 
overcome,  and  nearly  all  exterminated,  by  the  praetor  Cras'  sus,  the 
growing  rival  of  Pompey.     (B.  C.  70.) 

26.  During  the  progress  of  these  events  in  Italy,  a  second  war  had 
broken  out  with  Mithridates,  (83  B.  C.,)  but  after  a  continuance  of 

two  years  it  had  been  terminated  by  treaty.     (81  B.  C.) 

AND  THIRD    Seven  years  later,  Mithridates,  who  had  long  been  pre- 

MITHRIDATIC  paring  for  hostilities,  broke  the  second  treaty  between 

him  and  the  Romans  by  the  invasion  of  Bythyn'  ia,  and 
thus  commenced  the  third  Mithridatic  war.  At  first  Lucullus,  who 
was  sent  against  him,  was  successful,  and  amassed  immense  treasures ; 
but  eventually  he  was  defeated,  and  Mithridates  gained  possession 
of  nearly  all  Asia  Minor.  Manil' ius,  the  tribune,  then  proposed 
that  Pompey,  who  had  recently  gained  great  honor  by  a  successful 
war  against  the  pirates  in  the  Mediterranean,  should  be  placed  over 
all  the  other  generals  in  the  Asiatic  provinces,  retaining  at  the  same 
time  the  command  by  sea.  This  was  a  greater  accumulation  of 
power  than  had  ever  been  intrusted  to  any  Roman  citizen,  but  the 
law  was  adopted.  It  was  on  this  ocasion  that  the  orator  Cicero 
pronounced  his  famous  oration  Pro  lege  Manilla,  ("  for  the  Manilian 
law.")  Caesar  also,  who  was  just  then  rising  into  eminence,  approved 


CHAP.  VI]  ROMAN  HISTORY.  177 

the  measure,  while  the  friends  of  Cras'  sus  in  vain  attempted  to  de- 
feat it. 

27.  Pompey,  then  passing  with  a  large  army  into  Asia,  (B.  C.  66.) 
in  one  campaign  defeated  Mithridates  on  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates, 
and  drove  the  monarch  from  his  kingdom  ;  and  in  the  following  year, 
after  reducing  Syria,  thus  putting  an  end  to  the  empire  of  the  Seleu'- 
cidse  he  found  an  opportunity  of  extending  Roman  interference  to  the 
affairs  of  Palestine.     Each  of  the  two  claimants  to  the  throne,  the 
brothers  Hyrcanus  and  Aristobulus,  sought  his  assistance,  and  as  he 
decided  in  favor  of  the  former,  the  latter  prepared  to  resist  the  Roman, 
and  shut  himself  up  in  Jerusalem.     After  a  siege  of  three  months 
the  city  was  taken ;  its  walls  and  fortifications  were  thrown  down ; 
Hyrcanus  was  appointed  to  be  high-priest,  and  governor  of  the 
country,  but  was  required  to  pay  tribute  to  the  Romans ;   while 
Aristobulus,  with  his  sons   and  daughters,  was  taken  to  Rome  to 
grace  the  triumph  of  Pompey.     From  this  time  the  situation  of 
Judea  differed  little  from  that  of  a  Roman  province,  although  for  a 
while  later  it  was  governed  by  native  princes ;  but  all  of  them  were 
more  or  less  subject  to  Roman  authority.     About  the  time  of  Pom- 
pey's  conquest  of  Jerusalem,  Mithridates,  driven  from  one  province 
to  another,  and  finding  no  protection  even  among  his  own  relatives, 
terminated  his  life  by  poison.     (B.  C.  63.)     His  dominions  and  vast 
wealth  were  variously  disposed  of  by  Pompey  in  the  name  of  the 
Roman  people. 

28.  While  Pompey  was  winning  laurels  in  Asia,  the  republic  was 
brought  near  the  brink  of  destruction  by  a  conspiracy  headed  by  the 
infamous  Catiline.     Rome  was  at  this  time  in  a  state  of  complete 
anarchy ;  the  republic  was  a  mere  name ;  the  laws  had   M  CON8PI 
lost  their  power ;  the  elections  were  carried  by  bribery ;      RACY  OF 
and  the  city  populace  was  a  tool  in  the  hands  of  the 

nobles  in  their  feuds  against  one  another.  In  this  corrupt  state  of 
things  Sergius  Catiline,  a  man  of  patrician  rank,  and  of  great  abili- 
ties, but  a  monster  of  wickedness,  who  had  acted  a  distinguished 
part  in  the  bloody  scenes  of  Sylla's  tyranny,  placed  himself  at  the 
head  of  a  confederacy  of  profligate  young  nobles,  who  hoped,  by 
elevating  their  leader  to  the  consulship,  or  by  murdering  those  who 
opposed  them,  to  make  themselves  masters  of  Rome,  and  to  gain 
possession  of  the  public  treasures,  and  the  property  of  the  citizens. 
Many  circumstances,  favored  the  audacious  schemes  of  the  conspira- 
tors. Pompey  was  abroad — Cras'  sus,  striving  with  mad  eagerness 

12 


178  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART! 

for  power  and  riches,  countenanced  the  growing  influence  of  Catiline, 
as  a  means  of  his  own  aggrandizement — Csesar,  laboring  to  revive 
the  party  of  Marius,  and  courting  the  favor  of  the  people  by  public 
shows  and  splendid  entertainments,  spared  Catiline,  and  perhaps  se- 
cretly encouraged  him,  while  the  only  two  eminent  Romans  who 
boldly  determined  to  uphold  their  falling  country  were  Cato  the 
younger,  and  the  orator  Cicero. 

29.  While  the  storm  which  Catiline  had  been  raising  was  threat- 
ening to  burst  upon  Rome,  and  every  one  dreaded  the  arch-conspira- 
tor, but  no  one  had  the  courage  to  come  forward  against  him,  Cicero 
offered  himself  a  candidate  for  the  consulship,  in  opposition  to  Catiline, 
and  was  elected.  An  attempt  of  the  conspirators  to  murder  Cicero  in  his 
own  house  was  frustrated  by  the  watchful  vigilance  of  the  consul  ;  and 
a  fortunate  accident  disclosed  to  him  all  their  plans,  which  he  laid  be- 
fore the  senate.     Even  in  the  senate-house  Catiline  boldly  confronted 
Cicero,  who  there  pronounced  against  him  that  famous  oration  which 
saved  Rome  by  driving  Catiline  from  the  city.     Catiline  then  fled  to 
Etruria,  where  he  had  a  large  force  already  under  arms,  while  seve- 
ral of  his  confederates  remained  in  the  city  to  open  the  gates  to  him 
on  his  approach  ;  but  they  were  apprehended,  and  brought  to  punish- 
ment.    An  army  was  then  sent  against  the  insurgents,  who  were 
completely  defeated ;  and  most  of  them,  imitating  Catiline,  fought 
to  the  last,  and  died  sword  in  hand.     (B.  C.  63.)     Cicero,  to  whom 
the  Romans  were  indebted  for  the  overthrow  of  the  conspiracy,  was 
now  hailed  as  the  Father  and  Deliverer  of  his  country. 

30.  Soon  after  the  return  of  Pompey  from  Asia,  the  jealousies 
between  him  and  Cras'  sus  were  renewed ;  but  Julius  Csesar  succeeded 

xii  THE  *n  reconcilmg  the  rivals,  and  in  uniting  them  with  him- 
FIRST  TRI-  self  in  a  secret  partnership  of  power,  called  the  First  Tri- 
UMVIRATE.  umvirate  (Qo  B.  C.)  These  men,  by  their  united  in- 
fluence, were  now  able  to  carry  all  their  measures  ;  and  they  virtually 
usurped  the  powers  of  the  senate,  as  well  as  the  command  of  the 
legions.  Caesar  first  obtained  the  office  of  consul,  (B.  C.  59,)  and, 
when  the  year  of  his  consulship  had  expired,  was  made  commander 
of  all  Gaul,  (B.  C.  58,)  although  but  a  small  portion  of  that  country 
was  then  under  the  Roman  dominion.  Cras'  sus,  whose  avarice  was 
unbounded,  soon  after  obtained  the  command  of  Syria,  famed  for  its 
luxury  and  wealth ;  while  to  Pompey  were  given  Africa  and  Spain, 
although  he  left  the  care  of  his  provinces  to  others,  and  still  remained 
in  Italy. 


CHAP.  VI]  ROMAN  HISTORY.  179 

31.  In  the  course  of  eight  years  Caesar  conquered  all  Gaul,  which 
consisted  of  a  great  number  of  separate  nations — twice  passed  the 
Rhine1  into  Germany — and  twice  passed  over  into  Britain,  and  sub- 
dued the  southern  part  of  the  island.     Hitherto  Britain  had  been 
known  only  by  name  to  the  Greeks  and  Romans ;  and  its  first  inva- 
sion by  Caesar,  in  the  year  55  B.  C.,  is  the  beginning  of  its  authentic 
history.     The  disembarkation  of  the  Romans,  somewhere  on  the 
eastern  coast  of  Kent,a  was  firmly  disputed  by  the  natives ;  but  stern 
discipline  and  steady  valor  overawed  them,  and  they  proffered  sub- 
mission.    A  second  invasion  in  the  ensuing  spring  was  also  resisted ; 
but  genius  and  science  asserted  their  usual  superiority ;  and  peace, 
and  the  withdrawal  of  the  invaders,  were  purchased  by  the  payment 
of  tribute.     In  the  meantime  Cras'  sus  had  fallen  in  Parthia,8  (B.  C. 
52,)  thus  leaving  but  two  masters  of  the  Roman  world;  but  Pompey 
had  already  become  jealous  of  the  greatness  of  Caesar's  fame,  and  on 
the  death  of  Julia,  the  wife  of  Pompey  and  daughter  of  Caesar,  the 
last  tie  that  bound  these  friends  was  broken,  and  they  became  rivals, 
and  enemies.     Pompey  had  secured  most  of  the  senate  to  his  inter- 
ests ;  but  Caesar,  though  absent,  had  obtained,  by  the  most  lavish 
bribes,  numerous  and  powerful  adherents  in  the  very  heart  of  Rome. 
Among  others,  Mark  Antony  and  Quintus  Cassius,  tribunes  of  the 
people,  favored  his  interests. 

32.  When  Caesar  requested  that  he  might  stand  for  the  consulship 
in  his  absence,  the  senate  denied  the  request.     When  or-    xin.  CIVIL 
dered  to  disband  his  legions  and  resign  his  provinces,  he  T^^xcjisaAa. 
immediately  promised  compliance,  if  Pompey  would  do  AND  POMPEY. 
the  same ;  but  the  senate  peremptorily  ordered  him  to  disband  his 

1.  The  Rhine  rises  in  Switzerland,  only  a  few  miles  from  the  source  of  the  Rhone — passes 
through  Lake  Constance— then  flows  west  to  the  town  of  Basle,  near  the  borders  of  France, 
thence  generally  north-west  to  the  North  Sea  or  German  Ocean.    It  formed  the  ancient 
boundary  between  Gaul  and  the  German  tribes,  and  was  first  passed  by  Julius  Caesar  in  MB 
invasion  of  the  German  nation  of  the  Sicambri. 

2.  Parthia  was  originally  a  small  extent  of  country,  south-east  of  the  Caspian  Sea.    After 
the  death  of  Alexander  the  Great  a  separate  kingdom  was  formed  there,  which  gradually  e»- 
tended  to  the  Indus  on  the  east  and  the  Tigris  on  the  west,  until  it  embraced  the  fairest  prov- 
inces of  the  old  Persian  monarchy.    By  the  victory  over  Crassus  the  Parthians  obtained  a  great 
increase  of  power,  and  during  a  long  time  after  this  event  they  were  almost  constantly  at  war 
with  the  Romans.    The  Parthian  empire  was  overthrown  by  the  southern  Persians  22G  years 
after  the  Christian  era,  when  the  later  Persian  empire  of  the  Sassanidat  was  established.    "The 
mode  »f  fighting  adopted  by  the  Parthian  cavalry  was  peculiar,  and  well  calculated  to  annoy. 
\\  hen  apparently  in  full  retreat,  they  would  turn  round  on  their  steeds  and  discharge  their 
arrows  with  the  most  unerring  accuracy ;  and  hence,  to  borrow  the  language  of  an  ancient 
writer,  it  was  victory  to  them  if  a  counterfeit  flight  threw  their  pursuers  into  disorder," 

a.  The  place  where  Caesar  is  believed  to  have  landed  is  at  the  town  of  Deal,  near  what  fc 
called  the  South  Foreland,  sixty-sue  miles  south-east  from  London. 


180  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART  I. 

array  before  a  specified  day,  under  the  penalty  of  being  declared  a 
public  enemy.  (B.  C.  49.)  The  tribunes  Antony  and  Cassius  fled 
to  the  army  of  Caesar  then  at  Raven'  na,1  bearing  with  them  the  hos- 
tile mandate  of  the  senate,  and  by  their  harangues  inflaming  the  sol- 
diers against  the  measures  of  the  senatorial  party.  Cassar,  confident 
of  the  support  of  his  troops,  now  passed  the  Rubicon  in  hostile  array, 
an  act  deemed  equivalent  to  an  open  declaration  of  war  against  his 
country.  The  senate  and  Pompey,  alarmed  at  the  rapidity  of  his 
movements,  and  finding  their  forces  daily  deserting  them,  fled  across 
the  Adriat'  ic  into  Greece ;  and  in  sixty  days  from  the  passage  of  the 
Rubicon,  Csesar  was  master  of  all  Italy. 

33.  Csesar  soon  obtained   the  surrender  of   Sicily  and    Sardinia, 
after  which  he  passed  over  to   Spain,  where  Pompey's  lieutenants 
commanded, — rapidly  reduced  the  whole  Peninsula,  took  Marseilles 
by  siege  on  his  return  through  Gaul,  and,  on  his  arrival  at  Rome, 
was  declared  by  the  remnant  of  the  senate  sole  dictator ;  but  after 
eleven  days  he  laid  aside  the  office,  and  took  that  of  consul.     Pompey 
had  already  collected  a  numerous  army  in  the  eastern  provinces, 
and  thither  Caesar  followed  him.     Near  Dyrrach'  ium,2  in  Illyr'  i- 
cum,  he  assaulted  the  intrenched  camp  of  Pompey,  but  was   re- 
pulsed with  the  loss  of  many  standards,  and  his  own  camp  would 
have  been  taken  had  not  Pompey  called  off  his  troops,  in  apprehen- 
sion of  an  ambuscade;    on  which  Caesar  remarked  that  "the  war 
would  have  been  at  an  end,  if  Pompey  had  known  how  to  profit  by 
victory." 

34.  Cassar  then  boldly  advanced  into  Thes'  saly,  followed  by  Pompey 
at  the  head  of  a  superior  force.     The  two  armies  met  on  the  plains 
of  Pharsalia,8  where  was  fought  the  battle  which  decided  the  fate  of 
the  Roman  world.     (B.  C.  48.)     Caesar  was  completely  victorious, 

1.  Raven'  na  was  originally  built  on  the  shore  of  the  Adriat'  ic,  near  the  most  southern 
mouth  of  the  river  Po.    Augustus  constructed  a  new  harbor  three  miles  from  the  old  town, 
&nd  henceforward  the  new  harbor  became  the  principal  station  of  the  Roman  Adriat'  ic  fleet ; 
but  such  was  the  accumulation  of  mud  brought  down  by  the  sireams,  that,  as  Gibbon  relates, 
so  early  as  the  fifth  or  sixth  century  after  Christ,  "  the  port  of  Augustus  was  converted  into 
pleasant  orchards ;  and  a  lonely  grove  of  pines  covered  the  ground  where  the  Roman  fleet 
once  rode  at  anchor."    Raven'  na  was  the  capital  of  Italy  during  the  last  years  of  the  Western 
empire  of  the  Romans,  and  it  still  contains  numerous  interesting  specimens  of  the  architecture 
of  that  period. 

2.  Dyrrach'  ium,  which  was  a  Grecian  city,  at  first  called  Epidamnus,  was  situated  on  the 
niyrian  coast  of  Macedonia,  north  of  Apollonia.    Its  modern  name  is  Durazzo,  au  unhealthy 
village  of  Turkish  Albania. 

3.  Pharsalia  was  a  city  situated  in  the  central  portion  of  Thessaly,  on  a  southern  tributary 
of  the  Peneus.    The  name  of  Pharsa,  applied  to  a  few  ruins  about  fifteen  miles  south-west 
from  Larissa,  marks  the  site  of  the  ancient  city. 


CHAP.  VI]  ROMAN  HISTORY.  181 

and  Pompey,  fleeing  in  disguise  from  the  field  of  battle,  attended 
only  by  his  son  Sextus,  and  a  few  followers  of  rank,  pursued  his 
way  to  Mytilene,  where  he  took  on  board  his  wife  Cornelia  and 
sailed  to  Egypt,  intending  to  claim  the  hospitality  of  the  young  king 
Ptol'  emy,  whose  father  he  had  befriended.  Ptol'  emy,  then  at  war 
with  his  sister  Cleopatra,  was  encamped  with  his  army  near  Peltisi- 
um,1  whither  Pompey  directed  his  course,  after  sending  to  inform 
the  king  of  his  approach.  In  the  army  of  Ptol'  emy  there  was  a 
Roman,  named  Septim'  ius,  who  advised  the  young  prince  to  put 
Pompey  to  death,  in  order  to  secure  the  favor  of  Caesar ;  and  just 
as  Pompey  was  stepping  on  shore  from  a  boat  that  had  been  sent  to 
receive  him,  he  was  stabbed,  in  the  sight  of  his  wife  and  son.  Soon 
after  Caesar  arrived  at  Alexandria  in  Egypt  in  pursuit  of  the  fugi- 
tives, when  the  ring  and  .head  of  Pompey,  which  were  presented  to 
him,  gave  him  the  first  information  of  the  fate  of  his  rival.  He 
shed  tears  at  the  sight,  and  turned  away  with  horror  from  the  spec- 
tacle. He  afterwards  ordered  the  head  to  be  burned  with  perfumes, 
in  the  Roman  method,  and  loaded  with  favors  those  who  had  adhered 
to  Pompey  to  the  last. 

35.  Caesar,  in  his  eager  pursuit  of  Pompey,  had  taken  with  him 
to  Alexandria  only  a  small  body  of  troops,  and  when,  captivated  by 
the  charms  and  beauty  of  Cleopatra,  the  Egyptian  queen,  who  ap- 
plied to  him  for  protection,  he  decided  against  the  claims  of  her 
brother,  the  party  of  the  latter  conceived  the  plan  of  overwhelming 
him  in  Alexandria,  so  that  his  situation  there  was  similar  to  that  of 
Cortez  in  Mexico.  The  royal  palace,  in  which  Caesar  had  fortified 
himself,  was  set  on  fire,  and  the  celebrated  library  established  there 
by  Ptol'  emy  Philadelphus  was  burnt  to  ashes.  With  difficulty 
Caesar  escaped  from  the  city  to  the  island  of  Pharos,2  where  hfi 
maintained  himself  until  reinforcements  arrived.  He  then  over- 
threw the  power  of  Ptol'  emy,  who  lost  his  life  by  drowning,  and 
after  having  established  Cleopatra  on  the  throne  he  marched  against 
Pharnaces,  king  of  Pontus,  son  of  Mithridates,  whose  dominions  he 
reduced  with  such  rapidity  that  he  announced  the  result  to  the  Ro- 

1.  Peleusium  was  a  frontier  city  of  Egypt,  at  the  entrance  of  the  eastern  mouth  of  tne 
Nile. 

2.  Pharos  was  a  small  island  in  the  bay  of  Alexandria,  at  the  entrance  of  the  principal  har- 
Dor,  one  mile  from  the  shore,  with  which  it  was  connected  by  a  causeway.    The  celebrated 
"  Tower  of  Pharos"  was  built  on  the  island  in  the  reign  of  Ptol'  emy  Philadelphus,  to  serve 
as  a  lighthouse.    The  modern  lighthouse  tower,  which  stands  on  the  island,  has  nothing  of  the 
beauty  and  Grandeur  of  the  old  pne. 


182  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PAET  I. 

man  senat  3  in  the  well  known  words,  veni,  vidi}  vici,  "  I  came,  I  saw, 
I  conquer  3d." 

36.  On  Caesar's  return  to  Rome,  (B.  C.  47,)  after  an  absence  of 
nearly  two  years,  he  granted  a  general  amnesty  to  all  the  followers 
of  Pompey,  and  by  his  clemency  gained  a  strong  hold  on  the  affec- 
tions of  the  people.     The  servility  of  the  senate  knew  no  bounds, 
and  the  whole  republic  was  placed  in  his  hands.     Still  there  was  a 
large  and  powerful  party  in  Africa  and  Spain  opposed  to  him,  headed  by 
Cato,  the  sons  of  Pompey,  and  other  generals.     Caesar,  passing  over  to 
Africa,  defeated  his  enemies  there  in  the  decisive  battle  of  Thapsus,1 
after  which  the  inflexible  Cato,  who  commanded  the  garrison  of  Utica, 
having  advised  his  followers  not  to  continue  their  resistance,  commit- 
ted suicide.     (46  B.  C.)     He  had  seen,  he  said,  the  republic  passing 
away,  and  he  could  live  no  longer.     Caesar  expressed  his  regret  that 
Cato  had  deprived  him  of  the  pleasure  of  pardoning  him. 

37.  The  war  in  Africa  had  been  finished  in  five  months.     Fresh 
honors  awaited  Caesar  at  Rome.     He  enjoyed  four  triumphs  in  one 
month ;  the  senate  created  him  dictator  for  ten  years ;  he  was  ap- 
pointed censor  of  the  public  morals,  and  his  statue  was  placed  oppo- 
site that  of  Jupiter,  in  the  capitol,  and  inscribed,  "  To  Caesar,  the 
demigod."     He  made  many  useful  changes  in  the  laws,  corrected 
many  abuses  in  the  administration  of  justice,  extended  the  privileges 
of  Roman  citizens  to  whole  cities  and  provinces  in  different  parts 
of  the  empire,  and  reformed  the  calendar  upon  principles  established 
by  the  Egyptian  astronomers,  by  making  an  intercalation  of  sixty- 
seven  days  between  the  months  of  November  and  December,  so  that 
the  name  of  the  December  month  was  transferred  from  the  time  of 
the  autumnal  equinox  to  that  of  the  winter  solstice,  where  it  still  re- 
mains. 

38.  From  the  cares  of  civil  government  Caesar  was  called  to  Spain, 
where  Cneus  and  Sextus,  the  two  sons  of  Pompey,  had  raised  a  large 
army  against  him.     In  the  spring  of  the  year  45  he  defeated  them  in  a 
hard-fought  battle  in  the  plains  of  Munda,2  after  having  been  obliged, 
in  order  to  encourage  his  men,  to  fight  in  the  foremost  ranks  as  a 
common  soldier.     Caesar  said  that  he  had  often  fought  for  victory, 
but  that  in  this  battle  he  fought  for  his  life.     The  elder  of  Pompey's 

1.  Tfiapsus,  now  Demsas,  was  a  town  of  little  importance  on  the  sea-coast,  about  one 
hundred  miles  south-east  from  Carthage. 

8.  Munda  was  a  town  a  short  distance  from  the  Mediterranean  in  the  southern  part  of  Spain. 
The  little  village  of  Monda  in  Grenada,  twenty-five  miles  west  from  Malaga,  is  supposed  to  be 
near  the  site  of  the  ancient  city. 


CHAP.  VI.]  ROMAN  HISTORY.  183 

sons  was  slain  in  the  pursuit  after  the  battle,  but  Sextus  the  younger 
escaped.  After  a  campaign  of  nine  months  Caesar  returned  to  Rome, 
and  enjoyed  a  triumph  for  the  reduction  of  Spain,  which  had  termi- 
nated the  civil  war  in  the  Roman  provinces. 

39.  Caesar  was  next  made  dictator  for  life,  with  the  title  of  impera- 
tor  and  the  powers  of  sovereignty,  although  the  outward  form  of  the 
republic  was  allowed  to  remain.     His  ever  active  mind  now  planned 
a  series  of  foreign  conquests,  and  formed  vast  designs  for  the  im- 
provement of  the  empire  which  he  had  gained.     He  ordered  the  laws 
to  be  digested  into  a  code,  he  undertook  to  drain  the  great  marshes  in 
the  vicinity  of  Rome,  to  form  a  capacious  harbor  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Tiber,  to  cut  across  the  isthmus  of  Corinth,  to  make  roads  across 
the  Apennines,   dig  canals,   collect   public   libraries,   erect   a   new 
theatre,  and  build  a  magnificent  temple  to  Mars.     But  while  he  was 
occupied  with  these  gigantic  projects  the  people  became  suspicious 
that  he  courted  the  title  of  king ;  and  at  his  suggestion,  as  is  sup- 
posed, Mark  Antony  offered  him  a  royal  diadem  during  the  celebra- 
tion of  the  feast  of  the  Lupercalia ;  but  no  shout  of  approbation  fol- 
lowed the  act,  and  he  was  obliged  to  decline  the  bauble.a 

40.  A  large  number  of  senators,  headed  by  the  prsetors  Cassius 
and  Brutus,  regarding  Caesar  as  an  usurper,  soon  after  formed  a  con- 
spiracy to  take  his  life,  and  fixed  on  the  fifteenth  (the  Ides)  of  March, 
a  day  appointed  for  the  meeting  of  the  senate,  for  the  execution  of 
their  plot.     As  soon  as  Caesar  had  taken  his  seat  in  the  senate-house, 
the  conspirators  crowded  around  him,  and  as  one  of  them,  pretending 
to  urge  some  request,  laid  hold  of  his  robe  as  if  in  the  act  of  sup- 
plication, the  others  rushed  upon  him  with  drawn  daggers,  and  he 
fell  pierced  with  twenty-three  wounds,  at  the  base  of  Pompey's  statue, 
which  was  sprinkled  with  his  biood.b     (B.  C.  44.) 

41.  As  soon  as  the  deed  of  death  was  consummated,  Brutus  raised 

a.  "  You  all  did  see,  that  on  the  Lupercal, 

I  thrice  presented  him  a  kingly  crown, 
Which  he  did  thrice  refuse.    Was  this  ambition  ? 
Yet  Brutus  says,  he  was  ambitious ; 
And  sure,  he  is  an  honorable  man." 

Antony's  Oration.     Shakspcare's  Julius  Caesar. 

b.  "For  when  the  noble  Caesar  saw  him  stab, 

Ingratitude,  more  strong  than  traitors  arms, 

Quite  vanquished  him  :  then  burst  his  mighty  heart ; 

And,  in  his  mantle  muffling  up  his  face, 

E?en  at  the  base  of  Pompey's  statue, 

Which  all  the  while  ran  blood,  great  Caesar  fell." 

Antony's  Oration. 


184  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [PART  I. 

his  bloody  dagger,  and  congratulated  the  senate,  and  Cicero  in  par- 
ticular, on  the  recovery  of  liberty ;  but  the  greater  part  of  the  sena- 
tors fled  in  dismay  from  Rome,  or  shut  themselves  up  in  their  houses  j 
and  as  the  conspirators  had  formed  no  plans  of  future  action,  the 
minds  of  the  citizens  were  in  the  utmost  suspense ;  but  tranquillity 
prevailed  until  the  day  appointed  by  the  senate  for  the  funeral. 
Then  Mark  Antony,  who  had  hitherto  urged  conciliation,  ascended 
the  rostrum  to  deliver  the  funeral  oration.  After  he  had  wrought 
upon  the  minds  of  the  people  in  a  most  artful  manner  by  enumerating 
the  great  exploits  and  noble  deeds  of  the  murdered  Caesar,  he  lifted 
up  the  bloody  robe,  and  showed  them  the  body  itself,  l  all  marred  by 
traitors.'  The  multitude  were  seized  with  such  indignation  and 
rage,  that  while  some,  tearing  up  the  benches  of  the  senate-house, 
formed  of  them  a  funeral  pile  and  burnt  the  body  of  Caesar,  others 
ran  through  the  streets  with  drawn  weapons  and  flaming  torches,  de- 
nouncing vengeance  against  the  conspirators.  Brutus  and  Cassius, 
and  their  adherents,  fled  from  Rome,  and  prepared  to  defend  them- 
selves by  force  of  arms. 

42.  Antony,  assisted  by  Lep'  idus,  now  sought  to  place  himself  at 
the  head  of  the  State ;  but  he  found  a  rival  in  the  young  Octavius 
Caesar,  the  grandson  of  Caesar's  sister  Julia,  and  principal  heir  of  the 
murdered  dictator.     The  senate  adhered  to  the  interests  of  Octavius, 
and  declared  Antony  a  public  enemy,  and  several  battles  had  already 
been  fought  between  the  opposing  parties  in  the  north  of  Italy  and 
Gaul,  when  the  three  leaders,  Antony,  Lep'  idus,  and  Octavius,  hav- 

xiv  THE  *n£>  me^  *n  Pr^va^e  conference  on  a  small  island  of  the 
SECOND  TRI-  Rhine,  agreed  to  settle  their  differences,  and  take  upon 
UMVIRATE.  themseives  the  government  of  the  republic  for  five  years — 
thus  forming  the  Second  Triumvirate.  (B.  C.  43.)  A  cold-blooded 
proscription  of  the  enemies  of  the  several  parties  to  the  compact  fol- 
lowed. Antony  yielded  his  own  uncle,  and  Lep'  idus  his  own 
brother,  while  Octavius,  to  his  eternal  infamy,  consented  to  the  sac- 
rifice of  the  virtuous  Cicero  to  satisfy  the  vengeance  of  his  colleagues. 
Cicero  was  betrayed  to  the  assassins  sent  to  dispatch  him,  by  one  of 
his  own  domestics ;  but,  tired  of  life,  he  forbade  his  servants  to  de- 
fend him,  and  yielded  himself  to  his  fate  without  a  struggle. 

43.  Brutus  and  Cassius,  at  the  head  of  the  republican  party,  had 
by  this  time  made  themselves  masters  of  Macedonia,  Greece,  and 
the  Asiatic  provinces ;  and  Octavius  and  Antony,  as  soon  as  they 
had  settled  the  government  at  Rome,  set  out  to  meet  them.     At 


CHAP.  VI.]  ROMAtf  HISTOKY.  185 

Philip'  pi,1  a  town  in  Thrace,  two  battles  were  fought,  and  fortune, 
rather  than  talent,  gave  the  victory  to  the  triumvirs.  (B.  C.  42.) 
Both  Cassius  and  Brutus,  giving  way  to  despair,  destroyed  them- 
selves ;  their  army  was  dispersed,  and  most  of  the  soldiers  after- 
wards entered  the  service  of  the  victors.  Octavius  returned  with 
his  legions  to  Italy,  while  Antony  remained  as  the  master  of  the 
Eastern  provinces. 

44  From  Greece  Antony  passed  over  into  Asia  Minor,  where  he 
caused  great  distress  by  the  heavy  tribute  he  exacted  of  the  inhab- 
itants. While  at  Tarsus,3  in  Cilicia,  the  celebrated  Cleopatra  came 
to  pay  him  a  visit;  and  so  captivated  was  the  Roman  with  the 
charms  and  beauty  of  the  Egyptian  queen,  that  he  accompanied  her 
on  her  return  to  Alexandria,  where  he  lived  for  a  time  in  indolence, 
dissipation,  and  luxury,  neglectful  of  the  calls  of  interest,  honor,  and 
ambition.  In  the  meantime  a  civil  war  had  broken  out  in  Italy ;  for 
the  brother  of  Antony,  aided  by  Fulvia,  the  wife  of  the  latter,  had 
taken  up  arms  against  Octavius ;  but  it  was  not  until  the  rebellion 
had  been  quelled,  and  Octavius  was  everywhere  triumphant,  that  An- 
tony saw  the  necessity  of  returning  to  Italy. 

45.  On  his  way  he  met  at  Athens  his  wife  Fulvia,  whom  he  blamed 
as  the  cause  of  the  recent  disasters,  treated  her  with  the  utmost  con- 
tempt, and  leaving  her  on  her  death-bed  hastened  to  fight  Augustus. 
All  thought  that  another  fierce  struggle  for  the  empire  was  at  hand ; 
but  the  rivals  had  a  personal  interview  at  Brundusium,3  where  a  re- 
conciliation was  effected.  To  secure  the  permanence  of  the  peace, 
Antony  married  Octavia,  the  half-sister  of  Octavius.  A  new  division 
of  the  empire  was  made ;  Antony  was  to  have  the  eastern  provinces 
beyond  the  Ionian  sea ;  Octavius  the  western,  and  Lep'  idus  Africa ; 

1.  Philip'  pi,  a  city  in  the  western  part  of  Thrace,  afterwards  included  in  Macedonia,  was 
about  seventy-five  miles  north-east  from  the  present  Saloniki.    In  addition  to  the  victory  gained 
here  by  Antony  and  Octavius,  it  is  rendered  more  interesting  from  the  circumstance  of  its 
being  the  first  place  where  the  Gospel  was  preached  by  St.  Paul,  (see  Acts,  xvi.,)  and  also  from 
the  Epistle  addressed  by  him  to  the  Philippians.    The  ruins  of  the  city  still  retain  the  name 
of  Filibah,  pronounced  nearly  the  same  as  Philippi.    (Map  No.  I.) 

2.  Tarsus,  the  capital  of  Cilicia,  was  situated  on  the  river  Cydnus,  about  twelve  miles  from 
the  Mediterranean.    It  was  the  birth-place  of  St.  Paul,  of  Antip'  ater  the  stoic,  and  of  Athen- 
odorusthe  philosopher.    It  is  still  a  village  of  some  six  or  seven  thousand  inhabitants,  and 
some  remains  of  its  ancient  magnificence  are  still  visible.    The  visit  of  Cleopatra  to  Antony — 
herself  attired  like  Venus,  and  her  attendants  like  cupids,  in  a  galley  covered  with  gold,  whose 
sails  were  of  purple,  the  oars  of  silver,  and  cordage  of  silk — is  finely  described  in  Shakspeare's 
play  of  Antony  and  Cleopatra,  Act  II.  scene  2.    (Map  No.  IV.) 

3.  Brundusium,  now  Brindisi,  one  of  the  most  important  cities  of  ancient  Italy,  and  the 
port  whence  the  intercourse  between  Italy  and  Greece  and  the  East  was  usually  carried  on, 
was  situated  on  ihe  coast  of  Apulia,  about  three  hundred  miles  south-east  from  Rome.    It  once 
had  an  excellent  harbor,  which  is  now  neatf.y  filled  up.    (Map  No.  VII.) 


186  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  [?AET  1 

and  soon  after,  Sextius  Pompey,  who  had  long  maintained  himself  in 
Sicily  against  the  triumvirs,  was  admitted  into  the  partnership,  and 
assigned  Sicily,  Sardinia,  Corsica,  and  Achaia. 

46.  The  peace  thus  concluded  was  of  short  duration.     Octavius, 
without  any  reasonable  pretext  for  hostilities,  quarrelled  with  Sextiua 
Pompey  and  drove  him  from  his  dominions.     Pompey  fled  to  Phrygia, 
where  he  was  slain  by  one  of  Antony's  lieutenants.     Lep'  idus  and 
Octavius  next  quarrelled  about  the  possession  of  Sicily ;  but  Octavius 
corrupted  the  soldiers  of  Lep'  idus,  and  induced  them  to  desert  their 
general,  who  was  compelled  to  surrender  his  province  to  his  rival. 
Antony,  in  the  meantime,  had  been  engaged  in  an  unsuccessful  expe- 
dition against  the  Parthians;  after  which,  returning  to  Egypt,  he 
once  more  became  enslaved  by  the  charms  of  Cleopatra,  upon  whom 
he  conferred  several  Roman  provinces  in  Asia.     When  his  wife  Oc- 
tavia  set  out  from  Rome  to  visit  him  he  ordered  her  to  return,  and  after- 
wards repudiated  her,  pretending  a  previous  marriage  with  Cleopatra. 

47.  After  this  insult  Octavius  could  no  longer  keep  peace  with  him, 
and  as  the  war  had  long  been  anticipated,  the  most  formidable  prepa- 
rations were  made  on  both  sides,  and  both  parties  were  soon  in 
readiness.     Their  fleets  met  off  the  promontory  of  Ac'  tium,1  in  the 
Ionian  sea,  while  the  hostile  armies,  drawn  up  on  opposite  sides  of  the 
strait  which  enters  the  Ambracian  G-ulf,  were  spectators  of  the  battle. 
(B.  C.  31.)     While  the  victory  was  yet  undecided,  Cleopatra,  who 
had  accompanied  Antony  with  a  large  force,  overcome  with  anxiety 
and  fear,  ordered  her  galley  to  remove  from  the  scene  of  action.     A 
large  number  of  the  Egyptian  ships,  witnessing  her  flight,  withdrew 
from  the  battle ;  and  the  infatuated  Antony,  as  soon  as  he  saw  that 
Cleopatra  had  fled,  apparently  losing  his  self-possession,  hastily  fol- 
lowed her  in  a  quick-sailing  vessel,  and  being  taken  on  board  the 
galley  of  Cleopatra,  became  the  companion  of  her  flight.     The  fleet 
of  Antony  was  annihilated,  and  his  land  forces,  soon  after,  made 
terms  with  the  conqueror. 

48.  Octavius,  after  first  returning  to  Italy  to  tranquillize  some  dis- 
turbances there,  pursued  the  fugitives  to  Egypt.     Antony  endeavored 
to  impede  the  march  of  the  victor  to  Alexandria,  but  seeing  all  his 
efforts  fruitless,  in  a  paroxysm  of  rage  he  reproached  Cleopatra  with 
being  the  author  of  his  misfortunes,  and  resolving  never  to  fall  alive 
into  the  hands  of  his  enemy,  he  put  an  end  to  his  own  life.     When 

1.  The  promontory  of  Ac'  tium  was  a  small  neck  of  land  at  the  north-western  extremity  ol 
Acamania,  at  the  entrance  of  the  Ambracian  Gulf,  now  Gulf  of  Arta. 


CHAP.  VI]  ROMAN  HISTORY.  187 

Cleopatra,  who  had  shut  herself  up  in  her  palace,  found  that  Octa- 
vius  designed  to  spare  her  only  to  adorn  his  triumph,  she  caused  a 
poisonous  viper  to  be  applied  to  her  arm,  and  thus  followed  Antony 
in  death.  (B.  C.  30.)  Egypt,  immediately  submitted  to  the  sway 
of  Octavius,  and  became  a  province  of  the  Roman  empire. 

49.  The  death  of  Antony  had  put  an  end  to  the  Triumvirate ;  and 
Octavius  was  now  left  sole  master  of  the  Roman  world.     While 
taking  the  most  effectual  measures  to  secure  his  power,     Xv.  OCTA- 
he  dissembled  his  real  purposes,  and  talked  of  restoring    Vlus  SOLE 
the  republic ;  but  it  was  evident  that  a  free  constitution 


XBE    ROMAN 


could  no  longer  be  maintained ; — the  most  eminent  citi-      WORLD. 
zens  besought  him  to  take  the  government  into  his  own  hands,  and  at 
the  beginning  of  the  28th  year  before  the  Christian  era,  the  history 
of  the  Roman  Republic  ends.     All  the  armies  had  sworn  allegiance 
to  Octavius ;  he  was  made  pro-consul  over  the  whole  Roman  empire — 
he   gave   the    administration  of   the  provinces  to  whomsoever   he 
pleased — and  appointed  and  removed  senators  at  his  will.     In  the 
27th  year  B.  C.  the  senate  conferred  upon  him  the  title  of  AUGUSTUS, 
or  "  The  Divine,"  and  of  Imperator,  or  "  chief  governor,"  for  ten 
years,  and  gave  his  name  to  the  sixth  month  of  the  Roman  year, 
(August)  as  that  of  Julius  Caesar  had  been  given  to  the  fifth,  and 
four  years  later  he  was  made  perpetual  tribune  of  the  people,  which 
rendered  his  person  sacred.     Although  without  the  title  of  a  mon- 
arch, and  discarding  the  insignia  of  royalty,  his  exalted  station  con 
ferred  upon  him  all  the  powers  of  sovereignty,  which  he  exercised, 
nevertheless,  with  moderation, — seemingly  desirous  that  the  triumvir 
Octavius  should  be  forgotten  in  the  mild  reign  of  the  emperor  Augustus. 
50.  After  a  series  of  successful  wars  in  Asia,  Africa,  and  in  Spain, 
and  the  subjugation  of  Aquitania,  Pannonia,  Dalmatia,  and  Illy'  ria, 
by  the  Roman  arms,  a  general  peace,  with  the  exception  of  some 
trifling   disturbances    in    the   frontier    provinces,   was    established 
throughout  the  vast  dominions  of  the  empire,  which  now  extended 
on  the  east  from  the  cataracts  of  the  Nile  to  the  plains  of  Scythia, 
and  on  the  west  from  the  Libyan  deserts  and  the  pillars  of  Hercules 
to  the  German  ocean.a     The  temple  of  Janus  was  now  closed  b  for 
the  third  time  since  the  foundation  of  Rome.     It  was  at  this  auspi- 
cious period  that  Jesus  Christ,  the  promised  Messiah,  was  born ; 
and  thus,  literally,  was  his  advent  the  herald  of  "  peace  on  earth, 
and  good  will  toward  men." 

a.  (B.  C.  10.    Seo  Map  No.  IX.)  b.  (B.  C.  10.) 


PART    II. 
MODERN    HISTORY 


CHAPTER    I. 

ROMAN    HISTORY  CONTINUED,  FROM    THE  COMMENCEMENT  OF 

THE  CHRISTIAN  ERA,  TO  THE  OVERTHROW  OF  THE  WESTERN 

EMPIRE  OF  THE  ROMANS,  A.  D.  1,  TO  A.  D.  476. 

SECTION    I. 

ROMAN   HISTORY   FROM   THE    BEGINNING   OF  THE   CHRISTIAN   ERA  TO   THE   DEATH 
OF   DOMITIAN,  THE    LAST   OF   THE   TWELVE    CAESARS,  A.  D.    96. 

ANALYSIS.  1.  EARLIER  AND  LATER  HISTORY  OF  THE  EMPIRE  COMPARED. — 2.  The  empire 
at  the  end  of  the  first  century  of  the  Christian  era.  The  feeling  with  which  we  hurry  over  the 
closing  scenes  of  Roman  history.  Importance  of  the  history  of  the  "  decline  and  fall "  of  the 
empire.  Subjects  of  the  present  chapter. 

3.  JULIUS  CJESAR.  Commencement  of  the  Roman  empire. — 4.  The  reign  of  AUGUSTUS. 
Rebellion  of  the  Germans. — 5.  Grief  of  Augustus  at  the  loss  of  his  legions.  The  danger  of  inva- 
sion averted. — 6.  The  accession  of  TIBE'  RIUS.  The  selection  of  future  sovereigns. — 7.  Character 
of  Tiberius,  and  commencement  of  his  reign.— 8.  German  wars— German' icus.— 9.  Sejanus, 
the  minister  of  Tiberius.  [Capreae.]— 10.  The  death  of  Sejanus.  Death  of  Tiberius.  Cruci- 
fixion of  the  Saviour. — 11.  CALIQ'  ULA.  His  character,  and  wicked  actions. — 12.  His  follies. 
His  extravagance.  His  death. — 13.  CLAUDIUS  proclaimed  emperor.  His  character. — 14.  His 
two  wives.  His  death. — 15.  Foreign  events  of  the  reign  of  Claudius. — 16.  NERO.  The  first  five 
years  of  his  reign.  Death  of  Agrippina,  and  of  Burrhus,  Seneca,  and  Lucan.  Conflagration 
of  Rome. — 17.  Persecutions  of  the  Christians.  Nero's  extravagances. — 18.  The  provinces  pil- 
laged by  him.  His  popularity  with  the  rabble.  Revolts  against  him.  His  death.— 19.  Foreign 
events  of  the  reign  of  Nero.  [Druids.  The  Iceni  London.] 

20.  End  of  the  reign  of  the  Julian  family.  Brief,  reign  of  GALBA.— 21.  Character,  and  reign 
of  OTHO.— 22.  Character,  and  reign  of  VITEL'  LIUS.  Revolt  in  Syria.— 23.  Vitel'  lius,  forced  to 
resist,  is  finally  put  to  death  by  the  populace. — 24.  Temporary  rule  of  Domitian.  Character, 
and  reign  of  VESPASIAN. — 25.  Beginning,  and  causes  of  the  JEWISH  WAR. — 26.  Situation  of  Jeru- 
salem, and  commencement  of  the  siege  by  the  Roman  army.  Expectations  of  Titus. — 27.  Prom- 
ises made  to  the  Jews.  Their  strange  infatuation.— 28.  The  horrors  of  the  siege.— 29.  Dreadful 
mortality  in  the  city.  The  fall  of  Jerusalem. — 30.  The  number  of  those  who  perished,  and  of 
those  made  prisoners.  Fate  of  the  prisoners.  Destruction  of  the  Jewish  nation— 31.  Comple- 
tion of  the  conquest  of  Britain.  The  enlightened  policy  of  Agric'  ola.  [Caledonia.]— 32.  TITUS 
succeeds  Vespasian.  His  character.  Events  of  his  brief  reign.  [Vesuvius.  Herculaneum. 
Pompeii.}  - 13.  DOMITIAN.  His  character,  and  the  character  of  his  reign.  Persecutions.— 34. 


CHAP.  I]  ROMAN   HISTORY.  189 

Provincial  affairs.  The  triumphs  of  Domitian.  [Moesia.  Dacia.  Germany.]— 35.  Death  of 
Domitian.— :*6.  Close  of  the  reign  of  the  "  Twelve  Caesars."  Their  several  deaths.  Character 
of  the  history  of  the  Roman  emperors  thus  far.— 37.  The  city  of  Rome,  and  the  Roman  empire. 
The  beginning  of  national  decay. 

1 .  As  we  enter  upon  the  time  of  the  Roman  emperors,  Roman  his- 
tory, so  highly  pleasing  and  attractive  in  its  early  stages,  and  during 
the  eventful  period  of  the  Republic,  gradually  declines  in  interest  to 
the  general  reader  ;  for  the  Roman  people,  whose  many   L  EARLIER 
virtues  and  sufferings  awakened  our  warmest  sympathies,    AND  LATER 

1      J  1  t     i  Ai        TI  i    •          HISTORY  OF 

had  now  become  corrupt  and  degenerate ;  the  liberal  in-  THE  EMP1RK 
fluences  of  their  popular  assemblies,  and  the  freedom  of    COMPARED. 
the  Roman  senate,  had  given  place  to  arbitrary  force ;  and  although 
the  splendors  of  the  empire  continue  to  dazzle  for  awhile,  hencefor- 
ward the  political  history  of  the  Romans  is  little  more  than  the 
biographies  of  individual  rulers,  and  their  few  advisers  and  asso- 
ciates in  power,  who  controlled  the  political  destinies  of  more  than 
a  hundred  millions  of  people. 

2.  We  shall  find  that,   at  the  end  of  the  first  century  of  the 
Christian  era,  the  empire,  having  already  attained  its  full  strength 
and  maturity,  began  to  verge  towards  its  decline ;  and  we  are  apt  to 
hurry  over  the  closing  scenes  of  Roman  history  with  an  instinctive 
feeling  that  shrinks  from  the  contemplation  of  waning  glories  and 
national  degeneracy.     But  while  the  history  of  the  Republican  era 
may  exceed  in  interest  that  of  the  "  decline  and  fall "  of  the  empire, 
yet  the  latter  is  of  far  greater  political  importance  than  the  former  j 
for,  including  the  early  history  of  many  important  sects,  and  codes, 
and  systems,  whose  influences  still  exist,  it  is  the  link  that  connects 
the  past  with  the   present — the  Ancient  with  the  Modern  world. 
The  theologian  and  jurist  must  be  familiar  with  it  in  order  to  under- 
stand much  of  the  learning  and  history  of  their  respective  depart- 
ments ;  and  it  deserves  the  careful  preparatory  study  of  every  reader 
of  modern  European  history ;  as  nearly  all  the  kingdoms  of  modern 
Europe  have  arisen  from  the  fragments  into  which  the  empire  of 
the  Caesars  was  broken.     We  proceed  then,  in  the  present  chapter, 
to  a  brief  survey,  which  is  all  that  our  limited  space  will  allow,  of, 
first,  the  overtowering  greatness,  and,  second,  the  decline,  and  final 
overthrow,  in  all  the  west  of  Europe,  of  that  mighty  fabric  of  em- 
pire which  valor  had  founded,  and  enlightened  policy  had  so  long 
sustained,  upon  the  seven  hills  of  Rome. 

3.  The  rule  of  Julius  Caesar,  who  is  called  the  first  of  the  twelve 


190  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAET  II 

Csesars,  although  he  was  not  nominally  king,  was  that  of  one  who  pos- 
ii  JULIUS    sessed  all  the  essential  attributes  of  sovereignty  5  and 
OESAR.      from    the   battle  of  Pharsalia,  which  decided  the  fate 
of  the  Roman  world,  might  with  propriety  be  dated  the  commence- 
ment of  the  Roman  empire,  although  its  era  is  usually  dated  at  the 
beginning  of  the  twenty-eighth  year  before  the  Christian  era, — the 
time  of  the  general  acknowledgment  of  the  sovereignty  of  Augustus. 

4.  The  reign  of  Augustus  continued  until  the  fourteenth  year 
in.  AUGUS-    after  the  birth  of  Christ — forty-four  years  in  all,  dating 

TUS.  from  the  battle  of  Ac'  tium,  which  made  Augustus  sole 
sovereign  of  the  empire.  After  the  general  peace  which  followed  the 
early  wars  and  conquests  of  the  emperor,  the  great  prosperity  of  his 
reign  was  disturbed  by  a  rebellion  of  the  Germans,  which  had  been 
provoked  by  the  extortions  of  Varus,  the  Roman  commander  on  the 
northern  frontier.  Varus  was  entrapped  in  the  depths  of  the  German 
forests,  where  nearly  his  whole  army  was  annihilated,  and  he  himself, 
in  despair,  put  an  end  to  his  own  life.  (A.  D.  9.)  Awful  vengeance 
was  taken  upon  the  Romans  who  became  prisoners,  many  of  them 
being  sacrificed  to  the  gods  of  the  Germans. 

5.  The  news  of  the  defeat  of  his  general  threw  Augustus  into  trans- 
ports of  grief,  during  which  he  frequently  exclaimed,  "  Varus,  restore 
me  my  legions !"     It  was  thought  that  the  Germans  would  cross  the 
Rhine,  and  that  all  Gaul  would  unite  with  them  in  the  revolt ;  but 
a  large   Roman  army  under  Tiberius,  the  son-in-law  and  heir  of 
Augustus,  was  sent  to  guard  the  passes  of  the  Rhine,  and  the  danger 
was  averted. 

6.  Augustus,  having  designed  Tiberius  for  his  successor,  associated 
him  in  his  counsels,  and  conferred  upon  him  so  large  a  share  of  present 
power,  that  on  the  death  of  the  emperor,  Tiberius  easily  took  his 

place,  so  that  the  nation  scarcely  perceived  the  change 
'  of  masters.  (A.  D.  14.)  The  policy  of  Augustus  in 
selecting,  and  preparing  the  way  for,  the  future  sovereign,  was  suc- 
cessfully imitated  by  nearly  all  his  successors  during  nearly  two  cen- 
turies, although  the  emperors  continued  to  be  elected,  ostensibly  at 
least,  by  the  authority  of  the  senate,  and  the  consent  of  the  soldiers. 

7.  Tiberius,  a  man  of  reserved  character,  and  of  great  dissimula- 
tion,— suspicious,  dark,  and  revengeful,  but  possessing  a  handsome 
figure,  and  in  his  early  years  exhibiting  great  talents  and  unwearied 
industry,  having  yielded  with  feigned  reluctance  to  the  wishes  of  the 
senate  that  he  would  undertake  the  government,  commenced  his 


CHAP.  I]  ROMAN  HISTORY.  191 

reign  with  the  appearance  of  justice  and  moderation ;  but  after  nine 
years  of  dissimulation,  his  sensual  and  tyrannical  character  openly 
exhibited  itself  in  the  vicious  indulgence  of  every  base  passion,  and 
the  perpetration  of  the  most  wanton  cruelties. 

8.  The  early  part  of  his  reign  is  distinguished  by  the  wars  carried 
on  in  Germany  by  his  accomplished  general  and  nephew,  the  virtu- 
ous German'  icus ;  but  Tiberius,  jealous  of  the  glory  and  fame  which 
German'  icus  was  winning,  recalled  him  from  his  command,  and  then 
sent  him  as  governor  to  the  Eastern  provinces,  where  all  his  under- 
takings were  thwarted  by  the  secret  commands  of  the  emperor,  who 
was  supposed  to  have  caused  his  death  to  be  hastened  by  poison. 

9.  The  only  confidant  of  Tiberius  was  his  minister  Sejanus,  whose 
character  bore  a  great  resemblance  to  that  of  his  sovereign.     Secret- 
ly aspiring  to  the  empire,  he  contrived  to  win  the  heart  of  Tiberius  by 
exciting  his  mistrust  towards  his  own  family  relatives,  most  of  whom 
he  caused  to  be  poisoned,  or  condemned  to  death  for  suspected  trea- 
son ;  but  his  most  successful  project  was  the  removal  of  Tiberius 
from  Rome  to  the  little  island  of  Caprese,1  where  the  monarch  re- 
mained during  a  number  of  years,  indulging  his  indolence  and  de- 
baucheries, while  Sejanus,  ruling  at  Rome,  perpetrated  the  most 
shocking  cruelties  in  the  name  of  his  master,  and  put  to  death  the 
most  eminent  citizens,  scarcely  allowing  them  the  useless  mockery  of 
a  trial. 

10.  But  Sejanus  at  length  fell  under  the  suspicion  of  the  empe- 
ror, and  the  same  day  witnessed  his  arrest  and  execution — a  mem- 
orable example  of  the  instability  of  human  grandeur.     His  death 
was  followed  by  a  general  massacre  of  his  friends  and  relations.     At 
length  Tiberius  himself,  after  a  long  career  of  crime,  falling  sick, 
was  smothered  in  bed  by  one  of  his  officers,  at  the  instigation  of  the 
base  Calig'  ula,  the  son  of  German'  icus,  and  adopted  heir  of  the 
emperor.     It  was  during  the  reign  of  Tiberius  that  Jesus  Christ  was 
crucified  in  Judea,  under  the  prsetorship  of  Pontius  Pilate,  the  Ro- 
man governor  of  that  province. 

11.  Calig' ula,  whose  real  character  was  unknown  to  the  people, 

1.  C&prea,  now  called  Capri,  is  a  small  island,  about  ten  miles  in  circumference,  on  the 
south  side  of  the  entrance  to  the  bay  of  Naples.  It  is  sun  junded  on  all  sides  but  one  by  lofty 
and  perpendicular  cliffs;  and  in  the  centre  is  a  secluded  vale,  remarkable  for  its  beauty  and 
salubrity.  The  tyrant  was  led  to  select  this  spot  for  his  abode,  as  well  from  its  difficulty  of  ac- 
cess, as  from  the  mildness  and  salubrity  of  its  climate,  and  the  unrivalled  magnificence  of  the 
prospects  which  it  affords.  He  is  said  to  have  built  no  less  than  twelve  villas  in  different  parts 
of  the  island,  and  to  have  named  them  after  the  twelve  celestial  divinities.  The  ruins  of  one 
of  them — the  villa  of  Jove — are  still  to  be  seen  on  the  summit  of  a  cliff  opposite  Sorrento. 


192  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  II. 

received  from  them  an  enthusiastic  welcome  on  his  accession  to  the 
v.  CALIG'-  throne,  {A;  D.  37,)  but  they  soon  found  him  to  be  a 
ULA.  greater  monster  of  wickedness  and  dissimilation  than  his 
predecessor.  A  detailed  description  of  his  wicked  actions,  which 
some  have  attributed  to  madness,  would  afford  little  pleasure  to  the 
reader.  Not  satisfied  with  mere  murder,  he  ordered  all  the  prisoners 
in  Rome,  and  numbers  of  the  aged  and  infirm,  to  be  thrown  to  wild 
beasts ;  he  claimed  divine  honors,  erected  a  temple,  and  instituted  a 
college  of  priests  to  superintend  his  own  worship  5  and  finding  the 
senate  too  backward  in  adulation,  he  seriously  contemplated  the 
massacre  of  the  entire  body. 

12.  His   follies  were   no  less  conspicuous  than  his  vices.     For 
his  favorite  horse  Incitatus  he  claimed  greater  respect  and  rever- 
ence than  were  due  to  mortals :    he  built  him  a  stable  of  marble 
and  a  manger  of  ivory,  and  frequently  invited  him  to  the  imperial 
table  ;  and  it  is  said  that  his  death  alone  prevented  him  from  con- 
ferring upon  the  animal  the  honors  of  the  consulship  !     A  fortune 
of  eighteen  millions  sterling,  which  had  been  left  by  Tiberius,  was 
squandered  by  Calig'  ula,  in  a  most  senseless  manner,  in  little  more 
than  a  year,  while  fresh  sums,  raised  by  confiscations,  were  lavished 
in  the  same  way.     At  length,  after  a  reign  of  four  years,  Calig'  ula 
was  murdered  by  his  own  guards,  to  the  great  joy  of  the  senators, 
who  suddenly  awoke  to  the  wild  hope  of  restoring  the  Republic. 

13.  The  illusion  soon  disappeared,  for  the  spirit  of  Roman  liberty 
no  longer  existed.     The  Praetorian  guards,a  who  had  all  the  power 
in  their  own  hands,  insisting  upon  being  governed  by  a  monarch, 
proclaimed  the  imbecile  Claudius  emperor,  at  a  time  when  he  expected 

vi.         nothing  but  death ;  and  their  choice  was  sanctioned  by 

CLAUDIUS,     the  senate.     Claudius  was  an  uncle  of  the  late  emperor, 

and  brother  of  German'  icus.     He  was  so  deficient  in  judgment  and 

reflection  as  to  be  deemed  intolerably  stupid  5  he  was  not  destitute  of 

a.  The  Praetorian  guards  were  gradually  instituted  by  Augustus  to  protect  his  person,  awe 
the  senate,  keep  the  veterans  aud  legions  in  check,  and  prevent  or  crush  the  first  movements 
of  rebellion.  Something  similar  to  them  had  existed  from  the  earliest  times  in  the  body  of 
armed  guides  who  accompanied  the  general  in  his  military  expeditions.  At  first  Augustus 
stationed  three  cohorts  only  in  the  capital :  but  Tiberius  assembled  all  of  them,  to  the  number 
of  ten  thousand,  at  Rome,  aud  assigned  them  a  permanent  and  well-fortified  camp  close  to  the 
walls  of  the  city,  on  the  broad  summit  of  the  Quirinal  and  Virninal  hills.  This  measure  cf 
Tiberius  forever  riveted  the  fetters  of  his  country.  The  Praetorian  bands,  soon  learning  their 
own  strength,  and  the  weakness  of  the  civil  government,  became  eventually  the  real  master* 
of  the  empire.— Gibbon's  Rome,  i.  61 ;  and  Niebuhr,  v.  75. 


CHAP.  I.]  ROMAN   HISTORY.  193 

good  nature,  but  unfortunately  he  was  made  the  dupe  of  abandoned 
favorites,  for  whose  crime  history  has  unjustly  held  him  responsible. 

14.  For  a  time  his  wife  Messalina,  the  most  dissolute  and  aban- 
donecPof  women,  ruled  him  at  pleasure ;  and  numbers  of  the  most 
worthy  citizens  were  sacrificed  to  her  jealousy,  avarice,  and  revenge ; 
but  finally  she  was  put  to  death  by  the  emperor  for  her  shameless  in- 
fidelity to  him.     Claudius  then  married  his  niece  Agrippina.  then  a 
widow,  and  the  mother  of  the  afterwards  infamous  Nero.     She  was 
no  less  cruel  in  disposition  than  Messalina ;  her  ambition  was  un- 
bounded, and  her  avarice  insatiable.     After  having  prevailed  upon 
Claudius  to  adopt  as  his  heir  and  successor  her  son  Nero,  to  the 
exclusion  of  his  own  children,  she  caused  the  emperor  to  be  poisoned 
by  his  physician.     (A.  D.  54.)     As  Agrippina  had  gained  the  captain 
of  the  Prsetorian  guards  to  her  interest,  the  army  proclaimed  Nero 
emperor,  arid  the  senate  confirmed  their  choice. 

15.  Tho  foreign  events  of  the  reign  of  Claudius  were  of  greater 
importance  than  his  domestic  administration.      Julius  Caesar  had 
first  carried  the  Roman  arms  into  Britain  in  a  brief  and  fruitless  in- 
vasion ;  but  during  the  reign  of   Claudius  the  Romans  began  to 
think  seriously  of  reducing  the  whole  island  under  their  dominion. 
At  first  Claudius  sent  over  his  general  Plau'  tus,  (A.  D.  43,)  who 
gained  some  victories  over  the  rude  inhabitants.     Claudius  himself 
then  made  a  journey  into  Britain,  and  received  the  submission  of  the 
tribes  that  inhabited  the  south-eastern  parts  of  the  island  ;  but  the 
other  Britons,  under  their  king  Carac'  tacus,  maintained  an  obstinate 
resistance  until  the  Roman  army  was  placed  under  the  command  of 
Ostorius,  who  defeated  Carac'  tacus  in  a  great  battle,  and  sent  him 
prisoner  to  Rome.     (A.  D.  51.) 

16.  Nero,  the  successor  of  Claudius,  was  a  youth  of  only  seventeen 
when  he  ascended  the  tlirone.     (A.  D.  54.)     He  had  been  nurtured 
in  the  midst  of  crimes,  and  the  Roman  world  looked  upon 

him  with  apprehension  and  dread ;  but  during  five  years, 
while  he  still  remained  under  the  influence  of  his  early  instructors, 
Seneca  and  Burrhus,  he  disappointed  the  fears  of  all  by  the  mildness 
of  his  reign.  At  length  his  mother  Agrippina  fell  under  the  sus- 
picion of  designing  to  restore  the  crown  to  the  still  surviving  son  of 
Claudius;  and  the  emperor  caused  both  to  be  put  to  death.  After 
this  he  abandoned  himself  to  bloodshed,  in  which  he  took  a  savage 
delight.  He'  is  accused  of  having  caused  the  death  of  his  able  min~ 

13 


194  MODERN   HISTORY.  [PART  II. 

ister  Burrhus  by  poison ;  Senecaa  the  philosopher,  Lucanb  the  poet, 
and  most  of  the  leading  nobles,  were  condemned  on  the  charge  of 
treason ;  and  a  conflagration  in  Rome  which  lasted  nine  days,  and 
destroyed  the  greater  part  of  the  city,  (A.  D.  64,)  was  generally  be- 
lieved to  have  been  kindled  by  his  orders ;  and  some  reported  that 
in  order  to  enjoy  the  spectacle,  he  ascended  a  high  tower,  where  he 
amused  himself  with  singing  the  Destruction  of  Troy. 

1 7.  In  order  to  remove  the  suspicions  of  the  people,  he  caused  a 
report  to  be  circulated  that  the  Christians  were  the  authors  of  the 
fire ;  and  thousands  of  that  innocent  sect  were  put  to  death  under 
circumstances  of  the  greatest  barbarity.     Sometimes,  covered  by  the 
skins  of  wild  beasts,  they  were  exposed  to  be  torn  in  pieces  by  de- 
vouring dogs ;  some  were  crucified  :  others,  wrapped  in  combustible 
garments,  which  were  set  on  fire,  were  made  to  serve  as  torches  to 
illuminate  the  emperor's  gardens  by  night.     Nero  often  appeared  on 
the  Roman  stage  in  the  character  of  an  actor,  musician,  or  gladiator ; 
he  also  visited  the  principal  cities  of  Greece  in  succession,  where  he 
obtained  a  number  of  victories  in  the  public  Grecian  games. 

18.  While  he  was  engaged  in  these  extravagances,  the  provinces 
of  the  empire  were  pillaged  to  support  his  luxuries  and  maintain  his 
almost  boundless  prodigalities.     To  the  lower  classes,  who  felt  no- 
thing of  his  despotism,  he  made  monthly  distributions  of  corn,  to  the 
encouragement  of  indolence  ;  and  he  gratified  the  populace  of  Rome 
by  occasional  supplies  of  wine  and  meat,  and  by  the  magnificent 
shows  of  the  circus.     Nero  was  popular  with  the  rabble,  which  ex- 
plains the  fact  that  his  atrocities  and  follies  were  so  long  endured 
by  the  Roman  people.     At  length,  however,  the  standard  of  revolt 
was  raised  in  Gaul  by  Vindex,  the  Roman  governor,  and  soon  after 
by  Galba  in  Spain.     Vindex  perished  in  the  struggle ;  and  Galba 

a.  Seneca,  the  moral  philosopher,  was  born  at  Cordova  in  Spain,  in  the  second  or  third 
year  of  the  Christian  era;  but  at  an  early  age  he  went  to  reside  at  Rome.     Messalina, 
who  hated  him,  caused  him  to  be  banished  to  Corsica,  where  he  remained  eight  years  ;  but 
Agrippina  recalled  him  from  banishment,  and  appointed  him,  in  conjunction  with  Burrhus, 
tutor  to  Nero.    Burrhus,  a  man  of  stern  virtue,  instructed  the  prince  in  military  science : 
Seneca  taught  him  philosophy,  the  fine  arts,  and  elegant  accomplishments.    Although  Seneca 
laid  down  excellent  rules  of  morality  for  others,  his  own  character  is  not  above  reproach. 
Being  ordered  by  Nero  to  be  his  own  executioner,  he  caused  his  veins  to  be  opened  in  a  hot 
bath  ;  but  as,  at  his  age,  the  blood  flowed  slowly,  he  drank  a  dose  of  hemlock  to  accelerate 
his  death. 

b.  Lucan,  a  nephew  of  Seneca,  and  also  a  native  of  Cordova,  was  an  eminent  Latin  poet, 
although  he  died  at  the  early  age  of  twenty-seven  years.    Of  his  many  poems,  the  Pharsalia, 
or  war  between  Caesar  and  Pompey,  is  the  only  one  that  has  escaped  destruction.    He  incurred 
the  enmity  of  Nero  by  vanquishing  him  in  a  poetical  contest. 


CHAP.  I.J  ROMAN  HISTORY.  195 

would  have  been  ruined  had  not  the  Prafetorian  guards,  under  the  in- 
fluence of  their  commander  Otho,  renounced  their  allegiance.  With 
this  latter  calamity  Nero  abandoned  all  hope ;  and  when  he  learned 
that  the  senate  had  declared  him  an  enemy  to  the  country,  too  cow- 
ardly to  kill  himself,  he  sought  death  by  the  hands  of  one  of  his 
freedmen,  from  whom  he  received  a  mortal  wound.  (A.  D.  68.) 

19.  During  the  greater  part  of  the  reign  of  Nero  the  empire  en- 
joyed, in  general,  a  profound  peace ;  the  only  wars  of  importance 
being  with  the  Parthians  and  the  Bf  itons.     The  former  were  defeated 
and  reduced  by  Cor'  bulo,  the  greatest  general  of  his  time.     This 
virtuous  Roman  had  kept  his  faith  even  to  Nero  ;  but  .the  only  re- 
ward which  he  received  from  the  emperor  for  his  victories,  was — 
death.     In  Britain,  Suetonius  Paulinus  defeated  the  inhabitants  in 
several  battles,  and  penetrating  into  the  heart  of  the  country,  de- 
stroyed the  consecrated  groves  and  altars  of  the  druids.a     After- 
wards the  Iceni,b  under  the  command  of  their  queen  Boadic'  ea,  re- 
volted, burned  London,0  then  a  flourishing  Roman  colony,  reduced 
many  other  settlements,  and  put  to  death,  in  all,  seventy  thousand 
Romans.     Suetonius  avenged   their   fate   in   a   decisive   battle,  in 
which  eighty  thousand  Britons  are  said  to  have  perished.     The  heroic 
Boadic'  ea,  rather  than  submit  to  the  victor,  put  an  end  to  her  life  by 
poison.     During  the  reign  of  Nero  also  occurred  the  famous  rebel- 
lion in  Judea,  and  the  beginning  of  the  war  which  resulted  in  the 
destruction  of  the  Jewish  nation. 

20.  With  the  death  of  Nero  the  reign  of  the  Julian  family,  or 
the  true  line  of  the  Caesars,  ended ;  although  six  succeeding  empe- 
rors are  included  in  what  are  usually  styled  "  the  twelve  Caesars."    A 
series  of  sanguinary  wars,  arising  from  disputed  succession,  followed. 

a.  The  druids  were  the  priests  or  ministers  of  religion  among  the  ancient  Gauls  and  Britons. 
Their  chief  seat  was  an  island  of  the  Irish  Sea,  now  called  Anglesey,  which  was  taken  by  Sue- 
tonius after  a  fanatical  resistance.    This  general  cut  down  the  groves  of  the  druids,  and  nearly 
exterminated  both  the  priests  and  their  religion.    The  druids  believed  in  the  existence  of  one  Su- 
preme Being,  a  state  of  future  rewards  and  punishments,  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  and  its 
transmigration  through  different  bodies.    They  possessed  some  knowledge  of  geometry,  natural 
philosophy,  and  astronomy ;  they  practiced  astrology,  magic,  and  sooth-saying ;  they  regarded 
the  mistletoe  as  the  holiest  object  in  nature,  and  esteemed  the  oak  sacred ;  they  abhorred  im- 
ages ;  they  worshipped  fire  as  the  emblem  of  the  sun,  and  in  their  sacrifices  often  immola- 
ted human  victims.    They  exercised  great  authority  in  the  government  of  the  State,  appointed 
the  highest  officers  in  the  cities,  and  were  the  chief  administrators  of  justice.    On  the  intro- 
duction of  Christianity  into  Britain,  the  druidical  order  gradually  ceased. 

b.  The  Iceni  inhabited  the  country  on  the  eastern  coast  of  England.    Their  chief  town  was 
a  place  now  called  Caister,  about  three  miles  from  Norwich. 

c.  London,  anciently  Londinium,  was  in  existence,  as  a  town  of  the  Trlnobantes,  before  the 
Invasionwf  Julius  Caesar. 


196  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAET  II. 

At  first  Galba,  then  in  the  seventy-third  year  of  his  are,  a  man  of  un- 
blemished personal  character,  was  universally  acknowl- 
edged emperor ;  but  he  soon  lost  the  attachment  of  the 
soldiery  by  his  parsimony,  while  the  influence  of  injudicious  favorites 
led  him  into  unseasonable  severities  for  the  suppression  of  the  enor- 
mous vices  of  the  times.  Several  revolts  against  his  authority 
rapidly  succeeded  each  other,  and  finally,  Otho,  who  had  been  among 
the  foremost  to  espouse  his  cause,  finding  that  Galba  refused  to 
nominate  him  for  his  successor,  procured  a  revolt  of  the  Praetorian 
guards  in  his  own  favor.  After  a  brief  struggle  in  the  streets  of 
Rome,  Galba  was  slain,  after  a  reign  of  only  seven  months. 

21.  While  the  unworthy  Otho,  a  passive  instrument  in  the  hands 
of  a  licentious  soldiery,  remained  at  Rome,  with  the  title  of  emperor, 

immersed  in  pleasures  and  debaucheries,  Vitel'  lius,  a 

IX.    OTHO.  ,  ,       .    .  ,  ~    ,  i     •  i 

man  more  vulgar  and  vicious  than  Otho,  was  proclaimed 
emperor  by  the  legions  under  his  command  on  the  German  frontier. 
A  brief  but  sanguinary  struggle  followed,  and  Otho,  having  sustained 
a  defeat  in  the  north  of  Italy,  fell  by  his  own  hand,  after  a  reign  of 
ninety-five  days. 

22.  Vitel'  lius,  entering  Rome  in  triumph,  ordered  more  than  a 
hundred  of  the  praetorian  guards  to  be  put  to  death ;  but  he  en- 

x.  VITEL'-  deavored  to  win  the  favor  of  the  populace  by  large 
LIUS.  donations  of  provisions,  and  expensive  games  and  enter- 
tainments. His  personal  character  was  cruel  and  contemptible. 
Under  the  most  frivolous  pretences  the  wealthy  were  put  to  death, 
and  their  property  seized  by  the  emperor ;  and  in  less  than  four 
months,  as  stated  by  historians,  this  bloated  and  pampered  ruler  ex- 
pended on  the  mere  luxuries  of  the  table  a  sum  equal  to  about 
seven  millions  sterling.  But  while  wallowing  in  the  indulgence  of 
the  most  debasing  appetites,  he  was  startled  by  the  intelligence  that 
the  legions  engaged  in  the  Jewish  war  in  Syria  had  declared  their 
general,  Vespasian,  emperor,  and  were  already  on  their  march 
towards  Rome. 

23.  As  province  after  province  submitted  to  Vespasian,  and  his 
generals  rapidly  overcame  the  little  opposition  they  encountered, 
Vitel'  lius  in  dismay  would  have  abdicated  his  authority,  but  the 
Praetorian  guards, 'dreading  the  strict  discipline  of  Vespasian,  com- 
pelled the  wretched  monarch  to  a  farther  resistance.     Rome  how- 
ever easily  fell  into  tbe  hands  of  the  conquerors,  and  Vitel'  lius, 
having  retained  the  sceptre  only  eight  months,  was  ignominiously 


CHAP.  I]  ROMAN   HISTORY.  197 

put  to  death,  and  his  mangled  carcass  thrown  into  the  Tiber,  amid 
the  execrations  of  the  same  fickle  multitude  that  had  so  recently 
welcomed  his  accession  to  power.  (A.  D.  Dec.  69.) 

24.  During  several  months,  Domitian,  the  second  son  of  Vespasian, 
ruled  at  Rome  in  the  absence  of  his  father,  taking  part  with  the 
contending  factious,  committing  many  acts  of  cruelty,  and  already 
exhibiting  the  passions  and  vices  which  characterized  his  later  years ; 
but  at  length  the  arrival  of  the  monarch  elect  restored  tranquillity 
and  diffused  universal  joy.     (A.  D.  70.)     Vespasian  was  ;XL  VKSPA- 
universally  known  and  respected  for  his  virtues,  and  his  *      8IAN- 
mild  and  happy  reign  restored  to  the  distracted  empire  some  degree 
of  its  former  prosperity.     He  improved  the  discipline  of  the  army, 
enlarged  the  senate  to  its  former  numbers,  and  revived  its  authority, 
reformed  the  courts  of  law,  and  enriched  Rome  with  many  noble 
buildings,  of  which  the   Colosseum  still  remains,  in  much  of  ita 
ancient  grandeur — the  pride  and  glory  of  his  reign. 

25.  Three  years  before  his  accession  to  the  throne,  Vespasian  had 
been  sent  into  Judea  by  Nero,  (A.  D.  67,)  at  the  head  of  sixty 
thouiand  men,  to  conduct  the  war  against  the  Jews,  who  XII.  JEWISH 
had  revolted   against  the   Roman   power.      They  had       WAR- 
been  driven  to  rebellion  by  the  execution  and  tyranny  of  Florus  the 
Roman  governor,   and  having  once  taken  up   arms  they  were  so 
strangely  infatuated  as  to  believe  that,  although  without  a  regular 
army,  or  munitions  of  war  of  any  kind,  they  could  resist  the  united 
force  of  the  whole  Roman  empire.     The  war  thus  commenced  was 
one  of  extermination,  in  which  mercy  was  seldom  asked  or  shown  by 
either  party 

26.  While  the  war  raged  around  Jerusalem,  and  city  after  city 
was  taken,  and  desolated  by  the  massacre  of  its  inhabitants,  there 
were  three  hostile  factions  in  Jerusalem,  afterwards  reduced  to  two, 
holding  possession  of  different  parts  of  the  city,  and  wasting  their 
strength  in  cruel  conflicts  with  each  other.     When  Vespasian  depart- 
ed for  Rome  to  assume  the  royal  authority,  he  left  the  conduct  of 
the  war  to  his  son  Titus,  who  soon  after  commenced  the  siege  of  Je- 
rusalem, during  the  time  of  the  feast  of  the  passover,  when  the  city 
was  crowded  with  people  from  all  Judea.     Titus  expected  that  al- 
though Jerusalem  was  defended  by  six  hundred  thousand  men,  such  a 
multitude  gathered  within  the  walls  of   a  poorly-provisioned  city, 
would  occasion  a  famine  that  would  soon  make  a  surrender  inevitable. 

27.  Although  the  Jews  were  promised  liberty  and  safety  if  they 


198  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  II. 

would  surrender  the  city ;  and  Josephus,  the  future  historian  of  his 
country,  who  had  been  taken  prisoner  by  the  Romans,  was  sent  to 
expostulate  with  them  on  the  folly  of  longer  resistance  \  yet  they  re- 
jected all  warnings  and  counsel  with  scorn  and  derision ;  and  although 
the  opposing  Jewish  factions  were  embroiled  in  a  civil  war,  with  a 
strange  infatuation  both  declared  their  resolution  to  defend  the  city 
to  the  very  last,  confident  that  God  would  not  permit  his  temple  and 
city  to  fall  before  the  heathen. 

28.  The  horrors  of  the  siege  surpassed  all  that  the  pen  can  de- 
scribe.    When  the  public  granaries  had  become  empty  the  people 
were  plundered  of  their  scanty  stores,  so  that  the  famine  devoured  by 
houses  and  by  families.     At  length  no  table  was  spread,  nor  regular 
meal  eaten  in  Jerusalem.    People  bartered  all  their  wealth  for  a  meas- 
ure of  corn,  and  ate  it  in  secret,  uncooked,  or  snatched  half  baked  from 
the  coals.     They  were  often  compelled,  by  torture,  to  discover  their 
food,  or  were  still  more  cruelly  treated  if  they  had  eaten  it.     Wives 
would  steal  the   last  morsel  from  their  husbands,   children  from 
parents,  mothers  from  children ;  and  there  were  instances  of  dead 
infants  being  eaten  by  their  parents ;  so  that  the  ancient  prophecy, 
in  which  Moses  had  described  the  punishments  of  the  unbelieving 
Jews,  was  fulfilled. a 

29.  At  length  the  dead  accumulated  so  fast  that  they  were  left  un- 
buried,  and  were  cast  off  the  walls  by  thousands  down  into  the  val- 
leys ;  and  as  Titus  went  his  rounds,  and  saw  the  putrefying  masses, 
he  wept,  and,  stretching  his  hands  to  heaven,  called  God  to  witness 
that  this  was  not  his  work]     By  slow  degrees  one  wall  after  another 
was  battered  down ;  but  so  desperate  was  the  defence  of  the  Jews 
that  it  was  three  months  after  the  lower  city  was  taken  before  the 
Romans  gained  possession  of  the  temple,  and,  in  its  destruction,  com- 
pleted the  fall  of  Jerusalem.     (A.  D.  70.)     Titus  would  have  saved 
the  noble  edifice,  but  was  unable  to  restrain  the  rage  of  his  soldiery, 
and  the  Temple  was  burnt. 

30.  Josephus   computes   the   number   of    his   countrymen   who 
perished  during  the  war  at  more  than  one  million  three  hundred 
thousand,  with  a  total  of  more  than  a  million  prisoners.     Thousands 
of  the  latter  were  sent  to  toil  in  the  Egyptian  mines  ;  but  such  were 
their  numbers  that  they  were  offered  for  sale  "  till  no  man  would 
buy  them,"  and  then  they  were  sent  into  different  provinces  as  pre- 

a.  Deut.  xxviii,  56,  57. 


CHAP.  L]  ROMAN   HISTORY.  199 

sents,  where  they  were  consumed  by  the  sword,  or  by  wild  beasts  in 
the  amphitheatres.  With  the  destruction  of  the  holy  city  and  its 
famous  temple  Israel  ceased  to  be  a  nation,  and  thus  was  inflicted 
the  doom  which  the  unbelieving  Jews  invoked  when  they  cried  out, 
"  His  blood  be  on  us  and  on  our  children." 

31.  Britain  had  been  only  partially  subdued  prior  to  the  reign  of 
Vespasian,  but  during  the  two  years  after  the  fall  of  Jerusalem  its 
conquest  was  completed  by  the  Roman  governor  Julius  Agric'  ola, 
who  was  justly  celebrated  for  his  great  merits  as  a  general  and  a  states- 
man.    Carrying  his  victorious  arms  northward  he  defeated  the  Brit- 
tons  in  every  encounter,  penetrated  the  forests  of  Caledonia,1  and 
established  a  chain  of  fortresses  between  the  Friths  of  Clyde  and 
Forth,  which  marked  the  utmost  permanent  extent  of  the  Roman 
dominion  in  Britain.     The  fastnesses  of  the  Scottish  highlands  were 
ever  too  formidable  to  be  overcome  by  the  Roman  arms.     By  an 
enlightened  policy  Agric'  ola  also  taught  the  Britons  the  arts  of 
peace,  introduced  laws  and  government  among  them,  induced  them 
to  lay  aside  their  barbarous  customs,  taught  them  to  value  the  con- 
veniencies  of  life,  and  to  adopt  the  Roman  language  and  manners. 
The  life  of  Agric'  ola  has  been  admirably  written  by  Tac'  itus,  the 
historian,  to  whom  the  former  had  given  his  daughter  in  marriage. 

32.  On  the  death  of  Vespasian  (A.  D.  79)  his  son  Titus  succeeded 
to  the  throne.     Previous  to  his  accession  the  general  opinion  of 

the  people  was  unfavorable  to  Titus,  but  afterwards  his 

.  .  ,    xin.  TITUS. 

conduct  changed,  and  he  is  celebrated  as  a  just  and 

humane  ruler ;  and  so  numerous  were  his  acts  of  goodness,  that  his 
grateful  subjects  bestowed  upon  him  the  honorable  title  of  "  benefac- 
tor of  the  human  race."  During  his  brief  reign  of  little  more  than 
two  years,  Rome  and  the  provinces  were  in  the  enjoyment  of  peace 
and  prosperity,  only  disturbed  by  an  eruption  of  Mount  Vesuvius,* 

1.  Ancient  Caledonia  comprehended  that  portion  of  Scotland  which  lay  to  the  north  of  the 
Forth  and  the  Clyde.    A  frith  is  a  narrow  passage  of  the  sea,  or  the  opening  of  a  river  into 
the  sea.    Agric'  ola  penetrated  north  as  far  as  the  river  Tay.     (See  Map  No.  XVI.) 

2.  Mount  Vesuvius,  ten  miles  south-east  from  the  city  of  Naples,  is  the  only  active  volcano 
at  present  existing  on  the  European  continent.    Its  extreme  height  is  three  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  ninety  feet— about  two-fifths  of  that  of  ^Et'  na.    Its  first  known  eruption  occurred 
on  the  24th  of  August,  A.  D.  79,  when  Herculaneum  and  Pompeii  were  buried  under  showers 
of  volcanic  ashes,  sand,  stones,  and  lava,  and  the  elder  Pliny  lost  his  life,  being  suffocated  by 
the  sulphurous  vapor  as  he  approached  to  behold  the  wonderful  phenomena.    It  is  related  (hat, 
Buch  was  the  immense  quantity  of  volcanic  ashes  thrown  out  duriilg  this  eruption,  the  whole 
country  was  involved  in  pitchy  darkness;  and  that  the  ashes  fell  in  Egypt,  Syria,  and  various 
parts  of  Asia  Minor.    Since  the  destruction  of  Herculaneum  and  Pompeii  there  have  been 
nearly  fifty  authenticated  eruptions  of  Vesuvius. 


200  MODERISr  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

which  caused  the  destruction  of  Herculaneuin1  and  Pompeii,* 
(A.  D.  79,)  and  by  a  great  fire  at  Rome,  which  was  followed  by  a 
pestilence.  (A.  D.  80.) 

33.  Domitian  succeeded  his  brother  without  opposition,  (A.  D.  81,) 
although  the  perfidy  and  cruelty  of  his  character  were  notorious. 

xiv.  He  began  his  reign  by  an  affectation  of  extreme  virtue, 
DOMITIAN.  kut  was  un^le  long  to  disguise  his  vices.  There  was 
no  law  but  the  will  of  the  tyrant,  who  caused  many  of  the  most 
eminent  senators  to  be  put  to  death  without  even  the  form  of  trial ; 
and  when,  by  his  infamous  vices,  and  the  openness  of  his  debaucheries, 
he  had  sunk,  in  the  eyes  of  his  subjects,  to  the  lowest  stage  of 
degradation,  he  caused  himself  to  be  worshipped  as  a  god,  and  ad- 
dressed with  the  reverence  due  to  Deity.  Both  Jews  and  Christians 
were  persecuted  by  him,  and  thousands  of  them  put  to  death  because 
they  would  not  worship  his  statues.  This  is  called  in  ecclesiastical 
history  the  second  great  persecution  of  the  Christians,  that  under 
£f  ero  being  the  first. 

34.  It  was  in  the  early  part  of  this  reign  that  Agric'  ola  com- 
pleted the  conquest  of  Britain  ;   but  on  the  whole  the  reign  of  Domi- 
tian was  productive  of  little  honor  to  the  Koman  arms,  as  in  Mo3  'sia,3 
and  Dacia,4  in  Germany,5  and  Pannonia,  the  Romans  were  defeated, 

1.  Hcrculdneum  was  close  to  the  sea,  south  of  Vesuvius,  and  eight  miles  south-east  from  the 
city  of  Naples.     Little  is  known  of  it  except  its  destruction.    It  was  completely  buried  under 
a  shower  of  ashes,  over  which  a  stream  of  lava  flowed,  and  afterwards  hardened.    So  changed 
was  the  aspect  of  the  whole  country,  and  even  the  outlines  of  the  coast,  that  all  knowledge  of 
the  city,  beyond  its  name,  was  soon  lost,  when,  in  1713,  after  a  concealment  of  more  than  six- 
teen centuries,  accident  led  to  the  discovery  of  its  ruins,  seventy  feet  below  the  surface  of  the 
ground. 

2.  Pompeii  was  fifteen  miles  south-east  from  Naples,  and  was  not  buried  by  lava,  but  by 
ashes,  sand,  and  stones  only,  and  at  a  depth  of  only  twelve  or  fifteen  feet  above  the  buildings.   It 
has  been  excavated  much  more  extensively  than  Herculaneum — disclosing  the  city  walla, 
streets,  temples,  theatres,  the  forum,  baths,  monuments,  private  dwellings,  domestic  utensils, 
&c., — the  whole  conveying  the  impression  of  the  actual  presence  of  a  Roman  town  in  all  the 
circumstantial  reality  of  its  existence  two  thousand  years  ago.    "The  discovery  of  Pompeii  has 
thrown  a  strong  and  steady  light  on  many  points  connected  with  the  private  life  and  economy 
of  the  ancients,  that  were  previously  involved  in  the  greatest  obscurity.''1 — The  small  number 
of  skeletons  discovered  in  Herculaneum  and  Pompeii  render  it  quite  certain  that  most  of  the 
inhabitants  saved  themselves  by  flight. 

3.  JVfe'  sifl,  extending  north  to  the  Danube  and  eastward  to  the  Euxine,  corresponded  to  the 
present  Turkish  provinces  of  Ser'  via  and  Bulgaria.    (Map  No.  IX.) 

4.  Dacia  was  an  extensive  frontier  province  north  of  the  Danube,  extending  east  to  the 
Euxine.    It  embraced  the  northern  portions  of  the  present  Turkey,  together  with  Transylvania 
and; a  part  of  Hungary.     (Map  No.  IX.) 

5.  The  word  Germania  was  employed  by  the  Romans  to  designate  all  the  country  east  of  the 
Rhine  and  north  of  the  Danube  as  far  as  the  German  ocean  and  the  Baltic,  and  eastward  as 
far  as  Sarmatia  and  Dacia.    The  limits  of  Germany,  as  a  Roman  province,  were  very  indefinite. 
(Map  No.  IX.) 


CHAP.  I.]  ROMAN  HISTORY.  201 

and  whole  provinces  lost.  In  Moe'  sia,  Doraitian  himself  was  several 
times  defeated,  yet  he  wrote  to  the  senate  boasting  of  extraordinary 
victories,  and  the  servile  body  decreed  him  the  honors  of  a  triumph. 
In  a  similar  manner  other  triumphs  were  decreed  him,  which  caused 
Pliny  the  younger  to  say  that  the  triumphs  of  Domitian  were  always 
evidence  of  some  advantages  gained  by  the  enemies  of  Rome. 

35.  At  length,  after  a  reign  of  fifteen  years,  Domitian  was  assassi- 
nated at  the  instigation  of  his  wife,  who  accidentally  discovered  that 
her  own  name  was  on  the  fatal  list  of  those  whom  the  emperor  designed 
to  put  to  death.     The  soldiers,  whose  pay  he  had  increased,  and  with 
whom  he  often  shared  his  plunder,  lamented  his  fate ;  but  the  senate 
ordered  his  name  to  be  struck  from  the  Roman  annals,  and  obliter- 
ated from  every  public  monument. 

36.  .The  death  of  Domitian  closes  the  reign  of  those  usually  de- 
nominated "  the  twelve   Caesars,"  only  three  of  whom,  Augustus, 
Vespasian,  and  Titus,  died  natural  deaths.     Julius  Csesar  fell  under 
the  daggers  of  conspirators  in  the  very  senate-house  of  Rome.     Ti- 
berius, at  the  instigation  of  Calig'  ula,  was  smothered  on  a  sick  bed : 
Calig'  ula  was  murdered  in  his  own  palace  while  attending  a  theatri- 
cal rehearsal :  Claudius  was  poisoned,  at  the  instigation  of  his  own 
wife,  by  his  favorite  physician :  Nero,  by  the  aid  of  his  freediuan, 
committed  suicide  to  avoid  a  public  execution  :  the  aged  Galba  was 
slain  in  the  Roman  forum,  in  a  mutiny  of  his  guards :  Otho,  on 
learning  the  success  of  his  rival  Vitel'  lius,  committed  suicide  :  Vi- 
tel'  lius  was  dragged  by  the  populace  through  the  streets  of  Rome, 
put  to  death  with  tortures,  and  his  mangled  carcass  thrown  into  the 
Tiber  ;  and  Domitian  was  killed  in  his  bed-chamber  by  those  whom 
he  had  marked  for  execution.     The  heart  sickens  not  more  at  the 
recital  of  these  murders  than  of  the  crimes  that  prompted  them ; 
and  thus  far  the  history  of  the  Roman  emperors  is  little  else  than 
a  series  of  constantly  recurring  scenes  of  violence  and  blood. 

37.  But  as  we  pass  from  the  city  of  Rome  into  the  surrounding 
Roman  world,  we  almost  forget  the  revolting  scenes  of  t|ie  capital  in 
view  of  the  still-existing  power  and  majesty  of  the  Roman  empire — 
an  empire  the  greatest  the  world  has  ever  seen — and  still  great  in 
the  remembrance  of  the  past,  and  in  the  influences  which  it  has  be- 
queathed to  modern  times.     While  the  emperors  were  steeped  in  the 
grossest  sensuality,  and  Rome  was  a  hot-bed  of  infamy  and  crime, 
the  numerous  provincial  governments  were  generally  administered 
with  ability  and  success ;  and  the  glory  of  the  Roman  arms  was 


202  MODERN    HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

sustained  in  repelling  the  barbarous  hordes  that  pressed  upon  the 
frontiers.  But  national  valor  cannot  compensate  for  the  want  of 
national  virtue :  the  soul  that  animated  the  Republic  was  dead  ;  the 
spirit  of  freedom  was  gone ;  and  national  progress  was  already  be- 
ginning to  give  place  to  national  decay. 


SECTION   II. 

ROMAN   HISTOKY  FROM   THE   DEATH   OF   DOMITIAN,    A.  D.    96,   TO  THE    ESTAB- 
LISHMENT   OF    MILITARY    DESPOTISM,    AFTER   THE    MUADER    OF 
ALEXANDER    SEVE7  RUS,    A.  D.  235  =  139  YEARS 

ANALYSIS.  1.  NERVA.  His  character,  reign,  and  death.  [Um' bria.]— 2.  TRAJAN.  His 
character,  and  character  of  his  reign.  Remarkable  words  attributed  to  him. — 3.  His  wars 
and  conquests.  His  death.  [Ctes'  iphon.  Trajan's  column.]— 4.  Persecutions  of  the  Christians 
during  the  reign  of  Trajan.  The  proverbial  goodness  of  Trajan's  character. — 5.  Accession  of 
ADRIAN.  His  peaceful  policy.  General  administration  of  the  government.  His  visit  to  the 
provinces.— 6.  Revolt  of  the  Jews.  Results  of  the  Jewish  war.  Defences  in  Britain.  [Solway 
Frith.  River  Tyne.] — 7.  Doubtful  estimate  of  Adrian's  character  and  reign.  His  ruling 
passions.— 8.  Accession  of  TITUS  ANTONI'  NUS.— 9.  His  character,  and  the  character  of  his 
reign. — 10.  MARCUS  AURK'  LIUS  ANTONI'  NUS.  Verus  associated  with  him. — 11.  War  with  the 
Parthians.  With  the  Germans.  Remarkable  deliverance  of  the  Roman  army. — 12.  Character 
of  the  five  preceding  reigns.  The  evils  to  which  an  arbitrary  government  is  liable.  Illustrated 
In  the  annals  of  the  Roman  emperors. — 13.  Accession  of  COM'  MODUS.  Beginning  of  his  gov- 
ernment.— 14.  The  incident  which  decided  his  fluctuating  character.  His  subsequent  wicked- 
ness.— 15.  His  debaucheries  and  cruelties.  His  death. — 16.  The  brief  reign  of  PERTINAX. — 17. 
Disposal  of  the  empire  to  DID'IUS  JULIA'  NUS.— 18.  Dangerous  position  of  the  new  ruler.— 19. 
His  competitors.  [Dalmatia.]  Successes  of  SEPTIM'IUS  SEVE'  RUS,  and  death  of  Julianus. 
— 20.  Dissimulation  of  Severus.  He  defeats  Niger  at  Issus  in  Asia.  His  continued  duplicity. 
Overthrow  and  death  of  Albinus.  [Lyons.] — 21.  Subsequent  reign  of  Severus.  His  last  illness 
and  death.  [York.]— 22.  CARACAL'  LA  and  Geta.  Death  of  the  latter.  Character,  reign,  and 
death  of  Caracal'  la.  Brief  reign  of  MACRI'  NUS.— 23.  Accession  of  ELAOABA'  LUS.— 24.  His 
character  and  follies.  Circumstances  of  his  death. — 25.  ALEXANDER  SEVE' RUS.  His  attempts 
to  reform  abuses.  Character  of  his  administration.  His  death.  His  successor. 

1.  Domitian  was  succeeded  by  Nerva,  who  was  a  native  of  Um'- 

bria,1  but  whose  family  orignally  came  from  Crete.     He  was  the 

first  Roman  emperor  of  foreign  extraction,  and  was  chosen 

by  the  senate  on  account  of  his  virtues.     His  mild  and 

equitable  administration  forms  a  striking  contrast  to  the  sanguinary 

rule  of  Domitian ;  but  his  excessive  lenity,  which  was  his  greatest 

fault,  encouraged  the  profligate  to  persevere  in  their  accustomed 

1.  Um'  bria  was  a  country  of  Italy  east  of  Etriiria  and  north  of  the  Sabine  territory. 
The  ancient  Um'  brians  were  one  of  the  oldest  and  most  numerous  nations  of  Italy.  (Map 
No.  VIII, 


CHAP.  I]  ROMAN  HISTORY.  203 

peculations.  At  length  the  excesses  of  his  own  guards  convinced 
him  that  the  government  of  the  empire  required  greater  energy  than 
he  possessed,  and  he  therefore  wisely  adopted  the  excellent  Trajan 
as  his  successor,  and  made  him  his  associate  in  the  sovereignty. 
Nerva  soon  after  died,  (A.  D.  98,)  in  the  seventy-second  year  of  his 
age,  having  reigned  but  little  more  than  sixteen  months. 

2.  Trajan,  who  was  by  birth  a  Spaniard,  proved  to  be  one  of 
Rome's  best  sovereigns ;  and  it  has  been  said  of  him  that  he  was 
equally  great  as  a  ruler,  a  general,  and  a  man.     After 

he  had  made  a  thorough  reformation  of  abuses,  he  re- 
stored as  much  of  the  free  Roman  constitution  as  was  consistent 
with  a  monarchy,  and  bound  himself  by  a  solemn  oath  to  observe  the 
laws ;  yet  while  he  ruled  with  equity,  he  held  the  reins  of  power 
with  a  strong  and  steady  hand.  No  emperor  but  a  Trajan  could  have 
used  safely  the  remarkable  words  attributed  to  him,  when,  giving  a 
sword  to  the  prefect  of  the  Praetorian  guards,  he  said,  "  Take  this 
sword  and  use  it ;  if  I  have  merit,  for  me  ;  if  otherwise,  against  me." 

3.  In  his  wars,   Trajan,  commanding  in  person,  conquered  the 
Dacians,  after  which  he  passed  into  Asia,  subdued  Armenia,  took 
Seleucia  and  Ctes'iphon,1  the  latter  the  capital  of  the  Parthian 
kingdom,  and  sailing  down  the  Tigris  displayed  the  Roman  standards 
for  the  first  time  on  the  waters  of  the  Persian  Gulf,  whence  he  passed 
into  the  Arabian  peninsula, 'a  great  part  of  which  he  annexed  to  the 
Roman  empire.     But  while  he  was  thus  passing  from  kingdom  to 
kingdom,  emulating  the  glory  of  Alexander,  and  dreaming  of  new 
conquests,  he  was  seized  with  a  lingering  illness,  of  which  he  died 
in  Cilicia,  in  the  twentieth  year  of  his  reign.     (A.  D.  117.)     His 
ashes  were  conveyed  to  Rome  in  a  golden  urn,  and  deposited  under 
the  famous  column  which  he  had  erected  to  commemorate  his  Dacian 
victories.8- 

1.  Ctes'  iphon  was  a  city  of  Parthia,  on  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Tigris,  opposite  to  and  three 
miles  distant  from  Seleucia. 

a.  Trajan's  column,  which  is  still  standing,  is  the  most  beautiful  mausoleum  ever  erected  to 
departed  greatness.  Its  height,  not  including  the  base,  which  is  now  covered  with  rubbish,  is 
one  hundred  and  fifteen  feet  ten  inches ;  and  the  entire  column  is  composed  of  twenty-four 
great  blocks  of  marble,  so  curiously  cemented  as  to  seem  one  entire  stone.  It  is  ascended  on 
the  inside  by  one  hundred  and  eighty-five  winding  steps.  The  noblest  ornament  of  this  pillar  was 
a  bronze  statue  of  Trajan,  twenty-five  feet  in  height,  representing  him  in  a  coat  of  arms,  holding 
In  the  left  hand  a  sceptre,  and  in  the  right  a  hollow  globe  of  gold,  in  which,  it  has  been  assert- 
ed, the  ashes  of  the  emperor  were  deposited.  The  column  is  now  surmounted  by  a  statue  of 
St.  Peter,  which  Sixtus  V.  had  the  bad  taste  to  substitute  in  place  of  that  of  Trajan.  On  the 
external  face  of  the  column  is  a  series  of  bas-reliefs,  running  in  a  spiral  course  up  Ihe  shaft, 
representing  Trajan's  victories,  and  containing  two  thousand  five  hundred  human  figures. 


204  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

4.  The  character  of  Trajan,  otherwise  just  and  amiable,  is  stained 
by  the  approval  which  he  gave  to  the  persecution  of  Christians  in 
the  eastern  provinces  of  the  empire  ;  for  although  he  did  not  directly 
promote  that  persecution,  he  did  little  to  check  its  progress,  and  al- 
lowed the  enemies  of  the  Christians  to  triumph  over  them.     Still, 
the  goodness  of  his  character  was  long  proverbial,  inasmuch  as,  m 
later  times,  the  senate,  in  felicitating  the  accession  of  a  new  emperor, 
were  accustomed  to  wish  that  he  might  surpass  the  prosperity  of 
Augustus  and  the  virtue  of  Trajan. 

5.  Whether   Trajan,  in  his  last  moments,  adopted  his  relative 
Adrian  as  his  successor,  or*  whether  the  will  attributed  to  him  was 
forged  by  the  empress  Plotina,  is  a  doubtful  point  in  history ;  but 

Adrian  succeeded  to  the  throne  with  the  unanimous  dec- 

III.    ADRIAN.    .          ,.  „,          ...  .         .       ,   .      „  -GJA^          i      • 

laration  of  the  Asiatic  armies  in  his  favor,  whose  choice 
was  immediately  ratified  by  the  senate  and  people.  His  first  care 
was  to  make  peace  with  the  surrounding  nations ;  and  in  order  to 
preserve  it  he  at  once  abandoned  all  the  conquests  made  by  his  pre- 
decessor, except  that  of  Dacia,  and  bounded  the  eastern  provinces 
by  the  river  Euphrates.  He  diminished  the  military  establishments, 
lowered  the  taxes,  reformed  the  laws,  and  encouraged  literature.  He 
also  passed  thirteen  years  in  visiting  all  the  provinces  of  the  empire, 
inspecting  the  administration  of  government,  repressing  abuses,  and 
erecting  and  repairing  public  edifices. 

6.  During  his  reign  occurred  another  war  with  the  Jews,  who,  in- 
censed at  the  introduction  of  Roman  idolatry  into  Jerusalem,  were 
excited  to  revolt  by  an  impostor  who  called  himself  Bar-C6chab,  (the 
son  of  a  star,)  and  who  pretended  to  be  the  expected  Messiah.     Two 
hundred  thousand  devoted  followers  soon  flocked  to  the  Jewish  stand- 
ard, and  for  a  time  gained  important  advantages  ;  but  Severus,  after- 
wards emperor,  being  sent  against  them,  in  a  sanguinary  war  of  three 
years'  duration  he  accomplished  the  almost  total  destruction  of  the  Jew- 
ish nation.     More  than  five  hundred  thousand  of  the  misguided  Jews 
are  estimated  to  have  fallen  by  the  sword  during  this  period ;  and 
those  who  survived  were  "  scattered  abroad  among  all  the  nations  of  the 
earth." — In  Britain,  Adrian  repaired  the  frontier  fortresses  of  Agric'- 
ola  as  a  bulwark  against  the  Caledonians,  and  erected  a  second  wall, 
from  the  Soiway  Frith1  to  the  Tyne,8  remains  of  which  are  still  visible. 

1.  Solway  Frith,  the  north-eastern  arm  of  the  Irish  sea,  divides  England  from  Scotland. 
(Map  No.  XVI.) 

2.  The  Tync,  an  important  river  in  the  north  of  England,  enters  the  sea  on  the  eastern  coast, 
at  the  southern  extremity  of  Northumberland  county.    {Map  No.  XVI.) 


CHAP.  I]  ROMAN  HISTORY  205 

7.  Although  the  general  tenor  of  the  reign  of  Adrian  deserved 
praise  for  its  equity  and  moderation,  yet  his  character  had  some 
dark  stains  upon  it ;  and  the  Romans  of  a  later  age  doubted  whether 
he  should  be  reckoned  among  the  good  or  the  bad  princes.     He  al- 
lowed a  severe  persecution  of  the  Jews  and   Christians;  he  was 
jealous,  suspicious,  superstitious,  and  revengeful;  and  although  in 
general  he  was  a  just  and  able  ruler,  he  was  at  times  an  unrelenting 
and  cruel  tyrant.     His  ruling  passions  were  curiosity  and  vanity ; 
and  as  they  were  attracted  by  different  objects,  his  character  as- 
sumed the  most  opposite  phases. 

8.  Adrian,  a  short  time  previous  to  his  death,  (A.  D.  138,)  adopted 
for  his  successor,  Titus  Antoninus,  surnamed  Pius,  on     1V.  TITUS 
condition  that  the  latter  should  associate  with  him,  in  ANTONI'  NUS. 
the  empire,  Marcus  Aurelius,  and  the  youthful  Verus.     Antoninus, 
immediately  after  his  accession,  gave  one  of  his  daughters  in  mar- 
riage to  Marcus  Aurelius,  afterwards  called  Marcus  Aurelius  Anto- 
ninus ;  but  while  he  associated  the  worthy  Aurelius  in  the  labors  of 
government,  he  showed  no  regard  for  the  profligate  Verus. 

9.  During  twenty-two  years  Antoninus  governed  the  Roman  world 
with  wisdom  and  virtue,  exhibiting  in  his  public  life  a  love  of  re- 
ligion, peace  and  justice ;  and  in  his  private  character  goodness, 
amiability,  and  a  cheerful  serenity  of  temper,  without  affectation  or 
vanity.     His  regard  for  the  future  welfare  of  Rome  is  manifest  in 
the  favor  which  he  constantly  showed  to  the  virtuous  Aurelius :  the 
latter,  in  return,  revered  the  character  of  his  benefactor,  loved  him 
as  a  parent,  obeyed  him  as  a  sovereign,  and,  after  his  death,  regulated 
his  own  administration  by  the  example  and  maxims  of  his  predecessor. 

10.  On  the  death  of  Antoninus,  (A.  D.  161,)  the  senate,  distrust- 
ing Verus  on  account  of  his  vices,  conferred  the  sover-    y  MARCUS 
eignty  upon  Marcus  Aurelius  alone ;  but  the  latter  im-    AURELIUS 
mediately  took  Verus  as  his  colleague,  and  gave  him  his  ANTONI'  NUB. 
daughter  in  marriage ;  and  notwithstanding  the  great  dissimilarity 
in  the  characters  of  the  two   emperors,  they  reigned  jointly  ten 
years,  until  the  death  of  Verus,  (A.  D.  171,)  without  any  disagree- 
ment ;  for  Verus,  destitute  of  ambition,  was  content  to   leave  the 
weightier  affairs  of  government  to  his  associate. 

1 1.  Although  Aurelius  detested  war,  as  the  disgrace  of  humanity 
and  its  scourge,  yet  his  reign  was  less  peaceful  than  that  of  his  pre 
decessor ;  for  the  Parthians  overran  Syria ;  but  they  were  eventually 
repulsed,  and  some  of  their  own  cities  captured.     During  five  years 


206  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

Aurelius,  in  person,  conducted  a  war  against  the  German  tribes, 
without  once  returning  to  Rome.  During  the  German  war  occurred 
that  remarkable  deliverance  of  the  emperor  and  his  army  from 
danger,  which  has  been  related  both  by  pagan*  and  Christian  writers. 
It  is  said  that  the  Romans,  drawn  into  a  narrow  defile,  where  they 
could  neither  fight  nor  retreat,  were  on  the  point  of  perishing  by 
thirst,  when  a  violent  thunder-storm  burst  upon  both  armies,  and 
fche  lightning  fired  the  tents  of  the  barbarians  and  broke  up  their 
eamp,  while  the  rain  relieved  the  pressing  wants  of  the  Romans. 
Many  ancient  fathers  of  the  Church  ascribed  the  seasonable  shower 
to  the  prayers  of  the  Christian  soldiers  then  serving  in  the  imperial 
army ;  and  we  are  told  by  Eusebius  that  the  emperor  immediately 
gave  to  their  division  the  title  of  the  "  Thundering  Legion,"  and 
henceforth  relaxed  his  severity  towards  the  Christians,  whose  perse- 
cution he  had  before  tolerated. 

12.  The  reigns  of  Nerva,  Trajan,  Adrian,  and  the  two  Atonines, 
comprised  a  happy  period  in  the   annals  of  the   Roman  empire. 
These  monarchs  observed  the  laws,  and  the  ancient  forms  of  civil 
administration,  and  probably  allowed  the  Roman  people  all  the  free- 
dom they  were  capable  of  enjoying.     But  under  an  arbitrary  gov- 
ernment there  is  no  guarantee  for  the  continuance  of  a  wise  and 
equitable  administration ;  for  the  next  monarch  may  be  a  profligate 
sensualist,  an  imbecile  dotard,  or   a  jealous  tyrant;    and  he  may 
abuse,  to  the  destruction  of  his  subjects,  that  absolute  power  which 
others  had  exerted  for  their  welfare.     The  uncertain  tenure  by  which 
the  people  held  their  lives  and  liberties  under  despotic  rule,  is  fully 
illustrated  in  the  dark  pictures  of  tyranny  which  the  annals  of  the 
Roman  emperors  exhibit.     The  golden  age  of  Trajan  and  the  An- 
tonines  had  been  preceded  by  an  age  of  iron ;  and  it  was  followed 
by  a  period  of  gloom,  of  whose  public  wretchedness,  the  shortness, 
and  violent  termination,  of  most  of  the  imperial  reigns,  is  sufficient  proof. 

13.  Com' modus,  the  unworthy  son  of  Aurelius,  succeeded  to  the 
vi.  COM/-    throne  on  the  death  of  his  father,  (A.  D.  180,)  amidst 

MODUS,  the  acclamations  of  the  senate  and  the  armies.  During 
three  years,  while  he  retained  his  father's  counsellors  around  him,  he 
ruled  with  equity  and  moderation ;  but  the  weakness  of  his  mind 
and  the  timidity  of  his  disposition,  together  with  his  natural  indo- 
lence, rendered  him  the  slave  of  base  attendants ;  and  sensual  indul- 
gence and  crime,  which  others  had  taught  him,  finally  degenerated 
into  a  habit,  and  became  the  ruling  passions  of  his  soul. 


CHAP.  I]  ROMAN  HISTORY.  207 

14.  A  fatal  incident  decided  his  fluctuating  character,  and  sud- 
denly developed  his  dormant  cruelty  and  thirst  for  blood.     In  an 
attempt  to  assassinate  him,  the  assailant,  aiming  a  blow  at  him  with 
a  dagger,  exclaimed,  "  the  senate  sends  you  this."     The  menace  pre- 
vented the  deed ;  but  the  words  sunk  deep  into  the  mind  of  Corn'- 
modus,  and  kindled  the  utmost  fury  of  his  nature.     It  was  found 
that  the  conspirators  were  men  of  senatorial  rank,  who  had  been  in- 
stigated by  the  emperor's  own  sister.     Suspicion  and  distrust,  fear 
and  hatred,  were  henceforth  indulged  by  the  emperor  towards  the 
whole   body  of  senators :    spies  and   informers  were   encouraged ; 
neither  virtue  nor  station  afforded  any  security ;  and  when  Com'- 
modus  had  once  tasted  human  blood,  he  became  incapable  of  pity  or 
remorse.     He  sacrificed  a  long  list  of  consular  senators  to  his  wanton 
suspicion,  and  took  especial  delight  in  hunting  out  and  exterminating 
all  who  had  been  connected  with  the  family  of  the  Antonines. 

15.  The  debaucheries  of  Com' modus  exceeded,  in  extravagance 
and  iniquity,  those   of   any  previous  Roman   emperor.      He   was 
averse  to  every  rational  and  liberal  pursuit,  and  all  his  sports  were 
mingled  with  cruelty.     He  cultivated  his  physical,  to  the  neglect  of 
his  mental  powers ;  and  in  shooting  with  the  bow  and  throwing  the 
javelin,  Rome  had  not  his  superior.     Delighting  in  exhibiting  to  the 
people  his  superior  skill  in  archery,  he  at  one  time  caused  a  hundred 
lions  to  be  let  loose  in  the  amphitheatre ;  and  as  they  ran  raging 
around  the  arena,  they  successively  fell  by  a  hundred  arrows  from 
the  royal  hand.     He  fought  in  the  circus  as  a  common  gladiator,  and, 
always  victorious,  often  wantonly  slew  his  antagonists,  who  were  less 
completely  armed  than  himself.     This  monster  of  folly  and  wicked- 
ness was  finally  slain,  (A.  D.  193,)  partly  by  poisoning  and  partly  by 
strangling,  at  the  instigation  of  his  favorite  concubine  Marcia,  who 
accidentally  learned  that  her  own  death,  and  that  of  several  officers 
of  the  palace,  had  been  resolved  upon  by  the  tyrant. 

16.  On  the  death  of  Com'  modus  the  throne  was  offered  to  Per'ti- 
nax,  a  senator  of  consular  rank  and  strict  integrity,  who  VII<  PER/  T1. 
accepted  the  office  with  extreme  reluctance,  fully  aware        NAX- 

of  the  dangers  which  he  incurred,  and  the  great  weight  of  responsi- 
bility thrown  upon  him.  The  virtues  of  Per'  tinax  secured  to  him 
the  love  of  the  senate  and  the  people ;  but  his  zeal  to  correct  abuses 
provoked  the  anger  of  the  turbulent  Praetorian  soldiery,  who  pre- 
iorred  the  favor  of  a  tyrant  to  the  stern  equality  of  the  laws ;  and 


208  MODERN   HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

after  a  reign  of  three  months,  Per'  tinax  was  slain  in  the  imperial 
palace  by  the  same  guards  who  had  placed  him  on  the  throne. 

17.  Amidst  the  wild  disorder  that  attended  the  violent  death  of 
the  emperor,  the  Praetorian  guards  proclaimed  that  they  would  dis- 
pose of  the  sovereignty  of  the  Roman  world  to  the  highest  bidder ; 
and  while  the  body  of  Per'  tinax  remained  unburied  in  the  streets 

vui.  DID'  ins  of  Rome,  the  prize  of  the  empire  was  purchased  by  a 

JULIA'  NUS.    vajn  an(j  Wealthy  old  senator,  Did'  ius  Julianus,  who, 

repairing  to  the  Praetorian  camp,  outbid  all  competitors,  and  actually 

paid  to  each  of  the  soldiers,  ten  thousand  in  number,  more  than  two 

hundred  pounds  sterling,  or  nearly  nine  millions  of  dollars  in  all. 

18.  The  obsequious  senate,  overawed  by  the  soldiery,  ratified  the 
unworthy  negotiation  ;  but  the  Praetorians  themselves  were  ashamed 
of  the  prince  whom  their  avarice  had  persuaded  them  to  accept ;  the 
citizens  looked  upon  his  elevation  with  horror,  as  a  lasting  insult  to 
the  Roman  name  ;  and  the  armies  in  the  provinces  were  unanimous 
in  refusing  allegiance  to  the  new  ruler,  while  the  emperor,  trembling 
with  the  dangers  of  his  position,  found  himself,  although  on  the 
throne  of  the  world,  scorned  and  despised,  without  a  friend,  and 
even  without  an  adherent. 

19.  Three  competitors  soon  appeared  to  contest  the  throne  with 
Julianus, — Clodius  Albinus,  who  commanded  in  Britain, — Pescen'- 

ix.  SEPTIM'-  nius  Niger  in  Syria, — and  Septim'ius  Severus  in  Dal- 
lus  SEVEEUS.  matia1  and  Pannonia.  The  latter,  by  his  nearness  to 
Rome,  and  the  rapidity  of  his  marches,  gained  the  advance  of  his 
rivals,  and  was  hailed  emperor  by  the  people  :  the  faithless  Praeto- 
rians submitted  without  a  blow,  and  were  disbanded ;  and  the  senate 
pronounced  a  sentence  of  deposition  and  death  against  the  terror- 
stricken  Julianus,  whose  anxious  and  precarious  reign  of  sixty-five 
days  was  terminated  by  the  hands  of  the  common  executioner. 

20.  While  Severus,  employing  the  most  subtle  craft  and  dissimu- 
lation, was  flattering  Albinus  in  Britain  with  the  hope  of  being  asso- 
ciated with  him  in  the  empire,  he  rapidly  passed  into  Asia,  and  after 
several  engagements  with  the  forces  of  Niger  completely  defeated 
them  on  the  plains  of  Issus,  where  Alexander  and  Darius  had  long 
before  contended  for  the  sovereignty  of  the  world.     Such  was  the 

1.  Dalm&tia,  anciently  a  part  of  Illyr'  icum,  and  now  the  most  southern  province  of  the 
Austrian  empire,  comprises  a  long  and  narrow  territory  on  the  eastern  shore  of  the  Adriat'  ic. 
After  the  division  of  the  Roman  provinces  under  Con'stantine  and  Theodosius,  Dalmatia  be 
came  one  of  the  most  important  parts  of  the  empire. 


CHAP.  I]  ROMAN  HISTORY.  209 

duplicity  of  Severus,  that  even  in  the  letter  in  which  he  .announced 
the  victory  to  Albinus,  he  addressed  the  latter  with  the  most  friendly 
salutations,  and  expressed  the  strongest  regard  for  his  welfare,  while 
at  the  same  time  he  intrusted  the  messengers  charged  with  the  letter 
to  desire  a  private  audience,  and  to  plunge  their  dagger  to  the  heart 
of  his  rival.  It  was  only  when  the  infamous  plot  was  detected  that 
Albinus  awoke  to  the  reality  of  his  situation,  and  began  to  make 
vigorous  preparations  for  open  war.  This  second  contest  for  empire 
was  decided  against  Albinus  in  a  most  desperate  battle  near  Lyons,1 
in  Gaul,  (A.  D.  197,)  where  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  Romans 
are  said  to  have  fought  on  each  side.  Albinus  was  overtaken  in 
flight,  and  slain ;  and  many  senators  and  eminent  provincials  suf- 
fered death  for  the  attachment  which  they  had  shown  to  his  cause. 

21.  After  Severus  had  obtained  undisputed  possession  of  the  em- 
pire, he  governed  with  mildness  :  considering  the  Roman  world  as 
his  property,  he  bestowed  his  care  on  the  cultivation  and  improve- 
ment of  so  valuable  an  acquisition,  and  after  a  reign  of  eighteen 
years  he  could  boast,  with  a  just  pride,  that  he  received  the  empire 
oppressed  with  foreign  and  domestic  wars,  and  left  it  established  in 
profound,  universal,  and  honorable  peace.  In  his  last  illness,  Severus 
deeply  felt  and  acknowledged  the  littleness  of  human  greatness.  Born 
in  an  African  town,  fortune  and  merit  had  elevated  him  from  an 
humble  station  to  the  first  place  among  mankind ;  and  now,  satiated 
with  power,  and  oppressed  with  age  and  infirmities,  all  his  pros- 
pects in  life  were  closed.  "  He  had  been  all  things,"  he  said,  "  and 
all  was  of  little  value."  Calling  for  the  urn  in  which  his  ashes  were 
to  be  inclosed,  he  thus  moralized  on  his  decaying  greatness.  "  Little 
urn,  thou  shalt  soon  hold  all  that  will  remain  of  him  whom  the 
world  could  not  contain."  He  died  at  York,2  in  Britain,  (A.  D.  21 1,) 
having  been  called  into  that  country  to  repress  an  insurrection  of  the 
Caledonians. 

1.  Lyons,  called  by  the  Romans  Lugdunum,  is  situated  at  the  confluence  of  the  rivers 
Rhone  and  Saone.    The  Roman  town  was  at  the  foot  of  a  hill  on  the  western  bank  of  the 
Rhone.    Ciesar  conquered  the  place  from  the  Gauls :  Augustus  made  it  the  capital  of  a  prov- 
ince ;  and,  being  enlarged  by  succeeding  emperors,  it  became  one  of  the  principal  cities  of  the 
Roman  world.    It  is  now  the  principal  manufacturing  town  of  France,  containing  a  population 
of  ubout  two  hundred  thousand  inhabitants.     (Map  No.  XIII.) 

2.  JTorAr,  called  by  the  Romans  Ebor'  acum,  is  situated  on  the  river  Ouse,  one  hundred  and 
seventy  miles  N.  N.  west  from  London.    It  was  the  capital  of  the  Roman  province,  and  .next 
to  London,  the  most  important  city  in  the  island.    It  was  successively  the  residence  of  Adrian, 
Sevdrus,  Geta  and  Caracal'  la,  Gonstan'  tins  Chlorus,  Con'  stantine  the  Great,  &c.    The  modern 
city  can  still  show  many  vestiges  of  Roman  power  and  magnificence.    Constan'  tius  Chlorus, 
the  father  of  Con'  sUmtiue  the  Great,  died  here.    (Map  No.  XVI.) 

14 


MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  II. 


22.  Severus  had  left  the  empire  to  his  two  sons  Caracal'  la  arid 
x.  CARA-     Greta,  but  the  former,  whose  misconduct  had  imbittered 

CAL'  LA.      the  last  days  of  his  father,  soon  after  his  accession  slew 
his  brother  in  his  mother's  arms.     His  character  resembled  that  of 
Com' modus  in  cruelty,  but  his  extortions  were  carried  to  a  far 
greater  extent.     After  the  Roman  world  had  endured  his  tyranny 
nearly  six  years,  he  was  assassinated  while  in  Syria,  at  the  instiga- 
XL  MAORI'-   tion  of  Macrinus,  the  captain  of  the  guards,  (A.  D.  217,) 
NUS.        Wh0  succeeded  to  the  throne ;  but  after  a  reign  of  four- 
teen months,  Macrinus  lost  his  life  in  the  struggle  to  retain  his 
power. 

23.  Bassianus,  a  youth  of  fourteen,  and  a  cousin  of  Caracal' la, 
had  been  consecrated,  according  to  the  rites  of  the  Syrian  worship, 
to  the  ministry  of  high-priest  of  the  sun  ;  and  it  was  a  rebellion  of 
the  Eastern  troops  in  his  favor  that  had  overthrown  the  power  of 
Macrinus.     Although  these  events  occurred  in  distant  Syria,  yet  the 
Roman  senate  and  the  whole  Roman  world  received  with  servile 

xii.  ELAGA-  submission  the  emperors  whom  the  army  successively 
BA'  LUS.  offered  them.  As  priest  of  the  sun  Bassianus  adopted 
the  title  of  Elagabalus,a  and  on  his  arrival  at  Rome  established 
there  the  Syrian  worship,  and  compelled  the  grandest  personages  of 
the  State  and  the  army  to  officiate  in  the  temple  dedicated  to  the 
Syrian  god. 

24.  The  follies,  gross  licentiousness,  boundless  prodigality,  and 
cruelty  of  this  pagan  priest  and  emperor,  soon  disgusted  even  the 
licentious  soldiery,  the  only  support  of  his  throne.     He  established 
a  senate  of  women,  the  subject  of  whose  deliberations  were  dress 
and  etiquette ;  he  even  copied  the  dress  and  manners  of  the  female 
sex,  and  styling  himself  empress,  publicly  invested  one  of  his  officers 
with  the  title  of  husband.     His  grandmother  Moa'  sa,  foreseeing  that 
the  Roman  world  would  not  long  endure  the  yoke  of  so  contemptible 
a  monster,  artfully  persuaded  him,  in  a  favorable  moment  of  fond- 
ness, to  adopt  for  his  successor  his  cousin  Alexander  Severus ;  yet, 
soon  after,  Elagabalus,  indignant  that  the  affections  of  the  army 
were  bestowed  upon  another,  meditated  the  destruction  of  Severus, 
but  was  himself  massacred  by  the  indignant  Praetorians,  who  dragged 
his  mutilated  corpse  through  the  city,  and  threw  it  into  the  Tiber, 
while  the  senate  publicly  branded  his  name  with  infamy.    (A.  D.  222.) 

a.  A  name  derived  from  two  Syrian  words,  ela  a  god,  and  gabal  to  form  : — signifying  the 
forming,  or  plastic  god,— a  proper  and  even  happy  epithet  for  the  sun.— Gibbon,  i.  83. 


CHAP.  L]  ROMAN  HISTORY.  211 

25.  At  the  age  of  seventeen  Alexander  Severus  was  raised  to  the 
throne  by  the  Praetorian  guards.     He  proved  to  be  a   xm  Auzx 
wise,   energetic,   and  virtuous  prince :  he  relieved  the    ANDKR  SE- 
provinces  of  the  oppressive  taxes  imposed  by  his  prede-       VERUS- 
cessors,  and  restored  the  dignity,  freedom,  and  authority  of   the 
senate ;  but  his  attempted  reformation  of  the  military  order  served 
only  to  inflame  the  ills  it  was  meant  to  cure.     His  administration  of 
the  government  was  an  unavailing  struggle  against  the  corruptions 
of  the  age ;  and  after  many  mutinies  of  his  troops  his  life  was  at 
length  sacrificed,  after  a  reign  of  fourteen  years,  to  the  fierce  discon- 
tents of  the  army,  whose  power  had  now  increased  to  a  height  so 
dangerous  as  to  obliterate  the  faint  image  of  laws  and  liberty,  and 
introduce  the  sway  of  military  despotism.     Max'  imin,  the  instigator 
of  the  revolt,  was  proclaimed  emperor. 


SECTION    III. 

ROMAN    HISTORY    FROM   THE    ESTABLISHMENT    OF   MILITARY    DESPOTISM,    AFTER   TBS 

MURDER    OF   ALEXANDER    SEVE'  RUS,    A.    D.    235,    TO    THE    SUBVERSION    OF   THE 

WESTERN    EMPIRE    OF   THE    ROMANS,    A.  D.    476   =  241    YEARS. 

ANALYSIS.  1.  Earliest  account  of  the  Thracian  MAX'  IMIN.— 2.  His  origin.  His  history 
down  to  the  death  of  Alexander  Severus.  [The  Goths.  Alani.]— 3.  Max1  imin  proclaimed 
emperor  by  the  army.  Commencement  of  his  reign. — 4.  GOR'  DIAN.  PUPIE'  NUS  AND  BALBI'- 
Ntrs.  Death  of  Max'  imin.  The  SECOND  GOR'  DIAN.— 5.  German  and  Persian  wars.— 6.  Sapor, 
the  Persian  king.  Death  of  Gor'  dian,  and  accession  of  PHILIP  THE  ARABIAN. — 7.  Insurrections 
and  rebellions.  DE'  cics  proclaimed  emperor,  and  death  of  Philip.  [Verona.] — 8.  War  with 
the  Goths,  and  death  of  Decius.  Reign  of  CALLUS  ^EMILIA'  NUS.  Accession  of  VALE'  RIAN. — 
9.  Worthy  character  of  Valerian.  Ravages  of  the  barbarians.  Spain,  Gaul,  and  Britain. 
The  Persians.  [The  Franks.  The  Aleraan' ni.  Lombardy.]— 10.  Valerian  taken  prisoner. 
H:s  treatment.  GALLIK'  NUS.— 11.  Odenatus,  prince  of  Palmyra.  He  routs  the  Persians. 
[Palmyra.] — 12.  Numerous  competitors  for  the  throne. — 13.  Death  of  Gallienus,  and  accession 
of  CLAUDIUS.  [Milan.] — 14.  Character,  reign,  and  death  of  Claudius.  [Sir'  mi  urn.]— 15.  QUIN- 
TILIUS.— 10.  The  reign  of  AURE'  LIAN.  His  wars.  Zenobia.  Character  of  Aurelian.  His 
death.  [Tibur.  Byzan'tium.] — 17.  An  interregnum.  Election  of  TACITUS.  His  reign  and 
death.  [Bos'  porus.] — 18.  FLO'  RIAN.  The  reign,  and  death,  of  PROBUS.  [Sarmatia.  Van'- 
•dals.] — 19.  Reign  of  CA'  RUS.  His  character,  and  death.  NUMK'  RIAN  AND  CARI'  NUS. — 20.  Su- 
perstition, and  retreat,  of  the  Roman  army  in  Persia.  Character  of  Carinus,  and  death  of 
Numerian.— 21.  Carinus  marches  against  Diocletian.  His  death.  DIOCLE' TIAN  acknowledged 
emperor.  His  treatment  of  the  vanquished. 

22.  The  reign  of  Diocletian,  an  important  epoch.  [Copts  and  Abyssmians.] — 23.  Division 
of  the  imperial  authority.— 24.  The  rule  of  MAXIM' IAN.  [Nicomedia.]  Of  his  colleague 
Constan'  tius.  Countries  ruled  by  Diocletian,  and  his  colleague  Galerius. — 25.  Important 
events  of  the  reign  of  Diocletian.  The  insurrection  in  Britain.— 26.  Revolt  in  Egypt  and 
northern  Africa.  [Buiiris  and  Cop'tos.  The  Moors/ -27.  The  war  with  Persia.  [Antioch. 


212  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL. 

Kurdistan.]- -28.  Persecution  of  the  Christians.  Diocletian's  edict  against  them. — 29.  Results, 
and  effects  of  this  persecution.— 30.  Diocletian  and  Maxim'  ian  lay  down  the  sceptre,  and  retire 
to  private  life.  GALE'RIUS  AND  CONSTAN' TIUS  acknowledged  sovereigns.  Discord  and  con- 
fusion.— 31.  Death  of  Constan'tius.  CON' STANTINE  proclaimed  emperor.  Six  competitors  for 
Ihe  throne.  Death  of  Galerius.— 32.  Conversion  of  Con'  stantine,  and  triumph  of  Christianity. 
—33.  Most  important  events  in  the  reign  of  Con'  stantine.  The  choice  of  a  new  capital. — 34. 
Removal  of  the  seat  of  government  to  Byzau'  tium,  and  the  changes  that  followed.  Con'  stan- 
tine divides  the  empire  among  his  three  sons  and  two  nephews.  His  death. — 35.  Sixteen  years 
of  Civil  wars.  CONSTAN'  TIUS  II.  becomes  sole  emperor.  His  reign  of  twenty-tour  years.  His 
death.  [The  Saxons.] — 36.  JULIAN  THE  APOSTATE.  His  character.  Hostility  to  the  Christians. 
—37.  His  efforts  against  Christianity.  The  result.— 38.  His  attempt  to  rebuild  Jerusalem.— 39. 
Causes  of  the  suspension  of  the  work. — 40.  Julian's  invasion  of  Persia.  His  death. — 31.  The 
brief  reign  of  Jo'  VIAN. — 42.  VALENTIN'  IAN  elected  emperor.  Associates  his  brother  W  LENS 
with  him.  Final  division  of  the  empire.  The  two  capitals.  Rome. 

43.  BARBARIAN  INROADS.  Picts  and  Scots.— 44.  Death  of  Valentin'  ian,  and  westward  pro- 
gress of  the  Huns.  The  Vis'  igoths  are  allowed  to  settle  in  Thrace. — 45.  The  Os'  trogoths  cross 
the  Danube  in  arms.  The  two  divisions  raise  the  standard  of  war.  Death  of  Valens. 
[Adrianople.]— 46.  GRA'  TIAN  emperor  of  the  West.  THEODO'  sius  emperor  of  the  East.  The 
Goths.  Many  of  them  settle  in  Thrace,  Phrygia,  &c. — 47.  Death  of  Gratian.  VALENTIN' IAN 
II.  His  death.  Theodosius  sole  emperor.  Death  of  Theodosius.  Division  of  the  empire  be- 
tween HONO'  RIUS  AND  ARCA'  Dius. — 48.  Civil  wars.  AL'  ARIC  THE  GOTH  ravages  Greece,  and 
then  passes  into  Italy.  [Julian  Alps.]— 49.  Honorius  is  relieved  by  Stir  icho.  [Aa'  ta  Pollen'- 
tia.]  Rome  saved  by  Stil'  icho — 50.  Raven'  na  becomes  the  capital  of  Italy.  Deluge  of  bar- 
barians. [Raven' na.  Van' dais.  Suevi.  Burgun' dians.]— 51.  Italy  delivered  by  Stil' icho. 
[Florence.] — 52.  Stil'  icho  put  to  death.  Massacre  of  the  Goths,  and  revolt  of  the  Gothic 
soldiers.— 53.  Rome  besieged  by  Al'  aric.  His  terms  of  ransom.— 54.  The  terras  finally  agreed 
upon.  Rejected  by  Honorius.  [Tuscany.]  Al'  aric  returns  and  reduces  Rome.— 55.  Pillage 
of  Rome.  Al'aric  abandons  Rome.  His  death  and  burial. — 56.  The  Goths  withdraw  from 
Italy.  The  Vis'  igoths  in  Spain  and  Gaul.  Saxons  establish  themselves  in  England.— 57.  The 
Van' dais  in  Spain  and  Africa.  VALENTIN' IAN  III.  CONQUESTS  or  AT'TILA.  [Andalusia. 
The  Huns.  Chalons.  Venetian  Republic.] — 58.  Extinction  of  the  empire  of  the  Huns.  Situ- 
ation of  the  Roman  world  at  this  period.  Rome  pillaged  by  the  VAN'  DALS,  A.  D.  455.— 59. 
AVI'TUS.  MAJO' RIAN. — 60.  SEVE' RUS.  Van' dal  invasions.  Expedition  against  Carthage. — 61. 
Revolutionary  changes.  Demands  of  the  barbarians,  and  SUBVERSION  OF  THE  WESTERN 
EMPIRE.  [Her'  uli.] 

1.  '  Thirty-two  years  before  the  murder  of  Alexander  Severus, 
the  emperor  Septim'  ius  Severus,  returning  from  his  Asiatic  expe- 
dition, halted  in  Thrace  to  celebrate  with  military  games  the  birth- 
day of  his  younger  son  Geta.  Among  the  crowd  that  nocked  to 
behold  their  sovereign  was  a  young  barbarian  of  gigantic  stature, 
who  earnestly  solicited,  in  his  rude  dialect,  that  he  might  be  allowed 
to  contend  for  the  prize  of  wrestling.  As  the  pride  of 
discipline  would  have  been  disgraced  in  the  overthrow  of 
a  B.oman  soldier  by  a  Thracian  peasant,  he  was  matched  with  the 
stoutest  followers  of  the  camp,  sixteen  of  whom  he  successively  laid 
on  the  ground.  His  victory  was  rewarded  by  some  trifling  gifts,  and 
a  permission  to  enlist  in  the  troops.  The  next  day  the  happy  bar- 
barian was  distinguished  above  a  crowd  of  recruits,  dancing  and  ex- 
ulting after  the  fashion  of  his  country.  As  soon  as  as  he  perceived 
that  he  had  attracted  the  emperor's  notice,  he  ran  up  to  his  horse, 


CHAT.  I]  ROMAN  HISTORY.  213 

and  followed  him  on  foot,  without  the  least  appearance  of  fatigue,  in 
a  long  and  rapid  career.  "  Thracian,"  said  Severus,  with  astonish- 
ment, "  art  thou  disposed  to  wrestle  after  thy  race  ?"  "  Most  wil- 
lingly, sir,"  replied  the  unwearied  youth,  and  almost  in  a  breadth 
overthrew  seven  of  the  strongest  soldiers  in  the  army.  A  gold  collar 
was  the  prize  of  his  matchless  vigor  and  activity,  and  he  was  imme- 
diately appointed  to  serve  in  the  horse-guards,  who  always  attended 
on  the  person  of  the  sovereign.' a 

2.  Max'imin,  for  that  was  the  name  of  the  Thracian,  was  de- 
scended from  a  mixed  race  of  barbarians, — his  father  being  a  Goth,1 
and  his  mother  of  the  nation  of  the  Alani.2     Under  the  reign  of  the 
first  Severus  and  his  son  Caracal'  la  he  held  the  rank  of  centurion ; 
but  he  declined  to  serve  under  Macrinus  and  Elagabalus.     On  the  ac- 
cession of  Alexander  he  returned  to  court,  and  was  promoted  to  vari- 
ous military  offices  honorable  to  himself  and  useful  to  the  nation, 
but,  elated  by  the  applause  of  the  soldiers,  who  bestowed  on  him  the 
names  of  Ajax  and  Hercules,  and  prompted  by  ambition,  he  con- 
spired against  his  benefactor,  and  excited  that  mutiny  in  which  the 
latter  lost  his  life. 

3.  Declaring  himself  the  friend  and  advocate  of  the  military  order, 

1.  The  Qoths,  a  powerful  northern  nation,  who  acted  an  important  part  in  the  overthrow  of 
the  Roman  empire,  were  probably  a  Scythian  tribe,  and  came  originally  from  Asia,  whence 
they  passed  north  into  Scandinavia.    When  first  known  to  the  Romans,  a  large  division  of 
their  nation  lived  on  the  northern  shores  of  the  Euxine.    About  the  middle  of  the  third 
century  of  our  era  they  crossed  the  Dnies'  ter,  and  devastated  Dacia  and  Thrace.   The  emperor 
Decius  lost  his  life  in  opposing  them ;  after  which  his  successor  Gal1  lus  induced  them  by 
money,  to  withdraw  to  their  old  seats  on  the  Dnies'  ter.    (See  p.  215.)    Soon  after  this  period 
the  Goths  appear  in  two  grand  divisions ; — the  Os'  trogoths,  or  Eastern  Goths,  passing  the 
Euxine  into  Asia  Minor,  and  ravaging  Bythin'  ia ; — and  the  Vis'  igoths,  or  Western  Goths, 
gradually  pressing  upon  the  Roman  provinces  along  the  Danube.    About  the  year  375,  the 
Huns,  coming  from  the  East,  fell  upon  the  Os'  trogoths,  and  drove  them  upon  the  Vis'  igoths, 
who  were  then  living  north  of  the  Danube.    A  vast  multitude  of  the  latter  were  permitted  by 
the  emperor  Valens  to  settle  in  Moe'  sia,  and  on  the  waste  lands  of  Thrace ;  but  being  soon  after 
joined  by  their  Eastern  brethren,  they  raised  the  standard  of  war,  carried  their  ravages  to  the  very 
gates  of  Constantinople,  and  killed  Valens  in  battle.    (See  p.  228.)    It  was  At'  aric,  king  of  the 
Vis'  igoths,  who  plundered  Rome  in  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century.    (See  p.  231.)    The  Vis'  1- 
goths  afterwards  passed  into  Spain,  where  they  founded  a  dynasty  which  reigned  nearly  three 
centuries,  and  was  finally  conquered  by  the  Moors,  A.  D.  711.    In  the  meantime  the  Os'  trogoths 
had  been  following  in  the  path  of  their  brethren,  and  in  the  year  493  their  great  king  Theod'  oric 
defeated  Odoacer,  and  seated  himself  on  the  throne  of  Italy.    (See  p.  239.)    The  Gothic  kingdom 
lasted  only  till  the  year  554,  when  it  was  overthrown  by  Nar'  ses,  the  general  of  Justin'  ian. 
(See  p.  241.)    From  this  period  the  Goths  no  longer  occupy  a  prominent  place  in  history, 
except  in  Spain. 

2.  The  ./4/dnt,  likewise  a  Scythian  race,  when  first  known  occupied  the  country  between  the 
Volga  and  the  Don.    Being  conquered,  eventually,  by  the  Huns,  most  of  the  Alans  united 
with  their  conquerors,  and  proceeded  with  them  to  invade  the  limits  of  the  Gothic  empire  of 
Italy. 

a.  Gibbon,  i.  96. 


214  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAET  IL 

Max'  imin  was  unanimously  proclaimed  emperor  by  the  applauding 
legions,  who,  now  composed  mostly  of  peasants  and  barbarians  of 
the  frontiers,  knowing  no  country  but  their  camp,  and  no  science  but 
that  of  war,  and  discarding  the  authority  of  the  senate,  looked  upon 
themselves  as  the  sole  depositaries  of  power,  as  they  were,  in  reality, 
the  real  masters  of  the  Roman  world.  Max'  imin  commenced  his 
reign  by  a  sanguinary  butchery  of  the  friends  of  the  late  monarch ; 
but  his  avarice  and  cruelty  soon  provoked  a  civil  war,  and  raised  up 
against  him  several  competitors  for  the  throne. 

4.  At  first  the  aged  and  virtuous  Gor'  dian,  pro-consul  of  Africa, 

was  declared  sovereign  by  the  legions  in  that  part  of  the 
'  Roman  world,  but  he  persisted  in  refusing  the  dangerous 
honor  until  menaces  compelled  him  to  accept  the  imperial  title.     At 
Rome  the  news  of  his  election  was  received  with  universal  joy,  and 
confirmed  by  the  senate;  but  two  months  after  his  accession  he 
perished  in  a  struggle  with  the  Roman  governor  of  Mauritania,  who 
still  adhered  to  Max'  imin.     Two  senators  of  consular  dignity,  Pu- 
JIL  PUPJE-    P^nus?  (sometimes  called  Max'  imus)  and  Balbinus,  were 
NUS  AND     then  declared  emperors  by  the  senate ;  and  soon  after, 
"us>    Max'  imin,  while  on  his  march  from  Pannonia  to  Rome, 
was  slain  in  his  tent  by  his  own  guards.     (A.  D.  238.)     Only  a  few 
iv.  SECOND   days  later  both  Pupienus  and  Balbinus  were  slain  in 
GOB'  DIAN.    a  mutiny  of  the  troops.     The  youthful  Gor'  dian,  grand- 
son of  the  former  Gor'  dian,  was  then  declared  emperor. 

5.  During  these  rapid  changes  in  the  sovereignty  of  the  R'oman 
world,  the  empire  was  involved  in  numerous  foreign  wars,  which 
gradually  wasted  its  strength  and  resources,  and  hastened  its  down- 
fall.    On  the  north,  the  German  nations,  and  other  barbarian  tribes, 
almost  constantly  harassed  the  frontier  provinces ;  while  in  the  east 
the  Persians,  after  overthrowing  the  Parthian  empire,  and  establish- 
ing the  second  or  later  Persian  empire  under  the  dynasty  of  the 
Sassan'idae,  (A.  D.  226,)  commenced  a  long  series  of  destructive 
wars  against  the  Romans,  with  the  constant  object  of  driving  the 
latter  from  Asia. 

6.  At  the  time  of  the  accession  of  the  second  Gor'  dian  to  the 
sovereignty  of  the  Roman  empire.  Sapor,  the  second  prince  of  the 
Sas'  sanid  dynasty,  was  driving  the  Romans  from  several  of  their 
Asiatic  provinces.     The  efforts  of  Gor'  dian,  who  went  in  person  to 
protect  the  provinces  of  Syria,  were  partially  successful ;  but  while 


CHAP.  L]  ROMAN  HISTORY.  215 

the  youthful  conqueror  was  pursuing  his  advantages,  he  was  supplanted 
in  the  affections  of  his  army  by  Philip  the  Arabian,  the     v  PHILIP 
prefect  or  commander  of  the  Praetorian  guards,  who  caused        THE 
his  monarch  and  benefactor  to  be  slain,  (A.  D.  244.)     ARABIAN- 

7.  It  is  not  surprising  that  the  generals  of  Philip  were  disposed 
to  imitate  the  example  of  their  master,  and  that  insurrections  and 
rebellions  were  frequent  during  his  reign.     At  length  a  rebellion 
having  broken  out  in  Pannonia,  Decius  was  sent  to  sup- 

..          i  i         i_-  i/.  i     •          i  i          VI.    DECIUS. 

press  it,  when  he  himself  was  proclaimed  emperor  by 
the  fickle  troops,  and  compelled,  by  the  threat  of  instant  death,  to 
submit  to  their  dictation.     Philip  immediately  marched  against  De- 
cius, but  was  defeated  and  slain  near  Verona.1     (A.  D.  249.) 

8.  Several  monarchs  now  succeeded  each  other  in  rapid  succession. 
Decius  soon  fell  in  battle  with  the  Goths,  (A.  D.  251,)  large  num- 
bers of  whom  during  his  reign  first  crossed  the  Danube,  and  deso- 
lated the  Roman  provinces  in  that  quarter.     Gal'  lus,  a     yii.  GAL'- 
general  of  Decius,  being  raised  to  the  throne,  concluded         LUS- 

a  dishonorable  peace  with  the  barbarians,  and  renewed  a  violent  per- 
secution of  the  Christians,  which  had  been  commenced  by  Decius 
As  new  swarms  of  the  barbarians  crossed  the  Danube,  the  pusillani 
mous  emperor  seemed  about  to  abandon  the  defence  of  VIJI.  ^MILI 
the  monarchy,  when  .ZEmilianus,  governor  of  Pannonia      A'NUS. 
and  Mre'  sia,  unexpectedly  attacked  the  enemy  and  drove  them  back 
into  their  own  territories.     His  troops,  elated  by  the  victory,  pro- 
claimed their  general  emperor  on  the  field  of  battle ;  and  Gal'  lus 
was  soon  after  slain  by  his  own  soldiers.    In  three  months     IX.  VALB- 
a  similar  fate  befel  JEmilianus,  when  Valerian,  governor       KIAN- 
of  Gaul,  then  about  sixty  years  of  age,  a  man  of  learning,  wisdom, 
and  virtue,  was  advanced  to  the  sovereignty,  not  by  the  clamors  of 
the  army  only,  but  by  the  unanimous  voice  of  the  Roman  world. 

9.  Valerian  possessed  abilities  that  might  have  rendered  his  admin 
istration  happy  and  illustrious,  had  he  lived  in  times  more  peaceful, 
and  more  favorable  for  the  display  and  appreciation  of  virtue  ;  but 
his  reign  had  not  only  a  most  deplorable  end,  but  was  marked,  through- 
out, with  nothing  but  confusion  and  calamities.     At  this  time  the 
Goths,  who  had  already  formed  a  powerful  nation  on  the  lower  Dan- 

1.  Ver6na^  a  larg«  and  flourishing  Roman  city  of  Cisalpine  Gaul,  still  retains  its  ancient  name. 
It  is  situated  on  both  sides  of  the  river  Adige,  sixty-four  miles  west  from  Venice.  The  great  glory 
of  Verona  is  its  amphitheatre,  one  of  the  noblest  existing  monuments  of  the  ancient  Romans, 
and,  excepting  the  Colosseum  at  Rome,  the  largest  extant  edifice  of  its  class.  It  is  supposed 
to  have  been  capable  of  accommodating  twenty  thousand  spectators.  (Mnp  No.  XVII.) 


216  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PARt  II. 

ube  and  the  northern  coasts  of  the  Black  Sea,  ravaged  the  Roman  do- 
minions on  their  borders,  and  penetrating  into  the  interior  of  Greece, 
or  Achaia,  destroyed  AT'  gos,  Corinth,  and  Athens,  by  fire  and  by 
the  sword:  the  Franks4,1  who  had  formed  a  kingdom  on  the  lower 
Rhine,  began  to  be  formidable  :  the  Aleman'  ni 3  broke  through  their 
boundaries,  and  advanced  into  the  plains  of  Lorn'  bardy* :  Spain, 
G-aul,  and  Britain,  were  virtually  torn  away  from  the  empire,  and 
governed  by  independent  chiefs;  while  in  the  East,  the  Persians, 
under  their  monarch  Sapor,  fell  like  a  mountain  torrent  upon  Syria 
and  Cappadocia,  and  almost  effaced  the  Roman  power  from  Asia. 

1 0.  Valerian  in  person  led  the  Roman  army  against  the  Persians, 
but,  penetrating  beyond  the  Euphrates,  he  was  surrounded  and  taken 
prisoner  by  Sapor,  who  is  accused  of  treating  his  royal  captive  with 
wanton  and  unrelenting  cruelty, — using  him  as  a  stepping-stone  when 
he  mounted  on  horseback,  and  at  last  causing  him,  after  nine  years 
of  captivity,  to  be  flayed  alive;  and  his  skin  to  be  stuffed  in  the  form 

x.  GALLIE-    °f  *n6  living  emperor — dyed  in  scarlet  in  mockery  of 
Ntf^        his  imperial  dignity,  and  preserved  as  a  trophy  in  a 
temple  of  Persia.     Grallienus,  the  unworthy  son  of  Valerian,  receiv- 
ing the  news  of  his  father's  captivity  with  secret  joy  and  open  in- 
difference, immediately  succeeded  to  the  throne.     (A.  D.  259.) 

1 1.  At  the  time  when  nearly  every  Roman  town  in  Asia  had  sub- 
mitted to  Sapor,  Odenatus,  prince  of  Palmyra,*  who  was  attached 

1.  The  Franks,  or  "  Freemen,"  were  a  confederation  of  the  rudest  of  the  Germanic  tribes, 
and  were  first  known  to  the  Romans  as  inhabiting  the  numerous  islets  formed  by  the  mouth  of 
the  Rhine ;  but  they  afterwards  crossed  into  Gaul^  and,  in  the  latter  part  of  u,e  fifth  century, 
under  their  leader  Clovis,  laid  the  foundation  of  the  French  monarchy.    (See  also  p.  255.) 

2.  The  rflemari  ni,  or  "  all  men,"  that  is,  men  of  all  tribes,  were  also  a  German  confederacy, 
situated"  on  the  northern  borders  of  Switzerland.    They  were  finally  overthrown  by  Clovis,  after 
which  they  were  dispersed  over  Gaul,  Switzerland,  and  northern  Italy. 

3.  Lorn'  bardy  embraced  most  of  the  great  plain  of  northern  Italy  watered  by  the  Po  and  its 
tributaries. 

4.  Palmyra,  "  The  ancient  "  Tadmor  in  the  wilderness"  built  by  king  Solomon,  (2.  Chron. 
viii.  4,)  was  situated  in  an  oasis  of  the  Syrian  desert,  about  one  hundred  and  forty  miles 
north-east  from  Damascus.    The  first  notice  we  have  of  it  in  Roman  history  is  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  wars  with  the  Parthians,  when  it  was  permitted  to  maintain  a  state  of  inde- 
pendence and  neutrality  between  the  contending  parties.    Being  on  the  caravan  route  from  the 
coast  of  Syria  to  the  regions  of  Mesopotamia,  Persia,  and  India,  it  was  long  the  principal  em- 
porium of  commerce  between  the  Eastern  and  Western  worlds— a  city  of  merchants  and  fac- 
tors, whose  wealth  is  still  attested  by  the  number  and  magnificence  of  its  ruins.    After  the 
victories  of  Trajan  had  established  the  unquestionable  preponderance  of  the  Roman  arms,  it 
became  allied  to  the  empire  as  a  free  State,  and  was  greatly  favored  by  Adrian  and  the  Anto- 
nines,  during  whose  reigns  it  attained  its  greatest  splendor.    Odenatus  maintained  its  glory, 
and  for  his  defeat  of  the  Persians  the  Roman  senate  conferred  on  him  the  title  of  Augustus, 
and   associated   him  with   Gallienus  in  the   empire;   but    his   queen    and   successor,  the 
famous  Zenobia,  broke  the  alliance  with  the  imbecile  Gallienus,  annexed  Egypt  to  her  do- 

' 


CHAP.  I]  ROMAN  HISTORY.  217 

to  the  Roman  interest,  desirous  at  least  to  secure  the  forbearance  of 
the  conqueror,  sent  Sapor  a  magnificent  present  of  camels  and  mer- 
chandise, accompanied  with  a  respectful,  but  not  servile,  epistle ;  but 
the  haughty  monarch  ordered  the  gifts  to  be  thrown  into  the  Euphra- 
tes, and  returned  for  an  answer  that  if  Odenatus  hoped  to  mitigate 
his  punishments  he  must  prostrate  himself  before  the  throne  of 
Sapor  with  his  hands  tied  behind  his  back.  The  Palmyrean  prince, 
reading  his  fate  in  the  angry  message  of  Sapor,  resolved  to  meet  the 
Persian  in  arms.  Hastily  collecting  a  little  army  from  the  villages 
of  Syria,  and  the  tents  of  the  desert,  he  fell  upon  and  routed  the 
Persian  host,  seized  the  camp,  the  women,  and  the  treasures  of  Sa- 
por, and  in  a  short  time  restored  to  the  Romans  most  of  the  prov- 
inces of  which  they  had  been  despoiledi 

12.  The  indolence  and  inconstancy  of  Gallienus  soon  raised  up  a 
host  of  competitors  for  the  throne,  generally  reckoned  thirty  in  all, 
although  the  number  of  actual  pretenders  did  not  exceed  nineteen. 
Among  these  was  Odenatus  the  Palmyrean,  to  whom  the  Roman 
senate  had  intrusted  the  command  of  the  Eastern  provinces,  after 
associating  him  with  Gallienus.     Of  all  these  competitors,  several 
of  whom  were  models  of  virtue,  two  only  were  of  noble  birth,  and 
not  one  enjoyed  a  life  of  peace,  or  died  a  natural  death.     As  one 
after  another  was  cut  off  by  the  arms  of  a  rival,  or  by  domestic 
treachery,  armies  and  provinces  were  involved  in  their  fall.     During 
the  deplorable  reigns  of  Valerian  and  Gallienus,  the  contentions  of 
the  imperial  rivals,  and  the  arms  of  barbarians,  brought  the  empire 
to  the  very  brink  of  ruin. 

1 3.  Gallienus,  after  a  reign  of  nine  years,  was  murdered  while  he 
was  besieging  one  of  his  rivals  in  Mediolanum  ;l  (Milan. 

XI    CLAUDIUS 

A.  D.  268 ;)  but  before  his  death  he  had  appointed  Mar- 
cus Aurelius  Claudius,  a  general  of  great  reputation,  to  succeed  him, 
and  the  choice  was  confirmed  by  the  joyful  acclamations  of  the  army 
and  the  people. 

minions,  and  assumed  the  title  of  "  Augusta,  Queen  of  the  East."  The  emperor  Aurelian 
marched  against  the  ill-fated  Palmyra  with  an  irresistible  force ;  the  walls  of  the  city  were 
razed  to  the  ground ;  and  the  seat  of  commerce,  of  arts,  and  of  Zenobhi,  gradually  sunk  into 
an  obscure  town,  a  trifling  fortress,  and,  at  length,  a  miserable  Arab  village. 

1.  Mediol&num,  now  Milan,  was  a  city  of  Cisalpine  Gaul,  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  west 
from  Venice,  situated  in  a  beautiful  plain  between  two  small  streams  the  Olona  and  Lambra, 
which  unite  at  San  Angelo  and  form  a  northern  tributary  of  the  Po.  Mediolanum  was  an- 
nexed to  the  Roman  dominions  by  Scipio  Nasica,  191  B.  C.  A  good  specimen  of  ancient  Ro- 
man architecture  may  still  be  seen  at  Milan,  being  a  range  of  sixteen  beautiful  Corinthian 
columns,  with  their  architrave,  before  the  church  at  San  Lorenzo.  (Map  No.  VII I.) 


218  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAKT  II. 

14.  A  succession  of  better  princes  now  restored  for  awhile  the  de- 
caying energies  of  the  empire.     Claudius  merited  the  confidence 
which  had  been  placed  in  his  wisdom,  valor,  and  virtue;  and  his 
early  death  was  a  great  misfortune  to  the  Roman  world.     After 
having  overthrown  and  nearly  destroyed  an  army  of  three  hundred 
and  twenty  thousand  Goths  and  Van'  dais,  who  had  invaded  the  em- 
pire by  the  way  of  the  Bos'  porus,  Claudius  was  cut  off  by  a  pesti- 
lence at  Sir'  mium,1  as  he  was  making  preparations  to  march  against 
the  famous  Zenobia,  the  "  Queen  of  the  East,"  and  the  widow  and 
successor  of  Odenatus. 

15.  Quintil'ius,  the  brother  of  Claudius,  was  proclaimed  emperor 
xii.  QUIN-    by  the  acclamations  of  the  troops  ;  but  when  he  learned 

TIL'  lus.  that  the  great  army  of  the  Danube  had  invested  Aurelian 
with  imperial  power,  he  sunk  into  despair,  and  terminated  his  life 
after  a  reign  of  seventeen  days. 

16.  The  reign  of  Aurelian,  which  lasted  only  four  years  and  nine 
XIIL  AURE-   months,  was  filled  with  memorable  achievements.     After 

LIAN.  a  Bloody  conflict,  he  put  an  end,  by  treaty,  to  the  Gothic 
war  of  twenty  years'  duration ;  he  chastised  and  drove  back  the 
Aleman'  ni,  who  had  traced  a  line  of  devastation  from  the  Danube 
to  the  Po  ;  he  recovered  Gaul,  Spain,  and  Britain  ;  and  passing  into 
Asia  at  the  head  of  a  large  army,  he  destroyed  the  proud  monarchy 
which  Zenobia  had  erected  there,  and  led  that  unfortunate,  but  heroic 
princess,  captive  to  Rome.  Being  presented  with  an  elegant  villa 
at  Tibur,2  the  Syrian  queen  insensibly  sunk  into  a  Roman  matron, 
and  her  daughters  married  into  the  noblest  families  of  the  empire. 
"With  great  courage  and  superior  military  talents,  Aurelian  possessed 
many  private  virtues ;  but  their  influence  was  impaired  by  the  stern- 
ness and  severity  of  his  character.  He  fell  in  a  conspiracy  of  his 
officers  near  Byzan'  tium,3  while  preparing  to  carry  on  a  war  with 
Persia.  (A.  D.  March,  275.) 

1.  Sir'  mium  was  an  important  city  in  the  south-eastern  part  of  Pannonia,  on  the  northern 
side  of  the  river  Save.    Its  ruins  may  be  seen  near  the  town  of  Mitrovitz,  in  Austrian  Slavoniu. 

2.  Tibur^  now  Tivoli,  (tee-vo-le)  was  situated  at  the  cascades  of  the  A'  nio,  now  the  Tever- 
6ne,  eighteen  miles  north-east  from  Rome.    Its  ancient  inhabitants  were  called  the  Tiburtim, 
The  declivities  in  the  vicinity  of  Tibur  were  anciently  interspersed  with  splendid  villas,  the 
favorite  residences  of  the  refined  and  luxurious  citizens  of  Rome,  among  which  may  be  men- 
tioned those  of  Sallust,  Maecenas,  Tibul'  lus,  Varus,  At'  ticus,  Cassius,  Brutus,  &c.    Here  Virgil 
and  Horace  elaborated  their  immortal  works.    Although  the  temples  and  theatres  of  ancient 
Tibur  have  crumbled  into  dust,  its  orchards,  its  gardens,  and  its  cool  recesses,  still  bloom  and 
flourish  in  unfading  beauty.    (Map  No.  X.) 

3.  Byzan'  tium,  now  Constantinople,  a  celebrated  city  of  Thrace  on  the  western  shore  of  the 
Thracian  Bos'  porus,  is  supposed  to  have  been  founded  by  a  Dorian  colony  from  Meg'  ara,  led 


CHAP.  L]  ROMAN  HISTORY.  219 

17.  On  the  death  of  Aurelian,  a  generous  and  unlooked-for  dis- 
interestedness was  exhibited  by  the  army,  which  modestly  referred 
the  appointment  of  a  successor  to  the  senate.     For  six  months  the 
senate  persisted  in  declining  an  honor  it  had  so  long  been  unaccus- 
tomed to  enjoy ;  and  during  this  period  the  Roman  world  remained 
without  a  sovereign,  without  a  usurper,  and  without  a  sedition.     At 

length  the  senate  yielded  to  the  continual  request  of  the 

,  .  .  ,     ,     ,    ,    .      .,       .          .  ,    ,.     .       ,,  xiv.  TACITUS. 

legions,   and   elected   to   the   imperial  dignity   Marcus 

Claudius  Tacitus,  a  wealthy  and  virtuous  senator,  who  had  already 
passed  his  seventy-fifth  year.  Tacitus,  after  enacting  some  wise 
laws,  and  restoring  to  the  senate  its  ancient  privileges,  proceeded  to 
join  the  army,  which  had  remained  assembled  on  the  Bos'porus1  for 
the  invasion  of  Persia ;  but  the  hardships  of  a  military  life,  and  the 
cares  of  government,  proved  too  much  for  his  constitution,  and  he 
died  in  Cappadocia,  after  a  reign  of  little  more  than  six  months. 
(A.  D.  Sept.,  275.) 

18.  Florian,  a  brother  of  Tacitus,  showed  himself  unworthy  to 
reign,  by  assuming  the  government  without  even  con-     xv  FLO'_ 
Suiting  the  senate.     His  own  soldiers  soon  after  put  him        BIAN- 

to  death,  while  in  the  meantime  the  Syrian  army  proclaimed  their 
leader,  Probus,  emperor.     The  latter  proved  to  be  an    XVI  PEO/_ 
excellent  sovereign  and  a  great  general ;  and  in  the  wars       BUS- 
which  he  carried  on  with  the  Franks,  Aleman'ni,  Sarmatians,2  Goths, 
and  Van'  dais,3  he  gained  greater  advantages  than  any  of  his  prede- 
cessors.    In  the  several  battles  which  he  fought,  four  hundred  thou- 
sand of  the  barbarians  fell ;  and  seventy  cities  opened  their  gates  to 

by  Byzas  a  Thracian  prince,  about  the  middle  of  the  seventh  century  before  the  Christian  era. 
It  was  destroyed  by  the  Persians  in  the  reign  of  Darius :  it  resisted  successfully  the  arms  of 
Philip  of  Mac'  edon :  during  the  reign  of  Philip  II.  it  placed  itself  under  Roman  sway :  it  was 
destroyed,  and  afterwards  rebuilt,  by  Septim'  ius  Severus;  and  in  the  year  328  A.  D.,  Con'stan- 
tine  made  it  the  capital  of  the  Roman  empire.  On  the  subjugation  of  the  western  empire  by 
the  barbarians,  A.  D.  476,  it  continued  to  be  the  capital  of  the  eastern  empire.  It  was  taken 
by  the  crusaders  in  the  year  1204 ;  and  in  1453  it  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Turks,  when  the 
last  remnant  of  the  Roman  empire  was  finally  suppressed.  (Map  No.  III.) 

1.  The  Bos'porus,  (corrupted  by  modern  orthography  to  Bos' phorus,)  is  the  strait  which 
connects  the  Euxine  or  Black  Sea,  with  the  Propon'  tis  or  Sea  of  Marmora.    The  length  of  this 
remarkable  channel  is  about  seveuteeen  miles,  with  a  width  varying  from  half  a  mile  to  two 
miles.    (Map  No.  VII.) 

2.  Ancient  Sarmdtia  extended  from  the  Baltic  Sea  and  the  Via'  tula  to  the  Caspian  Sea  and  the 
Volga.     European  Sarmatia  embraced  Poland,  Lithuania,  Prussia,  and  a  part  of  Russia. 
Asiatic  Sarmatia  comprised  the  country  between  the  Caspian  Sea  and  the  river  Don. 

3.  The  Van'  dais  were  a  people  of  Germany,  and  are  supposed  to  have  been  of  Gothic  origin. 
They  formed  one  of  the  three  divisions  of  the  great  Slavonian  race  ; — viz.,  Vandals,  An'  tea, 
and  Slavonians  proper.    The  Slavonian  language  is  the  stem  from  which  have  issued  the 
Russian  Polish,  Bohemian,  4tc. 


220  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

him.  After  he  had  secured  a  general  peace  by  his  victories,  he  em- 
ployed his  armies  in  useful  public  works ;  but  the  soldiers  disdained 
such  employment,  and  while  they  were  engaged  in  draining  a  marsh 
near  Sir'  inium,  in  the  hot  days  of  summer,  they  broke  out  into  a 
furious  mutiny,  and  in  their  sudden  rage  slew  their  emperor.  (A.  D. 
282.) 

19.  The   legions   next  raised    Cams,  prefect  of  the   Praetorian 
xvii.       guards,  to  the  throne.     He  was  full  of  warlike  ambition, 

CA'  RUS.      an(j  the  desire  of  military  glory,  and  seems  to  have  held 

a  middle  rank  between  good  and  bad  princes.     He  signalized  the 

beginning  of  his  reign  by  a  memorable  defeat  of  the  Sarmatians  in 

Illyr'  icum,  sixteen  thousand  of  whom  he  slew  in  battle.     He  then 

marched  against  Persia,  and  had  already  carried  his  victorious  arms 

beyond  the  Tigris,  when  he  was  killed  in  his  tent,  as  was 

NUMERIAN    generally  believed  by  lightning.     (A.  D.  283.)     Nume- 

AND        rian,  one  of  the  sons  of  Carus,  who  had  accompanied  his 
CARI'NUS.      .    ,         .      ..  ...  ,   _     ,       *    .       .. 

lather  in  his  eastern  expedition,  and  (Jarinus  his  elder 

brother,  who  had  been  left  to  govern  Rome,  were  immediately  ac- 
knowledged emperors  by  the  troops. 

20.  On  the  death  of  Carus,  the  eastern  army,  superstitiously  re- 
garding places  or  persons  struck  by  lightning  as  singularly  devoted 
to  the  wrath  of  heaven,  refused  to  advance  any  farther ;  and  the  Per- 
sians beheld  with  wonder  the  unexpected  retreat  of  a  victorious 
army. — While  Carinus  remained  at  Rome,  immersed  in  pleasures, 
and  acting  the  part  of  a  second  Com'  modus,  the  virtuous  Numerian 
perished  by  assassination.     The  army  of  the  latter  then  chose  for 
his  successor  Diocletian,  the  commander  of  the  domestic  body  guards 
of  the  late  emperor.     (A.  D.  Dec.,  285.) 

21.  Carinus,  being  determined  to  dispute  the  succession,  marched 
with  a  large  army  against  Diocletian,  whom  he  was  on  the  point  of 
defeating  in  a  desperate  battle  on  the  plains  of  Margus,  a  small  city 
of  Moe'  sia,  when  he  was  slain  by  one  of  his  own  officers  in  revenge 
for  some  private  wrong.     The  army  of  Carinus  then  acknowledged 

xix.  DIOCLE-  Diocletian  as  emperor.     He  used  his  victory  with  mild- 
TIAX.        ness,  and,  contrary  to  the  common  practice,  respected 
the  lives  and  fortunes  of  his  late  adversaries,  and  even  continued  in 
their  stations  many  of  the  officers  of  Carinus. 

22.  The  reign  of  Diocletian  is  an  important  epoch  in  Roman 
history,  as  it  was  one  of  long  duration  and  general  prosperity,  and  is 


CHAP.  I.]  ROMAN  HISTORY.  221 

the  beginning  of  the  division  of  the  Roman  world  into  the  Eastern 
and  Western  empire.  The  accession  of  Diocletian  also  marks  a  new 
chronological  era,  called  the  "  era  of  Diocletian,"  or,  "  the  era  of 
martyrs,"  which  was  long  recognized  in  the  Christian  church,  and  is 
still  used  by  the  Copts  and  Abyssinians.1 

23.  The  natural  tendency  of  the  eastern  parts  of  the  empire  to 
become  separated  from  the  western,  together  with  the  difficulties  of 
ruling  singly  over  so  many  provinces  of  different  nations  and  diverse 
interests,  led  Diocletian  to  form  the  plan  of  dividing  the  imperial 
authority,  and  governing  the  empire  from  two  centres,  although  the 
whole  was  still  to  remain  one.     He  therefore  first  took  as  a  colleague 
his  friend  and  fellow  soldier  Maxim'  ian  ;  but  still  the  weight  of  the 
public  administration  appearing  too  heavy,  the  two  sovereigns  took 
each  a  subordinate  colleague,  to  whose  name  the  title  of  Caesar  was 
prefixed. 

24.  Maxim'  ian  made  Milan  his  capital,  while  Diocletian  held  his 
court  at  Nicomedia,3  in  Asia  Minor.     Maxim'  ian  ruled  xx  MAXIM'. 
over  Italy  and  Africa  proper  ;  while  his  subordinate  col-         IAN- 
league,  Constan'  tius,  administered  the  government  of  Gaul,  Spain, 
Britain,  and  Mauritania.     Diocletian  reserved,  for  his  personal  su- 
pervision, nearly  all  the  empire  east  of  the  Adriat'  ic,  except  Panno- 
nia  and  Moe'  sia,  which  he  conferred  upon  his  subordinate  colleague 
Galerius.     Each  of  the  four  rulers  was  sovereign  within  his  own 
jurisdiction;  but  each  was  prepared  to  assist  his  colleagues  with 
counsel  and  with  arms;  while  Diocletian  was  regarded  as  the  father 
and  head  of  the  empire. 

25.  The  most  important  events  .of  the  reign  of  Diocletian  were 
the  insurrection  of  Caravisius  in  Britain,  a  revolt  in   Egypt  and 
throughout  northern  Africa,  the  war  against  the  Persians,  and  a  long- 
continued  persecution  of  the  Christians.     During  seven  years,  Carau- 
sius,  the  commander  of  the  northern  Roman  fleet,  ruled  over  Britain, 
and  diffused  beyond  the  columns  of  Hercules  the  terror  of  his  name. 
He  was  murdered  by  his  first  minister  Alec'  tus  ;  but  the  latter, 
soon  after,  was  defeated  and  slain  in  battle  by  Constan'  tius ;  and 
after  a  separation  often  years,  Britain  was  reunited  with  the  empire. 

26.  The  suppression  of  a  formidable  revolt  in  Egypt  was  accom- 

1.  The  Copts  are  Christians— descendants  of  the  ancient  Egyptians,  as  distinguished  from  tho 
Arabians  and  other  inhabitants  of  modern  Egypt.    The  Myssinians,  inhabitants  of  Abyssinia, 
in  eastern  Africa,  profess  Christianity,  but  it  has  little  influence  over  their  conduct. 

2.  Jficomedia  was  In  Bithyn'  ia,  at  the  eastern  extremity  of  the  Propon'  tU,  or  Sea  of  Mar- 
mora.   The  modern  Is-Mid  occupies  the  site  of  the  ancient  city. 


222  MODERN  HISTORY. 

plished  by  Diocletian  himself,  who  took  a  terrible  vengeance  upon 
Alexandria,  and  utterly  destroyed  the  proud  cities  of  Busiris  and 
Cop'  tos.1  In  the  meantime  a  confederacy  of  five  Moorish2  nations 
attacked  all  the  Roman  provinces  of  Africa,  from  the  Nile  westward 
to  Mount  Atlas,  but  the  barbarians  were  vanquished  by  the  arms  of 
Maxim'  ian. 

27.  Next  commenced  the  war  with  Persia,  which  was  carried  on 
by  Galerius,  although  Diocletian,  taking  his  station  at  An'  tioch,3  pre- 
pared and  directed  the  military  operations.     In  the  first  campaign 
the  Roman  army  received  a  total  overthrow  on  the  very  ground 
rendered  memorable  by  the  defeat  and  death  of  Crassus.     In  a  second 
campaign  Gralerius  gained  a  complete  victory  by  a  night  attack  ;  and 
by  the  peace  which  followed,  the  eastern  boundary  of  the  Roman 
world  was  extended  beyond  the  Tigris,  so  as  to  embrace  the  greater 
part  of  Cardiichia,  the  modern  Kurdistan'.4 

28.  The  triumphs  of  Diocletian  are  sullied  by  a  general  perse- 
cution of  the   Christians  (the  tenth  and  last),  which  he  is  said  to 
have  commenced  at  the  instigation  of  Gralerius,  aided  by  the  artifices 
of  the  priesthood.     (A.  D.  303.)     The  famous  edict  of  Diocletian 
against  the  Christians  excluded  them  from  all  offices,  ordered  their 
churches  to  be  pulled  down,  and  their  sacred  books  to  be  burned,  and 
led  to  a  general  and  indiscriminate  massacre  of  all  such  as  professed 
the  name  of  Jesus. 


1.  Four  cities  of  Egypt  bore  the  name  of  Busiris.    The  one  destroyed  by  Diocletian  was  in 
the  Thebais,  or  southern  Egypt, — generally  called  Upper  Egypt.     Cop'  tos  was  likewise  in 
Upper  Egypt,  east  of  the  Nile.    Its  favorable  situation  for  commerce  caused  it  again  to  arise 
after  its  destruction  by  Diocletian. 

2.  The  Moors,  whose  name  is  derived  from  a  Greek  word  (Mauros)  signifying  "  dark,"  "  ob- 
scure," are  natives  of  the  northern  coast  of  Africa,  or,  more  properly,  of  the  Roman  Mauri- 
tania.   The  Moors  were  originally  from  Asia,  and  are  a  people  distinct  from  the  native  Arabs, 
Berbers,  &c.    The  modern  Moors  are  descendants  of  the  ancient  Mauritanians,  intermixed 
•with  their  Arab  conquerors,  and  with  the  remains  of  the  Van'  dais  who  once  ruled  over  the 
country. 

3.  Jin'  tioch,  once  eminent  for  its  beauty  and  greatness,  was  situated  in  northern  Syria,  on 
the  left  bank  of  the  Oron'  tes,  (now  the  Aaszy,)  twenty  miles  from  its  entrance  into  the  Medi- 
terranean.   An'  tioch  was  the  capital  of  the  Macedonian  kingdom  of  Syria ;  and  about  the 
year  65  B.  C.  the  conquests  of  Pompey  brought  it,  with  the  whole  of  Syria,  under  the  control 
of  the  Romans.    It  was  long  the  centre  of  an  extensive  commerce,  the  residence  of  the  gov- 
ernor of  Syria,  the  frequent  resort  of  the  Roman  emperors,  and,  next  to  Rome,  the  most  cele- 
brated city  of  the  empire  for  the  amusements  of  the  circus  and  the  theatre.    Paul  and  Barnabas 
planted  there  the  doctrines  of  Christianity ;  and  "  the  disciples  were  called  Christians  first  in 
An'  tioch."— Acts,  xi.  26.    (Map  No.  VII.) 

4.  Kurdistan',  comprised  chiefly  within  the  basin  of  the  Tigris,  is  claimed  partly  by  Turkey 
and  partly  by  Persia.    It  is  the  country  of  the  Kurds,  in  whose  character  the  love  of  theft  and 
brigandage  is  a  marked  feature;  but,  at  the  same  time,  when  visited  by  travellers  they  exercise 
the  most  generous  hospitality,  and  often  force  handsome  presents  on  their  departing  guests. 


CHAP.  I]  ROMAN  HISTORY.  223 

29.  During  ten  years  the  persecution  continued  with  scarcely  miti- 
gated horrors ;  and  such  multitudes  of  Christians  suffered  death  that 
at  last  the  imperial  murderers  boasted  that  they  had  extinguished 
the  Christian  name  and  religion,  and  restored  the  worship  of  the 
gods  to  its  former  purity  and  splendor.     In  spite,  however,  of  the 
efforts  of  tyranny,  the  Christian  Church  survived,  and  in  a  few  years 
reigned  triumphant  in  the  very  metropolis  of  heathen  idolatry. 

30.  After  a  reign  of  twenty  years,  Diocletian,  in  the  presence  of 
a  large   concourse  of  citizens  and  soldiers  who  had  assembled  at 
Nicbmedia  to  witness  the  spectacle,  voluntarily  laid  down  the  sceptre, 
and  retired  to  private  life ;  and  on  the  same  day  Maxim'  ian,  accord- 
ing to  previous  agreement,  performed  a  similar  ceremony 

at  Milan.     (May  1st,  305.)     Galerius  and  Constan'  tius     mvs  AND 
were  thereupon  acknowledged  sovereigns  ;  and  two  sub-     CONSTAN'- 
ordinates,  or  Caesars,  were  appointed  to  complete  the 
system  of  imperial  government  which  Diocletian  had  established. 
But  this  balance-of-power  system  needed  the  firm  and  dexterous 
hand  of  its  founder  to  sustain  it ;  and  the  abdication  of  Diocletian 
was  followed  by  eighteen  years  of  discord  and  confusion. 

31.  One  year  after  the  abdication  of  the  sovereigns,  Constan' tius 
died  at  York,  in  Britain,  when  his  soldiers  proclaimed  his  son  Con'- 
stantine  emperor.     In  a  short  time  the  empire  was  divid-   ^^n  OON/_ 
ed  between  six  sovereigns ;    but  Con'  stantine  lived  to    STANTINK. 
see  them  destroyed  in  various  ways ;  and,  eighteen  years  after  his 
accession,  having  overcome  in  battle  Licin'  ius,  the  last  of  his  rivals, 
he  was  thus  left  sole  master  of  the  Roman  world,  whose  dominions 
extended  from  the  wall  of  Scotland  to  Kurdistan',  and  from  the  Red 
Sea  to  Mount  Atlas  in  Africa.     Galerius  had  already  died  of  a 
loathsome  disease,  which  was  considered  by  many  as  a  punishment  from 
Heaven  for  his  persecution  of  the  Christians. 

32.  Con'  stantine  has  been  styled   the  first  Christian  emperor. 
During  one  of  his  campaigns  (A.  D.  312)  he  is  said  to  have  seen  a 
miraculous  vision  of  a  luminous  cross  in  the  Heavens,  on  which  was 
inscribed  the  following  words  in  Greek,  "  By  this  conquer"     Certain 
it  is  that  from  this  period  Con'  stantine  showed  the  Christians  marks 
of  positive  favor,  and  caused  the  cross  to  be  employed  as  the  imperial 
standard :  in  his  last  battle  with  Licin'  ius  it  was  the  emblem  of  the 
cross  that  was  opposed  to  the  symbols  of  paganism  ;  and  as  the  latter 
went  down  in  a  night  of  blood,  the  triumph  of  Christianity  over  the 
Roman  world  was  deemed  complete. 


224  MODERN   HISTORY.  [PART  II 

33.  The  most  important  events  in  the  reign  of  Con'  stantine,  after 
he  had  restored  the  outward  unity  of  the  empire,  were  his  wars  with 
the  Sarmatians  and  Goths,  whom  he  severely  chastised ;  his  domestic 
difficulties,  in  which  he  showed  little  of  the  character  of  a  Christian  ; 
and  the  establishment,  at  Byzan'  tium,  of  the  new  capital  of  the  Ro- 
man empire;  afterwards  called    Constantinople,  from   its  founder. 
The  motives  which  led  Con'  stantine  to  the  choice  of  a  new  capital, 
on  a  spot  which  seemed  formed  by  nature  to  be  the  metropolis  of  a 
great  empire,  were  those  of  policy  and  interest,  mingled  with  feel- 
ings of  revenge  for  insults  which  he  had  received  at  Rome,  where 
he  was  execrated  for  abandoning  the  religion  of  his  forefathers. 

34.  The  removal  of  the  seat  of  government  was  followed  by  an 
entire  change  in  the  forms  of  civil  and  military  administration.     The 
military  despotism  of  the  former  emperors  now  gave  place  to  the 
despotism  of  a  court,  surrounded  by  all  the  forms  and  ceremonies, 
the  pride,  pomp,  and  circumstances,  of  Eastern  greatness :  all  mag- 
istrates were  accurately  divided  into  new  classes,  and  a  uniform  sys- 
tem of  taxation  was  established,  although  the  amount  of  tribute  was 
imposed  by  the  absolute  authority  of  the  monarch.     Finally  Con'- 
stantine,  as  he  approached  the  end  of  his  life,  went  back  to  the  sys- 
tem of  Diocletian,  and  divided  the  empire  among  his  three  sons 
Con' stantine,  Constan' tius,  and  Con' stans,  and  his  two  nephews, 
Dalmatius  and  Hannibalianus.     After  a  reign  of  thirty-one  years 
Con'  stantine  the  First  died  at  Nicomedia,  at  the  age  of  sixty-three 
years.     (A.  D.  337.) 

35.  The  division  of  sovereign  power  among  so  many  rulers  in- 
volved the  empire  in  frequent  insurrections  and  civil  wars,  until, 

xxiii.  CON-  sixteen  years  from  the  death  of  Con'  stantine,  Constan'- 
STAN'TIUS  n.  ^ms,  or  Constan' tius  II.,  after  having  seen  all  his  rivals 
overcome,  and  several  usurpers  vanquished,  was  left  in  the  sole  pos- 
session of  the  empire.  During  his  reign  of  twenty-four  years  he 
was  engaged  in  frequent  wars  with  the  Franks,  Saxons,1  Aleman'  ni, 
and  Sarmatians,  while  the  Persians  continued  to  harass  the  Eastern 

1.  The  Saxons  were  a  people  of  Germany,  whose  original  seats  appear  to  have  been  on  the 
neck  of  the  Cimbric  peninsula,  (now  Denmark,)  between  the  Elbe  and  the  Baltic,  and  embrac- 
ing the  present  Sleswick  and  Holslein.  (Map  No.  XVII.)  The  early  Saxons  were  a  nation  of 
fishermen  and  pirates ;  and  it  appears  that  after  they  had  extended  their  depredations  to  the 
coasts  of  Britain  and  eastern  and  southern  Gaul,  numerous  auxiliaries  from  the  shores  of  the 
Baltic  joined  them,  and,  gradually  coalescing  with  them  into  a  national  body,  accepted  the  name 
and  the  laws  of  the  Saxons.  In  the  early  part  of  the  fifth  century,  the  Saxons  were  converted 
to  Christianity  by  the  Roman  missionaries ;  and  half  a  century  later  they  had  obtained  a  per- 
manent establishment  in  Britain. 


CHAP.  I]  ROMAN  HISTORY.  225 

provinces.  While  Constan'  tius  was  sustaining  a  doubtful  war  in 
the  East,  his  cousin  Julian,  whom  he  had  appointed  to  the  command 
of  the  Western  provinces,  with  the  title  of  Caesar,  was  proclaimed 
emperor  by  his  victorious  legions  in  Gaul.  Preparations  for  civil 
war  were  made  on  both  sides ;  but  the  Roman  world  was  saved  from 
the  calamities  of  the  struggle  by  the  sudden  death  of  Constan'  tius. 
(A.  D.  361.) 

36.  Julian,  commonly  called  the  Apostate,  on  account  of  his  relaps- 
ing from  Christianity  into  paganism,  possessed  many  ami- 
able and  shining  qualities,  and  his  application  to  business  JTU'  LIAN  THK 
was  intense.     He  reformed  numerous  abuses  of  his  prede-    APOSTATt 
cessor,  but,  in  the  great  object  of  his  ambition,  the  restoration  of 
ancient  paganism,  although  he  had  issued  an  edict  of  universal  toler- 
ation, he  showed  a  marked  hostility  to  the  Christians,  subjecting 
them  to  many  disabilities  and  humiliations,  and  allowing  their  ene- 
mies to  treat  them  with  excessive  rigor. 

37.  Trained  in  the  most  celebrated  schools  of  Grecian  philosophy  at 
Athens,  Julian  was  an  able  writer  and  an  artful  sophist,  and,  employ- 
ing the  weapons  of  argument  and  ridicule  against  the  Christians,  he 
strenuously  labored  to  degrade  Christianity,  and  bring  contempt  upon 
its  followers.     In  this  effort  he  was  partially  successful ;  but  ere 
long  the  sophisms  of  the  "  apostate  emperor"  were  ably  refuted  by 
St.  Cyril  and  others,  and  the  result  of  the  controversy  was  highly 
favorable  to  the  increase  and  spread  of  the  new  religion. 

38.  Not  relying  upon  the  weapons  of  argument  and  ridicule  alone, 
Julian  aimed  what  he  thought  would  be  a  deadly  blow  to  Christi- 
anity, by  ordering  the   temple  of  Jerusalem  to  be  rebuilt,  hoping 
thus  to  falsify  the  language  of  prophecy  and  the  truth  of  Revela- 
tion.    But  although  the  Jews  were  invited  from  all  the  provinces  of 
the  empire  to  assemble  once  more  on  the  holy  mountain  of  their 
fathers,  and  every  effort  was  made  to  secure  the  success  of  the  under- 
taking, both  by  the  emperor  and  the  Jews  themselves,  the  work  did 
not  prosper,  and  was  finally  abandoned  in  despair. 

39.  Most  writers,  both   Christians  and  pagans,  declare  that  the 
work  was  frustrated  in  consequence  of  balls  of  fire  that  burst  from 
the  earth  and  alarmed  the  workmen  who  were  employed  in  digging 
the  foundations.     Whether  these  phenomena,  so  gravely  and  abun- 
dantly attested,  were  supernatural  or  otherwise,  does  not  affect  the 
authenticity  of  the  prophecy  that  pronounced  desolation  upon  Jeru- 
salem.    The  most  powerful  monarch  of  the  earth,  stimulated  by 

15 


226  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  II. 

pride,  passion,  and  interest,  and  aided  by  a  zealous  people,  attempt- 
ed to  erect  a  building  in  one  of  his  cities,  but  found  all  his  efforts 
vain,  because  "  the  finger  of  God  was  there."  a 

40.  During  the  same  year  in '  which  Julian  attempted  the  re- 
building of  the  temple,  he  set  out  with  a  large  army  for  the  con- 
quest of  Persia.     The  Persian  monarch  made  overtures  of  peace 
through  his  ambassadors  ;  but  Julian  dismissed  them  with  the  decla- 
ration that  he  intended  speedily  to  visit  the  court  of  Persia.     He 
marched  with  great  rapidity  into  the  heart  of  the  country,  overcom- 
ing all  obstacles,  but  being  led  astray  in  the  desert  by  treacherous 
guides,  his  army  was  reduced  to  great  distress  by  want  of  provisions, 
and  he  was  forced  to  commence  a  retreat.     At  length  Jdlian  himself, 
in  a  skirmish  which  proved  favorable  to  the  Romans,  was  mortally 
wounded  by  a  Persian  javelin.     He  died  the  same  night,  spending 
his  last  moments,  like  Socrates,  in  philosophical  discourse  with  his 
friends.     (A.  D.  363.) 

41.  In  the  death  of  Julian,  the  race  of  the  great  Con'  stantine  was 
extinct ;  and  the  empire  was  left  without  a  master  and  without  an 

xxv.  heir.  In  this  situation  of  affairs,  Jovian,  who  had  held 
JO'VIAN.  some  important  offices  under  Con' stantine,  was  pro- 
claimed emperor  by  the  army,  which  was  still  surrounded  by  the 
Persian  hosts.  The  first  care  of  Jovian  was  to  conclude  a  dishonor- 
able peace,  by  which  five  provinces  beyond  the  Tigris,  the  whole  of 
Mesopatamia,  and  several  fortified  cities  in  other  districts,  were  sur- 
rendered to  the  Persians.  On  his  arrival  at  An'  tioch,  Jovian  re- 
voked the  edicts  of  his  predecessor  against  the  Christians.  Soon 
after,  while  on  his  way  to  Constantinople,  he  was  found  dead  in  his 
bed,  having  been  accidentally  suffocated,  as  was  supposed,  by  the 
fumes  of  burning  charcoal.  (Feb.  A.  D.  364.) 

42.  After  an  interval  of  ten  days,  Valentin'  ian,  the  commander 

of  the  body  guard  at  the  time  of  Jovian's  death,  was 

XXVI    VAL- 

ENTIN'  IAN    elected  emperor.     One  month  later  he  associated  with 

AND        himself,  as  a  colleague  in  the  empire,  his  brother  Valens, 

upon  whom  he  conferred  the  government  of  the  Eastern 

a.  The  probable  explanation  of  the  remarkable  incidents  attending  the  attempt  of  Julian  to 
rebuild  the  temple,  is,  that  the  numerous  subterranean  excavations,  reservoirs,  &c.,  beneath 
and  around  the  ruins  of  the  temple,  which  had  been  neglected  during  a  period  of  three  hundred 
years,  had  become  filled  with  inflammable  air,  which,  taking  fire  from  the  torches  of  the  work- 
men, repelled,  by  terrific  explosions,  those  who  attempted  to  explore  the  ruins.  From  a  simi- 
lar cause  terrible  accidents  sometimes  occur  in  deeply-excavated  mines. — See  Milman's  Notes 
on  Gibbon  ;  Gibbon,  vol.  ii.  p.  447. 


CHAP.  I]  ROMAN   HISTORY.  227 

provinces,  from  the  lower  Danube  to  the  confines  of  Persia ;  while 
he  reserved  for  himself  the  extensive  territory  reaching  from  the 
extremity  of  Greece  to  the  wall  of  Scotland,  and  from  the  latter  to 
the  foot  of  Mount  Atlas.  This  was  the  final  division  of  the  Roman 
world  into  the  Eastern  and  Western  Empire.  The  capital  of  the 
former  was  established  at  Constantinople,  and  of  the  latter  at  Milan. 
The  city  of  Rome  had  long  been  falling  into  neglect  and  insignifi- 
cance. 

43.  Soon  after  the  period  at  which  we  have  now  arrived,  the 
inroads  of  the  barbarian  tribes  upon  the  northern  and       ^^VIL 
eastern  frontiers  of  the  empire  became  more  vexatious    BARBARIAN 
and  formidable  than  ever.     The  Picts  and  Scots1  ravaged     ^BOABS. 
Britain ;  the  Saxons  began  their  piracies  in  the  Northern  seas ;  the 
German  tribes  of  the  Aleman'  ni  harassed  Gaul ;   and  the   Goths 
crossed  the  Danube  into  Thrace;  but  during  the  twelve  years  of 
Valentin'  ian's  reign,  his  firmness  and  vigilance  repulsed  the  barba- 
rians at  every  point,  while  his  genius  directed  and  sustained  the 
feeble  counsels  of  his  brother  Valens. 

44.  About  the  time  of  the  death  of  Valentin'  ian,  (A.  D.  375) 
Valens  was  informed  that  the  power  of  the  Goths,  long  the  enemies 
of  Rome,  had  been  subverted  by  the  Huns,  a  fierce  and  warlike  race 
of  savages,  till  then  unknown,  who  coming  from  the  East,  and  crossing 
the  Don  and  the  sea  of  Azof,  had  driven  before  them  the  European 
nations  that  dwelt  north  of  the  Danube.     The  Vis'  igoths  first  solicited 
from  the  Roman  government  protection  against  their  ruthless  in- 
vaders ;  and  a  vast  multitude  of  these  barbarians,  whose  numbers 
amounted  to  near  a  million  of  persons,  of  both  sexes,  and  all  ages, 
were  permitted  to  settle  on  the  waste  lands  of  Thrace. 

45.  In  the  meantime  the  Os'  trogoths,  pressed  forward  by  the  un- 
relenting Huns,  appeared  on  the  banks  of  the  Danube,  and  solicited 
the  same  indulgence  that  had  been  shown  to  their  countrymen  ;  and 
when  their  request  was  denied  they  crossed  the  stream  with  arms  in 
their  hands,  and  established  a  hostile  camp  on  the  territories  of  the 
empire.     The  two  divisions  of  the  Gothic  nation  now  united  their 
forces  under  their  a&e  general  Frit'  igern,  and  raising  the  standard 

1.  The  Picts  were  a  Caledonian  race,  famed  for  their  marauding  expeditions  into  the  country 
south  of  them.  The  Scots  were  also  a  Caledonian  race,  who  are  believed  to  have  come,  origin- 
ally, from  Spain  into  Ireland,  whence  they  passed  over  into  Scotland.  The  genuine  descend 
ants  of  the  ancient  Scotch  are  believed  to  be  the  Gaels,  or  Highlanders,  who  speak  the  Erse 
or  Gaelic  language,  which  differs  but  little  from  the  Irish. 


228  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

of  war  devastated  Thrace,  Mac'  edon,  and  Thes'  saly,  and  carried 
their  ravages  to  the  very  gates  of  Constantinople.  In  a  decisive  battle 
fought  near  Adrianople1  the  Romans  were  defeated,  and  Valens  him- 
self was  slain.  (A.  D.  378.) 

46.  Gratian,  the  son  of  Valentin' ian,  and  his  successor  in  the 

Western  empire,  was  already  on  his  march  to  the  aid  of 

G&A'TIA'N     Valens,  when  he  heard  the  tidings  of  the  defeat  and 

AND         death  of  his  unfortunate  colleague.     Too  weak  to  avenge 

THEODO'SIUS.    i   .       p    ,  T  .  t.    i.  1,'Tj.  j.    •  1 

his  late,  and  conscious  ot  his  inability  to  sustain  alone 
the  sinking  weight  of  the  empire,  he  chose  as  his  associate  Theodo- 
sius,  afterwards  called  the  Great,  assigned  to  him  the  government  of 
the  East,  and  then  returned  to  his  own  provinces.  Theodosius,  by 
his  prudence,  rather  than  his  valor,  delivered  his  provinces  from  the 
scourge  of  barbarian  warfare.  The  Goths,  after  the  death  of  their 
great  leader  Frit'  igern,  were  distracted  by  a  multiplicity  of  counsels  ; 
and  while  some  of  them,  falling  back  into  their' forests,  carried  their 
conquests  to  the  unknown  regions  of  the  North,  others  were  allowed 
to  settle  in  Thrace,  Phrygia,  and  Lydia,  where,  in  the  bosom  of  des- 
potism, they  cherished  their  native  freedom,  manners,  and  language,  and 
lent  to  the  Roman  arms  assistance  at  once  precarious  and  dangerous. 

47.  Five  years  after  the  accession  of  Theodosius,  Gratian  perished 
xxix.  VAL-    m  an  attempt  to  quell  a  revolt  of  Max'  imus,  governor 

ENTIN'IAN  IT.  Of  Britain,  who  had  been  joined  by  the  legions  of  Gaul. 
Valentin' ian  II.,  who  succeeded  Gratian,  was  driven  from  Italy  by 
the  usurper,  and  forced  to  take  refuge  in  the  court  of  Theodosius ; 
but  the  latter,  marching  into  Italy,  defeated  and  slew  Max'  imus,  and 
restored  the  royal  exile  to  his  throne.  (A.  D.  388.)  The  murder 
of  Valentin'  ian  by  the  Gaul  Abrogas'  tes,  and  the  revolt  which  he 
excited,  (A.  D.  392,)  again  called  for  the  interference  of  Theodosius 
in  the  affairs  of  the  West.  His  arms  soon  triumphed  over  all  oppo- 
sition ;  and  the  whole  empire  again  came,  for  the  last  time,  into  the 
,  hands  of  one  individual.  (A.  D.  394.)  Theodosius  died 

XXX.     HONO  •  *  _/ 

RIUS  AND     four  months  after  his  victory,  having  previously  bestowed 
ARCA  DIUS.    Up0n  his  youngest  son,  Honorius,  the  throne  of  Milan,  and 
upon  the  eldest,  Arcadius,  that  of  Constantinople. 

1.  Jldrianople,  one  of  the  most  important  cities  of  Thrace,  stood  on  the  left  bank  of  the  rivei 
Hebrus,  now  the  Maritza,  in  one  of  the  richest  and  finest  plains  of  the  world,  one  hundred  and 
thirty-four  miles  north-west  from  Constantinople.  It  was  founded  by  and  named  after  the  em- 
peror Adrian,  although  in  early  times  a  small  Thracian  village  existed  there,  called  Uskadama. 
It  is  now  the  second  city  in  the  Turkish  empire,  containing  a  population  of  not  less  than  one 
hundred  thousand  soula.  (Map  No.  VII.) 


CHAP.  L]  ROMAN  HISTORY.  229 

48.  The  civil  wars  that  followed  the  accession  of  the  new  empe- 
ror were  soon  interrupted  by  the  more  important  events  of  new  bar- 
barian invasions.     Scarcely  had  Theodosius  expired,  when  the  Gothic 
nation,  guided  by  the  bold  and  artful  genius  of  Al'aric,  XXXI  AL/A_ 
who  had  learned  his  lessons  of  war  in  the  school  of     EIC  THE 
Frit'  igern,  was  again  in  arms.     After  nearly  all  Greece       GOTH- 
had  been  ravaged  by  the  invader,  Stil'icho,  the  able  general  of 
Honorius,  came  to  its  assistance  ;  but  AF  aric  evaded  him  by  passing 
into  Epirus,  and  soon  after,  crossing  the  Julian  Alps,1  advanced 
toward  Milan.     (A.  D.  403.) 

49.  Honorius  fled  from  his  capital,  but  was  overtaken  by  the 
speed  of  the  Gothic  cavalry,  and  obliged  to  shut  himself  up  in  the 
little  fortified  town  of  As'  ta,3  where  he  was  soon  surrounded  and 
besieged  by  the  enemy.     Stil'  icho  hastened  to  the  relief  of  his  sov- 
ereign, and  suddenly  falling  upon  the  Goths  in  their  camp  at  Pollen'- 
tia,3  routed  them  with  great  slaughter,  released  many  thousand  prison- 
ers, retook  the  magnificent  spoils  of  Corinth,  Athens,  Argos,  and 
Sparta ;  and  made  captive  the  wife  of  Al'  aric.     The  Gothic  chief, 
undaunted  by  this  sudden  reverse,  hastily  collected  his  shattered 
army,  and  breaking  through  the  unguarded  passes  of  the  Apennines, 
spread  desolation  nearly  to  the  walls  of  Rome.     The  city  was  saved 
by  the  diligence  of  Stil'  icho  ;  but  the  withdrawal  of  the  barbarians 
from  Italy  was  purchased  by  a  large  ransom. 

50.  The  recent  danger  to  which  Honorius  had  been  exposed  at 
Milan,  induced  the  un warlike  emperor  to  seek  a  more  secure  retreat 
in  the  fortress  of  Raven'  na,*  which,  from  this  time  to  the  middle  of 

1.  Augustus  divided  the  Alpine  chain,  which  extends  from  the  Gulf  of  Genoa  to  the  Adriat'- 
ic,  in  a  crescent  form,  into  seven  portions ;  of  which  the  Julian  range,  terminating  in  Illyr'- 
icum,  is  the  most  eastern. 

2.  As'  ta  (now  Jlsti)  was  on  the  north  side  of  the  river  Tanarus,  (now  Tandro)  in  Liguria, 
twenty-eight  miles  south-east  from  Turin. 

3.  u  The  vestiges  of  Pollen'  tia  are  twenty-five  miles  to  the  south-east  of  Turin."    (Gibbon,  ii. 
221.)    "The  modern  village  of  Pollenza  stands  near  the  site  of  the  ancient  city."— Cramer'* 
Italy,  i.  28. 

4.  Raven'  na  was  situated  on  the  coast  of  the  Adriat'  ic,  a  short  distance  below  the  mouths 
of  the  Po.    A  '.though  originally  founded  on  the  sea-shore,  in  the  midst  of  marshes,  in  the  days 
of  Strabo  th»   marshes  had  greatly  increased,  seaward,  owing  to  the  accumulation  of  mud 
brought  dowi    by  the  Po  and  other  rivers.    In  the  latter  times  of  the  republic  it  was  the  great 
naval  station  of  the  Romans  on  the  Adriat'  ic.    Augustus  constructed  a  new  harbor  three  miles 
from  the  old  town,  but  in  no  very  long  time  this  was  filled  up  also,  and,  "  as  early  as  the  fifth  or 
sixth  century  of  the  Christian  era,  the  port  of  Augustus  was  converted  into  pleasant  gardens; 
and  a  lonely  grove  of  pines  covered  the  ground  where  the  Roman  fleet  once  rode  at  anchor." 
(Gibbon,  ii.  224.)    But  this  very  circumstance,  though  it  lessened  the  naval  importance,  in- 
creased the  strength  of  the  place,  and  the  shallowness  of  the  water  was  a  barrier  against  large 
ships  of  the  enemy.    The  only  means  of  access  inland  was  by  a  long  and  narrow  causeway 


230  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

the  eighth  century ;  was  considered  as  the  seat  of  government  and  the 
capital  of  Italy.  The  fears  of  Honorius  were  not  without  founda- 
tion ;  for  scarcely  had  Al'  aric  departed,  when  another  deluge  of  bar- 
barians, consisting  of  Vandals,1  Suevi,8  Burgun'  dians,3  Goths,  and 
Alani,  and  numbering  not  less  than  two  hundred  thousand  fighting 
men,  under  the  command  of  Radagaisus,  poured  down  upon  Italy. 

51.  The  Roman  troops  were  now  called  in  from  the  provinces  for 
the  defence  of  Italy,  whose  safety  was  again  intrusted  to  the  counsels 
and  the  sword  of  Stil'  icho.  The  barbarians  passed,  without  resist- 
ance, the  Alps,  the  Po,  and  the  Apennines,  and  were  allowed  by  the 
wary  Stil'  icho  to  lay  siege  to  Florence,4  when,  securing  all  the  passes, 
he  in  turn  blockaded  the  besiegers,  who,  gradually  wasted  by  famine, 
were  finally  compelled  to  surrender  at  discretion.  (A.  D.  406.)  The 
triumph  of  the  Roman  arms  was  disgraced  by  the  execution  of 
Radagaisus ;  and  one-third  of  the  vast  host  that  had  accompanied 
him  into  Italy  were  sold  as  slaves. 

sereral  miles  in  extent,  over  an  otherwise  impassable  morass ;  and  this  avenue  might  be  easily 
guarded  or  destroyed  on  the  approach  of  a  hostile  army.  Being  otherwise  fortified,  it  was  a 
place  of  great  strength  and  safety ;  and  during  the  last  years  of  the  Western  empire  was  the 
capital  of  Italy,  and  successively  the  residence  of  Honorius,  Valentin'  ian,  Odoacer,  Theod'  oric, 
and  the  succeeding  Gothic  monarchs.  It  is  now  a  place  of  about  sixteen  thousand  inhabitants, 
and  is  chiefly  deserving  of  notice  for  its  numerous  architectural  remains.  (Map  No.  VIII.) 

1.  Van'  dais,  see  p.  219. 

2.  The  Suevi  were  a  people  of  eastern  Germany  who  finally  settled  in  and  gave  their  name 
to  the  modern  Suabia. 

3.  The  Burgun'  dians— dwellers  in  burgs  or  towns— a  name  given  to  them  by  the  more 
nomade  tribes  of  Germany,  were  a  numerous  and  warlike  people  of  the  Gothic  or  Van'  dal 
race,  who  can  be  traced  back  to  the  banks  of  the  Elbe.    Driven  southward  by  the  Gep'  idae, 
they  pressed  upon  the  Aleman'  ni,  with  whom  they  were  in  almost  continual  war.    They  were 
granted  by  Honorius,  the  Roman  emperor,  the  territory  extending  from  the  Lake  of  Geneva  to 
the  junction  of  the  Rhine  with  the  Moselle,  as  a  reward  for  having  sent  him  the  head  of  the 
usurper  Jovinus.    A  part  of  Switzerland  and  a  large  portion  of  eastern  France  belonged  to 
their  new  kingdom,  which,  as  early  as  the  year  470,  was  known  by  the  name  of  Burgundy. 
Their  seat  of  government  was  sometimes  at  Lyons,  and  sometimes  at  Geneva.    Continually 
endeavoring  to  extend  their  limits,  they  were  at  last  completely  subdued,  in  a  war  with  the 
Franks,  by  the  son  of  Clovis,  after  Clovis  himself  had  taken  Lyons.    Their  name  was  for  a 
long  time  retained  by  the  powerful  dukedom,  afterwards  province  of  Burgundy,  now  divided 
into  several  departments. 

4.  Florence,  (anciently  Florentiaj)  is  a  city  of  central  Italy  on  the  river  Arno,  (anciently  Arnus,) 
one  hundred  and  eighty-seven  miles  north-west  from  Rome.    It  owes  its  first  distinction  to  Sylla, 
who  planted  in  it  a  Roman  colony.  In  the  reign  of  Tiberius  it  was  one  of  the  principal  cities  of 
Italy.    In  541  it  was  almost  wholly  destroyed  by  Totila,  king  of  the  Goths,  but  was  restored  by 
Charlemagne,  after  which  it  was,  for  a  long  time,  the  chief  city  of  one  of  the  most  famous  of  the 
Italian  republics.    It  is  now  the  capital  of  the  grand-duchy  of  Tuscany,  which  comprises  the 
northern  part  of  ancient  Etriiria.    With  a  population  of  one  hundred  thousand,  it  bears  the 
aspect  of  a  city  filled  with  nobles  and  their  domestics— a  city  of  bridges,  churches,  and  palaces. 
It  has  produced  more  celebrated  men  than  any  other  city  of  Italy,  or  perhaps  of  Europe ; 
among  whom  may  be  specified  Dan'  te,  Petrarch,  Boccacio,  Lorenzo  de  Medici,  Galileo, 
Michael  An'  gelo,  Macchiavelli,— the  Popes  Leo  X,  and  XI.,  and  Clement  VII.,  VIII.,  and  XII. 


CHAP.  L]  ROMAN  HISTORY.  231 

52.  Two  years  after  the  great  victory  of  Stil'  icho,  that  minister, 
whose  genius  might  have  delayed  the  fall  of  the  empire,  was  treach- 
erously murdered  by  the  orders  of  the  jealous  and  unworthy  Hono- 
rius.     The  monarch  had  soon  reason  to  repent  of  his  guilty  rashness. 
Adopting  the  counsels  of  his  new  ministers,  he  ordered  a  massacre  of 
the  families  of  the  barbarians  throughout  Italy.     Thirty  thousand 
Gothic  soldiers  in  the  Roman  pay  immediately  revolted,  and  invited 
Al'  aric  to  avenge  the  slaughter  of  his  countrymen. 

53.  Again  Al'  aric  entered  Italy,   and  without   attempting   the 
hopeless  siege  of  Raven'  na  marched  direct  to  Rome,  which,  during 
a  period  of  more  than  six  hundred  years,  had  not  been  violated  by 
the  presence  of  a  foreign  enemy.     After  the  siege  had  been  protracted 
until  the  rigors  of  famine  had  been  experienced  in  all  their  horror, 
and  thousands  were  dying  daily  in  their  houses  or  in  the  streets  for  want 
of  sustenance,  the  Romans  sought  to  purchase  the  withdrawal  of  their 
invaders.     The  terms  of  Al'  aric  were,  at  first,  all  the  gold  and  silver  in 
the  city,  all  the  rich  and  precious  movables,  and  all  the  slaves  of  bar- 
barian origin.     When  the  ministers  of  the  senate  asked,  in  a  modest 
and  suppliant  tone,  "  If  such,  0  King,  are  your  demands,  what  do  you 
intend  to  leave  us  ?"     "  YOUR  LIVES,"  replied  the  haughty  conqueror. 

54.  The  stern  demands  of  Al'  aric  were,  however,  somewhat  re- 
laxed, and  Rome  was  allowed  to  purchase  a  temporary  safety  by  pay- 
ing an   enormous   ransom   of   gold   and   silver   and   merchandize. 
Al'  aric  retired  to  winter  quarters  in  Tuscany,1  but  as  Honorius  and 
his  ministers,  enjoying  the  security  of  the  marshes  and  fortifications 
of  Raven'  na,  refused  to  ratify  the  treaty  that  had  been  concluded 
by  the  Romans,  the  Goth  turned  again  upon  Rome,  and,  cutting  off 
the  supplies,  compelled  the  city  to  surrender.     (A.  D.  409.)     He 
then  conferred  the  sovereignty  of  the  empire  upon  At'  talus,  prefect 
of  the  city,  but  soon  deposed  him  and  attempted  to  renew  his  nego- 
tiations with  Honorius.     The  latter  refused  to  treat,  when  the  king 
of  the  Goths,  no  longer  dissembling  his  appetite  for  plunder  and  re- 
venge, appeared  a  third  time  before  the  walls  of  Rome;  treason 
opened  the  gates  to  him,  and  the  city  of  Romulus  was  abandoned 
to  the  licentious  fury  of  the  tribes  of  Germany  and  Scythia. 

1.  Tuscany,  after  the  fall  of  the  Western  empire,  successively  belonged  to  the  Goths  and 
Lombards.  Charlemagne  added  it  to  his  dominions,  but  under  his  successors  it  became  in- 
dependent. In  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries  it  was  divided  among  the  famous  repub- 
lics of  Florence,  Pisa,  and  Sienna :  in  1531  these  were  reunited  Into  a  duchy  which,  in  1737, 
fell  into  the  hands  of  the  house  of  Austria.  In  1801  Napoleon  erected  it  into  the  kingdom  of 
Etrima :  in  1808  it  was  incorporated  with  the  French  empire ;  and  in  1814  it  reverted  to  Austria. 


232  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

55.  The  piety  of  the  Goths  spared  the  churches  and  religious 
houses,  for  Al'  aric  himself,  and  many  of  his  countrymen,  professed 
the  name  of  Christians ;  but  Rome  was  pillaged  of  her  wealth,  and 
a  terrible  slaughter  was  made  of  her  citizens.     Still  Al'  aric  was  un- 
willing that  Rome  should  be  totally  ruined ;  and  at  the  end  of  six 
days  he  abandoned  the  city,  and  took  the  road  to  southern  Italy.    As 
he  was  preparing  to  invade  Sicily,  with  the  ulterior  design  of  subju- 
gating Africa,  his  conquests  were  terminated  by  a  premature  death. 
(A.  D.  410.)     His  body  was  interred  in  the  bed  of  a  small  rivulet,3- 
and  the  captives  who  prepared  his  grave  were  murdered,  that  the 
Romans  might  never  learn  the  place  of  his  sepulture. 

56.  After  the  death  of  AFaric,  the   Goths  gradually  withdrew 
from  Italy,  and,  a  few  years  later,  that  branch  of  the  nation  called 
Vis'  igoths  established  its  supremacy  in  Spain  and  the  east  of  Gaul. 
Toward  the  middle  of  the  same  century,  the  Britons,  finally  aban- 
doned by  the  Romans,  and  unable  to  resist  the  barbarous  inroads  of 
the  Picts  and  Scots,  applied  for  assistance  to  the  Angles1  and  Saxons, 
warlike  tribes  from  the  coasts  of  the  Baltic.     The  latter,  after  driv- 
ing back  the  Picts  and  Scots,  turned  their  arms  against  the  Britons, 
and  after  a  long  struggle  finally  established  themselves  in  the  island. 

57.  During  these  events  in  the  north  and  west,  the  Van'  dais,  a 
Gothic  tribe  which  had  aided  in  the  reduction  of  Spain,  and  whose  name, 
with  a  slight  change,  has  been  given  to  the  fertile  province  of  Andalusia,3 
passed  the  straits  of  Gibraltar  under  the  guidance  of  their  chief  Gen'- 

xxxii        seric,  and,  in  the  course  of  ten  years,  completed,  in  the 

VALENTIN'-    capture  of  Carthage,  the  conquest  of  the  Roman  prov- 

IAN  in.      jnceg  Of  northern  Africa.     (A.  D.  439.)     Honorius  was 

already  dead,  and  had  been  succeeded  by  Valentin' ian  III.,  a  youth 

xxxin       onty  s^x  Jears  °f  aoe-     ID  tne  meantime  At'  tila,  justly 

CONQUESTS    called  the    "  scourge  of  God "  for  the  chastisement  of 

'LA'   the  human  race,  had  become  the  leader  of  the  Hunuish3 

hordes.      He  rapidly  extended  his  dominion  over  all  the  tribes  of 

Germany  and  Scythia,  made  war  upon  Persia,  defeated  Theodosius, 

1.  Jingles.    From  (hem  the  English  have  derived  their  name. 

2.  Andalusia,  so  called  from  the  Van'  dais,  comprised  the  four  Moorish  kingdoms  of  Seville, 
Cor'  dova,  Jaen,  and  Granada.    It  is  the  most  southern  division  of  Spain.    Trajan  and  the 
Senecas  were  natives  of  this  province.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

3.  The  Huns,  when  first  known,  in  the  century  before  the  Christian  era,  dwelt  on  the  western 
borders  of  the  Caspian  sea.    The  power  of  the  Huns  fell  with  At'  tila,  and  the  nation  was  soon 
after  dispersed.    The  present  Hungarians  are  descended  from  the  Huns,  intermingled  with 
Turkish,  Slavonic,  and  German  races. 

a.  The  Busentinus,  a  small  stream  that  washes  the  walls  of  Consenlia,  now  Cosenza. 


CHAP.!.]  ROMAN   HISTORY.  233 

the  emperor  of  the  East,  in  three  bloody  battles,  and  after  ravaging 
Thrace,  Macedonia,  and  Greece,  pursued  his  desolating  march  west- 
ward  into  Gaul,  but  was  defeated  by  the  Romans  and  their  Gothic 
allies  in  the  bloody  battle  of  Chalons.1  (A.  D.  451.)  The  next 
year  the  Huns  poured  like  a  torrent  upon  Italy,  and  spread  their 
ravages  over  all  Lombardy.  This  visitation  was  the  origin  of  the 
Venetian  republic,2  which  was  founded  by  the  fugitives  who  fied  at 
the  terror  of  the  name  of  At'  tila. 

58.  The  death  of  the  Hunnic  chief  soon  after  this  inroad,  the  civil 
wars  among  his  followers,  and  the  final  extinction  of  the  empire  of 
the  Huns,  might  have  afforded  the  Romans  an  opportunity  of  escap- 
ing from  the  ruin  which  impended  over  them,  if  they  had  not  been 
lost  to  all  feelings  of  national  honor.  But  they  had  admitted  numer- 
ous bands  of  barbarians  in  their  midst  as  confederates  and  allies ; 
and  these,  courted  by  one  faction,  and  opposed  by  another,  became, 
ere  long,  the  actual  rulers  of  the  country.  The  provinces  were  pil- 
laged, the  throne  was  shaken,  and  often  overturned  by  seditions ;  and 
two  years  after  the  death  of  At'  tila,  Rome  itself  was  Xxxiv.  THE 
taken  and  pillaged  by  a  horde  of  Van'  dais  from  Africa,  VAN'DAL^, 
conducted  by  the  famous  Gen'  seric,  who  had  been  invited  across  the 
Mediterranean  to  avenge  the  insults  which  a  Roman  princess*  had 
received  from  her  own  husband.  (A.  D.  455.) 

1.  Ch&lons  (shah-long)  is  a  city  of  France,  on  the  river  Marne,  a  branch  of  the  Seine,  ninety- 
five  miles  east  from  Paris,  and  twenty-seven  miles  soulh-east  from  Rheirns.    It  is  situated  in 
the  middle  of  extensive  meadows,  which  were  formerly  known  as  the  Catalauniau  fields, 
(Gibbon,  iii.  340.)    In  the  battle  of  Chalons  the  nations  from  the  Caspian  sea  to  the  Atlantic 
fought  together ;  and  the  number  of  the  barbarians  slain  has  been  variously  estimated  at  from 
one  hundred  and  sixty-two  thousand  to  three  hundred  thousand.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

2.  The  origin  of  Venice  dates  from  the  invasion  of  Italy  by  the  Huns,  A.  D.  452.    The  city  ia 
built  on  a  cluster  of  numerous  small  islands  in  a  shallow  but  extensive  lagoon,  in  the  north- 
western part  of  the  Adriat'  ic,  north  of  the  Po  and  the  Adige,  about  four  miles  from  the  main 
land.    It  is  divided  into  two  principal  portions  by  a  wide  canal,  crossed  by  the  principal  bridge 
in  the  city,  the  celebrated  Rialto.    Venice  is  traversed  by  narrow  lanes  instead  of  streets,  sel- 
dom more  than  five  or  six  feet  in  width!  but  the  grand  thoroughfares  are  the  canals ;  and 
gondolas,  or  canal  boats,  are  the  universal  substitute  for  carriages. 

Venice  gradually  became  a  wealthy  and  powerful  independent  commercial  city,  maintaining 
its  freedom  against  Charlemagne  and  his  successors,  and  yielding  a  merely  nominal  allegiance 
to  the  Greek  emperors  of  Constantinople.  Towards  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century  the  re- 
public was  mistress  of  several  populous  provinces  in  Lom'bardy, — of  Crete  and  Cyprus — of 
the  greater  part  of  southern  Greece,  and  most  of  the  isles  of  the  /Egean  sea ;  and  it  continued 
to  engross  the  principal  trade  in  Eastern  products,  till  the  discovery  of  a  route  to  India  by  the 
Cape  of  Good-Hope  turned  this  traffic  into  a  new  channel.  From  this  period  Venice  rapidly 
declined.  Stripped  of  independence  and  wealth,  she  now  enjoys  only  a  precarious  existence, 
and  is  slowly  sinking  into  the  waves  from  which  she  arose.  (Map  No.  VIII.) 

a.  Eudox'ia,  the  widow  of  Valentin'  ian  III.,  had  leen  compelled  to  marry  Max'  imus,  the 
murderer,  and  successor  in  the  empire,  of  her  late  husband,  and  it  was  she  who  invited  the 
Van'  dal  chief  to  avenge  her  wrongs. 


234  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAST  II. 

59.  After  the  withdrawal  of  the  Van'  dais,  which  occurred  the 
year  of  the  death  of  Valentin'  ian  III.,  Av'  itus,  a  Gaul,  was  installed 

xxxv        Emperor  by  the  influence  of  the  gentle   and  humane 
AV'ITUS.     Theod'oric,  king  of  the  Vis'  igoths  ;  but  he  was  soon  de- 
MAJO  JUAN.   p0gecj  by  Ric'  imer,  the  Gothic  commander  of  the  barba- 
rian allies  of  the  Romans.     (A.  D.  456.)     The  wise  and  beneficent 
Majorian  was  then  advanced  to  the  throne  by  Hie'  imer ;  but  his 
virtues  were  not  appreciated  by  his  subjects ;  and  a  sedition  of  the 
troops  compelled  him  to  lay  down  the  sceptre  after  a  reign  of  four 
years.     (A.  D.  461.) 

60.  Ric'  imer  then  advanced  one  of  his  own  creatures,  Severus,  to 

the  nominal  sovereignty;  but  he  retained  all  the  powers 
of  state  in  his  own  hands.  Annually  the  Van'  dais  from 
Africa,  having  now  the  control  of  the  Mediterranean,  sent  out  from 
Carthage,  their  seat  of  empire,  piratical  vessels  or  fleets,  which 
s*pread  desolation  and  terror  over  the  Italian  coasts,  and  entered  at 
will  nearly  every  port  in  the  Roman  dominions.  At  length  applica- 
tion for  assistance  was  made  to  Leo,  then  sovereign  of  the  Eastern 
empire,  and  a  large  armament  was  sent  from  Constantinople  to  Car- 
thage. But  the  aged  Gen'  seric  eluded  the  immediate  danger  by  a 
truce  with  his  enemies,  and,  in  the  obscurity  of  night,  destroyed  by 
fire  almost  the  entire  fleet  of  the  unsuspecting  Romans. 

61.  Amid  the  frequent  revolutionary  changes  that  were  occurring 
in  the  sovereignty  of  the  Western  empire,8-  Roman  freedom  and  dig- 
nity were  lost  in  the  influence  of  the  confederate  barbarians,  who 
formed  both  the  defence  and  the  terror  of  Italy.     As  the  power  of  the 
Romans  themselves  declined,  their  barbarian  allies  augmented  their 
demands  and  increased  their  insolence,  until  they  finally  insisted, 
with  arms  in  their  hands,  that  a  third  part  of  the  lands  of  Italy 
should  be  divided  among  them.     Under  their  leader  Odoacer,  a  chief 
of  the  barbarian  tribe  of  the  Her'  uli,1  they  overcame  the  little  re- 

I.  Of  all  the  barbarians  who  threw  themselves  on  the  ruins  of  the  Roman  empire,  it  is  most 
difficult  to  trace  the  origin  of  the  Her'  uli.  Their  names,  the  only  remains  of  their  language, 
are  Gothic ;  and  it  is  believed  that  they  came  originally  from  Scandinavia.  They  were  a  fierce 
people,  who  disdained  the  use  of  armor:  their  bravery  was  like  madness :  in  war  they  showed 
no  pity  for  age,  nor  respect  for  sex  or  condition.  Among  themselves  there  was  the  same 
ferocity :  the  sick  and  the  aged  were  put  to  death  at  their  own  request,  during  a  solemn  festi- 
val ;  and  the  widow  hung  herself  upon  the  tree  which  shadowed  her  husband's  tomb.  The 
Her'  uli,  though  brave  and  formidable,  were  few  in  number,  claiming  to  be  mostly  of  royal 
blood ;  and  they  seem  not  so  much  a  nation,  as  a  confederacy  of  princes  and  nobles,  bound  by 
an  oath  to  live  and  die  together  with  their  arms  in  their  hands.  ( Gibbon,  iii.  8  ;  and  Note,  495-6.) 

a.  The  remaining  sovereigns  of  the  Western  empire,  down  to  the  time  of  its  subversion 
were  Anthemius,  Olyb'  rius,  Glycei  us,  Nepos,  and  Augus'  tulus. 


CHAP.  I]  ROMAN  HISTORY.  235 

sistance  that  was  offered  them ;  and  the  conqueror,  abolishing  the  im- 
perial titles  of  Caesar  and  Augustus,  proclaimed   him- 
self king  of  Italy.     (A.   D.   476.)      The  Western  em- 
pire  of  the  Romans  was  subverted  :  Roman  glory  had    THE  WEST- 

,  T!  ,.,  .    ,      ,          ,       .        ,,  ERN  EMPIRE. 

passed  away:  Roman  liberty  existed  only  m  the  remem- 
brance of  the  past :  the  rude  warriors  of  Germany  and  Scythia  pos- 
sessed the  city  of  Romulus ;  and  a  barbarian  occupied  the  palace  of 
the  Caesars. 


X       ' 

236  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  H 

• 

CHAPTER    II. 

HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES: 


EXTENDING   FROM   THE   OVERTHROW   OF   THE   WESTERN    EMPIRE    OF   THE   ROMANS 
A.  D.    476,  TO   THE    DISCOVERY    OF   AMERICA,  A.  D.  1492   =  1016    TEARS. 


SECTION    I. 

GENERAL  HISTORY,  FROM  THE  OVERTHROW  OF  THE  WESTERN  EMPIRE  OF  THE 
ROMANS,  TO  THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  TENTH  CENTURY  I  =  424  YEARS. 

ANALYSIS.  1.  INTRODUCTORY.  The  period  embraced  in  the  Middle  Ages. — 2.  Unin- 
structive  character  of  its  early  history.  At  what  period  its  useful  history  begins.— 3.  Extent 
of  the  barbarian  irruptions.  The  Eastern  Roman  empire.  Remainder  of  the  Roman  world. — 
4.  The  possessions  of  the  conquerors  toward  the  close  of  the  sixth  century.  The  changes 
•wrought  by  them.  Plan  of  the  present  chapter. 

5.  THE  MONARCHY  OF  THE  HER'  ULI.  Its  overthrow. — G.  MONARCHY  OF  THE  OS'TROGOTHS. 
Theod'  oric.  Treatment  of  his  Roman  and  barbarian  subjects. — 7.  General  prosperity  of  his  reign. 
Extent  of  his  empire.  The  Os'  trogoth  and  Vis'  igoth  nations  again  divided.— 8.  The  successors 
of  Theod'  oric.  The  emperor  of  the  East.— 9.  THE  ERA  OF  JUSTIN'  IAN.  State  of  the  kingdom. 
Persian  war. — 10.  Justin'  ian's  armies.  Absence  of  military  spirit  among  the  people — 11.  Af- 
rican war.  First  expedition  of  Belisarius,  and  overthrow  of  the  kingdom  of  the  Van'  dais. 
Fate  of  Gel'  imer.  His  Van'  dal  subjects.— 12.  Sicily  subdued.  Belisarius  advances  into  Italy. 
Besieged  in  Rome. — 13.  The  Gothic  king  Vit'iges  surrenders.  Final  reduction  of  Italy  by 
Nar'  ses. — 14.  Second  war  with  Persia.  Barbarian  invasion  repelled  by  Belisarius.  Mournful 
fate  of  Belisarius.  Death  and  character  of  Justin'  ian. — 15.  His  reign,  why  memorable.  Its 
brightest  ornament.  Remark  of  Gibbon.  History  of  the  "  Pandects  and  Code."— 16.  Subse- 
quent history  of  the  Eastern  empire.  Invasion  of  Italy  by  the  Lombards. — 17.  THE  LOMBARD 
MONARCHY.  Its  extent  and  character. — 18.  Period  of  general  repose  throughout  Western 
Europe.  Events  in  the  East. — 19.  The  darkness  that  rests  upon  European  history  at  this 
period.  Remark  of  Sismondi.  The  dawning  light  from  Arabia. 

20.  THE  SARACEN  EMPIRE.  History  of  the  Arabians.— 21.  Ancient  religion  of  the  Arabs.  Re- 
ligious toleration  in  Arabia.  [Judaism.  The  Magian  idolatry.] — 22.  Mahomet  begins  to  preach  a 
new  religion.— 23.  The  declared  medium  of  divine  communication  with  him.  Declared  origin  of 
the  Koran. — 24.  The  materials  of  the  Koran.  Chief  points  of  Moslem  faith.  Punishment  of  the 
wicked.  The  Moslem  paradise.  Effects  of  the  predestinarian  doctrine  of  Mahomet.  Practical  part 
of  the  new  religion.  Miracles  attributed  to  Mahomet.  [Mecca.] — 25.  Beginning  of  Mahomet'? 
preaching.  The  H  egi  ra. — 26.  Mahomet  at  Medina.  [Medina.]  Progress  of  the  new  religion  through 
out  all  Arabia.  [Mussulman.]— 27.  The  apostasy  that  followed  Mahomet's  death.  Restoration  of 
religious  unity. — 28.  Saracen  conquests  in  Persia  and  Syria.  [Saracens.  Bozrah.] — 29.  Con- 
quest of  all  Syria.  [Ernes'  sa.  Baalbec.  Yermouk.  Aleppo.]— 30.  Conquest  of  Persia,  and 
expiration  of  the  dynasty  of  the  Sassan'  idse.  [Cadesiah.  Review  of  Persian  History.]— 31. 
Conquest  of  Egypt.  Destruction  of  the  Alexandrian  library. — 32.  Death  of  Omar.  Caliphate 
of  Othman. — 33.  Military  events  of  the  reign  of  Othman.  [Rhodes.  Tripoli.]  Othman's  suc- 
cessors. Conquest  of  Carthage,  and  all  northern  Africa — 34.  Introduction  of  the  Saracens  into 
Spain.— 35.  Defeat  of  Roderic,  and  final  conquest  of  Spain.  [Guadalete.  Guadalquiver.  Meri- 
da.]— 36.  Saracen  encroachments  in  Gaul.  Inroad  of  Abdelrahman.  [The  Pyrenees.]— 37.  Over- 


CHAP.  IL]  MIDDLE  AGES.  237 

throw  of  the  Saracen  hosts  by  Charles  Martel.  Importance  of  this  victory.  [Tours.  Poictiers.] 
— 38.  The  Eastern  Saiacens  at  this  period.  [Hindostan.]  Termination  of  the  civil  power  of 
the  central  caliphate.— 39.  The  power  that  next  prominently  occupies  the  field  of  history. 

40.  MOMARCUY  OF  THE  FRANKS  :  its  origin.  [Tournay.  Cambray.  Terouane.  Cologne.] 
Clovis.  Extent  of  his  monarchy.  [Soissons.  Paris.] — 41.  Religious  character  of  Clovis.  His 
barbarities. — 42.  The  descendants  of  Clovis.  Royal  murders.  Regents.  Charles  Martel. 
Pepin,  the  first  monarch  of  the  Carlovingian  dynasty.  [Papal  authority.]— 43.  The  reign,  and 
the  character,  of  Pepin.  His  division  of  the  kingdom. — 44.  First  acts  of  the  reign  of  Charle- 
magne. [The  Loire.]  The  Saxons.  Motives  that  led  Charlemagne  to  declare  war  against  them. 
[The  Elbe.]— 45.  His  first  irruption  into  their  territory.  [Weser.]  History  of  Witikind.  Saxon 
rebellion.  Changes  produced  by  these  Saxon  wars. — 46.  Causes  of  the  war  with  the  Lombards. 
Overthrow  of  the  Lombard  kingdom.  [Geneva.  Pavia.]— 47.  Charlemagne's  expedition  into 
Spain.  [Catalonia.  Pampeliina.  Saragos'  sa.  Roncesvalles.] — 48.  Additional  conquest*. 
Charlemagne  crowned  emperor  at  Rome. — 49.  Importance  of  this  event.  General  character  of 
the  reign  of  Charlemagne.  [A5x-la-Chapelle.]  His  private  life.  His  cruelties.  Concluding 
estimate.— 50.  Causes  that  led  to  the  division  of  the  empire  of  Charlemagne.— 51.  Invasion  of 
the  Northmen.— 52.  Ravages  of  the  Hungarians.  The  Saracens  on  the  Mediterranean  coasts. 
Changes,  and  increasing  confusion,  in  European  society.  The  island  of  Britain. 

53.  ENGLISH  HISTORY.  Saxon  conquests.  Saxon  Heptarchy. — 54.  Introduction  and  spread 
of  Christianity. — 55.  Union  of  the  Saxon  kingdoms.  Reign  of  Egbert,  and  ravages  of  the 
Northmen. — 56.  The  successors  of  Egbert.  Accession  of  Alfred.  Slate  of  the  kingdom. — 57. 
Alfred  withdraws  from  public  life — lives  as  a  peasant — visits  the  Danish  camp. — 58.  Defeats 
the  Danes,  and  overthrows  the  Danish  power.  Defence  of  the  kingdom. — 59.  Limited  sov- 
ereignty of  Alfred.  Danish  invasion  under  Hastings.  The  Danes  withdraw.  Alfred's  power 
at  the  lime  of  his  death.— 60.  Institutions,  character,  and  laws,  of  Alfred. 

1.  The  "Middle  Ages,"  to  which  it  is  impossible  to  fix  accurate 
limits,  may  be  considered  as  embracing  that  dark  and     x  INTEO- 
gloomy  period  of  about  a  thousand  years,  extending  from     DCCTORY. 
the  fall  of  the  Western  empire  of  the  Romans  nearly  to  the  close 
of  the  fifteenth  century,  at  which  point  we  detect  the  dawn  of  mod- 
ern civilization,  and  enter  upon  the  clearly -marked  outlines  of  modern 
history. a 

2.  The  history  of  Europe  during  several  centuries  after  the  over- 
throw of  the  Western  Roman  empire  offers  little  real  instruction  to 
repay  the  labor  of  wading  through  the  intricate  and  bloody  annals 
of  a  barbarous  age.     The  fall  of  the  Roman  empire  had  carried 
away  with  it  ancient  civilization  ;  and  during  many  generations,  the 
elements  of  society  which  had  been  disruptured  by  the  surges  of 
barbarian  power,  continued  to  be  widely  agitated,  like  the  waves  of 
the  ocean,  long  after  the  fury  of  the  storm  has  passed.     It  is  only 
when  the  victors  and  the  vanquished,  inhabitants  of  the  same  country, 
had  become  fused  into  one  people,  and  a  new  order  of  things,  new 
bonds  of  society,  and  new  institutions  began  to  be  developed,  that 
the  useful  history  of  the  Middle  Ages  begins. 

3.  We  must  bear  in  mind  that  it  was  not  Italy  alone  that  was 

a.  "  The  ten  centuries,  from  the  fifth  to  the  fifteenth,  seem,  in  a  general  point  of  view,  to  con- 
stitute the  period  of  the  Middle  Ages."— HalLam. 


238  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAJLT  IL 

affected  by  the  tide  of  barbarian  conquest ;  but  that  the  storm  spread 
likewise  over  Gaul,  Spain,  Britain,  and  Northern  Africa ;  while  the 
feeble  empire  which  had  Constantinople  for  its  centre,  alone  escaped 
the  general  ruin.  Here  the  majesty  of  Rome  was  still  faintly  rep- 
resented by  the  imaginary  successors  of  Augustus,  who  continued 
until  the  time  of  the  crusades  to  exercise  a  partial  sovereignty 
over  the  East,  from  the  Danube  to  the  Nile  and  the  Tigris.  The 
remainder  of  the  Roman  world  exhibited  one  scene  of  general  ruin ; 
for  wherever  the  barbarians  marched  in  successive  hordes,  their 
route  was  marked  with  blood :  cities  and  villages  were  repeatedly 
plundered,  and  often  destroyed ;  fertile  and  populous  provinces  were 
converted  into  deserts ;  and  pestilence  and  famine,  following  in  the 
train  of  war,  completed  the  desolation. 

4.  When  at  length,  toward  the  close  of  the  sixth  century,  the 
frenzy  of  conquest  was  over,  and  a  partial  calm  was  restored,  the 
Saxons,  from  the  shores  of  the  Baltic,  were  found  to  be  in  possession 
of  the  southern  and  more  fertile  provinces  of  Britain  :  the  Franks 
or  Freemen,  a  confederation  of  Germanic  tribes,  were  masters  of 
Gaul :  the  Huns,  from  the  borders  of  the  Caspian  Sea,  occupied 
Pannonia ;  the  Goths  and  the  Lombards,  the  former  originally  from 
northern  Asia,  and  the  latter  of  Scandinavian  origin,  had  established 
themselves  in  Italy  and  the  adjacent  provinces ;  and   the   Gothic 
tribes,  after  driving  the  Van'  dais  from  Spain,  had  succeeded  to  the 
sovereignty  of  the  peninsula.     A  total  change  had  come  over  the 
state  of  Europe :  scarcely  any  vestiges  of  Roman  civilization  re- 
mained ;  but  new  nations,  new  manners,  new  languages,  and  new 
names  of  countries  were  everywhere  introduced ;  and  new  forms  of 
government,  new  institutions,  and  new  laws  began  to  spring  up  out 
of  the  chaos  occasioned  by  the  general  wreck  of  the  nations  of  the 
Roman  world.     In  the  present  chapter  we  shall  pass  rapidly  over 
the  history  of  the  Middle  Ages ;  aiming  only  to  present  the  reader 
such  a  general  outline,  or  framework,  of  its  annals,  as  will  aid  in  the 
search  we  shall  subsequently  make  for  the  seeds  of  order,  and  the 
first  rudiments  of  policy,  laws,  and  civilization,  of  Modern  Europe. 

5.  After  Odoacer,  the  chief  of  the  tribe  of  the  Her'  uli,  had  con- 
quered Italy,  he  divided  one  third  of  the  ample  estates  of  the  nobles 

ii.  THE  MON-  among  his  followers ;  but  although  he  retained  the  gov- 

AUCHY  OF    eminent  in  his  own  hands,  he  allowed  the  ancient  forms 

IER  ULI.  Qf  a^mmjstration  to  remain ;  the  senate  continued  to  sit, 

as  usual ;  and  after  seven  years  the  consulship  was  restored  ;  while 


CHAP.  II.]  MIDDLE  AGES.  239 

none  of  the  municipal  or  provincial  authorities  were  changed. 
Odoacer  made  some  attempts  to  restore  agriculture  in  the  provinces ; 
but  still  Italy  presented  a  sad  prospect  of  misery  and  desolation. 
After  a  duration  of  fourteen  years,  the  feeble  monarchy  of  the 
Her'  uli  was  overthrown  by  the  Os'  trogoth  king,  Theod'  oric,  who, 
disregarding  his  plighted  faith,  caused  his  royal  captive,  Odoacer,  to 
be  assassinated  at  the  close  of  a  conciliatory  banquet.  (A.  D.  493.) 

6.  Theod'oric,  the  first  of  the  Os' trogoth  kings  of  Italy,  had 
been  brought  up  as  a  hostage  at  the  court  of  Constantinople.     At 
times  the  friend,  the  ally,  and  the  enemy  of  the  imbecile 

III.   MON- 

monarchs  of  the  Eastern  empire,  he  restored  peace  to    AKCHY  OF 
Italy,  and  a  degree  of  prosperity  unusual  under  the  THE  OS'TKO- 
sway  of  the  barbarian  conquerors.     Like  Odoacer,  he  in- 
dulged his  Koman  subjects  in  the  retention  of  their  ancient  laws, 
language,  and  magistrates;  and  employed  them  chiefly  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  government ;  while  to  his  rude  Gothic  followers  he 
confided  the  defence  of  the  State ;  and  by  giving  them  lands  which 
they  were  to  hold  on  the  tenure  of  military  service,  he  endeavored 
to  unite  in  them  the  domestic  habits  of  the  cultivator,  with  the  ex- 
ercises and  discipline  of  the  soldier. 

7.  Theod'  oric  encouraged  improvements  in  agriculture,  revived 
the  spirit  of  commerce  and  manufactures,  and  greatly  increased  the 
population  of  his  kingdom,  which,  at  the  close  of  his  reign,  embraced 
nearly  a  million  of  the  barbarians,  many  of  whom,  however,  were 
soldiers  of  fortune  and  adventurers  who  had  flocked  from  all  the  sur- 
rounding barbarous  nations  to  share  the  riches  and  glory  which 
Theod'  oric  had  won.     Theod'  oric  reigned  thirty-three  years ;  and 
at  the  time  of  his  death  his  kingdom  occupied  not  only  Sicily  and 
Italy,  but  also  Lower  Gaul,  and  the  old  Roman  provinces  between 
the  head  of  the  Adriat'  ic  and  the  Danube.     If  he  had  had  a  son  to 
whom  he  might  have  transmitted  his  dominions,  his  Gothic  succes- 
sors would  probably  have  had  the  honor  of  restoring  the  empire  of 
the  West;  but  on  his  death,  (A.  D.  526)  the  two  nations  of  the  Os'- 
trogoths  and  the  Vis'  igoths  were  again  divided ;  and  the  reign  of 
the  Great  Theod'  oric  passed  like  a  brilliant  meteor,  leaving  no  per- 
manent impression  of  its  glory. 

8.  Seven  Os'  trogoth  kings  succeeded  Theod'  oric  on  the  throne 
of  Italy  during  a  period  of  twenty-seven  years.     Nearly  all  met 
with  a  violent  death,  and  were  constantly  engaged  in  a  war  with 
Justin'  ian,  emperor  of  the  East,  who  finally  succeeded  in  reducing 


240  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  II. 

Italy  under  his  dominion.  The  reign  of  that  monarch  is  the  most 
brilliant  period  in  the  history  of  the  Eastern  empire ;  and  as  it  fol- 
lows immediately  after  the  career  of  Theod'  oric  in  the  West,  and 
embraces  all  that  is  interesting  in  the  history  of  the  period  which  it 
occupies,  we  pass  here  to  a  brief  survey  of  its  annals. 

9.  The  year  after  the  death  of  Theod'  oric,  Justin'  ian  succeeded 
iv  THE      kis  uncle  Justin  on  the  throne  of  the  Eastern  empire. 
ERA  OF      His  reign  is  often  alluded  to  in  history  as  the  "  Era  of 

JUSTIN'  IAN.   Jug/  tmian  „     Qn  kis  accession  ne  found  the  kingdom 

torn  by  domestic  factions ;  hordes  of  barbarians  menaced  the  fron- 
tiers, and  often  advanced  from  the  Danube  three  hundred  miles  into 
the  country ;  and  during  the  first  five  years  of  his  reign  he  waged  an 
expensive  and  unprofitable  war  with  the  Persians.  The  conclusion 
of  this  war,  by  the  purchase  of  a  peace  at  a  costly  price,  enabled 
Justin'  ian,  who  was  extremely  ambitious  of  military  fame,  to  turn  his 
arms  to  the  conquest  of  distant  provinces. 

10.  Justin' ian  never  led  his  armies  in  person;  and  his  troops  con- 
sisted chiefly  of  barbarian  mercenaries — Scythians,  Persians,  Her'  uli, 
Van'  dais,  and  Goths,  and  a  small  number  of  Thracians  :  the  citizens 
of  the  empire  had  long  been  forbidden,  under  preceding  emperors, 
to  carry  arms, — a  short-sighted  policy  which  Justin'  ian's  timidity 
and  jealousy  led  him  to  adopt :  and  so  little  of  military  spirit  re- 
mained among  the  people,  that  they  were  not  only  incapable  of  fight- 
ing in  the  open  field,  but  formed  a  very  inadequate  defence  for  the 
ramparts  of  their  cities.     Under  these  circumstances,  with  but  a 
small  body  of  regular  troops,  and  without  an  active  militia  from 
which  to  recruit  his  armies,  the  military  successes  of  Justin'  ian  are 
among  the  difficult  problems  of  the  age. 

1 1.  Africa,  still  ruled  by  the  Van'  dais,  first  attracted  the  military 
ambition  of  Justin'  ian,  although  his  designs  of  conquest  were  con- 
cealed under  the  pretence  of  restoring  to  the  Van'dal  throne  its 
legitimate  successor,  of  the  race  of  the  renowned  Gen'  seric.     The 
first  expedition,  under  the  command  of  Belisarius,  the  greatest  gen- 
eral of  his  age,  numbering  only  ten  thousand  foot  soldiers  and  five 
thousand  horsemen,  landed,  in  September  533,  about  five  days'  jour- 
ney to  the  south  of  Carthage.     The  Africans,  who  were  still  called 
Romans,  long  oppressed  by  their  Van'  dal  conquerors,  hailed  Belisa- 
rius as  a  deliverer;  and  Gel'  imer,  the  Van'  dal  king,  who  ruled  over 
eight  or  nine  millions  of  subjects,  and  who  could  muster  eighty  thou- 


CHAP.  IL1  MIDDLE   AGES.  241 

sand  warriors1  of  his  own  nation,  found  himself  suddenly  alone  with 
his  Van'  dais  in  the  midst  of  a  hostile  population.  Twice  Gel'  imer 
was  routed  in  battle ;  and  before  the  end  of  November  Africa  was 
conquered,  and  the  kingdom  of  the  Van'  dais  destroyed.  Gel'  imer 
himself,  having  capitulated,  was  removed  to  Galatia,  where  ample 
possessions  were  given,  him.  and  where  he  was  allpwed  to  .grow  old  in 
peace,  surrounded  by  his  friends  and  kindred,  and  a  few  faithful  fol- 
lowers. The  bravest  of  the  Van'  dais  enlisted  in  the  armies  of  Jus- 
tin' ian  ;  and  ere  long  the  remainder  of  the  Van'  dal  nation  in  Africa, 
being  involved  in  the  convulsions  that  followed,  entirely  disappeared. 
1*2.  Justin'  ian  next  projected  the  conquest  of  the  Gothic  empire 
of  Italy,  and  its  dependencies ;  and  in  the  year  535  Belisarius  land- 
ed in  Sicily  at  the  head  of  a  small  army  of  seven  thousand  five  hun- 
dred men.  In  the  first  campaign  he  subdued  that  island  :  in  the 
second  year  he  advanced  into  southern  Italy,  where  the  old  Roman 
population  welcomed  him  with  joy,  and  the  Goths  found  themselves 
as  unfavorably  situated  as  the  Van'  dais  had  been  in  Africa ;  but, 
deposing  their  weak  prince,  they  raised  Vit'  iges  to  the  throne,  who 
was  a  great  general  and  a  worthy  rival  of  Belisarius.  The  latter 
gained  possession  of  Rome,  (Dec.  536,)  where  for  more  than  a  year 
he  was  besieged  by  the  Goths ;  and  although  he  made  good  his  de- 
fence, almost  the  entire  population  of  the  city  in  the  meantime  per- 
ished by  famine. 

13.  Vit' iges   himself  was  next  besieged  in  Raven' na,  and  was 
finally  forced  to   surrender  the  place,  and  yield  himself  prisoner. 
(Dec.  539.)     He  was  deeply  indebted  to  the  generosity  of  Justin'  ian, 
who  allowed  him  to  pass  his  days  in  affluence  in  Constantinople. 
The  jealousy  of  Justin'  ian,  however,  having  recalled  Belisarius  from 
Italy,  in  a  few  years  the  Goths  recovered  their  sway ;  but  it  was  over 
a  country  almost  deserted  of  its  inhabitants.     At  length,  in  the  year 
552,  Justin'  ian  formed  in  Italy  an  army  of  thirty  thousand  men, 
which  he  placed  under  the  command  of  the  eunuch  Nar'  ses,  who 
unexpectedly  proved  to  be  an  able  general,     In  the  following  year 
the  last  of  the  Os'  trogoth  kings  was  slain  in  battle,  and  the  empire 
of  Justin'  ian  was  extended  over  the  deserted  wastes  of  the  once  fer- 
tile and  populous  Italy.     (A.  D.  554.) 

1 4.  In  the  East,  Justin'  ian  was  involved  in  a  second  war  with 
Chosroes,  or  Nashirvan,  the  most  celebrated  Persian  monarch  of  the 

L.  Gibbon,  Hi.  03,  says  one  hundred  and  sixty  thousand ;  and  Sismondi,  Fall  of  the  Roman 
Empire,  i.  221,  has  the  same  number.    See  the  correction  in  Milman's  Notes  to  Gibbon. 

16 


242  MODERN   HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

Sassanid  dynasty.  Hostilities  were  carried  on  during  sixteen  years 
(A.  D.  540 — 556)  with  unrelenting  obstinacy  on  both  sides ;  but  after 
a  prodigious  waste  of  human  life,  the  frontiers  of  the  two  empires 
remained  nearly  the  same  as  they  were  before  the  war.  When  Jus- 
tin' ian  was  nearly  eighty  years  of  age  he  was  again  obliged  to  have 
recourse  to  the'  services  of  his  old  general  Belisarius,  not  less  age'd 
than  himself,  to  repel  an  invasion  of  the  barbarians  who  had  ad- 
vanced to  the  very  gates  of  Constantinople.  At  the  head  of  a  small 
band  of  veterans,  who  in  happier  years  had  shared  his  toils,  he  drove 
back  the  enemy ;  but  the  applauses  of  the  people  again  excited  the 
jealousy  and  fears  of  the  ungrateful  monarch,  who,  charging  his 
faithful  servant  with  aspiring  to  the  empire,  caused  his  eyes  to  be 
torn  out,  and  his  whole  fortune  to  be  confiscated ;  and  it  is  said  that 
the  general  who  had  conquered  two  kingdoms,  was  to  be  seen  blind, 
and  led  by  a  child,  going  about  with  a  wooden  cup  in  his  hand  to  so- 
licit charity.  Justin' ian  died  at  the  age  of  eighty-three,  after  a 
reign  of  more  than  thirty-eight  years.  (Nov.  565.)  The  character 
of  Justin'  ian  was  a  compound  of  good  and  bad  qualities ;  for  al- 
though personally  inclined  to  justice,  he  often  overlooked,  through 
weakness,  the  injustice  of  others,  and  was  in  a  great  measure  ruled 
during  the  first  half  of  his  reign  by  his  wife  Theodora,  an  unprin- 
cipled woman,  under  whose  orders  many  acts  of  oppression  and 
cruelty  were  committed. 

15.  The  reign  of  Justin' ian  forms  a  memorable  epoch  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  world.  He  was  the  last  Byzantine  emperor  who,  by  his 
dominion  over  the  whole  of  Italy,  reunited  in  some  measure  the 
two  principal  portions  of  the  empire  of  the  Caesars.  But  his  exten- 
sive conquests  were  not  his  chief  glory :  the  brightest  ornament  of 
his  reign,  which  has  immortalized  his  memory,  is  his  famous  compi- 
lation of  the  Roman  laws,  known  as  the  "  Pandects  and  Code  of 
Justin' ian."  "  The  vain  titles  of  the  victories  of  Justin'  ian,"  says 
Gibbon,  "  are  crumbled  into  dust :  but  the  name  of  the  legislator 
is  inscribed  on  a  fair  and  everlasting  monument."  To  a  commission 
of  ten  emiment  lawyers,  at  the  head  of  which  was  Tribonian,  Jus- 
tin' ian  assigned  the  task  of  reducing  into  a  uniform  and  consistent 
code,  the  vast  mass  of  the  laws  of  the  Roman  empire ;  and  after  this 
had  been  completed,  to  another  commission  of  seventeen,  at  the 
head  of  which  also  was  Tribonian,  was  assigned  the  more  difficult 
work  of  searching  out  the  scattered  monuments  of  ancient  jurispru- 
dence,— of  collecting  and  putting  in  order  whatever  was  useful  in 


CHAP.  H]  MIDDLE  AGES.  243 

the  books  of  former  jurisconsults,  and  of  extracting  the  true  spirit 
of  the  laws  from  questions,  disputes,  conjectures,  and  judicial  de- 
cisions of  the  Roman  civilians.  This  celebrated  work,  containing 
the  immense  store  of  the  wisdom  of  antiquity,  after  being  lost  during 
several  centuries  of  the  Dark  Ages,  was  accidentally  brought  to  light 
in  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century,  when  it  contributed  greatly  to 
the  revival  of  civilization ;  and  the  digest  which  Gibbon  has  made 
of  it  is  now  received  as  the  text  book  on  civil  Law  in  some  of  the 
universities  of  Europe.* 

16.  The  history  of  the  Eastern  or  Greek  empire,  during  several 
centuries  after  Justin'  ian,  is  so  extremely  complicated,  and  its  an- 
nals so  obscure  and  devoid  of  interest,  that  we  pass  them  by,  for  sub- 
jects of  greater  importance.     Three  years  after  the  death  of  Justin'- 
ian,  Italy  underwent  another  revolution.     In  the  year  568,  the  whole 
Lombard  nation,  comprising  the  fiercest  and  bravest  of  the  Germanic 
tribes,  led  by  their  king  Alboin,  and  aided  by  twenty  thousand  Sax- 
ons, descended  from  the  eastern  Alps,  and  at  once  took  possession 
of  northern  Italy,  which,  from  them,  is  called  Lombardy.      The 
Lombard  monarchy,  thus  established,  lasted,  under  twenty-one  kings, 
during  a  period  of  little  more  than  two  centuries. 

1 7.  As  the  Lombards  advanced  into  the  country,  the  inhabitants 
shut  themselves  up  in  the  walled  cities,  many  of  which,       y  THE 
after  enduring  sieges,  and  experiencing  the  most  dread-     LOMBARD 
ful  calamities,  were  compelled  to  surrender ;    but  the    MONARCHY- 
Lombard   dominion   never   embraced   the   whole   peninsula.      The 
islands  in  the  upper  end  of  the  Adriat'  ic,  embracing  the  Venetian 
League,  the  country  immediately  surrounding  Raven'  na,  together 
with  Rome,  Naples,  and  a  few  other  cities,  remained  under  the  juris- 
diction of  the  Eastern  or  Greek  emperors,  or  were  at  times  inde- 
pendent of  foreign  rule.     The  Lombards  were  ruder  and  fiercer  than 
the  Goths  who  preceded  them  ;  and  they  at  first  proved  to  the  Ital- 
ians far  harder  task-masters  than  any  of  the  previous  invaders  ;  but 
the  change  from  a  wandering  life  exerted  an  influence  favorable 
to  their  civilization ;  and  their  laws,  considered  as  those  of  a  barba- 
rous people,  exhibited  a  considerable  degree  of  wisdom  and  equality. 

18.  The  period  at  which  we  have  now  arrived,  towards  the  close 
of  the  sixth  century,  exhibits  the  first  interval  of  partial  repose  that 
had  fallen  upon  Western  Europe  since  the  downfall  of  the  Roman 
empire.     Some  degree  of  quiet  was  now  settling  upon  Italy  under 

a.  Notes  to  Gibbon,  iii.  151. 


244  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  JI 

the  rule  of  the  Lombard  kings :  the  Goths  were  consolidating  their 
power  in  Spain  :  a  stable  monarchy  was  gradually  rising  in  France, 
from  the  union  of  the  Gallic  tribes ;  and  the  Saxons  had  firmly  es- 
tablished themselves  in  the  south  of  Britain.  The  only  events  in 
the  East  that  attract  our  notice  consist  of  a  series  of  wars  between 
the  Greek  emperors  and  the  Persians,  during  which  period,  if  we  are 
to  rely  upon  doubtful  narratives  which  wear  the  air  of  fables,  at  one 
time  all  the  Asiatic  provinces  of  the  Eastern  empire  were  conquered 
by  the  Persians;  and  subsequently,  the  whole  of  Persia,  to  the 
frontiers  of  India,  was  conquered  by  the  monarchs  of  the  Eastern 
empire.  Eventually  the  two  empires  appear  to  have  become  equally 
exhausted ;  and  when  peace  was  restored  (A.  D.  628)  the  ancient 
boundaries  were  recognized  by  both  parties. 

19.  But  while  a  degree  of  comparative  repose  was  settling  upon 
Europe,  a  night  of  darkness,  owing  to  the  absence  of  all  reliable 
documents,  rests  upon  its  history,  down  to  the  time  of  Charlemagne. 
"  A  century  and  a  half  passed  away,"  says  Sismondi,  "  during  which 
we  possess  nothing  concerning  the  whole  empire  of  the  West,  except 
dates  and  conjectures. "a     This  obscurity  lasts  until  a  new  and  unex- 
pected light  breaks  in  from  Arabia  ;  when  a  nation  of  shepherds  and 
robbers  appears  as  the  depository  of  letters  which  had  been  allowed 
to  escape  from  the  guardianship  of  every  civilized  people. 

20.  Turning  from  the  darkness  which  shrouds  European  history 
in  the  seventh  century,  we  next  proceed  to  trace  the  remarkable  rise 
and  establishment  of  the  power  of  the  Saracens.     In  the  parched. 

vr  THE  sandy,  and,  in  great  part,  desert  Arabia,  a  country 
SARACEN,  nearly  four  times  the  extent  of  France,  the  hardy  Arab, 
IRE"  of  an  original  and  unmixed  race,  had  dwelt  from  time 
immemorial,  in  a  constant  struggle  with  nature,  and  enjoying  all  the 
wild  freedom  of  the  rudest  patriarchal  state.  The  descendants  of 
Ishmael — the  "  wild  man  of  the  desert" — have  always  been  free,  and 
such  they  will  ever  remain  ;  an  effect,  at  once,  of  their  local  position, 
and,  as  many  believe,  the  fulfilment  of  prophecy ;  and  although  a 
few  of  the  frontier  cities  of  Arabia  have  been  at  times  temporarily 
subjected  by  the  surrounding  nations,  Arabia,  as  a  country,  is  the  only 
land  in  all  antiquity  that  never  bowed  to  the  yoke  of  a  foreign  conqueror. 

21.  The  ancient  religion  of  the  Arabs  was  Sabaism,  or  star -worship, 
which  assumed  a  great  variety  of  forms,  and  was  corrupted  by  adora- 
tion of  a  vast  number  of  images,  which  were  supposed  to  have  some 

a.  Sismondi,  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  i.  258. 


CHAP.  II]  MIDDLE   AGES.  245 

mysterious  affinity  to  the  heavenly  bodies.  The  Arabs  had  seven 
temples  dedicated  to  the  seven  planets :  some  tribes  exclusively  re- 
vered the  moon,  others  the  dog  star :  Judaism*  was  embraced  by  a 
few  tribes,  Christianity  by  some,  and  the  Magian  idolatry1  of  Persia 
by  others.  So  completely  free  was  Arabia,  each  sect  or  tribe  being 
independent,  that  absolute  toleration  necessarily  existed ;  and  numer- 
ous refugee  sects  that  fled  from  the  persecution  of  the  Roman  empe- 
rors, found  in  the  wild  wastes  of  that  country  a  quiet  asylum. 

22.  About  the  beginning  of  the  seventh  century,  Mahom'et  or 
Moham'med,  an  Arabian  impostor,  descended  from  the   Sabaean 
priests  of  Mecca,  where  was  the  chief  temple  of  the  Sabaean  idola- 
try, began  to  preach  a  new  religion  to  his  countrymen.     He  repre- 
sented to  them  the  incoherence  and  grossness  of  their  religious  rites, 
and  called  upon  them  to  abandon  their  frail  idols,  and  to  acknowl- 
edge and  adore  the  One  true  God, — the  invisible,  all  good,  and  all- 
powerful  ruler  of  the  universe.     Acknowledging  the   authenticity 
both  of  the  Jewish  scriptures  and  the  Christian  revelation,  he  pro- 
fessed to  restore  the  true  and  primitive  faith,  as  it  had  been  in  the 
days  of  the  patriarchs  and  the  prophets,  from  Adam  to  the  Messiah. 

23.  Like  Numa  of  old,  Mahom'  et  sought  to  give  to  the  doctrines 
which  he  taught  the  sanction  of  inspired  origin  and  miraculous  ap- 
proval ;  and  as  the  nymph  Egeria  was  the  ministering  goddess  of  the 
former,  so  the  angel  Gabriel  was  the  declared  medium  of  divine 
communication  with  the  latter.     During  a  period  of  twenty-three 

1.  The  Magian  idolatry  consisted  of  the  religious  belief  and  worship  presided  over  by  the 
Magian  priesthood,  who  comprised,  originally,  one  of  the  six  tribes  into  which  the  nation  of 
the  Medes  was  divided.  The  Magi,  or  w  wise  men,'1  had  not  only  religion,  but  the  higher 
branches  of  all  learning  also,  in  their  charge ;  and  they  practised  different  sorts  of  divination, 
astrology,  and  enchantment,  for  the  purpose  of  disclosing  the  future,  influencing  the  present, 
and  calling  the  past  to  their  aid.  So  famous  were  they  that  their  name  has  been  applied  to  all 
orders  of  magicians  and  enchanters.  Zoroas'  ter,  who  is  supposed  to  have  lived  about  the 
seventh  century  before  Christ,  reformed  the  Magian  religion,  and  remodelled  the  priesthood  ; 
and  by  some  he  is  considered  the  founder  of  the  order. 

The  Marian  priests  taught  that  the  gods  are  the  spiritual  essences  of  fire,  earth,  and  water,— 
that  there  are  two  antagonistic  powers  in  nature,  the  one  accomplishing  good  designs,  the  other 
evil ;— that  each  of  these  shall  subdue  and  be  subdued  by  turns,  for  six  thousand  years,  but 
that,  at  last,  through  the  intervention  of  the  still  higher  and  Supreme  Being,  the  evil  principle 
shall  perish,  and  men  shall  live  in  happiness,  neither  needing  food,  nor  yielding  a  shadow. 

The  great  influence  of  the  Magi  is  well  illustrated  in  the  book  of  Daniel,  where  Nebuchad- 
nezzar invoked  the  aid  of  the  different  classes  of  their  order— magicians,  astrologers,  sorcerers, 
Chaldeans,  and  soothsayers.  In  the  time  of  the  Saviour,  the  Magian  system  was  not  extinct, 
as  we  have  evidence  of  in  the  allusion  made  to  Simon  Magus,  who  boasted  himself  to  be 
tt  some  great  one."  (Acts,  viii.  9— xiii.  6,  &c.) 

a.  By  the  term  Judaism  is  meant  the  religious  rites  and  doctrines  of  the  Jews,  as  enjoined 
in  the  law  of  Moses. 


246  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

years  occasional  revelations,  as  circumstances  required,  are  said  to 
have  been  made  to  the  Prophet,  who  was  consequently  never  at  a 
loss  for  authority  to  justify  his  conduct  to  his  followers,  or  for  author- 
itative counsel  in  any  emergency.  These  revelations,  carefully  treas- 
ured up  in  the  memories  of  the  faithful,  or  committed  to  writing  by 
amanuenses,  (for  the  Moslems  boast  that  the  founder  of  their  religion 
could  neither  read  nor  write,)  were  collected  together  two  years  after 
the  death  of  the  Prophet,  and  published  as  the  Koran,  or  Moham/- 
medan  Bible. 

24.  The  materials  of  the  Koran  are  borrowed  chiefly  from  the 
Jewish  and  Christian  Scriptures,  and  from  the  legends,  traditions, 
and  fables  of  Arabian  and  Persian  mythology.  The  two  great 
points  of  Moslem  faith  are  embraced  in  the  declaration — "  There  is 
but  one  God,  and  Mahom' et  is  his  prophet."  The  other  prominent 
points  of  the  Moslem  creed  are  the  belief  in  absolute  predestina 
tion, — the  existence  and  purity  of  angels, — the  resurrection  of  the 
body, — a  general  judgment,  and  the  final  salvation  of  all  the  dis- 
ciples of  the  Prophet,  whatever  be  their  sins.  Wicked  Moslems  are 
to  expiate  their  crimes  during  different  periods  of  suffering,  not  to 
exceed  seven  thousand  years ;  but  infidel  contemners  of  the  Koran 
are  to  be  doomed  to  an  eternity  of  woe.  A  minute  and  appalling 
description  is  given  of  the  place  and  mode  of  torment, — a  vast  re- 
ceptacle, full  of  smoke  and  darkness,  dragged  forward  with  roaring 
noise  and  fury  by  seventy  thousand  angels,  through  the  opposite  ex- 
tremes of  heat  and  cold,  while  the  unhappy  objects  of  wrath  are  tor- 
mented by  the  hissing  of  numerous  reptiles,  and  the  scourges  of 
hideous  demons,  whose  pastime  is  cruelty  and  pain.  The  Moslem 
paradise  is  all  that  an  Arab  imagination  can  paint  of  sensual  felici- 
ty ; — groves,  rivulets,  flowers,  perfumes,  and  fruits  of  every  variety 
to  charm  the  senses ;  while,  to  every  other  conceivable  delight,  sev- 
enty-two damsels  of  immortal  youth  and  dazzling  beauty  are  assigned 
to  minister  to  the  enjoyment  of  the  humblest  of  the  faithful.  The 
promise  to  every  faithful  follower  of  the  Prophet,  of  an  unlimited 
indulgence  of  the  corporeal  propensities,  constitutes  a  fundamental 
principle  of  the  Moham'  medan  religion.  The  predestinarian  doctrine 
of  Mahom'  et  led  his  followers  towards  fatalism,  and  exercised  a 
marked  influence  upon  their  lives,  and  especially  upon  their  warlike 
character  ;  for  as  it  taught  them  that  the  hour  of  death  is  determined 
beforehand,  it  inspired  them  with  an  indifference  to  danger,  and  gave 
a  permanent  security  to  their  bravery.  Mahom'  et  promised  to  those 


OHAP.  II.J  MIDDLE   AGES.  247 

of  his  followers  who  fell  in  battle  an  immediate  admission  to  the  joys 
of  paradise.  The  practical  part  of  the  new  religion  consisted  of 
prayer  five  times  a  day,  and  frequent  ablutions  of  the  whole  body, 
alms,  fastings,  and  the  pilgrimage  to  Mecca.1  Tradition  asserts  that 
Mahom'  et  confirmed  by  miracles  the  truth  of  his  religion ;  and  a 
mysterious  hint  in  the  Koran  has  been  converted,  by  the  traditionists, 
into  a  circumstantial  legend  of  a  nocturnal  journey  through  the  seven 
heavens,  in  which  Mahom'  et  conversed  familiarly  with  Adam,  Moses, 
and  the  prophets,  and  even  with  Deity  himself. 

25.  It  was  in  the  year  609,  when  Mahom'  et  was  already  forty 
years  old,  that  he  began  to  preach  his  new  doctrine  at  Mecca.     His 
first  proselytes  were  made  in  his  own  family  ;  but  by  the  people  his 
pretensions  were  long  treated  with  ridicule ;  and  at  the  end  of  thir- 
teen years  he  was  obliged  to  flee  from  Mecca  to  save  his  life.     (A.  D. 
622.)     This  celebrated  flight,  called  the  Hegira,  is  the  grand  era  of 
the  Moham'  medan  religion. 

26.  Repairing  to  Yatreb,  the  name  of  which  he  changed  to  Medi- 
na,2 (or  Medinet  el  Nebbi,  the  city  of  the  Prophet,)  he  was  there  re- 
ceived by  a  large  band  of  converts  with  every  demonstration  of  joy; 
and  soon  the  whole  city  acknowledged  him  as  its  leader  and  prophet. 
Mahomet  now  declared  that  the  empire  of  his  religion  was  to  be  es- 
tablished by  the  sword  :  every  day  added  to  the  number  of  his  prose- 
lytes, who,  formed  into  warlike  and  predatory  bands,  scoured  the 
desert  in  quest  of  plunder ;  and  after  experiencing  many  successes 
and  several  defeats,  Mahom'  et,  in  the  seventh  year  of  the  Hegira, 
with  scarcely  a  shadow  of  opposition,  made  himself  master  of  Mecca, 
whose   inhabitants  swore  allegiance  to  him  as  their  temporal  and 
spiritual  prince.     The  conquest  or  voluntary  submission  of  the  rest 
of  Arabia  soon  followed,  and  at  the  period  of  Mahom'  et's  last  pil- 
grimage to  Mecca,  in  the  tenth  year  of  the  Hegira,  and  the  year  of 
his  death,  a  hundred  and  fourteen  thousand  Mussulmen3  marched 
under  his  banner.     (A.  D.  632.) 

1.  Mecca,  the  birth-place  of  Mahom'  et,  and  the  great  centre  of  attraction  to  all  pilgrims  of 
the  Moham'  medan  faith,  is  in  western  Arabia,  about  forty  miles  east  from  the  Red  Sea. 
Formerly  the  concourse  of  pilgrims  to  the  "  holy  city"  was  immense ;  but  the  taste  for  pil- 
grimages is  now  rapidly  declining  throughout  the  Moham'  medan  world. 

2.  Medina  is  situated  in  western  Arabia,  one  hundred  miles  north-east  from  iU  port  of  Yembo 
on  the  Red  Sea,  and  two  hundred  and  sixty  miles  north  from  Mecca.    It  is  surrounded  by  a  wall 
about  forty  feet  high,  flanked  by  thirty  towers.    It  is  now  chiefly  important  as  being  in  posses- 
sion of  the  tomb  containing  the  remains  of  the  prophet. 

3.  The  word  Mussulman,  which  is  used  to  designate  a  follower  of  Mahom'  et,  signifies,  In 
the  Turkish  language,  "  a  true  believer." 


248  MODERN   HISTORY.  [PART  II. 

27.  Mahom'  et  died  without  having  formed  any  organized  govern- 
ment for  the  empire  which  he  had  so  speedily  established ;  and  al- 
though religious  enthusiasm  supplied,  to  his  immediate  followers,  the 
place  of  legislation,  the  Arabs  of  the  desert  soon  began  to  relapse 
into  their  ancient  idolatries.     The  union  of  the  military  chiefs  of  the 
Prophet  alone  saved  the  tottering  fabric  of  Moslem  faith  from  dis- 
solution.    Abubekr,  the  first  believer  in  Mahom '  et's  mission,  was 
declared  lieutenant   or   caliph ;    and   the  victories  of  his   general 
Khaled,  surnamed  "  the  sword  of  God,"  over  the  apostate  tribes,  in  a 
few  months  restored  religious  unity  to  Arabia. 

28.  But  the  spirit  of  the  Saracens1  needed  employment;  and  pre- 
parations were  made  to  invade  the  Byzantine  and  Persian  empires, 
both  of  which,  from  the  long  and  desolating  wars  that  had  raged 
between  them,  had  sunk  into  the  most  deplorable  weakness.     Khaled 
advanced  into  Persia  and  conquered  several  cities  near  the  ruins  of 
Babylon,  when  he  was  recalled,  and  sent  to  join  Abu  Obeidah,  who 
had  marched  upon  Syria.     Palmyra  submitted  :  the  governor  of  Boz- 
rah2  turned  both  traitor  and  Mussulman,  and  opened  the  gates  of  the 
city  to  the  invaders ;  Damascus  was  attacked,  besieged,  and  finally 
one  part  of  the  city  was  carried  by  storm  at  the  moment  that  an- 
other portion  had  capitulated.     (Aug.  3d,  634.)     Abubekr  died  the 
very  day  the  city  was  taken,  and  Omar  succeeded  to  the  Caliphate. 

29.  The  fall  of  Ernes' sa,3  and  Baalbecu  or  Heliop'olis,  soon  fol- 

1.  The  word  Saracen,  from  sara,  "  a  desert,"  means  an  Arabian. 

2.  Eozrah,  was  fifty  miles  south  from  Damascus,  and  eighty  miles  north-east  from  Jerusalem. 
Though  now  almost  deserted,  the  whole  town  and  its  environs  are  covered  with  pillars  and 
other  ruins  of  the  finest  workmanship.    It  is  frequently  mentioned  in  Scripture.    In  Jeremiah, 
xlix.  13,  we  read,  "  For  I  have  sworn  by  myself,  saith  the  Lord,  that  Bozrah  shall  become  a 
desolation,  a  reproach,  a  waste,  and  a  curse."    (Map  No.  VI.) 

3.  Ernes'  sa,  now  Hems,  a  city  of  Syria,  was  on  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Oron'tes,  now  the 
Aaszy,  eighty-five  miles  north-east  from  Damascus.    It  was  the  birth-place  of  the  Roman  em- 
peror Elagabalus.    (Map  No.  VI.) 

4.  Baalbec,  or  Heliop'  olis, — the  former  a  Syrian  and  the  latter  a  Greek  word — both  meaning 
the  "city  of  the  sun,"  was  a  large  and  splendid  city  of  Syria,  forty  miles  north-west  from  Da- 
mascus, and  about  thirty-five  miles  from  the  Mediterranean.    The  remains  of  ancient  architec- 
tural grandeur  in  Baalbec  are  more  extensive  than  in  any  other  city  of  Syria,  Palmyra  excepted. 
It  is  believed  that  Baal-Ath,  buill  by  Solomon  in  Lebanon,  (2.  Chron.  viii.  6,)  was  identical  with 
Baal-Bee.    While  under  the  Roman  power  it  was  famed  for  its  wealth  and  splendor ;  and  the 
terms  of  its  surrender  to  the  Saracens  sufficiently  attest  its  great  resources  at  that  period  : — 
two  thousand  ounces  of  gold,  four  thousand  ounces  of  silver,  two  thousand  silken  vests,  and 
one  thousand  swords,  besides  those  of  the  garrison,  being  the  price  demanded  and  paid  to  pre- 
serve it  from  plunder.     Although  repeatedly  sacked  and  dismantled,  yet  the  changes  that  have 
taken  place  in  the  channels  of  commerce  are  the  principal  causes  of  its  decay  ;  and,  judging 
from  its  decline  during  the  last  century, — from  five  thousand  inhabitants  to  less  than  two  hun- 
dred,—probably  the  day  is  not  far  distant  when,  like  many  other  Eastern  cities,  it  will  cease  to 
be  inhabited.    (Map  No.  VI.) 


OHAP.  IL]  MIDDLE   AGES.  249 

lowed  that  of  Damascus.  Herac'  lius,  the  Byzantine  emperor,  made 
one  great  effort  to  save  Syria,  but  on  the  banks  of  the  Yermouk1  his 
best  generals  were  defeated  by  Khaled  with  a  loss  of  seventy  thousand 
soldiers,  who  were  left  dead  on  the  field.  (Nov.  636.)  Jerusalem, 
after  a  siege  of  four  months,  capitulated  to  Omar,  who  caused  the 
ground  on  which  had  stood  the  temple  of  Solomon  to  be  cleared  of 
its  rubbish,  and  prepared  for  the  foundation  of  a  mosque,  which  still 
bears  the  name  of  the  Caliph.  The  reduction  of  Aleppo3  and  An- 
tioch,  six  years  after  the  first  Saracen  invasion,  completed  the  con- 
quest of  Syria.  (A.  D.  638.) 

30.  In  the  meantime  the  conquest  of  Persia  had  been  followed 
up  by  other  Saracen  generals.     In  the  same  year  that  witnessed  the 
battle  of  Yermouk,  the  Persians  and  Saracens  fought  on  the  plains 
of  Cadesiah3  one  of  the  bloodiest  battles  on  record.     Seven  thousand 
five  hundred  Saracens  and  one  hundred  thousand  Persians  are  said 
to  have   fallen.     The  fate  of  Persia  was  determined,  although  the 
Persian  monarch  kept  together  some  time  longer  the  wrecks  of  his 
empire,  but  he  was  finally  slain  in  the  year  65 1 ,  and  with  him  ex- 
pired the  second  Persian  dynasty,  that  of  the  Sassan'  idae.4 

31.  Soon  after  the  battle  of  Cadesiah,  Omar  intrusted  to  his  lieu- 


1.  The  Yermouk,  the  Hieromax  of  the  Greeks,  is  a  river  that  empties  into  the  Jordan  from 
the  east,  seventy-five  miles  south-west  from  Damascus.    ( Map  No.  VI.) 

2.  .lleppo,  in  northern  Syria,  is  one  hundred  and  ninety-six  miles  north-east  from  Damascus, 
and  fifty-five  miles  east  from  Autiocb.    It  is  surrounded  by  massive  walls  thirty-feet  high  and 
twenty  broad.    It  was  once  a  place  of  considerable  trade,  communicating  with  Persia  and 
India  by  way  of  Bagdad,  and  with  Arabia  and  Egypt  by  way  of  Damascus ;  but  the  discovery 
of  a  passage  to  India  by  way  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  struck  a  deadly  blow  at  its  greatness, 
and  it  is  now  little  more  than  a  shadow  of  its  former  self. 

3.  Cadesiah  was  on  the  borders  of  the  Syrian  desert,  south-west  from  Babylon. 

4.  The  overthrow  of  the  last  of  the  great  Persian  dynasties  is  an  appropriate  point  for  a  brief 
review  of  Persian  history. 

It  has  been  stated  that,  after  the  overthrow  of  the  Persian  monarchy  by  Alexander  the  Great, 
Asia  continued  to  be  a  theatre  of  wars  waged  by  his  ambitious  successors,  until  Seleucus, 
about  the  year  307  before  our  era,  established  himself  securely  in  possession  of  the  countries 
between  the  Euphrates,  the  Indus,  and  the  Oxus,  and  thus  founded  the  empire  of  the  Seleucida. 
This  empire  continued  undisturbed  until  the  year  250  B.  C.,  when  the  Parthians,  under  drsaces, 
revolted,  and  established  the  Parthian  empire  of  the  Jlrsac'  idae.  The  Parthian  empire  at- 
tained its  highest  grandeur  in  the  reign  of  its  sixth  monarch,  Mithridates  I.,  who  carried  his 
arms  even  fariher  than  Alexander  himself.  The  descendants  of  Arsaces  ruled  until  A.  D.  226, 
a  period  of  480  yeara,  when  the  last  prince  of  that  family  was  defeated  and  taken  prisoner  by 
Ar' deshir  Bab' igan,  a  revolted  Persian  noble  of  the  family  of  Sassan,  who  thus  became  the 
founder  of  the  dynasty  of  the  Sassan'  id<e.  The  period  of  nearly  five  centuries  between  the 
death  of  Alexander  the  Great  and  the  reign  of  Ar'  deshir,  is  nearly  a  blank  in  Eastern  history ; 
and  what  little  is  known  of  it  is  obtained  from  the  pages  of  Roman  writers.  No  connected 
authentic  account  of  this  period  can  be  given.  The  dynasty  of  the  Sassan'  id»  continued  until 
the  overthrow  of  the  Persian  hosts  on  the  plains  of  Cadesiah,  when  the  religion  of  Zoroaster 
gave  place  to  the  triumph  of  the  Mussulman  faith. 


MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

tenant  the  conquest  of  Egypt,  then  forming  a  part  of  the  Byzantine 
or  Greek  empire.  Peleu'sium,1  after  a  month's  siege,  opened  to  the 
Saracens  the  entrance  to  the  country  (638) ;  the  Coptic  inhabitants 
of  Upper  Egypt  joined  the  invaders  against  the  Greeks ;  Memphis, 
after  a  siege  of  seven  months,  capitulated ;  Alexandria  made  a 
longer  and  desperate  resistance,  but  at  length,  at  the  close  of  the 
year  640,  the  city  was  surrendered,  a  success  which  had  cost  the  be- 
siegers twenty-three  thousand  lives.  When  Amru  asked  Omar  what 
disposition  he  should  make  of  the  famous  Alexandrian  library,  the 
caliph  replied,  "  If  these  writings  agree  with  the  Koran,  they  are  use- 
less, and  need  not  be  preserved  ;  if  they  disagree,  they  are  pernicious, 
and  should  be  destroyed."  The  sentence  was  executed  with  blind 
obedience,  and  this  vast  store  of  ancient  learning  fell  a  sacrifice  to 
the  blind  fanaticism  of  an  ignorant  barbarian. a 

32.  Four  years  after  the  conquest  of  Egypt,  the  dagger  of  an  as- 
sassin put  an  end  to  the  life  and  reign  of  Omar.     (Nov.  6th,  644.) 
Othman,  the  early  secretary  of  Mahom'  et,  succeeded  to  the  caliphate ; 
but  his  extreme  age  rendered  him  poorly  capable  of  supporting  the 
burden  laid  upon  him.     Various  sects  of  Moslem  believers  began  to 
arise  among  the  people :  contentions  broke  out  in  the  armies  ;  and 
Othman,  after  a  reign  of  eleven  years,  was  poniarded  on  his  throne, 
while  he  covered  his  heart  with  the  Koran.     (June  18th,  655.) 

33.  The  conquest  of  Cyprus  and  Rhodes,2  and  the  subjugation  of 
the  African  coast  as  far  westward  as  Tripoli,3  were  the  principal 

1.  Peleiisium,  an  important  city  of  Egypt,  was  at  the  entrance  of  the  Peleusiac,  or  most  east- 
ern branch  of  the  Nile.    It  was  surrounded  by  marshes ;  and  the  name  of  the  city  was  derived 
from  a  Greek  word  signifying  mud.    Near  its  ruins  stands  a  dilapidated  castle  named  Tinek, 
the  Arabic  term  for  mire. 

2.  Rhodes,  a  celebrated  island  in  the  Mediterranean,  is  off  the  south-west  coast  of  Asia 
Minor,  ten  miles  south  from  Cape  Volpe,  the  nearest  point  of  the  main  land.    Its  greatest 
length  is  forty-five  miles  ;  greatest  breadth  eighteen.    The  city  of  Rhodes,  one  of  the  best  built 
and  most  magnificent  cities  of  the  ancient  world,  was  at  the  north-eastern  extremity  of  the 
island.    The  celebrated  colossus  of  Rhodes,— a  brazen  statue  of  Apollo,  about  one  hundred 
and  five  feet  in  height,  and  of  the  most  admirable  proportions, — has  been  deservedly  reckoned 
one  of  the  seven  wonders  of  the  world ;  but  the  assertion  that  it  stood  with  a  foot  on  each  side 
the  entrance  to  the  port,  and  that  the  largest  vessels,  under  full  sail,  passed  between  its  legs,  is 
an  absurd  fiction,  for  which  there  is  not  the  shadow  of  authority  in  any  ancient  writer.    The 
story  originated  with  one  Blaise  de  Vigenere,  in  the  16th  century.    {Map  No.  IV.) 

3.  Tripoli,  a  maritime  city  of  northern  Africa,  is  west  of  the  ancient  Barca  and  Cyrenaica, 
and  about  two  hundred  and  seventy  miles  south  from  Sicily. 

a.  Sismondi,  ii.  p.  18,  distrusts  the  common  account  of  the  loss  of  the  Alexandrian  library. 
Gibbon,  vol.  iii.  p.  439,  says,  "For  my  own  part,  I  am  strongly  tempted  to  deny  both  the  fact 
and  the  consequences."  But  since  Gibbon  wrote,  several  new  Moham  medan  authorities  hare 
been  adduced  to  s  ipport  the  common  version  of  the  story.  See  Note  to  Gibbon,  iii.  522 ;  also 
Crichton's  Arabia,  i.  355. 


CHAP.  II]  MIDDLE  AGES.  251 

military  events  that  distinguished  the  reign  of  Othman;  but  the 
political  feuds  and  civil  wars  that  distracted  the  reign  of  his  suc- 
cessors, Ali  and  Moawiyah,  suspended  the  progress  of  the  western 
conquests  of  the  Saracens  nearly  twenty  years.8-  Gradually,  how- 
ever, the  Saracens  extended  their  dominion  over  all  northern  Africa ; 
and  in  the  year  689  one  of  their  generals  penetrated  to  the  Atlantic 
coast ;  but  Carthage,  repeatedly  succored  from  Constantinople,  held 
out  nine  years  longer,  when  being  taken  by  storm,  it  was  finally  and 
utterly  destroyed.  From  this  epoch  northern  Africa  became  a  section 
of  the  great  Moham'  medan  empire.  All  the  Moorish  tribes,  resembling 
the  roving  Arabs  in  their  customs,  and  born  under  a  similar  climate, 
being  ultimately  reduced  to  submission,  adopted  the  language,  name, 
and  religion,  of  their  conquerors ;  and  at  the  present  day  they  can 
with  difficulty  be  distinguished  from  the  Saracens. 

34.  Scarcely  had  the  conquest  of  Africa  been  completed,  when  a 
Vis'  igothic  noble,  irritated  by  the  treatment  which  he  had  received 
from  his  sovereign,  the  tyrant  Roderic,  secretly  despatched  a  mes- 
senger to  Musa,  the  governor  of  Africa,  and  invited  the  Saracens 
into  Spain.     A  daring  Saracen,  named  Taric,  first  crossed  the  straits 
in  the  month  of  July,  710,  on  a  predatory  incursion  ;  and  in  the  fol- 
lowing spring  he  passed  over  again  at  the  head  of  seven  thousand 
men  and  took  possession  of  Mount  Calpe,  whose  modern  name  of 
Gibraltar  (Gibel-al- Taric,  or  Hill  of  Taric),  still  preserves  the  name 
of  the  Saracen  hero. 

35.  When  Roderic  was  informed  of  the  descent  of  the  Saracens, 
he  sent  his  lieutenant  against  them,  with  orders  to  bind  the  pre- 
sumptuous strangers  and  cast  them  into  the  sea.     But  his  lieutenant 
was  defeated,  and  soon  afterward,  Roderic  himself  also,  who  had 
collected,  on  the  banks  of  the  Guadalete,1  his  whole  army,  of  a  hun- 
dred thousand  men.     Roderic,  a  usurper  and  tyrant,  was  hated  and 
despised  by  numbers  of  his  people ;  and  during  the  battle,  which 
continued  seven  days,  a  portion  of  his  forces,  as  had  been  previously 

.'  The  Quadalete  is  a  stream  that  enters  the  harbor  of  Cadiz,  about  sixty  miles  north-west 
from  Gibraltar.  The  battle  appears  to  have  been  fought  on  the  plains  of  the  modern  Xeres  de 
la  Frontera,  about  ten  miles  north-west  from  Cadiz.  (Map  No.  XIII.) 

i.  Mahom'  et  had  promised  forgiveness  of  sins  to  the  first  army  which  should  besiege  the 
Byzantine  capital ;  and  no  sooner  had  Moawiyah  destroyed  his  rivals  and  established  his 
throne,  than  he  sought  to  expiate  the  guilt  of  civil  blood  by  shedding  that  of  the  infidels  ; 
bui  during  ever  summer  for  seven  years  (668—675)  a  Mussulman  army  in  vain  attacked  the 
walls  of  Constantinople,  and  the  tide  of  conquest  was  turned  aside  to  seek  another  channel  for 
iU  entrance  into  Europe. 


252  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  II. 

arranged,  deserted  to  the  Saracens.  The  Goths  were  finally  routed 
with  immense  slaughter,  and  Roderic  avoided  a  soldier's  death  only 
to  perish  more  ignobly  in  the  waters  of  the  Guadalquiver  i1  but  the 
victory  of  the  Saracens  was  purchased  at  the  expense  of  sixteen 
thousand  lives.  Most  of  the  Spanish  towns  now  submitted  without 
opposition ;  Mer'  ida,2  the  capital,  after  a  desperate  resistance,  ca- 
pitulated with  honor  ;  and  before  the  end  of  the  year  713  the  whole 
of  Spain,  except  a  solitary  corner  in  the  northern  part  of  the  penin- 
sula, was  conquered.  The  same  country,  in  a  more  savage  state,  had 
resisted,  for  two  hundred  years,  the  arms  of  the  Romans ;  and  it  re- 
quired nearly  eight  hundred  years  to  regain  it  from  the  sway  of  the 
Moors  and  Saracens. 

36.  After  the  conquest  of  Spain,  Mussulman  ambition  began  to 
look   beyond   the   Pyrenees  :3   the   disunited   Gallic   tribes  of  the 
Southern  provinces  soon  began  to  negotiate  and  to  submit ;  and  in  a 
few  years  the  south  of  France,  from  the  mouth  of  the  Garonne  to 
that  of  the  Rhone,4  assumed  the  manners  and  religion  of  Arabia. 
But  these  narrow  limits  were  scorned  by  the  spirit  of  Abdelrahman, 
the  Saracen  governor  of  Spain,  who,  in  the  year  732,  entered  Gaul 
at  the  head  of  a  host  of  Moors  and  Saracens,  in  the  hope  of  adding 
to  the  faith  of  the  Koran  whatever  yet  remained  unsubdued  of  France 
or  of  Europe.     Ah  invasion  so  formidable  had  not  been  witnessed 
since  the  days  of  At'  tila ;  and  Abdelrahman  marked  his  route  with 
fire  and  sword ;  for  he  spared  neither  the  country  nor  the  inhabit- 
ants. 

37.  Everything  was  swept  away  by  the  overpowering  torrent,  until 
Abdelrahman  had  penetrated  to  the  very  centre  of  France,  and 

1.  The  river  Guadalquiver  (in  English  gau-d'l-quiv'-er,  in  Spanish  gwad-al-ke-veer'),  on 
which  stands  the  cities  Seville  and  Cor'  dova,  enters  the  Atlantic  about  fifteen  miles  north  from 
Cadiz.    Its  ancient  name  was  Bcetis  :  its  present  appellation,  Wady-al-kebir^  signifying  "the 
great  river,"  is  Arabic.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

2.  Mer'  ida,  the  Augusta  Emer'  ita  of  the  Romans,  whence  its  modern  name,  was  founded 
by  Augustus  Caesar  25  B.  C.    It  is  in  the  south-western  part  of  Spain,  on  the  north  bank  of  the 
Guadiana.  and  in  the  province  of  Estremadura.    It  is  now  a  decayed  town ;  but  the  architec- 
tural remains  of  the  power  and  magnificence  of  its  Roman  masters  render  it  an  object  of  great 
interest.  It  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  Saracens  from  713  to  1228,  when  it  opened  its  gates  to 
Alphonso  IX.,  after  his  signal  victory  over  the  Moors ;  and  from  this  period  downward,  it  has 
been  attached  to  the  kingdoms  of  Castile  and  Leon.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

3.  The  Pyrenees  mountains,  which  separate  Spain  from  France,  extend  from  the  Atlantic  to 
the  Mediterranean,  a  distance  of  about  two  hundred  and  seventy  miles,  with  an  average  breadth 
of  about  thirty-eight  miles.     (Map  No.  XIII.) 

4.  For  the  territory  thus  embraced  under  the  Saracen  sway,  see  Map  No.  XIII.   The  Garonne, 
rising  near  the  Spanish  border,  runs  a  north-westerly  course.    From  its  union  with  the  Dor- 
dogne,  forty-five  miles  from  its  entrance  into  the  Bay  of  Biscay,  it  is  called  the  Girondf. — from 
which  the  noted  "  department  of  the  Gironde"  takes  its  name. 


CHAP.  n.j  MIDDLE  AGES.  253 

pitched  his  camp  between  Tours1  and  Poictiers.11  His  progress  had 
not  been  unwatched  by  the  confederacy  of  the  Franks,  which,  torn 
asunder  by  intrigues,  and  the  revolts  of  discontented  chiefs,  now 
united  to  oppose  the  common  enemy  of  all  Christendom.  At  the 
head  of  the  confederacy  was  Charles  Martel,  who,  collecting  his 
forces,  met  Abd<  Irahman  on  the  plains  of  Poictiers,  and,  after  six 
days'  skirmishing,  engaged  on  the  seventh  in  that  fearful  battle  that 
was  to  decide  the  fate  of  Europe.  In  the  light  skirmishing  the 
archers  of  the  East  maintained  the  advantage ;  but  in  the  close 
onset  of  the  deadly  strife,  the  German  auxiliaries  of  Charles,  grasp- 
ing their  ponderous  swords  with  "  stout  hearts  and  iron  hands"  stood 
to  the  shock  like  walls  of  stone,  and  beat  down  the  light  armed 
Arabs  with  terrific  slaughter.  Abdelrahman,  and,  as  was  reported 
by  the  monkish  historians  of  the  period,  three  hundred  and  seventy- 
five  thousand a  of  his  followers,  were  slain.  The  Arabs  never  re- 
sumed the  conquest  of  Graul,  although  twenty-seven  years  elapsed 
before  they  were  wholly  driven  beyond  the  Pyrenees.  Europe  to 
this  day  owes  its  civil  and  religious  freedom  to  the  victory  gained 
over  the  Saracens  before  Poictiers,  by  Charles,  the  Hammer^  which 
shattered  the  Saracen  forces. 

38.  About  the  time  of  the  conquest  of  Spain,  the  Saracens  made 
a  second  unsuccessful  attempt  to  reduce  the  Byzantine  capital ; 
but  farther  east  they  were  more  successful,  and  extended  their  do- 
minion and  their  religion  into  Hindostan',8  and  the  frozen  regions 

1.  Tours  is  situated  between  the  rivers  Cher  and  Loire,  near  the  point  of  their  confluence, 
one  hundred  and  twenty-seven  miles  south-west  from  Paris.    Tours  was  anciently  the  capital 
of  the  Turones,  conquered  by  Caesar  55  B.  C.    After  many  vicissitudes  it  fell  into  the  hands 
of  the  Plantagenets,  and  formed  part  of  the  English  dominions  till  1204,  when  it  was  annexed 
to  the  French  crown.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

2.  Poictiers,  or  Poitiers,  (anciently  called  Lim6num,  and  afterward  Pictavi,)  sixty  milea 
south-west  from  Tours,  is  the  capital  of  the  department  of  Vienne.    It  is  one  of  the  most 
ancient  towns  of  Gaul ;  and  the  vestiges  of  a  Roman  palace,  an  aqueduct,  and  an  amphithe- 
atre, are  still  visible.    Besides  the  celebrated  defeat  of  the  Saracens  in  732,  Poictiers  is  mem- 
orable for  the  signal  victory  obtained  in  its  vicinity  Sept.  19th,  1356,  by  an  English  army 
commanded  by  Edward  the  Black  Prince,  over  a  vastly  superior  French  force  commanded  bj 
king  John.    (See  p.  300.    Map  No.  XIII.) 

3.  Hindustan',  a  vast  triangular  country  beyond  the  Indus,  and  south  of  the  Himalaya 
mountains— the  country  of  the  Hindoos— has  no  authentic  early  history,  although  there  is  evi- 
dence to  show  that  it  was  one  of  the  early  seats  of  Eastern  civilization.    The  incursion  of  Al- 
exander (325  B.  C.)  first  made  Hindostan'  known  to  the  European  world.    In  the  early  part  of 
the  llth  century  it  was  repeatedly  invaded  by  the  Moham'  medans  of  Afghanistan,  who,  in 

a.  This  was  probably  the  whole  number  of  the  Mussulman  force,  not  the  number  slain.    See 
Crichton's  Arabia,  i.  409,  Note. 

b.  Charles  wielded  a  huge  mace ;  and  the  epithet  of  "  le  martel,"  or  "  the  Hammer"  ia  ex- 
pressive of  the  resistless  force  with  which  he  dealt  his  blows. 


254  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  II. 

of  Tartary.  3  Jut  the  animosities  of  contending  sects,  domestic  broils, 
revolts,  assassinations,  and  civil  wars,  had  long  been  weakening  the 
central  power  which  held  together  the  unwieldy  Saracen  empire ; 
and  before  the  close  of  the  eighth  century,  the  civil  power  of  the 
central  caliphate  had  broken  into  fragments,  although  the  spiritual 
power  of  the  religion  of  the  Prophet  still  maintained  its  ascendancy 
in  all  the  regions  that  had  once  adopted  the  Moslem  faith. 

39.  We  have  thus  briefly  traced  the  history  of  the  rise  and  es- 
tablishment of  the  civil  power  and  the  religion  of  the  Saracens,  and 
their  progress  until  effectually  checked  by  the  arms  of  the  Franks 
and  their  confederates  on  the  plains  of  Poictiers.     The  power  which 
thus  obtrudes  upon  our  view,  as,  the  bulwark  and  defence  of  Christ- 
endom, is  the  one  that  next  prominently  occupies  the  field  of  History, 
while  that  of  the  Saracens,  weakened  and  distracted  by  its  divisions, 
declines  in  historical  interest  and  importance. 

40.  The  origin  of  the  monarchy  of  the  Franks  is  generally  traced 

back  nearly  two  centuries  and  a  half  prior  to  the  defeat 
MONARCHY    of  the  Saracens  by  Charles  Martel,  about  the  era  of  the 
OF  THE      downfall  of  the  Western  empire  of  the  Romans.     It  is 
said  that  the  Germanic  tribes  of  the  Franks  or  Free- 
men, occupied,  at  this  early  period,  four  cities  in  north-eastern  or 
Belgic  Gaul,  viz. : — Tournai,1  Cambray,2  Terouane,3  and  Cologne,4 
which  were  governed  by  four  separate  kings,  all  of  whom  ascribed 
their  origin  to  Merovseus,  a  half  fabulous  hero,  whose  rule  is  dated 
back  a  century  and  a  half  earlier.     Of  the  four  kings  of  the  Franks, 

1193,  made  Delhi  their  capital.  In  1225  the  country  was  conquered  by  Baber,  the  fifth  in  de- 
scent from  "Timour  the  Tartar ;"  and  with  him  began  a  race  of  Mogul  princes.  Arungzebe, 
who  died  in  1707,  was  the  greatest  of  the  Mogul  sovereigns.  The  discovery  of  a  passage  to 
India,  by  way  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  opened  the  country  to  a  new  and  more  formidable 
race  of  conquerors.  The  Portuguese,  the  Dutch,  and  the  French,  obtained  possession  of  por- 
tions of  the  Indian  territory ;  but  in  the  end  they  were  overpowered  by  the  English,  who  have 
established  beyond  the  Indus  a  great  Asiatic  empire. 

1.  Tournay^  a  town  of  Belgium,  on  the  river  Scheldt,  (skelt)  forty-five  miles  south-west  from 
Brussels,  and  one  hundred  and  thirty  north-east  from  Paris,  is  the  Civ'  itas  Nervi6rum  taken 
by  Julius  Caesar.  It  has  since  belonged  to  an  almost  infinite  number  of  masters.   (Map  No.  XV.) 

2.  Cambray  on  the  Scheldt,  (skelt)  is  thirty-three  miles  south  from  Tournay.    It  was  a  city 
of  considerable  importance  under  the  Romans,  and  has  been  the  scene  of  many  important 
events  in  modern  history.    It  was  long  famous  for  its  manufacture  of  fine  linens  and  lawns ; 
whence  all  similar  fabrics  are  called,  in  English,  cambrics.    (Map  No.  XV.) 

3.  Tcrouani  (ter-oo-an')  appears  to  have  been  west  from  Brussels,  near  Dunkirk. 

4.  Cologne  is  in  the  present  Prussia,  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine,  one  hundred  and  twelve 
miles  east  from  Brussels.    A  Roman  colony  was  planted  in  Cologne  by  Agrippina,  the  daughter  of 
German'  icus,  who  was  born  there.    Hence  it  obtained  the  name  of  Jlgrippina  Colonia  :  after- 
wards it  AH  is  called  Colonia,  or  "the  colony,"  whence  the  term  Cologne.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 


CHAP.  II]  MIDDLE  AGES.  255 

the  ambitious  Clovis,a  who  ruled  over  the  tribe  at  Tournai  was  the 
most  powerful.  Being  joined  by  the  tribe  at  Cambray,  he  made 
war  upon  the  last  remains  of  the  Roman  power  in  Gaul ;  enlarged 
his  territory  by  conquest,  and  established  his  capital  at  Soissons.1 
(A.  D.  484.)  At  a  later  period  he  transferred  the  seat  of  sovereignty 
to  Paris  f  ^A.  D.  494^  and  at  the  time  of  his  death,  in  511,  nearly 
the  half  of  modern  France,  embracing  that  portion  north  of  the  Loire, 
was  comprised  in  the  monarchy  of  whie&  he  is  the  reputed  founder.1* 

41.  Clovis,  like  many  of  the  barbarian  chiefs  of  that  period,  was 
a  nominal  convert  to  Christianity ;  and  being  the  first  of  his  nation 
who  embraced   the  orthodox  faith,  he  received  from  the  Gaulish 
clergy  the  title  of  most  Christian  king,  which  has  been  retained  by 
his  successors  to  the  present  day.     But  his  religion,  a  matter  of  mere 
form,  seems  to  have  exerted  no  influence  in  restraining  the  natural 
ferocity  and  blood  thirstiness  of  his  disposition,  as  all  the  rival  mon- 
archs  or  chieftains  whom  he  could  conquer  or  entrap  were  sacrificed 
to  his  jealousy  and  ambition.     He  put  to  death  with  his  own  hand 
most  of  his  relations,  and  then,  pretending  to  repent  of  his  barbari- 
ty f  he  offered  his  protection  to  all  who  had  escaped  the  massacre, 
hoping  thus  to  discover  if  any  survived,  that  he  might  rid  himself 
of  them  also. 

42.  The  descendants  of  Clovis,  who  are  called  Merovingians,  from 
their  supposed  founder,  reigned  over  the  Franks  for  nearly  two  cen- 
turies and  a  half;  but  the  repulsive  annals  of  this  long  and  barba- 
rous period  are  one  tissue  of  perfidy  and  crime.     It  was  usually  the 
first  act  of  a  monarch,  on  ascending  the  throne,  to  put  to  death  his 
brothers,  uncles,  and  nephews  ;  and  thus  consanguinity  generally  led 
to  the  most  deadly  and  fatal  enmity.     These  murders  so  thinned  the 
race  of  Clovis  as  often  to  produce  the  reign  of  kings  under  age ; 

1.  Soissons,  (sooah-song)  now  a  fortified  town  on  the  river  Aisne.  sixty-eight  miles  north- 
east from  Paris, — anciently  Noviodunum, — was  a  city  of  the  Suessfines,  in  Belgic  Gaul,  which 
submitted  to  Julius  Caesar.    Here  Clovis  extinguished  the  last  remains  of  the  Western  empire 
by  his  victory  over  the  Roman  general  Syagrius.    The  town  then  became  the  capital  of  the 
Frank?,  and,  afterwards,  of  a  kingdom  of  its  own  name,  in  the  sixth  and  seventh  centuries. 
(Map  No.  XIII.) 

2.  Paris,  the  metropolis  of  France,  is  situated  on  the  river  Seine,  (sane)  one  hundred  and 
ten  miles  from  its  mouth,  and  two  hundred  ami  ten  miles  south-east  from  London.    When 
Gaul  was  invaded  by  Julius  Csesar,  Paris,  then  called  Lntetia,  was  the  chief  town  of  the 
Belgic  tribe  of  the  Paris'  ft,— whence  the  city  derives  its  modern  name.    It  was  at  Lutetia 
that  Julian  the  Apostate  was  saluted  emperor  by  his  soldiers.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

a.  The  Roman  corruption  of  Chlodwig.  or,  in  modern  German,  Ludwig:  in  modern  French 
Louis, — Sismundi,  i.  175,  Note. 

b.  See  Ncustria,  Note,  p.  272. 


256  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  II. 

and  eventually  the  custom  was  established  of  electing  regents  or 
guardians  for  them,  who,  by  exercising  the  royal  functions  during  the 
minority  of  their  wards,  acquired  a  power  above  that  of  the  monarch 
himself.  At  the  time  of  the  Saracen  invasion  of  France,  Charles 
Martel  the  guardian  of  the  nominal  sovereign,  governed  France  with 
the  humble  title  of  mayor  or  duke.  His  son  Pep  in  succeeded  him, 
and  during  the  minority  of  bis  royal  ward,  the  imbecile  Childeric 
III.,  wielded  the  power,  without  assuming  the  name  and  honors  of 
royalty ;  but  at  length,  in  752,  he  threw  off  the  mask,  obtained  a 
decree  of  pope  Zachary  in  his  favor,  dethroned  the  last  of  the  Mero- 
vingian kings,  and  caused  himself  to  be  crowned  in  the  presence  of 
the  assembled  nation,  the  first  monarch  of  the  Carlovingian  dynasty. 
It  was  upon  this  occasion  that  the  popes  first  exercised  the  authority 
of  enthroning  and  dethroning  kings.1 

43.  Of  the  reign  and  the  character  of  Pepin  we  know  little,  ex- 
cept that  he  exhibited  a  profound  deference  for  the  priesthood,  and 
was  engaged  in  a  long  struggle  Tfiih  the  former  G-erman  allies  of  the 
Franks ;  and  that  at  the  time  of  his  death,  in  768,  there  was  no 
portion  of  Gaul  that  was  not  subject  to  the  French  monarchy.  He 
divided  his  kingdom  between  his  two  sons,  Charles  the  elder,  usually 
called  Charlemagne,  and  Carloman  the  younger ;  to  the  former  of 
whom  he  bequeathed  the  western  portion  of  the  empire,  and  to  the 
latter,  the  eastern ;  but  as  Carloman  died  soon  after,  Charles  stripped 

1.  The  frequent  allusions  made  in  history  to  papal  authority  and  papal  supremacy,  render 
necessary  some  explanation  of  the  growth  of  the  papal  power. 

The  word  pope  comes  from  the  Greek  word  papa,  and  signifies  father.  In  the  early  times  of 
Christianity  this  appellation  was  given  to  all  Christian  priests ;  but  during  many  centuries  past 
it  has  been  appropriated  to  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  whom  the  Roman  Catholics  look  upon  as  the 
common  father  of  all  Christians. 

Roman  Catholics  believe  that  Jesus  Christ  constituted  St.  Peter  the  chief  pastor  to  watch 
over  his  whole  flock  here  on  earth — that  he  is  to  have  successors  to  the  end  of  time— and  that 
the  bishops  of  Rome,  elected  by  the  cardinals  or  chief  of  the  Romish  clergy,  are  his  legitimate 
successors,  popes,  or  fathers  of  the  church,  who  have  power  and  jurisdiction  over  all  Christians, 
in  order  to  preserve  unity  and  purity  of  faith,  doctrine,  and  worship. 

During  a  long  period  after  the  introduction  of  Christianity  into  Rome,  the  bishops  of  Rome 
were  merely  fathers  of  the  Church,  and  possessed  no  temporal  power.  It  was  customary, 
however,  to  consult  the  pope  in  temporal  matters :  and  the  powerful  Pepin  found  no  difficulty 
in  obtaining  a  papal  decision  in  favor  of  dethroning  the  imbecile  Childeric,  and  inducing  the 
pope  to  come  to  Paris  to  officiate  at  his  coronation.  Soon  after,  in  755,  Pepin  invested  the 
pope  with  the  exarchate  of  Raven'  na ;  and  it  is  at  this  point— the  union  of  temporal  and 
spiritual  jurisdiction — that  the  proper  history  of  the  papacy  begins.  Charlemagne  and  suc- 
ceeding princes  added  other  provinces  to  the  papal  government ;  but  a  long  struggle  for  su- 
premacy followed,  between  the  popes  and  the  German  emperors ;  and  under  the  pontificate 
of  Gregory  VII.,  towards  the  close  of  the  eleventh  century,  the  claims  of  the  Roman  pontiffs 
to  supremacy  over  all  the  sovereigns  of  the  earth,  were  boldly  asserted  as  the  basis  of  the  po- 
litical system  of  the  papacy. 


CHAP.  IL]  MIDDLE  AGES.  257 

his  brother's  widow  and  children  of  their  inheritance,  which  he  added 
to  his  own  dominions. 

44.  The  first  acts  of  the  reign  of  Charlemagne  showed  the  warrior 
eager  for  conquest ;  for,  advancing  with  an  army  beyond  the  Loire,1 
he  compelled  the  Aquitanians,  who  had  been  subdued  by  Pepin,  but 
had  since  revolted,  to  submit  to  his  authority.     His  next  enemies 
were  the  Saxons,  who  bounded  his  dominions  on  the  north-east,  and 
whose  territories  extended  along  the  German  ocean  from  the  Elbe* 
to  the  Rhine.     While  all  the  other  German  tribes  had  adopted 
Christianity,  the  Saxons  still  sacrificed  to  the  gods  of  their  fathers ; 
and  it  was  both  the  desire  of  chastising  their  repeated  aggressions, 
and  the  merit  to  be  derived  from  their  conversion  to  Christianity, 
that  led  Charlemagne  to  declare  war  against  these  fierce  barbari- 
ans.    (A.  D.  772.) 

45.  His  first  irruption  into  the  Saxon  territory  was  successful ;  for 
he  destroyed  the  pagan  idols,  received  hostages,  and  on  the  banks  of 
the  Weser3  concluded  an  advantageous  peace.     But  the  free  spirit  of 
the  Saxons  was  not  quelled  :  again  and  again  they  rose  in  insurrec- 
tion, headed  by  the  famous  Witikind,  a  hero  worthy  of  being  the 
rival  of  Charlemagne  ;  and  the  war  continued,  with  occasional  inter- 
ruption, during  a  period  of  thirty-two  years.     At  length,  however, 
peace  was  granted  to  Witikind,  who  received  baptism,  Charlemagne 
himself  acting  as  sponsor ;  and  Saxony  submitted  to  the  Frankish 
institutions,  as   well    as  to   those   of    Christianity.      A  few   years 
later  the  Saxon  youth,  who  had  taken  no  share  in  the  previous  con- 
flicts,  arose    in  rebellion,   but  they  were   eventually   subjugated, 
(A.  D.  804,)  when  ten  thousand  of  their  number  were  transported 
into  the  country  of  the  Franks,  where  they  were  gradually  merged 
into  the  nation  of  their  conquerors.     It  was  in  the  midst  of  the 
ravages  of  these  Saxon  wars  that  the  north  of  Germany  passed  from 
barbarism  to  civilization ;  for  monasteries,  churches,  and  bishoprics, 
immediately  sprung  up  in  the  path  of  the  conquerors ;  and  although 

1.  The  Loire,  (looar)  (anciently  Liger),  is  the  principal  river  of  France,  through  ,the  central 
part  of  which  it  flows,  in  a  W.  direction  to  the  Atlantic.    Its  basin  comprises  nearly  one-fourth 
part  of  the  kingdom.    The  Loire  was  the  northern  boundary  of  the  country  of  the  Jlquitanians. 
The  early  seat  of  the  empire  of  Charlemagne  was  therefore  north  of  the  Loire.     (Map 
No.  XIH.) 

2.  The  Elbe,  (anciently  JIV  bis^  rifting  in  the  mountains  of  Bohemia,  flows  north-west 
through  central  Europe,  and  enters  the  German  ocean,  or  North  sea,  at  the  southern  extremity 
of  Denmark.    This  stream  was  the  easternmost  extent  of  the  Germanic  expeditions  of  the  Ro- 
mans.   (Map  No.  XVII.) 

3.  The  Weser,  (anciently  Visur' gis,)  a  river  of  Germany,  enters  the  north  sea  between  the 
Elbe  on  the  east  and  the  Ems  on  the  west.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

17 


258  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

the  religion  which  they  planted  was  superficial  and  corrupt,  they  at 
least  diffused  some  respect  for  the  arts  of  civilized  life. 

46.  Soon  after  the  commencement  of  the   Saxon  wars,  Charle- 
magne found  another,  but  less  formidable  enemy,  in  the  Lombards 
of  Italy.     The  Lombard  king  had  given  protection  to  the  widow  of 
Garloman,  the  deceased  brother  of  Charlemagne,  and  had  required 
pope  Adrian  to  anoint  her  sons  as  kings  of  the  Franks ;  and  upon 
Adrian's  refusal,  he  threatened  to  carry  war  into  his  little  territory 
of  a  few  square  miles  around  Rome.     The  pope  demanded  aid  from 
Charlemagne,  who,  assembling  his  warriors  at  Geneva,1  crossed  the 
Alps  into  Italy  and  compelled  the  Lombard  king,  Desiderius,  to 
shut  himself  up  in  his  capital  at  Pavia,2  which,  after  a  siege  of  six 
months,  surrendered.     Desiderius  became  prisoner,  and  was  sent  to 
end  his  days  in  a  monastery,  while  Charlemagne,  placing  the  iron 
crown  of  the  Lombards  upon  his  head,  caused  himself  to  be  pro- 
claimed king  of  Italy.     (774.) 

47.  A  few  years  after  the  overthrow  of  the  kingdom  of  the  Lom- 
bards, Charlemagne  carried  his  conquering  arms  into  Spain,  whither 
he  had  been  invited  by  the  viceroy  of  Catalonia,3  to  aid  him  against 
the  Moham'  medans.     (677-8.)     Pampeluna4  and  Saragos'  sa6  were 
dismantled,  and  the  Arab  princes  of  that  region  swore  fealty  to  tho 
conqueror,  but  on  the  return  of  Charlemagne  across  the  Pyrenees, 
his  rear  guard  was  attacked  in  the  famous  pass  of  Roncesvalles,6  and 

1.  Geneva,  described  by  Caesar  as  being  "  the  frontier  town  of  the  Allobrogians,"  retains  its 
ancient  name.    It  is  on  the  Rhone,  at  the  south-western  extremity  of  the  Lake  of  Geneva, 
(anciently  Iceman'  nus),  and  is  the  most  populous  city  of  Switzerland.    In  the  year  42(5  it  was 
taken  by  the  Burgun'  dians,  and  became  their  capital.    It  afterwards  belonged,  successively,  to 
the  Os'  trogoths  and  Franks,  and  also  to  the  second  kingdom  of  Bur'  gundy.    On  the  full  of  the 
latter  it  was  governed  by  its  own  bishops ;  but  at  the  time  of  the  Reformation  the  bishops 
were  expelled,  and  Geneva  became  a  republic.    (Maps  No.  XIV.  and  XVII.) 

2.  Pavia,  (anciently  Ticinum,)  is  situated  on  the  Ticino  (anciently  Ticinus,)  north  of  the  Po, 
and  twenty  miles  south  from  Milan.    Pavia  has  sustained  many  sieges,  but  is  principally  dis- 
tinguished for  the  great  battle  fought  in  its  vicinity  Feb.  24th,  1525.    See  p.  327.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

3.  Catalonia  was  the  north-western  province  of  Spain.    It  was  successively  subject  to  the 
Romans,  Goths,  and  Moors ;  but  in  the  8th  and  9th  centuries,  in  connection  with  the  adjoining 
French  province  of  Rous'  sillon,  it  became  an  independent  State,  subject  to  the  counts  or  earls 
of  Barcelona.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

4.  Pampeluna,  a,  fortified  city  of  Spain,  supposed  to  have  been  built  by  Pompey  after  the  de- 
feat of  Sertorius,  (see  p.  176,)  is  a  short  distance  south  of  the  Pyrenees,  and  forty  miles  from 
the  Bay  of  Biscay.    It  was  the  capital  of  the  kingdom,  now  province,  of  Navarre.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

5.  Saragos'  sa,  (anciently  Caasar  Augusta)  situated  in  a  fine  plain  on  the  Fbro,  (anciently 
Jberus,)  is  eighty-seven  miles  south-east  from  Pampeluna.    It  is  a  very  ancient  city,  and  is 
said  to  have  been  founded  by  the  Phoenicians  or  Carthaginians.    Julius  Caesar  greatly  enlarged 
it,  and  Augustus  gave  it  the  name  of  Caasar  Augusta,  with  the  privileges  of  a  free  colony. 
(Map  No.  XIII.) 

6.  Roncesvalles  (Ron'-sa-vaT)  is  about  twenty  miles  north-east  from  Pampeluna.  (Map  No.  XIII.) 


CHAP.  H.]  MIDDLE   AGES.  259 

entirely  cut  to  pieces.     Poesy  and  fable  have  combined  to  render 
memorable  a  defeat  of  which  history  has  preserved  no  details. 

48.  After  Charlemagne  had  extended  his  empire  over  France, 
Germany,  and  Italy,  minor  conquests  easily  followed ;  and  many  of 
the  other  surrounding  nations,  or  rather  tribes,  fell  under  his  power, 
or  solicited  his  protection.     Thus  the  dominion  of  the  Franks  pene- 
trated into  Hungary,  and  advanced  upon  the  Danube  as  far  as  the 
frontiers  of  the  Greek  empire.     A  conspiracy  in  Rome  having  forced 
the  pope  to  seek  the  protection  of  Charlemagne,  in  the  year  800 
the  latter  visited  Rome  in  person  to  punish  the  evil  doers.     While 
he  was  there  attending  services  in  St.  Peter's  Church,  at  the  Christ- 
mas festival,  the  gratified  pontiff  placed  upon  his  head  a  crown  of 
gold,  and,  in  the  formula  observed  for  the  Roman  emperors,  and 
amid  the  acclamations  of  the  people,  saluted  him  by  the  titles  of 
Emperor  and  Augustus.     This  act  was  considered  as  indicating  the 
revival  of  the  Empire  of  the  West,  after  an  interruption  of  about 
three  centuries. 

49.  Charlemagne,  a  king  of  the  German  Franks,  was  thus  seated 
on  the  throne  of  the  Csesars.     Nor  was  the  circumstance  of  his  re 
ceiving  the  imperial  crown  unimportant,  as  by  the  act  he  declared 
himself  the  representative  of  the  ancient  Roman  civilization,  and  not 
of  the  barbarism  of  its  destroyers.     In  Italy,  Charlemagne  sought 
teachers  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  public  schools  throughout 
his  dominions:  he  encouraged  literature,  and  attempted  to  revive 
commerce  ;  and  his  capital  of  Aix-la-Chapelle1  he  so  adorned  with 
sumptuous  edifices,  palaces,  churches,  bridges,  and  monuments  of  art, 
as  to  give  it  the  appearance  of  a  Roman  city.     By  the  wisdom  of 
his  laws,  and  the  energy  which  he  displayed  in  executing  them,  he 
established  order  and  regularity,  and  gave  protection  to  all  parts  of 
his  empire.     But  with  all  the  greatness  of  Charlemagne,  his  private 
life  was  not  free  from  the  stain  of  licentiousness ;  and  where  his 
ambition  led  him  he  was  unsparing  of  blood.     He  caused  four  thou- 
sand five  hundred  imprisoned  Saxons  to  be  beheaded  in  one  day,  as 
a  terrible  example  to  their  countrymen,  and  as  an  act  of  retribution 
for  an  army  which  he  had  lost ;  and  as  a  right  of  conquest  he  de- 
nounced the  penalty  of  death  against  those  who  refused  baptism,  or 
who  even  eat  flesh  during  Lent.     Still  his  long  reign  is  a  brilliant 

I.  JHx-la-Chapelle  (a-Ja-skappel')  the  favorite  residence  of  Charlemagne,  Is  an  old  and 
well-built  city  of  Prussian  Germany,  west  of  the  Rhine,  and  seventy-eight  miles  east  from 
Brussels.  (Maps  No.  XIII.  and  XVII.) 


260  MODERN   HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

'period  in  the  history  of  the  middle  ages  ; — the  more  interesting,  from 
the  preceding  chaos  of  disorder,  and  the  disgraces  and  miseries  which 
followed  it ; — resembling  the  course  of  a  meteor  that  leaves  the  dark- 
ness still  more  dreary  as  it  disappears. 

50.  The  posterity  of  Charlemagne  were  unequal  to  the  task  of 
preserving  the   empire  which  he   had  formed,  and  it  speedily  fell 
asunder  by  its  own  weight.     To  the  mutual  antipathies  of  different 
races, — the  German  on  the  one  side,  including  the  Franks,  knit  to- 
gether by  their  old  Teutonic  tongue, — and  the  nation  of  mingled 
Gallic,  Roman,  and  Barbarian  origin,  on  the  other,  which  afterwards 
assumed  the  name  of  Franks,  and  gave  to  their  own  country  the 
appellation   France, — was   added  the  rivalry  of  the    Carlovingian 
princes ;  and  about  thirty  years  after  the  death  of   Charlemagne 
(A.  D.  814),  at  the  close  of  a  period  of  anarchy  and  civil  war,  the 
empire  was  divided  among  his  descendants,  and  out  of  it  were  con- 
stituted   the    separate    kingdoms, — France,    Germany,    and    Italy. 
(A.  D.  843.)^ 

51.  The  motive  that  led  the  Carlovingian  princes  to  put  an  end 
to  their  unnatural  wars  with  each  other,  was  the  repeated  invasion 
of  the  coasts  of  France  and  Germany  by  piratical  adventurers  from 
the  north,  called  Northmen  or  Danes,  a  branch  of  the  great  Teutonic 
race,  who,  issuing  from  all  the  shores  of  the  Baltic,  annually  ravaged 
the  coasts  of  their  more  civilized  neighbors, — and,  by  hasty  incur- 
sions, even  pillaged  the  cities  far  in  the  interior.     During  more  than 
a  century  these  Northern  pirates  continued  to  devastate  the  shores 
of  Western   Europe,  particularly  infesting  the  coasts  of  Britain, 
Ireland,  and  France. 

52.  In  the  meantime  central  Europe  became  a  prey  to  the  Hun- 
garians, a  warlike  Tartarian  tribe,  whose  untamed  ferocity  recalled 
the  memory  of  At'  tila.     The  Saracens  also,  masters  of  the  Medi- 
terranean, kept  the  coasts  of  Italy  in  constant  alarm,  and  twice  in- 
sulted and  ravaged  the  territory  of  Rome.     Amid  the  tumult  and 
confusion    thus   occasioned,    European    society   was    undergoing   a 
change,  from  the  absolutism  of  imperial  "authority  to  the  establish- 
ment of  numerous  dukedoms,  having  little  more  than  a  nominal  de- 
pendence upon  the  reignitfg  princes.     Power  was  transferred  from 
the  palace  of  the  king  to  the  castle  of  the  baron ;  and  for  a  time 
European  history, — that  of  France  in  particular — is  occupied  with 
the  annals  of  an  intriguing,  factious,  aspiring  nobility,  rather  than 

a.  By  the  treaty  of  Verdun,  Aug.  llth,  843. 


CHAP.  H.]  MIDDLE  AGES.  26i 

with  those  of  raonarchs  and  the  people.  From  the  confusion  inci- 
dent to  such  a  state  of  society  we  turn  to  the  neighboring  island  of 
Britain,  where,  a  few  years  after  the  dissolution  of  the  empire  of 
Charlemagne,  the  immortal  Alfred  arose,  drove  back  the  tide  of  bar* 
barian  conquest,  and  laid  the  foundation  of  those  laws  and  institu- 
tions which  have  rendered  England  the  most  enlightened  and  most 
powerful  of  the  nations  of  Europe. 

53.  We  have  mentioned  that,  towards  the  close  of  the  sixth  cen- 
tury, the  Saxon  tribes  from  the  shores  of  the  Baltic  had  made  them- 
selves masters  of  the  southern  and  more  fertile  provinces        VIU 

of  Britain.  After  having  extirpated  the  ancient  British  ENGLISH 
population,  or  driven  it  into  Cornwall  and  Wales  on  the  >TORY. 
western  side  of  the  island,  the  kindred  tribes  of  the  Angles  and  Sax- 
ons, under  the  common  name  of  Anglo  Saxons,  established  in  England 
seven  independent  kingdoms,  which  are  known  in  history  as  the  Saxon 
Heptarchy.  The  intricate  details,  so  far  as  we  can  learn  them,  of  the 
history  of  these  kingdoms,  are  uninteresting  and  unimportant ;  and 
from  the  period  of  the  first  inroads  of  the  Saxons  down  to  the 
time  of  the  coronation  of  Alfred  the  Great  in  872,  the  chronicles  of 
Britain  present  us  with  the  names  of  numerous  kings,  the  dates  of 
many  battles,  and  frequent  revolutions  attended  with  unimportant 
results ; — the  history  of  all  which  is  in  great  part  conjectural,  and 
gives  us  little  insight  into  individual  or  national  character. 

54.  It  appears  that  about  the  year  597  Christianity  was  first  intro 
duced  into  England  by  the  monk  Augustine,  accompanied  by  forty 
missionaries,  who  had  been  sent  out  by  pope  Gregory  for  the  con- 
version of  the  Britons.     The  new  faith,  such  as  it  pleased  the  church 
to  promulgate,  being  received  cordially  by  the  kings,  descended  from 
them  to  their  subjects,  and  was  established  without  persecution,  and 
without  the  shedding  of  the  blood  of  a  single  martyr.     The  religious 
zeal  of  the  Anglo  Saxons  greatly  exceeded  that  of  the  nations  of  the 
continent ;  and  it  is  recorded  that,  during  the  Heptarchy,  ten  kings 
and  eleven  queens  laid  aside  the  crown  to  devote  themselves  to  a 
monastic  life. 

55.  In  the  year  827  the  several  kingdoms  of  the  Saxon  Hep- 
tarchy were  united  in  one  great  State  by  Egbert,  prince  of  the  West 
Saxons,  an  ambitious  warrior,  who  exhibits  some  points  of  compari- 
son with  his  illustrious  co temporary  Charlemagne,  at  whose  court  he 
had  spent  twelve  years  of  his  early  life.     The  Saxon  union,  under  the 
firm  administration  of  Egbert,  promised  future  tranquillity  to  the  in- 


262  MODERN   HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

habitants  of  Britain  ;  but  scarcely  had  a  regular  government  been  es- 
tablished when  the  piratical  Scandinavians,  known  in  France  under 
the  name  of  Normans,  and  in  England  by  that  of  Danes,  landed  in 
the  southern  part  of  the  island,  and  after  a  bloody  battle  with  Eg- 
bert at  Charmouth  in  Dorsetshire,  made  good  their  retreat  to  their 
ships,  carrying  off  all  the  portable  wealth  of  the  district.  (A.  D.  833.) 
This  was  the  beginning  of  the  ravages  of  the  Northmen  in  England ; 
and  they  continued  to  plunder  the  coasts  for  nearly  two  centuries. 

56.  From  the  death  of  Egbert  in  838,  to  the  accession  of  Alfred 
the  Great  in  871,  the  throne  of  England  was  occupied  by  four  Saxon 
princes  ;a  and  the  whole  of  this  period,  like  the  corresponding  one 
in  French  history,  is  filled  with  the  disastrous  invasions  of  the  Danes.b 
In  the  course  of  a  single  year  nine  sanguinary  battles  were  fought 
between  the  Saxons  and  their  invaders ;  and  in  the  last  of  these  bat- 
tles  king   Ethelred   received   a   wound   which   caused    his   death 
(871-2.)     His  brother  Alfred,  then   only  twenty-two  years  of  age, 
succeeded  to  the  throne.     He  had  served  with  distinction  in  the 
numerous  bloody  battles  fought  by  his  brother  ;  but  on  his  accession 
he  found  nearly  half  the  kingdom  in  the  possession  of  the  Danes ; 
and  within  six  years  the  almost  innumerable  swarms  of  these  in- 
vaders struck  such  terror  into  the  English,  that  Alfred,  who  strove  to 
assemble  an  army,  found  himself  suddenly  deserted  by  all  his  war 
riors. 

57.  Obliged  to  relinquish  the  ensigns  of  royalty,   and  to  seek 
shelter  from  the  pursuit  of  his  enemies,  he  disguised  himself  under 
the  habit  of  a  peasant,  and  for  some  time  lived  in  the  cottage  of  a 
goatherd,  known  only  to  his  host,  and  regarded  by  his  hostess  as  an 
inferior,  and  occasionally  intrusted  by  her  with  the  menial  duties  of 
the  household.     It  is  said  that,  as  he  was  one  day  trimming  his  ar- 
rows by  the  fire-side,  she  desired  him  to  watch  some  cakes  that  were 
baking,  and  that  when,  forgetting  his  trust,  he  suffered  them  to  burn, 
she  severely  upbraided  him  for  his   neglect.     Afterwards,  retiring 
•with  a  few  faithful  followers  to  the  marshes  of  Somersetshire,  he 
built  there  a  fortress,  whence  he  made  occasional  successful  sallies 
upon  the  Danes,  who  knew  not  from  what  quarter  the  blow  came. 
While  his  very  existence  was  unsuspected  by  the  enemy,  under  the 

a.  Ethelwolf,  Ethelbald,  Ethelbert,  and  Ethelred. 

b.  As  the  term  Normans  was  at  a  later  period  exclusively  appropriated  to  that  branch  of  the 
Scandinavians  which  settled  in  Normandy,  we  shall  follow  the  English  writers  and  apply  the 
term  Danes  to  those  barbarians  of  the  same  family  who  so  long  ravaged  the  English  coasts.  . 
It  should  not  be  forgotten  by  the  reader  that  the  Saxons  also  were  of  Scandinavian  origin. 


CHAP.  IL]  MIDDLE   AGES.  263 

disguise  of  a  harper  he  visited  tneir  camp,  where  his  musical  skill 
obtained  for  him  a  welcome  reception,  and  an  introduction  to  the 
tent  of  the  Danish  prince,  Guthrum.  Here  he  spent  three  days,  wit- 
nessed the  supine  security  of  the  enemy,  thoroughly  examined  the 
camp  and  its  approaches,  and  then  went  to  meet  his  countrymen,  for 
whom  he  had  appointed  a  gathering  in  Selwood  forest.a 

58.  The  Saxons,  inspired  with  new  life  and  courage  at  the  sight 
of  their  beloved  prince,  whom  they  had  supposed  dead,  fell  upon  the 
unsuspecting  Danes,  and  cut  nearly  all  of  them  to  pieces.    (A.  D.  878.) 
Guthrum,  and  the  small  band  of  followers  who  escaped,  were  soon 
besieged  in  a  fortress,  where  they  accepted  the  terms  of  peace  that 
were  offered  them.     Guthrum  embraced  Christianity ;  the  greater 
part  of  the  Danes  settled  peaceably  on  the  lands  that  were  assigned 
them,  where  they  soon  intermingled  with  the  Saxons  ;  while  the  more 
turbulent  spirits  went  to  join  new  swarms  of  their  countrymen  in 
their  ravages  upon  the  French  and  German  coasts.     The  shores  of 
England  were  unvisited,  during  several  years,  by  the  enemy,  and 
Alfred  employed  the  interval  of  repose  in  organizing  the  future  de- 
fence of  his  kingdom.     In  early  life  he  had  visited  Italy,  and  seen 
the   Greek   and    Roman   galleys,   which  were  greatly  superior   to 
the  Danish  unarmed  vessels,  that  were  fitted  only  for   transport. 
Alfred  now  formed  a  navy  ;  and  his  vessels  never  met  those  of  the 
Danes  without  the  certain  destruction  of  the  latter. 

59.  The  Danes,  however,  who  had  settled  in  England,  still  occu- 
pied the  greater  part  of  the  country,  so  that  the  acknowledged  sov- 
ereignty of  Alfred  did  not  extend  over  any  of  the  countries  north- 
ward of  the  city  of  London, — and  fifteen  years  after  the  defeat  of 
Guthrum,  Hastings,  another  celebrated  Danish  chief,  threatened  to 
deprive  the  English  king  of  the  limited  possessions  which  he  still  re- 
tained.    After  having  plundered  all  the  northern  provinces  of  France, 
Hastings  appeared  on  the  coast  of  Kent  with  three  hundred  and 
thirty  sail,  and  spreading  his  forces  over  the  country,  committed  the 
most  dreadful  ravages.     (A.  D.  893.)     The  Danes  in  the  northern 
parts  of  England  joined  him ;  but  they  were  everywhere  defeated, 
and  eventually  Hastings  withdrew  to  his  own  country,  taking  back 
with  him  the  most  warlike  portion  of  the  Danish  population,  from  the 
English  channel  to  the  frontiers  of  Scotland,  after  which  the  whole 
of  England  no  longer  hesitated  to  acknowledge  the  authority  of  Al- 
fred, although  his  power  over  the  Danish  population  in  the  northern 

a.  At  Brixton,  on  the  borders  of  the  forest,  in  Wiltshire.    Wiltshire  is  east  of  Someraet. 


264  MODERN    HISTORY.  [PART  II 

part  of  the  kingdom  was  still  little  more  than  nominal.  He  died 
after  a  reign  of  twenty-nine  years  and  a-half,  having  deservedly  at- 
tained the  appellation  of  Alfred  the  GREAT,  and  the  title  of  founder 
of  the  English  monarchy.  (A.  D.  901.) 

60.  To  Alfred  the  English  ascribe  the  origin  of  many  of  those  in- 
stitutions which  lie  at  the  foundation  of  their  nation's  prosperity  and 
renown.  As  the  founder  of  the  English  navy,  he  planted  the  seeds 
of  the  maritime  power  of  England  :  with  him  arose  the  grandeur 
and  prosperity  of  London,  the  place  of  the  assembling  of  the  national 
parliament  or  body  of  prelates,  earls,  barons,  and  burghers,  or  depu- 
ties from  the  English  burghs,  or  associations  of  freemen  :  he  made  a 
collection  of  the  Saxon  laws,  to  which  he  added  others  framed  or 
sanctioned  by  himself;  he  reformed  the  Saxon  division  of  the  country 
into  counties  and  shires ;  divided  the  citizens  into  corporations  of 
fens  and  hundreds,  with  a  regular  system  of  inspection  and  police, 
in  which  equals  exercised  a  supervision  over  equals  ;  and  in  the  mode 
which  he  adopted  of  settling  controversies,  we  trace  the  first  indica- 
tions of  the  glory  of  the  English  judiciary— -the  trial  by  jury.  The 
cultivation  of  letters,  which  had  been  interrupted  at  the  first  inva- 
sion of  the  then  barbarous  Saxons,  was  revived  by  Alfred,  who  was, 
himself,  the  most  learned  man  in  the  kingdom:  he  founded  schools 
at  Oxford — the  germ  of  the  celebrated  university  of  that  name  ; 
and  he  set  aside  a  considerable  portion  of  his  revenues  for  the  pay- 
ment of  the  salaries  of  teachers.  The  character  of  Alfred  is  almost 
unrivalled  in  the  annals  of  any  age  or  nation ;  and  in  the  details  of 
his  private  life  we  cannot  discover  a  vice,  or  even  a  fault,  to  stain  or 
stilly  the  spotlessness  of  his  reputation. 


SECTION    II. 

GENERAL    HISTORY    DURING    THE    TENTH,    ELEVENTH,    TWELFTH,    AND    THIR- 
TEENTH CENTURIES:    A.  D.   900  TO  1300  =  400  YEARS. 

I.  COMPLETE  DISSOLUTION  OF  THE  BONDS  OF  SOCIETY. 

ANALYSIS.  1.  Causes  of  the  CONFUSION  OP  HISTORIC  MATERIALS  at  this  period.— 2.  STATE 
or  THE  SARACKN  WORLD.  [Bagdad.  Cor'dova.  Khorassan'.]— 3.  THE  BYZ\NTINK  KMPIRK. 
Turkish  invasions  and  conquests.  [Georgia.]— 4.  The  divisions  of  the  Carlovingian  empire. 
CONDITION  OF  ITALY.  Berenger  duke  of  Friuli.  Prince  of  Burgundy.  Hugh  count  of  Pro- 
vence. Surrender  of  the  kingdom  to  Otho.  [Friuli.  Switzerland.  Provence.] — 5.  Italy  under 
Ihe  German  emperors.  Guelfs  and  Gnibellines.  Dukes,  marquises,  counts,  and  prelates. 


CHAP.  IL]  MIDDLE   AGES.  265 

Petty  Italian  republics.— <>.  CONDITION  OF  GERMANY.  Its  six  dukedoms.  [Saxony.  Thurin1  gia. 
Fmnc6nia.  Bavaria,  Suabia.  Lorraine.]  Encroachments  of  the  dukes.  Reign  of  Conrad. 
Henry  I.  of  Saxony.  Powers  of  the  Saxon  rulers.— 7.  CONDITION  or  FRANCE.  Charles  the 
Simple.  Other  princes.  Deposition  of  Charles.  [Transjurnne  Burgundy.  Provence.  Bril- 
tany.]— 8.  Settlement  of  the  Northmen  in  France.  [Normandy.]  Importance  of  this  event— 
9.  The  counts  of  Paris.  Hugh  Capet.  [Rheims.]  Situation  of  France  for  two  hundred  and 
forty  years  after  the  accession  of  Hugh  Capet. 

II.  THE  FEUDAL  SYSTEM ;  CHIVALRY;  AND  THE  CRUSADES. 

1.  Europe  in  the  central  period  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Origin  of  the  FKUDAL  SYSTEM.  Its 
duration  and  importance.— 2.  Partition  of  lands  by  the  barbarians  who  overthrew  the  Roman 
empire.  Conditions  of  the  allotment.  Gradations  of  the  system.— 3.  Nature  of  the  estates 
thus  obtained.  Crown  lands— how  disposed  of.  The  word  feud.— 4.  The  feudal  system  in 
France.  Charlemagne's  efforts  10  check  its  progress.  Effects  upon  the  nobility.  Growth  of 
the  power  of  the  nobles  after  the  overthrow  of  royal  authority.  Their  petty  sovereignties.— 5. 
Condition  of  the  allodial  proprietors.  They  are  forced  to  become  feudal  tenants. — 6.  Legal 
qualities  and  results  that  grew  out  of  the  feudal  system.  Reliefs,  flne«,  escheats,  aids,  ward- 
ship and  marriage.— 7.  The  feudal  government  in  its  best  state.  Its  influence  on  the  character 
of  society.  General  ignorance  at  this  period.  Sentiments  of  independence  in  the  nobility. 

8.  Rise  of  CHIVALRY.  Our  first  notices  of  it.  Its  origin — 9.  Its  rapid  spread,  and  its  good 
effects. — 10.  Its  spirit  based  on  noble  impulses.  Extract  from  Hallam:  From  James.  Cus- 
toms and  peculiarities  of  chivalry.  Who  were  members  of  the  institution.— 11.  The  profession 
of  arms  among  the  Germans.  Education  of  a  knight.  The  practice  of  knight-errantry. — 12 
Extent  of  chivalry  in  the  llth  century.  Its  spirit  led  to  the  crusades. 

ORIGIN  OF  THE  CRUSADKS. — 13.  Pilgrimages  to  Jerusalem.  General  expectation  of  the  ap- 
proaching end  of  the  world.— 14.  Extortion  and  outrage  practiced  upon  the  pilgrims.  Horror 
and  indignation  excited  thereby  in  Europe.  The  preaching  of  Peter  the  Hermit.  [Amiens.]— 
15.  The  councils  of  Placentia  and  Clermont.  [Placeutia  and  Clermont.]  Gathering  of  the 
crusaders  for  the  FIRST  CRUSADE.— 1(3.  Conduct  and  fate  of  the  foremost  bauds  of  the  cru- 
saders. The  genuine  army  of  the  crusade.  [Bouillon.] — 17.  Conduct  of  Alexius,  emperor  of 
Constantinople.  His  proposals  spurned  by  the  crusaders. — 18.  Number  of  the  crusaders  col- 
lected in  Asia  Minor.  First  encounter  with  the  Turks.  [Nice.  Bithyn'ia.  Roum.]  The 
march  to  Syria.  [Dorilae'  um.] — 19.  The  siege  and  capture  of  Anlioch.  The  Persian  and 
Turkish  hosts  defeated  before  the  town. — 21.  Civil  wars  among  the  Turks.  The  caliph  of  Egypt 
takes  Jerusalem.  Proposal  to  unite  his  forces  with  the  Christians  rejected. — 21.  March  of  the 
crusaders  to  Jerusalem.  [Mt.  Lib'  anus.  Trip'  oli.  Tyre.  Acre.  Caeaarea.]  Transports  of 
the  Christians  on  the  first  view  of  the  city.  Attack,  and  repulse. — 22.  Capture  of  Jerusalem. 
Acts  of  veneration  and  worship.  Reception  given  to  Peter  the  Hermit.  His  ultimate  fate.— 
23.  The  new  government  of  Jerusalem.  Minor  Christian  States.  Defenceless  state  of  Jerusa- 
lem under  Godfrey.  Continued  pilgrimages.  Orders  of  knighthood  established  at  Jerusalem. 
The  noted  valor  of  the  knights. 

24.  Continued  yearly  emigration  of  pilgrim  warriors  to  the  Holy  Land.  Six  principal  cru- 
sades. Their  general  character.— 25.  The  SECOND  CRUSADE.  The  leading  army  under  Conrad. 
The  army  of  French  and  Germans.— 26.  Jerusalem  taken  by  Saladin.  The  THIRD  CRUSADE. 
Fate  of  the  German  emperor.  Successes  of  the  French  and  Eaglish.  Return  of  Philip, 
Richard  concludes  a  truce  with  Saladin.  [Ascalon.]— 27.  Tlie  FOURTH  CRUSADE,  led  by  Boni- 
face. The  crusaders  take  Zara,  and  conquer  Constantinople.  No  benefit  to  Palestine.  [MonU 
serrat.  Zara.]— 28.  The  FIFTH  CRUSADK.  Partial  successes,  and  ftnnl  ruin,  of  the  expedition. 
[Damietta.]  Expedition  of  the  German  emperor,  Frederic  II.  Treaty  with  the  sultan,  by 
which  Jerusalem  is  yielded  to  the  Christians.  Jerusalem  again  taken  by  the  sultan,  but  re- 
stored. 

29.  Cotemporary  events  in  northern  Asia.  TARTAR  CONQUESTS  in  Asia  and  in  Europe. 
[China.  Russia.  Kiev.  Moscow.]  Alarm  of  the  Christian  nations  of  Europe.  Recall  of  the 
conquering  hordes.— 30.  The  Corasmins.  They  overrun  Syria  and  take  Jerusalem,  but  are 
finally  expelled  by  the  united  Turks  and  Christians.— 31.  The  SIXTH  CBUSABK,  led  by  Louis 
IX.,  who  attacks  Eo^pt.  The  second  crusade  of  Louis.  Attack  upon  Carthage.  Result  of  the 
expedition.— 32.  Acre,  the  last  stronghold  of  the  Christians  in  Syria,  taken  by  the  Turks,  1291. 
Results  of  the  Crusades. 


266  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

III.  ENGLISH  HISTORY. 

1.  Our  last  reference  to  the  history  of  England.  The  present  continuation.— 2.  Condition  of 
ENGLAND  AFTKR  THK  DEATH  OF  ALFRED.  England  during  the  reign  of  Ethelred  II.  Massacre 
of  the  Danes-  Effects  of  this  impolitic  measure.  Canute.  Recall  of  Ethelred.  Edmund 
Ironside.  Canute  sole  monarch. — 3.  Hia  conciliatory  policy.  His  vast  possessions.  Character 
of  his  administration  of  the  government. — 4.  Harold  and  Hardicanute.  The  reign  of  Edward 
the  Confessor.  Events  that  disturbed  his  reign.  Accession  of  Harold.  The  NORMAN 
CONQUEST.  [Sussex.  Hastings.]— 5.  Gradual  conquest  of  ali  England.  William's  treatment 
of  his  conquered  subjects.— 6.  The  feudal  system  in  England.  The  Doomsday  Book.  Saxons 
and  Normans.— 7.  Reigna  of  William  Rufus,  and  Henry  I.— 8.  Usurpation  and  reign  of  Stephen. 
Henry  II.  [Plantagenet.] — 9.  Henry's  extensive  possessions.  REDUCTION  OF  IRELAND.  [His- 
tory of  Ireland.]  The  troubles  of  Henry's  reign. — 10.  Reign  of  Richard,  the  Lion  Hearted. — 11. 
Reign  of  John,  surnamed  Lackland.  Loss  of  his  continental  possessions.  Quarrels  with  the 
pope: — with  the  barons.  Magna  Charta.  Civil  war,  and  death  of  John. — 12.  The  long  reign 
of  Henry  III.  His  difficulties  with  the  barons.  First  germs  of  popular  representation.  13. 
The  reign  of  Edward  I.  SUBJUGATION  OF  WALKS.  [History  of  Wales.]— 14.  Relations  be- 
tween England  and  Scotland.  The  princess  Margaret. — 15.  Baliol  and  Bruce.  Beginning  of 
the  SCOTTISH  WARS.  Submission  of  Baliol.  [Dunbar.]— 16.  William  Wallace  recovers  Scot- 
land, but  is  defeated  at  Falkirk.  [Stirling.  Falkirk.]  Fate  of  Wallace.— 17.  Robert  Bruce 
crowned  king  of  Scotland.  Edward  II.  defeated  by  him.  [Scone.  Bannockburn.] 

18.  Northern  nations  of  Europe  during  this  period.  Wars  between  the  Moors  and  Christians 
in  the  Spanish  peninsula.  Final  overthrow  of  the  Saracen  power  in  the  peninsula. 

1.  COMPLETE  DISSOLUTION  OF  THE  BONDS  OF  SOCIETY. — 1.  The  tenth 
century  brings  us  to  the  central  period  of  what  has  been  denomi- 
nated the  Middle  Ages.     The  history  of  the  known  world  presents 

i  CONFUSION  a  greater  confusion  and  discordance  of  materials  at  this 
OF  HISTORIC  than  at  any  preceding  epoch ;  for  at  this  time  we  have 
MATERIALS.  ne^her  a  great  empire,  like  the  Grecian,  the  Persian,  or 
the  Roman ;  nor  any  great  simultaneous  movement,  like  the  mighty 
tide  of  the  barbarian  invasions,  to  serve  as  the  starting  and  the  re- 
turning point  for  our  researches,  and  to  give,  by  its  prominence,  a 
sort  of  unity  to  cotemporaneous  history ;  but  on  every  side  we  see 
States  falling  into  dissolution ;  the  masses  breaking  into  fragments ; 
dukes,  counts,  and  lords,  renouncing  their  allegiance  to  kings  and 
emperors ;  cities,  towns,  and  castles,  declaring  their  independence  , 
and,  amid  a  general  dissolution  of  the  bonds  of  society,  we  find 
almost  universal  anarchy  prevailing. 

2.  In  the  East,  the  empire  of  the  caliphs,  the  mighty  colossus  of 
Mussulman  dominion,  was  broken  ;  the  Saracens  were  no  longer  ob- 
jects of  terror  to  all  their  neighbors,  and  the  frequent 

SARACEN     revolutions  of  the  throne  of  Bagdad,1  the  central  seat 
WORLD.      Q£  tne  reijgjon  Of  the  prophet,  had  ceased  to  have  any 

1.  Bagdad,  a  famous  city  of  Asiatic  Turkey, — long  the  chief  seat  of  Moslem  power  in  Asia, 
—the  capital  of  the  Eastern  caliphate,  and  of  the  scientific  world  during  the  "  Dark  Ages,"  is 
situated  on  the  river  Tigris,  sixty-eight  miles  north  of  the  ruins  of  Babylon. 

Bagdad  was  founded  by  the  ciliph  Al-Mansour,  A.  D.  763,  and  is  said  to  have  been  princi- 


CIIAP.  II]  MIDDLE   AGES.  267 

influence  on  the  rest  of  the  world.  About  the  middle  of  the  eighth 
century,  the  Moors  of  Spain  had  separated  themselves  from  their 
Eastern  brethren,  and  made  Cor'  dova1  the  seat  of  their  dominion  ; 
and  little  more  than  two  centuries  and  a  half  later,  (A.  D.  1031) 
the  division  of  the  Western  Caliphate  into  a  great  number  of  small 
principalities,  which  were  weakened  by  civil  dissensions,  contributed 
to  the  enlargement  of  the  Christian  kingdoms  in  the  northern  part 
of  the  peninsula.  Soon  after  the  defection  of  the  Moors  of  Spain, 
an  independent  Saracen  monarchy  had  arisen  in  Africa  proper :  this 
was  followed  by  the  establishment  of  new  dynasties  in  Egypt, 
Khorassan',8  and  Persia ;  and  eventually,  in  the  tenth  century,  we 
find  the  Caliphate  divided  into  a  great  number  of  petty  States,  whose 
annals,  gathered  from  oriental  writers,  furnish,  amid  a  labyrinth  of 
almost  unknown  names  and  countries,  little  more  than  the  chronology 
of  princes,  with  the  civil  wars,  parricides,  and  fratricides  of  each 
reign.  Such  was  the  condition  of  that  vast  population,  comprising 
many  nations  and  languages,  which  still  adhered,  although  under  dif- 
ferent forms,  and  with  many  departures  from  the  originals,  to  the 
general  principles  of  the  mosleui  faith. 

3.  The  Byzantine  empire  still  continued  to  exist,  but  in  weakness 
and  corruption.     "  From  the  age  of  Justin'  ian,"  says  Gibbon,  "  it 

pally  formed  out  of  the  ruins  of  Ctes'  iphon.  It  was  greatly  enlarged  and  adorned  by  the 
grandson  of  its  founder,  the  famous  Haroun-al-Raschid.  It  continued  to  flourish,  and  to  be 
the  principal  seat  of  learning  and  the  arts  till  1258,  when  Hoolaku,' grandson  of  Gentris  Khan, 
reduced  the  city  after  a  siege  of  two  months,  and  gave  it  up  to  plunder  and  massacre.  It  is 
said  that  the  number  of  the  slain  in  the  city  alone  amounted  to  eight  hundred  thousand.  Since 
that  event  Bagdad  has  witnessed  various  other  sieges  and  revolutions.  It  was  burnt  and 
plundered  by  the  ferocious  Timour  A.  D.  1401,  who  erected  a  pyramid  of  human  heads  on  its 
ruins.  In  1637  it  incurred  the  vengeance  of  Amurath  IV.,  the  Turkish  sultan,  who  barbarously 
massacred  a  large  portion  of  the  inhabitant-?.  Since  that  period  the  once  illustrious  city,  now 
numbering  Jess  than  a  hundred  thousand  inhabitants,  has  been  degraded  to  the  seat  of  a  Turk- 
ish pashalic.  The  rich  merchants  and  the  beautiful  princesses  of  the  Arabian  Tales  have  all 
disappeared  ;  but  it  retains  the  tomb  of  the  charming  Zobeide,  the  most  beloved  of  the  wives 
of  Haroun-al-Raschid,  and  can  still  boast  of  its  numerous  gardens  and  well  stocked  bazaars. 

1.  Cor'  dova,  a  city  of  Andalusia  in  Spain,  is  situated  on  the  Guadalquiver,  one  hundred  and 
eighty-five  miles  south-west  from  Madrid.    It  is  supposed  to  have  been  founded  by  the  Ro- 
mans, under  whom  it  attained  to  great  distinction  as  a  rich  and  populous  city,  and  a  seat  of 
learning.     In  572  it  was  taken  by  the  Goths,  and  in  711  by  the  Moors,  under  whom  it  after- 
wards became  the  splendid  capital  of  the  "Caliphate  of  the  West;"  but  with  the  extinction 
of  the  Western  caliphate,  A.  D.  1031,  the  power  and  the  glory  of  Cor'  dova  passed  away. 
Cor' dova  continued  to  be  a  separate  Moorish  kingdom  until  the  year  A.  D.  1236,  when  it  was 
taken  and  almost  wholly  destroyed  by  the  impolitic  zeal  of  Ferdinand  II'.  of  Castile.    It  has 
never  since  recovered  its  previous  prosperity;  and  its  population  has  diminished  since  the  llth 
century,  from  five  hundred  thousand  to  less  than  forty  thousand.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

2.  Khorassan',  (the  "  region  of  the  sun,")  is  a  province  of  Modern  Persia,  at  the  south-eastern 
extremity  of  the  Caspian  Sea,  inhabited  by  Persians  proper,  Turkmans,  and  Kurds.    The  re- 
ligion is  still  Moham'  raedan. 


268  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

was  sinking  below  its  former  level :  the  powers  of  destruction  were 
more  active  than  those  of  improvement ;  and  the  calam- 

BYZANTCNE  ities  of  war  were  imbittered  by  the  more  permanent 
EMPIRE.  evjjg  Of  ciyj|  an(j  ecclesiastical  tyranny."1  It  was  daily 
becoming  more  and  more  separated  from  Western  Europe ;  its  re- 
lations, both  of  peace  and  war,  being  chiefly  with  the  Saracens,  who, 
in  the  period  of  their  conquests,  overran  all  Asia  Minor,  and  were 
forming  permanent  establishments  within  sight  of  Constantinople. 
Toward  the  close  of  the  tenth  century,  however,  a  brief  display  of 
vigor  in  the  Byzantine  princes,  Niceph'  orus,  Zimisus,  and  Basil  II. , 
repelled  the  Saracens,  and  extended  the  Asiatic  boundaries  of  the 
empire  as  far  south  as  Antioch,  and  eastward  to  the  eastern  limits 
of  Armenia;  but  twenty-five  years  after  the  death  of  Basil  (1025) 
his  effeminate  successors  were  suddenly  assaulted  by  the  Turks  or 
Turcomans,  a  new  race  of  Tartar  barbarians  of  the  Mussulman  faith, 
whose  original  seats  were  beyond  the  Caspian  Sea,  along  the  northern 
boundaries  of  China.  During  the  first  invasion  of  the  Turks,  under 
their  leader  Togrul,  (1050)  one  hundred  and  thirty  thousand 
Christians  were  sacrificed  to  the  religion  of  the  prophet.  His  suc- 
cessor, Alp  Arslan,  the  u  valiant  lion,"  reduced  Georgia1  and  Arme- 
nia, and  defeated  and  took  captive  the  Byzantine  emperor  Romanus 
Diog'  enes ;  and  succeeding  princes  of  the  Turkish  throne  gathered 
the  fruits  of  a  lasting  conquest  of  all  the  provinces  beyond  the  Bos'- 
porus  and  Hellespont. 

4.  Turning  to  the  West,  to  examine  the  condition  of  the  three 
great  divisions  of  the  empire  of  the  Carlovingians — Italy,  Germany, 
and  Gaul, — we  find  there  but  the  wrecks  of  former  greatness.  In 
Italy,  the  dukes,  the  governors  of  provinces,  and  the  leaders  of 

iv  CONDI-    arm^es)  were  possessed  of  far  greater  power  than  the 

TION  OF      reigning  monarch.     Having  for  a  long  period  perpetu- 

ITALY.       a^e(j  tkeir  Dignities  in  their  families,  they  had  become 

in  fact  petty  tyrants  over  their  limited  domains  ;  ever  jealous  of  the 

royal  authority,  and  dreading  the  loss  of  their  privileges,  they  con- 

3.  Georgia  is  between  the  Caspian  and  the  Black  Sea,  having  Circassia  on  the  north  and  Ar- 
menia on  the  south,  This  country  was  annexed  to  the  Roman  empire  by  Pompey,  in  the  year 
65  B.  C.  During  the  6th  and  7th  centuries  it  was  a  theatre  of  contest  between  the  Greek  em- 
pire and  the  Persians.  In  the  8th  century  a  prince  of  the  Jewish  family  of  the  Bagrat'  ides  es- 
tablished there  a  monarchy  which,  with  few  interruptions,  continued  in  his  line  down  to  the 
commencement  of  the  19th  century.  In  1801  the  emperor  Paul  of  Russia  declared  himself,  at 
the  request  of  the  Georgian  prince,  sovereign  of  Georgia. 

a.  Gibbon,  iv.  4. 


CHAP.  IL]  MIDDLE  AGES.  269 

spired  against  their  sovereign  as  often  as  he  showed  an  inclination  to 
rescue  the  people  from  the  oppressive  exactions  of  their  masters.  In 
the  early  part  of  the  tenth  century  they  arose  against  Berenger, 
duke  of  Fritili,1  who  had  been  proclaimed  king,  and  offered  the 
crown  to  the  prince  of  Bur'  gundy,  who  during  two  years  united  the 
government  of  Italy  to  that  of  Switzerland.8  (923-925.)  Soon 
abandoning  him,  the  turbulent  nobles  elevated  to  the  throne  Hugh, 
count  of  Provence  ;*  and  finally  Italy,  exhausted  by  the  animosities 
and  struggles  of  the  aristocracy,  made  a  voluntary  surrender  of  the 
kingdom  to  Otho  the  Great,  the  Saxon  prince  of  Germany,  who,  in 
the  year  962,  was  crowned  at  Milan  with  the  iron  crown  of  Lom'- 
bardy,  and  at  Rome  with  the  golden  crown  of  the  empire. 

5.  During  several  succeeding  centuries  the  German  emperors  were 
nominally  recognized  as  sovereigns  of  the  greater  part  of  Italy ;  but 
as  they  seldom  crossed  the  Alps,  their  authority  was  soon  reduced 
to  a  mere  shadow.  The  pretensions  of  the  court  of  Rome  were  op- 
posed to  those  of  the  German  princes ;  and  during  the  quarrels  that 
arose  between  the  Guelfs  and  Ghibellines,4 — the  former  the  adherents 
of  Rome,  and  the  latter  of  Germany — Italy  was  thrown  into  the 
greatest  confusion.  While  some  portions  were  under  the  immediate 
jurisdiction  of  the  German  emperor,  a  large  number  of  the  dukes, 
marquises,  counts,  and  prelates,  residing  in  their  castles  which  they 

1.  FriMi  is  an  Italian  province  at  the  head  of  the  Adriat'  ic,  and  at  the  north-eastern  ex- 
tremity of  Italy. 

2.  Switzerland,  anciently  calfed  Helvetia,  is  an  inland  and  mountainous  country  of  Europe, 
having  the  German  States  on  the  north  and  east,  Italy  on  the  south,  and  France  on  the  west, 
Julius  Caesar  reduced  the  Helvetians  to  submission  15  years  B.  C.;  after  which  the  Romans 
founded  in  it  several  flourishing  cities,  which  were  afterwards  destroyed  by  the  barbarians.    In 
the  beginning  of  the  5th  century  the  Burgun'  dians  overran  the  western  part  of  Switzerland, 
and  fixed  their  seals  around  the  lake  of  Geneva,  and  on  the  b>»nks  of  the  Rhone  and  the  Saone. 
Fifty  years  later  the  Aleman1  ni  overran  the  eastern  part  of  Switzerland,  and  a  great  part  of 
Germany,  overwhelmine  the  monuments  of  Roman  power,  and  blotting  out  the  Christianity 
which  Rome  had  planted.    At  the  close  of  the  fifth  century  the  Aleman'  ni  were  overthrown 
by  Clovis ;— the  first  Burgun'  diau  empire  fell  A.  D.  .r»35 ;  and  for  a  long  period  afterward  Hel- 
vetia formed  a  part  of  the  French  monarchy.    The  partition  of  the  dominions  of  Charlemagne 
threw  Switzerland  into  the  German  part  of  the  empire.    In  the  year  1307  the  three  forest 
cnntons,  Uri,  Schwytz,  and  Unterwalden,  entered  into  a  confederacy  against  the  tyranny  of  the 
Austrian  house  of  Hapsburg,  then  at  the  head  of  the  German  empire.    Other  cantons  from 
time  to  time  joined  the  league,  or  were  conqnered  from  Austria;  but  it  was  not  till  the  time 
of  Napoleon  that  all  the  present  existing  cantons  were  brought  into  the  confederacy.    (Mapt 
No.  XIV.  and  XVII.) 

3.  Provence,  see  p.  271. 

4.  These  party  names,  obscure  in  origin,  were  imported  from  Germany.    In  the  ware  of 
Frederic   Barbarossa,  (the   Redbeard,)  the   Ouelfs  were  the  champions  of  liberty:  in  the 
crusades  which  the  popes  directed  against  that  prince's  unfortunate  descendants  they  were 
merely  the  partisans  of  the  Church.    The  name  soon  ceased  to  signify  principles,  and  merely 
ecn'ed  the  same  purpoe  as  a  watchword,  or  the  color  of  a  standard. 


270  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAKT  II 

had  strongly  fortifiel  against  the  depredating  inroads  of  the  Normans, 
Saracens,  and  Hungarians,  exercised  an  almost  independent  authority 
within  their  limited  domains  ;  while  a  number  of  petty  republics,  the 
most  important  of  which  were  Venice,  Pisa,  and  Genoa,  fortifying 
their  cities,  and  electing  their  own  magistrates,  set  the  authority  of 
the  pope,  the  nobles,  and  the  emperor,  equally  at  defiance.  Such 
was  the  confused  state  of  Italy  in  the  central  period  of  the  Middle 
Ages. 

6.  Germany,  at  the  beginning  of  the  tenth  century,  under  the  rule 
of  a  minor,  Louis  IV.,  the  last  of  the  Carlovingian  family,  was  har- 
v  CON-      assed  by  frequent  invasions  of  the  Hungarians ;    while 
DITION  OF    the  six  dukedoms  into  which  the  country  was  divided, 
GERMANY.    viz  .  Q&^myi  Thurin'  gia,'  Franconia,3  Bavaria,4  Suabia,6 
and  Lorraine,6  appeared  like  so  many  distinct  nations,  ready  to  de- 
clare war  against  each  other.     The  dukes,   originally  regarded  as 
ministers  and  representatives  of  their  king,  had  long  been  encroach- 
ing on  the  royal  prerogatives,  and  by  degrees  had  arrogated  to  them- 
selves such  an  increase  of  power,  that  the  dignities  temporarily  con- 
ferred upon  them  became  hereditary  in  their  families.     They  next 
seized  the  royal  revenues,  and  made  themselves  masters  of  the  people 

1.  Saxony,  the  most  powerful  of  the  ancient  duchies  of  Germany,  embraced,  at  the  period 
of  its  greatest  development,  the  whole  extent  of  northern  Germany  between  the  mouths  of  the 
Rhine  and  the  Oder.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

2.  Thurin'  gia  was  in  the  central  part  of  Germany,  west  of  Prussian  Saxony.    In  the  13th 
century  it  was  subdivided  among  many  petty  princes,  and  incorporated  with  other  States,  after 
which  the  name  fell  gradually  into  disuse.    It  is  still  preserved,  in  a  limited  sense,  in  the 
Thurin'  /rian  forest,  a  hilly  and  woody  tract  in  the  interior  of  Germany,  on  the  northern  con- 
fines of  Bavaria.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

3.  Franconia  was  situated  on  both  sides  of  the  river  Maine,  and  is  now  included  mostly 
within  the  limits  of  Bavaria.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

4.  Bavaria— comprising  most  of  the  Vindelicia  and  Nor'  icum  of  the  Romans,  is  a  country 
in  the  southern  part  of  Germany.    It  was  anciently  a  duchy — afterwards  an  electorate — and  has 
now  the  rank  of  a  kingdom.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

5.  Suabia,  of  which  Ulm  was  the  capital,  was  in  the  south-western  part  of  Germany,  west 
of  Bavaria,  und  north  of  Switzerland.    It  is  now  included  in  Baden,  Wurtemburg,  and  Bavaria, 
(Map  No.  XVII.) 

6.  Lorraine,  (German  Lotharingia,}  so  called  from  Lothaire  II.,  to  whom  this  part  of  the 
country  fell  in  the  division  of  the  empire  between  him  and  his  brothers  Louis  II.  and  Charles, 
in  the  year  854,  eleven  years  after  the  treaty  of  Verdun,  (see  p.  260,)  was  divided  into  Upper 
and  Lower  Lorraine,  and  extended  from  the  confines  of  Switzerland,  westward  of  the  Rhine, 
to  its  mouths,  and  the  mouths  of  the  Scheldt.    (Skelt.)    A  part  of  the  Lower  Lorraine  was  af- 
terwards embraced  in  the  French  province  of  Lorraine,  (see  Map  No.  XIII.,)  and  is  now  com- 
prised in  the  departments  of  the  Meuse,  the  Vosges,  the  Moselle,  and  the  Meurthe.    Lorraine 
was  for  centuries  a  subject  of  dispute  between  France  and  Germany. 

The  relative  position  of  the  six  German  dukedoms  was  therefore  as  follows :— Saxony  occu- 
pied the  northern  portions  of  Germany ;  Thurin'  gia  and  Franconia  the  centre ;  Bavaria  the 
south-eastern ;  Suabia  the  south-western ;  and  Lorraine  the  north-western.  (Maps  No.  XIII. 
and  XVII.) 


CHAP.  IL]  MIDDLE  AGES.  271 

and  their  lands.  On  the  death  of  Louis  IV.,  (A.  D.  911,)  they  set 
aside  the  legitimate  claimant,  and  elected  for  their  sovereign  one  of 
their  own  number,  Conrad,  duke  of  Franconia.  His  reign  of  seven 
years  was  passed  almost  wholly  in  the  field,  checking  the  incursions 
of  the  Hungarians,  or  quelling  the  insurrections  of  the  other  duke- 
doms against  his  authority.  On  his  death  (A.  D.  018),  Henry  I., 
surnamed  the  Fowler,  duke  of  Saxony,  was  elected  to  the  throne, 
which  his  family  retained  little  more  than  a  century.  (Until  1024.) 
The  Saxon  rulers  of  Germany,  however,  were  not,  like  Charlemagne, 
the  sovereigns  of  a  vast  empire ;  but  rather  the  chiefs  of  a  confeder- 
acy of  princes,  reckoned  of  superior  authority  in  matters  of  national 
concern,  while  the  nobles  still  managed  their  provincial  administra- 
tion mostly  in  their  own  way.  The  history  of  the  little  more  than 
nominal  sovereigns  of  Germany,  therefore,  during  this  period,  con- 
tains but  little  of  the  history  of  the  German  people. 

7.  In  France,  the  royal  authority,  at  the  beginning  of  the  tenth 
century,  exercised  an  influence  still  more  feeble  than  in 
Germany,  and  was  little  more  than  an  empty  honor.    DITION  OF 
Charles  the  Simple,  whose  name  bespeaks  his  character,      FRA*CE. 
was  the  nominal  sovereign ;  but  four  other  princes  in  Gaul,  besides 
himself,  bore  the  title  of  king, — those  of  Lorraine,  Transjurane- 
Burgundy,1  Provence,2  and  Brittany  ;3 — while  in  other  parts  of  the 
country,  powerful  dukes  and  counts  governed  their  dominions  with 
absolute  independence.     At  length,  in  the  year  920,  an  assembly  of 
nobles  formally  deposed  Charles,  but  he  continued  his  nominal  reign 
nearly  three  years  longer,  while  the  people  and  the  nobility  were 
scarcely  conscious  of  his  existence. 

1.  T^ransjuranc-Bvr'  gundy,  is  that  portion  of  Bur'  gundy  that  was  embraced  in  Switzerland — 
beyond  the  Jura,  or  western  Alps. 

2.  Provence  was  in  the  south-eastern  part  of  France,  on  the  Mediterranean,  bounded  on  the 
east  by  Italy,  north  by  Dauphiny,  and  west  by  Langedoc.    Greek  colonies  were  founded  here 
at  an  early  period,  (see  Marseilles,  p.  157,)  and  the  Romans,  having  conquered  the  country, 
(B.  C.  124,)  gave  it  the  name  of  Provincia,  (the  province,)  whence  its  later  name  was  derived. 
After  the  three-fold  division  of  the  empire  of  Louis  le  Debonnaire,  the  son  and  successor  of 
Charlemagne,  by  the  treaty  of  Verdun  in  843,  (see  p.  260,)  Provence  fell  to  Lothaire  ;  but  it 
afterwards  became  a  separate  kingdom,  under  the  name  of  the  kingdom  of  Aries.    In  1246  it 
passed  to  the  house  of  Anjou  by  marriage  ;  and  in  1481  Louis  XI.  united  it  to  the  dominions 
of  the  French  crown.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

3.  Brittany,  or  Brelagne,  was  one  of  the  largest  provinces  of  France,  occupying  the  penin- 
sula at  the  north-western  extremity  of  the  kingdom,  and  joined  on  the  east  by  Poitou,  Anjou, 
Maine,  and  Normandy.    It  now  forms  the  five  departments,  Finisterre,  Cotes  du  Nord,  (coat- 
doo-nor)  Morbihan,  Hie  and  Vilaine,  and  Lower  Loire.    Brittany  is  supposed  to  have  derived 
its  name  from  the  Britons,  who,  expelled  from  England  by  the  Anglo  Saxons,  took  refuge 
here  in  the  fifth  century.    It  formed  one  of  the  duchies  of  France  till  it  wa-  united  to  the 
crown  by  Francis  I.  in  1532.    (Map  No.  X11I.) 


272  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

8.  The  only  really  important  event  of  French  history  during  the 
tenth  century  was  the  final  settlement  of  the  Northmen  in  that  part 
of  Neustria,1  which  received  from  them  the  name  of  Normandy.2 
In  the  year  911,  during  the  reign  of  Charles  the  Simple,  the  Norman 
chief  Hollo,  who  had  made  himself  the  terror  of  the  West,  ascended 
the  Seine  with  a  formidable  fleet,  and  laid  siege  to  Paris.     After  the 
purchase  of  a  brief  truce,  Charles  made  him  the  tempting  offer,  to 
cede  to  him  a  vast  province  of  France,  in  which  he  might  establish 
himself  on  condition  that  he  would  abstain  from  ravaging  the  rest  of 
the  kingdom,  acknowledge  the  sovereignty  of  the  crown  of  France, 
and,  together  with  his  followers,  make  a  public  profession  of  Christi- 
anity.    The  terms  were  accepted  :  a  region  that  had  been  completely 
laid  waste  by  the  ravages  of  the  Normans  was  now  assigned  to  them 
for  an  inheritance  ;  and  these  ruthless  warriors,  abandoning  a  life  of 
pillage  and  robbery,  were  soon  converted,  by  the  wise  regulations  of 
their  chiefs,  into  peaceful  tillers  of  the  soil,  and  the  best  and  bravest 
of  the  citizens  of  France.     This  remarkable  event  put  an  end  to  the 
war  of  Norman  devastation,  which,  during  a  whole  century,  had  de- 
populated western  Germany,  Graul,  and  England. 

9.  Of  the  independent  aristocracy  of  France,  after  the  death  of 
Charles  the  Simple,  the  most  powerful  were  the  counts  of  Paris,  who, 
during  the  last  few  reigns  of  the  Carlovingian  princes,   exercised 
little  less  than  regal  authority.     At  length,  in  the  year  987,  on  the 
death  of  Louis  V.,  the  fifth  monarch  after  Charles  the  Simple,  Hugh 
Capet,  count  of  Paris,  was  proclaimed  king  by  his  assembled  vassals, 
and  anointed  and  crowned  in  the  cathedral  of  Ilheims,3  by  the  arch- 
bishop of  that  city.     The  rest  of  France  took  no  part  in  this  election; 
and  several  provinces  refused  to  acknowledge  the  successors  of  Hugh 
Capet,  for  three  or  four  generations.     The  aristocracy  still  monopo- 

1.  Neustria.    On  the  death  of  Clovis  A.  D.  511,  (see  p.  2550  his  four  sons  divided  the  Mero- 
vingian kingdom,  embracing  northern  Gaul  and  Germany,  into  two  parts,  calling  the  eastern 
Jlustvasia-,  and  the  western  Neustria^ — the  latter  term  being  derived  from  the  negative  particle 
ne  "not,"  and  .Austria : — rfustrasia,  meaning  the  Eastern,  and  Neustria  the  Western  monarchy. 
Neustria  embraced  that  portion  of  modern  France  north  of  the  Loire  and  west  of  the  Meuse. 
(Map  No.  XIII.) 

2.  Normandy  was  an  ancient  province  of  France,  adjoining  Brittany  on  the  north-east. 
(See  Map  No.  XIII.)    It  became  annexed  to  England  through  the  accession  of  William,  duke 
of  Normandy,  to  the  English  throne,  A.  D.  1066.    (See  p.  290.)    Philip  Augustus  wrested  it  from 
John,  and  united  it  to  France,  in  1203. 

3.  Rheims,  a  city  of  France  ninety-five  miles  north-east  from  Paris,  was  a  place  of  consider- 
able importance  under  the  Romans,  who  called  it  Durocortarum.    It  become  a  bishopric 
before  the  irruption  of  the  Franks,  and  received  many  privileges  from  the  Merovingian  kings. 
Map  No.  XIII.; 


CHAP.  II]  MIDDLE  AGES.  273 

lized  all  the  prerogatives  of  royalty ;  and  the  power  of  the  n  nbles 
alone  flourished  or  subsisted  in  the  State.  The  period  of  two  hun- 
dred and  forty  years, — from  the  accession  of  Hugh  Capet  to  that  of 
Louis  IX.,  or  Saint  Louis, — is  described  by  Sismondi  as  "  a  long  in- 
terregnum, during  which  the  authority  of  king  was  extinct,  although 
the  name  continued  to  exist." 

II.  THE  FEUDAL  SYSTEM,  CHIVALRY,  AND  THE  CRUSADES. — 1..A 
glance  at  the  state  of  Southern  and  Western  Europe  in  the  central 
period  of  the  Middle  Ages  will  show  that,  with  the  waning  power, 
and  final  overthrow,  of  the  Carlovingian  dynasty,  a  new  order  of 
things  had  arisen  ;  that  kingdoms  were  broken  into  as  many  separate 
principalities  as  they  contained  powerful  counts  or  barons ;  that 
regularly-constituted  authority  no  longer  existed  ;  and  that  a  numer- 
ous class  of  nobles,  superior  to  all  restraint,  and  involved  in  petty 
feuds  with  each  other,  oppressed  their  fellow  subjects,  and  humbled 
or  insulted  their  sovereigns,  to  whom  they  tendered  an  allegiance 
merely  nominal.  The  rude  beginnings  of  this  state  of  society  may 
be  traced  back  to  the  germinating  ^of  the  first  seeds  of  order  after 
the  spread  of  barbarism  over  the  Roman  world ;  its  growth  was 
checked  under  the  first  Carlovingians,  who  reduced  the  nobles  to  the 
lowest  degradation ;  but  with  the  decline  of  royal  authority  in 
France,  Germany,  and  Italy,  it  started  into  new  life  and  vigor,  and, 
towards  the  end  of  the  tenth  century,  became  organized  under  the 
name  of  the  Feudal  System.  It  maintained  itself  until  l  THE 
about  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century ;  and  during  the  FEUDAL 
period  of  its  existence  is  the  prominent  object  that  en- 
gages the  attention  of  the  historian  of  the  Middle  Ages.  The  unity 
of  this  portion  of  history  will  best  be  preserved  by  a  brief  historical 
outline  of  the  system  itself,  and  of  the  relations  and  events  that 
grew  out  of  it. 

2.  The  people  who  overturned  the  empire  of  the  Romans,  made  a 
partition  of  the  conquered  lands  between  themselves  and  the  original 
possessors ;  but  in  what  manner  or  by  what  principles  the  division 
was  made  cannot  now  be  determined  with  certainty ;  nor  can  the 
exact  condition  in  which  the  Roman  provincials  were  left  be  ascer- 
tained, as  the  records  of  none  of  the  barbarous  nations  of  Europe 
extend  back  to  this  remote  period.  It  is,  however,  evident  that  the 
chiefs,  or  leaders  of  the  conquering  invaders,  in  order  to  maintain 
their  acquisitions,  annexed,  to  the  apportionment  of  lands  among 

18 


274  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  II. 

their  followers,  the  condition  that  every  freeman  who  received  a  share 
should  appear  in  arms,  when  called  upon,  against  the  enemies  of  the 
community ;  and  military  service  was  probably  at  first  the  only  con- 
dition of  the  allotment.  The  immediate  grantees  of  lands  from  the 
leading  chief,  or  king,  were  probably  the  most  noted  warriors  who 
served  under  him  ;  and  these  divided  their  ample  estates  among  their 
more  immediate  followers  or  dependents,  to  be  held  of  themselves 
by  a  similar  tenure ;  so  that  the  system  extended,  through  several 
gradations,  from  the  monarchs  down  through  all  the  subordinates  in 
authority.  Each  was  bound  to  resort  to  the  standard  of  his  imme- 
diate grantor,  and  thence  to  that  of  his  sovereign,  with  a  band  of 
armed  followers  proportioned,  in  numbers,  to  the  extent  of  the  terri- 
tory which  he  had  received. 

3.  The  primary  division  of  lands  among  the   conquerors,  was 
probably  allodial ;  that  is,  they  were  to  descend  by  inheritance  from 
father  to  son ;  but  in  addition  to  the  lands  thus  distributed  among 
the  nation,  others  were  reserved  to  the  crown  for  its  support  and  dig- 
nity; and  the  greater  portion  of  the  latter,  frequently  extending  to  en- 
tire counties  and  dukedoms,  were  granted  out,  sometimes  as  hereditary 
estates,  sometimes  for  life,  sometimes  for  a  term  of  years,  and  on  various 
conditions,  to  favored  subjects,  and  especially  to  the  provincial  gov- 
ernors, who  made  under -grants  of  them  to  their  vassals  or  tenants. 
On  the  failure  of  the  tenant  to  perform  the  stipulated  conditions, 
whether  of  military  service,  or  of  certain  rents  and  payments,  the 
lands  reverted  to  the  grantors  5  and  as  the  word  feud  signifies  "  an 
estate  in  trust,"  hence  the  propriety  of  calling  this  the  Feudal 
System, 

4.  In  a  very  imperfect  state  this  system  existed  in  France  in  the 
time  of  Charlemagne  ;  but  that  monarch,  jealous  of  the  ascendancy 
which  the  nobles  had  already  acquired,  checked  it  by  every  means  in 
his  power, — by  suffering  many  of  the  larger  grants  of  dukedoms, 
counties,  &c.,  to  expire  without  renewal, — by  removing  the  adminis 
tration  of  justice  from  the  hands  of  local  oflicers  into  the  hands  of 
his  own  itinerant  judges, — by  elevating  the  ecclesiastical  authority 
as  a  counterpoise  to  that  of  the  nobility, — and  by  the  creation  of 
a  standing  army,  which  left  the  monarch  in  a  measure  independent 
of  the  military  support  of  the  great  landholders.     Thus  the  nobles, 
desisting  from  the  use  of  arms,  and  abandoning  the  task  of  defend- 
ing the  kingdom,  soon  became  unable  to  defend  themselves ;  but 
when  in  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries  the  royal  authority  was  entire- 


CHAP.  H]  MIDDLE  AGES.  275 

ly  prostrated,  when  the  provinces  were  subject  to  frequent  inroads 
of  the  Normans  and  Hungarians,  and  government  ceased  to  afford 
protection  to  any  class  of  society,  the  proprietors  of  large  estates 
found  in  their  wealth  a  means  of  defence  and  security  not  within  the 
reach  of  the  great  mass  of  the  people.  They  converted  their  places 
of  abode  into  impregnable  castles,  and  covered  their  persons  with 
knightly  armor,  jointed  so  as  to  allow  a  free  movement  of  every  part 
of  the  body ;  and  this  protection,  added  to  the  increased  physical 
strength  acquired  by  constant  military  exercises,  gave  them  an  im- 
portance in  war  over  hundreds  .of  the  plebeians  by  whom  they  were 
surrounded.  In  the  confusion  of  the  times,  the  governors  of  prov- 
inces, under  the  various  titles  of  dukes,  counts,  and  barons,  usurped 
their  governments  as  little  sovereignties,  and  transmitted  them  by  in- 
heritance, subject  only  to  the  feudal  superiority  of  the  king. 

5.  Meanwhile  the  small  allodial  proprietors,  or  holders  of  lands  in 
their  own  right,  exposed  to  the  depredating  inroads  of  barbarians, 
or,  more  frequently,  to  the  rapacity  of  the  petty  feudal  lords,  sunk 
into  a  condition  much  worse  than  that  of  the  feudal  tenantry.     Ex- 
posed to  a  system  of  general  rapine,  without  law  to  redress  their  in- 
juries, and  without  the  royal  power  to  support  their  rights,  they  saw 
no  safety  but  in  making  a  compromise  with  oppression,  and  were  re- 
duced to  the  necessity  of  subjecting  themselves,  in  return  for  pro- 
tection, to  the  feudal  lords  of  the  country.     During  the  tenth  and 
eleventh  centuries  a  large  proportion  of  the  allodial  lands  in  France, 
Germany,  and  Italy,  were  surrendered  by  their  owners,  and  received 
back  again  upon  feudal  tenures ;  and  it  appears  that  the  few  who  re- 
tained their  lands  in  their  own  right  universally  attached  themselves 
to  some  lord,  although  in  these  cases  it  was  the  privilege  of  the  free- 
men to  choose  their  own  superiors. 

6.  Such  was  the  state  of  the  great  mass  of  European  society  when 
the  feuda*  system  had  reached  its  maturity,  in  the  tenth  and  eleventh 
centuries.     Among  the  legal  incidents  and  results  that  grew  out  of 
the  feudal  relation  of  service  on  the  one  side  ai.i  protection  on  the 
other,  were  those  of  reliefs,  or  money  paid  to  the  lord  by  each  vassal 
on  taking  a  fief,  or  feudal  estate,  by  inheritance  ;  fines,  on  a  change 
of  tenancy ;  esdwats,  or  forfeiture  of  the  estate  to  the  lord  on  ao- 
count  of  the  vassals  delinquency,  or  for  want  of  heirs ;  aids,  or  sums 
of  money  exacted  by  the  lord  on  various  occasions,  such  as  the 
knighting  of  his  eldest  son,  the  marriage  of  his  eldest  daughter,  or 
for  the  redemption  of  his  person  from  prison ;  wardship,  or  the 


276  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PABT  IL 

privilege  of  guardianship  of  the  tenant  by  the  lord  during  the  mi- 
nority of  the  former,  with  the  use  of  the  profits  of  his  estate ;  mar- 
ria.ge,  or  the  right  of  a  lord  to  tender  a  husband  to  his  female  wards 
while  under  age,  or  to  demand  the  forfeiture  of  the  value  of  the 
marriage.  These  feudal  servitudes,  which  were  unknown  in  the  time 
of  Charlemagne,  distinguish  the  maturity  of  the  system,  and  show 
the  gradual  encroachments  of  the  strong  upon  the  weak. 

7.  The  feudal  government,  in  its  best  state,  was  a  system  of  op- 
pression, which  destroyed  all  feelings  of  brotherhood  and  equality 
between  man  and  man  :  it  was  admirably  calculated,  when  the  nobles 
were  united,  for  defence  against  the  assaults  of  any  foreign  power  ; 
but  it  possessed  the  feeblest  bonds  of  political  union,  and  contained 
innumerable  sources  of  anarchy,  in  the  interminable  feuds  of  rival 
chieftains,     It  exerted  a  fatal  influence  on  the  character  of  society 
in  general ;  while  individual  man,  in  the  person  of  the  lord  or  baron, 
was  doubtless  improved  by  it ;  and  the  great  mass  of  the  population 
of  Europe,  during  the  three  or  four  centuries  in  which  it  was  under 
the  thraldom  of  this  system,  was  sunk  in  the  most  profound  igno- 
rance.    Literature  and  science,  confined  almost  wholly  to  the  cloister, 
could  receive  no  favor  in  the  midst  of  turbulence,  oppression,  and 
rapine  :  judges  and  kings  often  could  not  write  their  own  names : 
many  of  the  clergy  did  not  understand  the  liturgy  which  they  daily 
recited  :  the  Christianity  of  the  times,  "  a  dim  taper  which  had  need 
of  snuffing,"  degenerated  into  an  illiberal  superstition ;  and  every- 
thing combined  to  fix  upon  this  period  the  distinctive  epithet  of  the 
J)ARK  AGES.     Still  the  sentiment  of  independence — the  pride  and 
consciousness  of  power — and  the  feelings  of  personal  consequence 
and  dignity  with  which  the  feudal  state  of  society  inspired  the  nobles, 
contributed  to  let  in  those  first  rays  of  light  and  order  which  dis- 
pelled barbarism  and  anarchy,  and  introduced  the  virtues  of  a  better 
age. 

8.  In  the  midst  of  confusion  and  crime,  while  property  was  held 

by  the  sword,  and  cruelty  and  injustive  reigned  supreme, 
the  spirit  of  chivalry  arose  to  turn  back  the  tide  of  op- 
pression, and  to  plant,  in  the  very  midst  of  barbarism,  the  seeds  of 
the  most  noble  and  the  most  generous  principles.  The  precise  time 
at  which  chivalry  was  recognized  as  a  military  institution,  with  out- 
ward forms  and  ceremonials,  cannot  now  be  ascertained;  but  the 
first  notices  we  have  of  it  trace  it  to  that  age  when  the  disorders  in 
the  feudal  system  had  attained  their  utmost  point  of  excess,  towards 


.  H.]  MIDDLE  AGES. 

the  close  of  the  tenth  century.  It  was  then  that  some  noble  barons, 
filled  with  charitable  zeal  and  religious  enthusiasm,  and  moved  with 
compassion  for  the  wretchedness  which  they  saw  around  them,  com- 
bined together,  under  the  solemnity  of  religious  sanctions,  with  the" 
holy  purpose  of  protecting  the  weak  from  the  oppression  of  the  pow 
erful,  and  of  defending  the  right  cause  against  the  wrong. 

9.  The  spirit  and  the   institution  of   chivalry  spread   rapidly; 
treachery  and  hypocrisy  became  detestable ;  while  courtesy,  magna- 
nimity, courage,  and  hospitality,  became  the  virtues  of  the  age ;  and 
the  knights,  who  were  ever  ready  to  draw  their  swords,  at  whatever 
odds,  in  defence  of  innocence,  received  the  adoration  of  the  populace, 
and,  in  public  opinion,  were  exalted  even  above  kings  themselves. 
The  meed  of  praise  and  esteem  gave  fresh  vigor  and  purity  to  the 
cause  of  chivalry ;  and  under  the  influence  of  its  spirit  great  deeds 
were  done  by  the  fraternity  of  valiant  knights  who  had  enrolled' 
themselves  as  its  champions.     "  The  baron  forsook  his  castle,  and 
the  peasant  his  hut,  to  maintain  the  honor  of  a  family,  or  preserve 
the  sacredness  of  a  vow :  it  was  this  sentiment  which  made  the  poor 
serf  patient  in  his  toils,  and  serene  in  his  sorrows :  it  enabled  his 
master  to  brave  all  physical  evils,  and  enjoy  a  sort  of  spiritual  ro- 
mance :  it  bound  the  peasant  to  his  master,  and  the  master  to  his 
king ;  and  it  was  the  principle  of  chivalry,  above  all  others,  that  was 
needed  to  counteract  the  miseries  of  an  infant  state  of  civilization."* 

10.  Though  in  the  practical  exemplifications  of  chivalry  there  was 
often  much  of  error,  yet  its  spirit  was  based  upon  the  most  generous 
impulses  of   human  nature.     "  To  speak  the  truth,  to  succor  the 
helpless  and  oppressed,  and  never  to  turn  back  from  an  enemy,"  was 
the  first  vow  of  the  aspirant  to  the  honors  of  chivalry.     In  an  age 
of  darkness  and  degradation,  chivalry  developed  the  character  of 
woman,  and,  causing  her  virtues  to  be  appreciated  and  honored,  made 
her  the  equal  companion  of  man,  and  the  object  of  his  devotion. 
"  The  love  of  God  and  the  ladies,"  says  Hallam,  "  was  enjoined  as  a 
single  duty.     He  who  was  faithful  and  true  to  his  mistress,  was  held 
sure  of  salvation  in  the  theology  of  castles,  though  not  of  cloisters.  "b 
In  the  language  of  another  modern  writer,  "  chivalry  gave  purity  to 
enthusiasm,  crushed  barbarous  selfishness,  taught  the  heart  to  ex- 
pand like  a  flower  to  the  sunshine,  beautified  glory  with  generosity, 
and  smoothed  even  the  rugged  brow  of  war."c     A  description  of  the 

•  I   • '  •• '  I 

a.  Introduction  to  Froissart'a  Chronicles.  b.  Hallam'a  Middle  Agea,  p.  51*  ,j^fi  j 

c.  Jamea's  Chriralry  and  the  Crusades,  p.  31. 


278  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAKT  IL 

various  customs  and  peculiarities  of  chivalry,  as  they  grew  up  by  de- 
grees into  a  regular  institution,  would  be  requisite  to  a  full  develop- 
ment of  the  character  of  the  age,  but  we  can  only  glance  at  these 
topics  here.  As  chivalry  was  a  military  institution,  its  members 
were  taken  wholly  from  the  military  class,  which  comprised  none  but 
the  descendants  of  the  northern  conquerors  of  the  soil ;  for,  with  few 
exceptions,  the  original  inhabitants  of  the  western  Roman  empire 
tad  been  reduced  to  the  condition  of  serfs,  or  vassals,  of  their  bar- 
barian lords. 

11.  The  initiation  of  the  German  youth  to  the  profession  of  arms 
bad  been,  from  the  earliest  ages,  an  occasion  of  solemnity  ;  and  when 
the  spirit  of  chivalry  had  established  the  order  of  knighthood,  as 
the  concentration  of  all  that  was  noble  and  valiant  in  a  warlike  age, 
it  became  the  highest  object  of  every  young  man's  ambition  one  day 
to  be  a  knight.     A  long  and  tedious  education,  consisting  of  instruc- 
tion in  all  manly  and  military  exercises,  and  in  the  first  principles  of 
religion,  honor  and  courtesy,  was  requisite  as  a  preparation  for  this 
honor.     Next,  the  candidate  for  knighthood,  after  undergoing  his 
preparatory  fasts  and  vigils,  passed  through  the  ceremonies  which 
made  him  a  knight.     Armed  and  caparisoned  he  then  sallied  forth 
in  quest  of  adventure,  displayed  his  powers  at  tournaments,  and 
often  visited  foreign  countries,  both  for  the  purpose  of  jousting  with 
other  knights,  and  for  instruction  in  every  sort  of  chivalrous  knowl- 
edge.    It  cannot  be  denied,  however,  that  the  practice  of  knight- 
errantry,  or  that  of  wandering  about  armed,  as  the  avowed  cham- 
pions of  the  right  cause  against  the  wrong,  gave  to  the  evil-minded 
a  very  convenient  cloak  for  the  basest  purposes,  and  that  every  ad. 
venture,  whether  just  or  not  in  its  purpose,  was  too  liable  to  be  es- 
teemed honorable  in  proportion  as  it  was  perilous.     But  these  were 
abuses  of  chivalry,  and  perversions  of  its  early  spirit. 

12.  During  the  eleventh  century  we  find  that  chivalry,  although 
probably  first  appearing  in  Graul,  had  spread  to  all  the  surrounding 
nations.     In  Spain,  the  wars  between  the  Christians  and  the  Moors 
exhibited  a  chivalric  spirit  unknown  to  former  times  :  about  this 
period  the  institution  of  knighthood  appears  to  have  been  introduced 
among  the  Saxons  of  England  ;  and  it  was  first  made  known  to  the 
Italians,  in  the  beginning  of  the  eleventh  century,  by  a  band  of 
knights  from  Normandy,  whose  religious  zeal  prompted  them,  as 
they  were  returning  from  a  pilgrimage  to  the  Holy  Land,  to  under 
take  the  relief  of  a  small  town  besieged  by  the  Saracens.     As  the 


CHAP.  IL]  MIDDLE  AGES.  279 

feudal  system  spread  over  Europe,  chivalry  followed  in  its  path.  Its 
spirit,  combined  with  religious  enthusiasm,  led  to  the  crusades ;  and 
it  was  during  the  progress  of  those  holy  wars,  which  we  now  proceed 
to  describe,  that  it  attained  its  chief  power  and  influence. 

13.  Pilgrimages  to  Jerusalem,  and  other  hallowed  localities  in 
Palestine,  had  been  common  in  the  early  ages  of  the  church ;  and 
towards  the  close  of  the  tenth  century  they  had  increased    m  ORIQIN 
to  a  perfect  inundation,  in  consequence  of  the  terror  that      OF  THB 
arose  from  the  almost  universal  expectation  then  enter-    GauSADES- 
tained,  of  the  approaching  end  of  the  world.a     The  idea  originated 
in  the  interpretation  given  to  the  twelfth  chapter  of  the  Apocalypse, 
where  it  was  announced  that,  after  the  lapse  of  a  thousand  years, 
Satan  would  be  let  loose  to  deceive  the  nations,  and  to  gather  them 
together  to  battle  against  the  holy  city,  but  that,  after  a  little  season, 
the  army  of  the  Deceiver  should  be  destroyed  by  fire  from  heaven. 
But  the  dreaded  epoch,  the  year  1000,  passed  by;  yet  the  current 
of  pilgrimage  still  continued  to  flow  towards  the  East ;  for  fanati- 
cism had  taken  too  strong  hold  of  the  minds  of  the  people  to  be 
easily  diverted  from  its  course. 

14.  After  Palestine  had  fallen  into  the  possession  of  the  Turks, 
about  the  middle  of  the  seventh  century,  (see  p.  249,)  the  pilgrims 
to  Jerusalem  were  subjected  to  every  species  of  extortion  and  out- 
rage from  this  wild  race  of  Saracen  conquerors ;  and  the  returning 
Christians  spread  through  all  the  countries  of  Europe  indignation 
and  horror  by  the  pathetic  tales  which  they  related,  of  the  injuries 
and   insults  which  they  had   suffered  from   the   infidels.     Among 
others,  Peter  the  Hermit,  a  native  of  Amiens,1  returning  from  a  pil- 
grimage to  Palestine,  where  he  had  spent  much  time  in  conferring 
with  the  Christians  about  the  means  of  their  deliverance,  complained 
in  loud  terms  of  these  grievances,  and  began  to  preach,  in  glowing 
language,  the  duty  of  the  Christian  world  to  unite  in  expelling  the 
infidels  from  the  patrimony  of  the  Saviour. 

15.  The  pope,  Urban  II. ,  one  of  the  most  eloquent  men  of  the 
age,  engaged  zealously  in  the  project,  and  at  two  general  councils, 

1.  Amiens  is  a  fortified  city  of  France  in  the  ancient  province  of  Picardy,  seventy- two  miles 
north  from  Paris.  (Map  No.  XIII.) 

a.  The  archives  of  European  countries  contain  a  great  number  of  charters  of  the  tenth 
century,  beginning  with  these  words:  Jippropinquante  fine  mundi,— "  As  the  end  of  the  world 
la  approaching."— Sismondi's  Roman  Empire,  ii.  256. 


280  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PABT  II 

held  at  Placen'  tia,1  and   Clermont,2  and  attended  by  a  numerous 

train  of  bishops  and  ecclesiastics,  and  by  thousands  of  the  laity,  the 

multitude,  harangued  by  the  zealous  enthusiasts  of  the  cause,  caught 

the  spirit  of  those  who  addressed  them,  and  pledged  themselves,  and 

all  they  possessed,  to  the  crusade  against  the  infidel  possessors  of  the 

Holy  Laud.     The  flame  of  enthusiasm  spread  so  rapidly  throughout 

Christian  Europe,  that  although  the  council  of  Clermont  was  held  in 

November  of  the  year  1095,  yet  in  the  following  spring  large  bands 

iv  THE      °^  *^e  crusaders,  gathered  chiefly  from  the  refuse  and 

FIRST       dregs  of  the  people,  and  consisting  of  men,  women,  and 

CRUSADE,     children — Of  %\\  ages  ancl  professions — and  of  many  and 

distinct  languages, — were  in  motion  toward  Palestine. 

16.  Walter  the  Penniless,  leading  the  way,  was  followed  by  Peter 
the  Hermit ;  but  the  ignorant  hordes  which  they  directed,  inarching 
without  order  and  discipline,  and  pillaging  the  countries  which  they 
traversed,  were  nearly  all  cut  off  before  they  reached  Constantinople ; 
and  the  few  who  passed  over  into  Asia  Minor  fell  an  easy  prey  to 
the  swords  of  the  Turks.  Immense  bands  that  followed  these  hosts, 
mingling  the  motives  of  plunder,  licentiousness  and  vice,  with  a 
foul  spirit  of  fanatical  cruelty,  which  proclaimed  the  duty  of  exter- 
minating all,  whether  Jews  or  Pagans,  who  rejected  the  Saviour, 
were  utterly  destroyed  by  the  enraged  natives  of  southern  Germany 
and  Hungary,  through  whose  dominions  they  attempted  to  pass.  The 
loss  of  the  crusaders  in  this  first  adventure  is  estimated  at  three 
hundred  thousand  men.a  But  while  these  undisciplined  and  barba- 
rous multitudes  were  hurrying  to  destruction,  the  flower  of  the  chiv- 
alry of  Europe  was  collecting — the  genuine  army  of  the  crusade — 
under  six  as  distinguished  chiefs  as  knighthood  could  boast,  headed 
by  Godfrey  of  Bouillon,3  one  of  the  most  celebrated  generals  of  the 
age.  In  six  separate  bauds  they  proceeded  to  Constantinople,  some 

1.  Placen' tia,  now  Piazenza,  was  a  city  of  northern  Italy,  near  the  junction  of  the  Trebia 
with  the  Po,  thirty-seven  miles  south-east  from  Milan.    When  colonized  by  the  Romans,  219 
B.  O,  it  was  a  strong  .and  important  city  ;  and  it  afforded  them  a  secure  retreat  after  the  unfor- 
tunate battles  of  Ticinus  and  Treb'  bia.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

2.  Clermont,  a  city  of  France,  in  the  ancient  province  of  Auvergne,  is  eighty-two  miles  west 
from  Lyons,  and  two  hundred  and  eight  south  from  Paris.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

3.  Bouillon  was  a  small,  woody,  and  mountainous  district,  nine  miles  wide  and  eighteen 
long,  now  included  in  the  duchy  of  Luxembourg,  on  the  borders  of  France  and  Belgium.    The 
town  of  Bouillon  is  fifty-miles  north-west  from  the  city  of  Luxembourg.    Bouillon,  when  in 
the  possession  of  Godfrey,  woa  a  dukedom.    In  order  to  supply  himself  with  funds  for  his 
expedition  to  the  Holy  Land,  Godfrey,  who  was  likewise  .duke  of  Lower  L  Brraine,  (note, 
p.  5270,)  mortgaged  Bouillon  to  the  bishop.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

a.  Gibbon,  iv.  116—125. 


CHAP.  IL]  MIDDLE  AGES.  281 

by  way  of  Italy  and  the  Adriat'  ic,  and  others  by  way  of  the  Danube ; 
but  their  conduct,  unlike  that  of  the  first  crusaders,  was  in  general 
remarkable  for  its  strict  discipline,  order,  and  moderation. 

1 7.  Alex'  ius,  the  Greek  emperor  of  Constantinople,  had  before 
craved,  in  abject  terms,  assistance  against  the  infidel  Turks ;  but 
now,  when  the  Turks,  occupied  with  other  interests,  no  longer  men- 
aced his  frontier,  his  conduct  changed,  and  alarmed  by  the  vast 
swarms  of  crusaders  who  crossed  his  dominions,  he  strove,  by  treach- 
ery and  dissimulation,  and  even  by  hostile  annoyances,  to  diminish 
their  numbers,  and  thwart  their  designs,  and  to  wring  from  their 
chiefs  acts  of  homage  to  his  own  person.     With  some  of  the  chiefs, 
the  crafty  Greek  succeeded  ;  but  others  spurned  his  proposals  with 
indignation,  and  at  the  hazard  of  war  resolved  to  maintain  their  in- 
dependent position  ;  and  when  at  length  the  several  detachments  of 
the  ariny  of  the  crusaders  passed  into  Asia,  they  left  behind  them 
in  their  treacherous  auxiliaries,  the  Christians  of  the  Byzantine  em- 
pire, worse  enemies  than  they  had  to  encounter  in  the  Turks. 

1 8.  It  is  said  that  after  the  crusaders  had  united  their  forces  in 
Asia  Minor,  and  had  been  joined  by  the  remains  of  the  multitude  that 
had  followed  Peter  the  Hermit,  the  number  of  their  fighting  men, 
without  including  those  who  did  not  carry  arms,  was  six  hundred 
thousand,  and  that,  of  these,  the  number  of  knights  alone  was  two 
hundred  thousand.*      At  Nice,1  in  Bithyn'  ia,"  the  capital  of  the 
Sultany  of  Koum,3  they  first  encountered  the  Turks,  and  after  a  siege 
of  two  months  compelled  the  city  to  surrender,  in  spite  of  the  efforts 
of  the  Sultan,  Soliman,  for  its  relief.     (A.  D.    1097.)     From  Nice 
they  set  out  for  Syria ;  and  after  having  gained  a  victory  over  Soli- 
man near  Dorilao'  urn,4  in  a  march  of  five  hundred  miles  they  trav- 
ersed Lesser  Asia,  through  a  wasted  land  and  deserted  towns,  without 
finding  a  friend  or  an  enemy. 

19.  The  siege  of  Antioch,  unparalleled  for  its  difficulties,  and  the 

1.  JVfce,  called  by  the  Romans  JVYea'  a,  was  the  capital  of  Bithyn'  ia.    The  Turkish  town  of 
Jsnik  occupies  the  site  of  the  Bithyn'  ian  city.    (Map  No.  IV.) 

2.  Bithyn'  ia  was  a  country  of  Asia  Minor,  having  the  Euxine  on  the  north,  and  the  Propon- 
tis  and  Mysia  on  the  west.    (Map  No.  IV.) 

3.  Roam  (meaning  the  kingdom  of  the  Romans'),  was  the  name  given  by  Soliman,  sultan  of 
ihe  Turks,  to  the  present  Jfat6lia,  (the  western  part  of  Asia  Minor,)  when  he  invaded  and 
became  master  of  il  in  the  llth  century. 

4.  Dorila'  urn  was  a  city  of  Phrygia,  on  the  confines  of  Bithyn1  la.    The  plain  of  DorfUe'  um 
Is  often  mentioned  in  history  as  the  place  where  the  armies  of  the  Eastern  empire  assembled 
in  their  wars  against  the  Turks.    (Map  No.  IV.) 

a.  James's  History  of  the  Crusades,  p.  1U. 


282  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  II. 

losses  on  both  sides,  was  the  next  obstacle  to  the  onward  march  of 
the  crusaders,  now  reduced  to  half  the  number  that  had  been  collect- 
ed at  the  capture  of  Nice ;  but  when  the  enterprise  seemed  hopeless, 
the  town  was  betrayed  into  their  hands  by  a  Syrian  renegado,  (June 
1098.)  A  few  days  later,  the  victors  themselves,  suffering  the  ex- 
tremity of  privation  and  famine,  were  encompassed  by  a  splendid 
Turkish  and  Persian  army  of  three  hundred  thousand  men;  yet 
the  Christians,  collecting  the  relics  of  their  strength,  and  urged  on 
by  a  belief  of  miraculous  interposition  in  their  favor,  sallied  from 
the  town,  and  in  a  single  memorable  day  annihilated  or  dispersed 
the  host  of  their  enemies. 

20.  While  the  siege  of  Antioch  was  progressing,  the  Turkish  princes 
consumed  their  time  and  resources  in  civil  wars  beyond  the  Tigris; 
and  the  caliph  of  Egypt,  embracing  the  opportunity  of  weakness  and 
discord  to  recover  his  ancient  possessions,  besieged  and  took  Jerusa- 
lem.    The  Egyptian  monarch  offered  to  join  his  arms  to  those  of 
the  Christians,  for  the  purpose  of  subduing  all  Palestine ;  but  it  was 
evident  that  he  purposed  to  enjoy  the  fruits  of  victory  without  par- 
ticipation ;  and  the  answer  of  the  crusading  chiefs  was  firm  and  uni- 
form :  "  the  usurper  of  Jerusalem,  of  whatever  nation,  was  their 
enemy,  and  they  would  conquer  the  holy  city  with  the  sword  of 
Christ,  and  keep  it  with  the  same." 

21.  With  an  army  reduced  to  less  than  fifty  thousand  armed  men, 
the  crusaders,  in  the  month  of  May,  1099,  proceeded  from  Antioch 
towards  Jerusalem.     Marching  between  Mount  Lib'  aims1  and  the 
sea-shore,  they  obtained  by  treaty  a  free  passage  through  the  petty 
Turkish  principalities  of  Trip'  oli,2  Sidon,  Tyre,3  Acre,4  and  Csesarea,5 

1.  To  the  four  chains  of  mountains  running  parallel  to  the  sea-coast  through  northern  Syria 
or  Palestine,  the  name  Lib'  anus  has  been  applied.    To  a  chain  farther  east  the  Greeks  gave 
the  name  Anti-IAb'  anus.     (Map  No.  VI.) 

2.  Trip'  oli,  at  this  day  one  of  the  neatest  towns  of  Syria,  is  a  seaport,  seventy-five  miles 
north-west  from  Damascus.    It  was  one  of  the  most  flourishing  seats  of  ancient  literature,  and 
contained  an  extensive  library,  numbering,  it  is  said,  one  hundred  thousand  volumes,  which 
was  destroyed  by  the  crusaders  in  the  year  J 108.    On  this  occasion  the  crusaders  displayed  the 
same  fanatical  zeal  of  which  the  Saracens  have  been  accused,  though  some  think  unjustly,  in 
the  case  of  the  Alexandrian  library.    A  priest  having  visited  an  apartment  in  the  library  in 
which  were  several  copies  of  the  Koran,  reported  that  it  contained  none  but  impious  works  of 
Mahomet ;  and  the  whole  was  forthwith  committed  to  the  flames.    (Map  No.  VI.) 

3.  Tyre  and  Sj</o?j,  see  p.  61,  and  Map  No.  VI. 

4.  Acre  is  a  town  of  Syria  on  the  coast  of  the  Mediterranean,  at  the  north-eastern  limit  of 
the  bay  of  Acre.    Mount  Carmel  terminates  on  the  south-western  side  of  the  bay.    This  town  is 
rendered  famous  in  modern  history  by  its  determined  and  successful  resistance  to  the  arms  of 
Napoleon  in  179!).    See  p.  471.    (Map  No.  VI.) 

5.  Casarea  was  an  ancient  Roman  town  on  the  sea-coast  of  Palestine,  thirty  miles  south-west 
from  Acre.    It  was  a  flourishing  city  till  A.  D.  635,  when  it  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Saracens. 


CHAP.  IL]  MIDDLE  AGES.  283 

which  promised  to  remain,  for  the  time,  neutral,  and  to  follow  the 
example  of  the  capital.  When  at  length  the  holy  city  broke  upon 
the  view  of  the  Christian  host,  a  sudden  enthusiasm  of  joy  filled 
every  bosom  ;  past  dangers,  fatigues,  and  privations,  were  forgotten ; 
the  name  Jerusalem  was  echoed  by  every  tongue ;  and  while  some 
shouted  to  the  sky,  some  knelt  and  prayed,  some  wept  aloud,  and 
some  cast  themselves  down  and  kissed  the  earth  in  silence.  But  to 
the  excess  of  rejoicing  succeeded  the  extreme  of  wrath  at  seeing  the 
city  in  the  hands  of  the  infidels ;  and  in  the  first  ebullition  of  rage, 
a  simultaneous  attack  was  commenced  on  the  town  ;  but  a  vigorous 
repulse  taught  the  necessity  of  more  judicious  methods  of  assault. 

22.  Passing  over  the  details  of  the  siege  which  followed,  it  is  suf- 
ficient to  state,  that,  within  forty  days,  Jerusalem  was  taken  by  a 
desperate  assault,  and  that  the  blood  of  seventy  thousand  Moslems 
washed  the  paVeinents  of  the  captured  city ;  for  the  soldiers  of  the 
cross  believed  that  they  were  doing  God  good  service  in  exterminat- 
ing the  blasphemous  strangers ;  and  that  all  mercy  to  the  infidels 
was  an  injury  to  religion.  When  the  bloody  strife  was  over,  the 
leaders  and  soldiers,  washing  the  marks  of  gore  from  their  persons, 
and  casting  off  their  armor,  in  the  guise  of  penitents  and  amid  the 
loud  anthems  of  the  clergy,  ascended  the  Hill  of  Calvary1  on  their 
knees,  and  proceeding  to  the  holy  sepulchre,  with  tears  of  joy  kissed 
the  stone  which  had  covered  the  Saviour,  and  then  offered  up  their 
prayers  to  the  mild  Teacher  of  that  beautiful  religion  whose  princi- 
ples are  "  peace  and  good  will  to  men."  Peter  the  Hermit,  whose 
preaching  had  excited  the  crusade,  had  followed  the  army  through 
all  its  perils ;  and  when  he  entered  the  city  with  the  conquerors,  the 
Christians  of  Jerusalem  recognized  the  poor  pilgrim  who  had  first 
spoken  to  them  words  of  hope,  and  promised  them  deliverance  from 
the  oppression  of  their  Turkish  masters.  The  reception  which  he 
now  met  with  from  the  enthusiastic  multitude,  who  in  the  fervor  of 
their  gratitude  attributed  all  to  him,  and  casting  themselves  at  his 
feet,  invoked  the  blessings  of  heaven  on  their  benefactor,  more  than 
a  thousand  fold  repaid  the  Hermit  for  all  the  anxiety,  the  toils,  and 
dangers,  which  he  had  endured.  The  ultimate  fate  of  this  extraor 
dinary  individual  is  unknown. 

In  1101  it  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  crusaders,  when  it  sunk  to  rise  no  more.    Caesarea  was  the 
place  where  Peter  converted  Cornelius  and  his  house,  (Acts,  x.  1,)  and  where  Paul  made  his 
memorable  speeches  to  Felix  and  Agrippa.    (Acts,  xxiv.,  xxv.,  xxvl.) 
1.  Hill  af  Calvary.    See  description  of  Jerusalem  p.  164,  and  Map  No.  YD.) 


284  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAKT  IL 

<23.  Jerusalem  was  now  delivered  from  the  hands  of  the  infidels : 
the  great  object  of  the  expedition  was  accomplished ;  and  the  feudal 
institutions  of  Europe  were  introduced  into  Palestine  in  all  their 
purity.  Godfrey  of  Bouillon  was  chosen  the  first  sovereign  of  Je- 
rusalem ;  and  the  Christian  kingdom  thus  established  continued  to 
exist  nearly  a  century.  Several  minor  States  were  established  in 
the  East  by  the  crusaders,  but  as  they  seldom  united  cordially  for 
mutual  defence,  and  were  continually  assailed  by  powerful  enemies, 
none  of  them  were  of  long  duration.  Even  during  the  sovereignty 
of  Godfrey,  the  kingdom  of  Jerusalem,  owing  to  the  return  of  many 
of  the  crusaders,  and  their  losses  in  battle,  was  left  for  a  time  to  be 
supported  by  an  army  of  less  than  three  thousand  men.  But  the 
spirit  of  pilgrimage  was  still  rife ;  and  it  is  estimated  that,  between 
the  first  and  second  crusade,  five  hundred  thousand  people  set  out  from 
Europe  for  Syria,  in  armed  bands  of  several  thousand  men  each  ;  and 
although  the  greater  portion  of  them  perished  by  the  way,  the  few  who 
reached  their  destination  proved  exceedingly  serviceable  in  supporting 
the  Christian  cause,  and  in  re-peopleing  the  devastated  lands  of  Pales- 
tine. The  period  between  the  first  and  second  crusade  is  remarkable 
for  the  rise,  at  Jerusalem,  of  the  two  most  distinguished  orders  of 
knighthood — the  Hospitallers,  and  the  Red-Cross  Knights,  or  Temp- 
lars. The  valor  of  both  orders  became  noted  :  the  Hospitallers  ever 
burned  a  light  during  the  night,  that  they  might  always  be  prepared 
against  the  enemy ;  and  it  is  said  that  any  Templar,  on  hearing  the 
cry  "  to  arms,"  would  have  been  ashamed  to  ask  the  number  of  the 
enemy.  The  only  question  was,  "  where  are  they  ?" 

24.  During  nearly  two  centuries  after  the  council  of  Clermont, 
each  returning  year  witnessed  a  new  emigration  of  pilgrim  warriors 
for  the  defence  of  the  Holy  Land,  although  but  six  principal  cru- 
sades followed  the  first  great  movement ;  and  all  these  were  excited 
by  some  recent  or  impending  calamity  to  Palestine.     A  detailed  ac- 
count of  these  several  crusades  would  only  exhibit  the  perpetual 
recurrence  of  the  same  causes  and  effects ;  and  would  appear  but  so 
many  faint  and  unsuccessful  copies  of  the  original.     Avoiding  detail, 
we  shall  therefore  speak  of  them  only  in  general  terms. 

25.  Forty-eight  years  after  the  conquest  of  Jerusalem,  the  loss 
v  TH.K      °^  *ke  Prmcipal  Christian  fortresses  in  Palestine  led  to  a 
SKCOND      second  crusade,  which  was  undertaken  by  Conrad  III., 

CB.OSADF,     emperor  of  Germany,  and  Louis  VII. ,  king  of  France 
(A.  D.   1 1 47.)     The  Pope  Eugenius  abetted  the  design,  and  com- 


CHAP.  H.]  MIDDLE  AGES.  285 

missioned  the  eloquent  St.  Bernard  to  preach  the  cross  through 
France  and  Germany.  A  vast  army  under  Conrad  took  the  lead  in 
the  expedition ;  but  not  a  tenth  part  ever  reached  the  Syrian  boun- 
daries The  army  of  French  and  Germans  was  but  little  more  for- 
tunate ;  and  the  poor  remains  of  these  mighty  hosts,  still  led  by  the 
emperors  of  Franco  and  Germany,  after  reaching  Jerusalem,  joined 
the  Christian  arms  in  a  fruitless  siege  of  Damascus,  which  was  the 
termination  of  the  second  crusade. 

26.  Forty  years  after  the  second  crusade,  Jerusalem  was  taken  by 
Saladin,  the  Sultan  of  Egypt,  whose  authority  was  acknowledged 
also  by  the  greater  part  of  Syria  and  Persia.     (A.  D.  1187.)     The 
loss  of  the  holy  city  filled  all  Europe  with  consternation  ;  and  new 
expeditions  were  fitted  out  for  its  recovery.     France,      VL  THE 
Germany,  and  England,  joined  in  the  crusade ;  and  the       THIRD 
armies  of  each  country  were  headed  by  their  respective 
sovereigns,  Philip  Augustus,  Frederic  Barbarossa,  and  Richard  I., 
surnamed  the  lion-hearted.     Frederic,  after  defeating  the  Saracens 
in  a  pitched  battle  on  the  plains  of  Asia  Minor,  lost  his  life  by  im- 
prudently bathing  in  the  river  Orontes  ;a  and  his  army  was  reduced 
to  a  small  body  when  it  reached  Antioch.     The  French  and  English, 
more  successful  than  the  Germans,  besieged  and  took  Acre,  after  a 
siege  of   twenty-two  months  (July,   A.  D.   1191);  but  as  Richard 
and  Philip  quarrelled,  owing  to  the  latter's  jealousy  of  the  superior 
military  prowess  of  the  former,  Philip  returned  home  in  disgust; 
and  Richard,  after  defeating  Saladin  in  a  great  battle  near  Ascalon,1 
and  penetrating  within  sight  of  Jerusalem,  concluded  a  three  years' 
truce  with  his  rival,  and  then  set  sail  for  his  own  dominions.     (A.  D. 
Oct.  1192.) 

27.  The  fourth  crusade b  was  undertaken  at  the  beginning  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  (A.   D.   1202,)  at  the  instigation  of     VJL  THR 
pope  Innocent  III.     No  great  sovereign  joined  in  the      FOURTH 
enterprise;  but  the  most  powerful  barons  of  France 

1.  .•JSCQ/OT?,  a  very  ancient  city  of  the  Philistines,  was  a  sea-port  town  of  the  Mediterranean, 
forty-five  miles  south-west  from  Jerusalem.  Its  ruins  present  a  strange  mixture  of  Syrian,  Greek, 
Gothic,  and  Roman  remains.  There  is  not  a  single  inhabitant  within  tbe  old  walls,  which  arc 
still  standing.  The  prophecy  of  Zechariab,  "  Ascalon  shall  not  be  inhabited,"  aud  that  of 
Ezekiel,  "  It  shall  be  a  desolation,"  are  now  actually  fulfilled.  (Map  No.  VI.) 

a.  Some  authorities  say  the  Cydnus.    See  James's  Chivalry  and  the  Crusades,  p.  239. 

b.  Several  important  expeditions  that  were  made  to  the  Holy  Land  a  short  time  previous  to 
this,  and  that  were  promoted  by  the  exhortations  of  pope  Celestine  III.,  are  represented  by 
some  writers  as  the  fourth  crusade.    In  this  way  some  writers  enumerate  nine  distinct  crusades 
some  more,  while  others  describe  only  six. 


286  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

took  the  cross,  and  gave  the  command  to  Boniface,  marquis  of 
Montserrat. 1  They  hired  the  Venetians  to  transport  them  to  Pales- 
tine, and  agreed  to  recapture  for  them  the  city  of  Zara,2  in  Dalmatia ; 
and  this  object  was  accomplished,  while  the  pope  in  vain  launched 
the  thunders  of  the  church  at  the  refractory  crusaders.  Instead  of 
sailing  to  Palestine,  the  expedition  was  then  directed  against  the 
Greek  empire,  under  the  pretence  of  dethroning  a  usurper  ;  and  the 
result  was  the  conquest  of  Constantinople  by  the  Latins,  and  the 
founding  of  a  new  Latin  or  Roman  empire  on  the  ruins  of  the  By- 
zantine. (A.  D.  April  1204.)  The  new  empire  existed  during  a 
period  of  fifty-seven  years,  when  the  Greeks  partially  recovered  their 
authority.  The  fourth  crusade  ended  without  producing  any  benefit 
to  Palestine. 

28.  The  fifth  crusade,  undertaken  fourteen  years  after  the  fall  of 
viii  THE     tne  Byzantine  empire,  was  at  first  conducted  by  Andrew, 

FIFTH  monarch  of  Hungary.  The  Christian  army,  after  spend 
CRUSADE.  iQg  some  time  in  the  vicinity  of  Acre,  sailed  to  Egypt ; 
but  after  some  successes,  among  which  was  the  taking  of  Damietta,3 
ultimate  ruin  was  the  issue  of  the  expedition.  A  few  years  later, 
(A.  D.  1228),  Frederic  II.,  emperor  of  Germany,  then  arrayed  in 
open  hostility  with  the  pope,  led  a  formidable  army  to  Palestine,  and 
after  he  had  advanced  some  distance  from  Acre  towards  Jerusalem, 
concluded  a  treaty  with  the  sultan  Melek  Kamel,  whereby  the  holy 
city  and  the  greater  part  of  Palestine  were  yielded  to  the  Christians. 
After  the  return  of  Frederic  to  Europe,  new  bands  of  crusaders  pro- 
ceeded to  Palestine :  the  sultan  Kamel  retook  Jerusalem,  but  the 
Christians  again  obtained  it  by  treaty. 

29.  While  these  events  had  been  passing  in  Palestine  a  new  dy- 
nasty had  arisen  in  the  north  of  Asia,  which  for  a  time  threatened 
a  complete  revolution  of  all  the  known  countries  of  the  world.     In 

the  early  part  of  the  thirteenth  century  Gengis  Khan, 

CONQUESTS*  *ke  son  °^  a  Petty  ^ong°l  Prmce)  nad  raised  himself  to 

be  the  lord  of  all  the  pastoral  nations  throughout  the 

vast  plains  of  Tartary.     After  desolating  China,4  and  adding  its  five 

1.  Montserrat  was  an  Italian  marquisate  in  western  Lombardy,  now  included  in  Piedmont. 
The  marquises  of  Montserrat,  rising  from  small  beginnings  in  the  course  of  the  tenth  century, 
and  gradually  extending  their  territories,  acted,  during  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries, 
one  of  the  most  brilliant  parts  alloted  to  any  reigning  house  in  Europe. 

2.  Zara,  still  the  capital  of  Dalmalia,  is  a  seaport  on  the  eastern  coast  of  the  Adriat'  ic,  one 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  south-east  from  Venice. 

3.  Damietta.  is  on  the  Damietta,  or  principal  eastern  branch  of  the  Nile,  six  miles  from  its  mouth. 

4.  CAtMo,  a  vast  country  of  eastern  Asia,  may  be  almost  said  to  have  no  history  of  any  in- 


CHAP.IL]  MIDDLE  AGES.  287 

northern  provinces  to  his  empire,  at  the  head  of  seven  hundred  thou- 
sand warriors  a  he  invaded  and  overran  the  dominions  of  the  sultan 
of  Persia.  His  successor  Octai  directed  his  resistless  arms  west- 
ward, under  the  conduct  of  his  general  Baton,  who,  in  the  course  of 
six  year's,  led  his  warriors,  in  a  conquering  march,  from  east  to  west, 
over  a  fourth  part  of  the  circumference  of  the  globe.  The  inun- 
dating torrent,  passing  north  of  the  territories  of  the  Byzantine  em- 
pire, left  them  unharmed ;  but  it  rolled  with  all  its  fury  upon  the 
more  barbarous  nations  of  Europe.  A  great  part  of  Russia1  was 
desolated  ;  and  both  Kiev3  and  Moscow,3  the  ancient  and  modern 
capital,  were  reduced  to  ashes :  the  Tartars  penetrated  into  the  heart 
of  Poland,4  and  as  far  as  the  borders  of  Germany,  whence  they 
turned  to  the  south  and  spread  over  the  plains  of  Hungary.  Already 
the  remote  nations  of  the  Baltic  trembled  at  the  approach  of  these 
barbarian  warriors  ;  and  Germany,  France,  England,  and  Italy,  were 
on  the  point  of  arming  in  the  common  defence  of  Christendom,  when 
Baton  and  the  five  hundred  thousand  warriors  who  still  accompanied 
him  were  recalled  to  Asia  by  the  death  of  their  sovereign.  (A.  D. 
1245.) 

30.  Among  the  many  tribes  and  nations  that  had  been  driven  from 
their  original  seats  by  the  great  Tartar  inundation,  were  the  Coras- 
mins,  embracing  numerous  hordes  of  Tartar  origin,  that  had  attached 
themselves  to  the  fortunes  of  the  sultan  of  Persia.  They  now  pre- 
cipitated themselves  upon  Syria  and  Palestine,  and  massacred  indis- 

terest  to  the  general  reader,  it  has  so  few  revolutions  or  political  changes  to  record.  The 
authentic  history  of  the  Chinese  begins  with  the  compilations  of  Confucius,  who  was  bom 
B.  C.  550.  From  that  period  the  annals  of  the  empire  have  been  carefully  noted  and  preserved 
in  an  unbroken  line  to  the  present  day — forming  a  series  of  more  than  five  hundred  volumes 
of  uninteresting  chronological  details. 

1.  Russia,  the  largest,  and  one  of  the  most  powerful  empires,  either  of  ancient  or  modern 
times,  extends  from  Behrmg's  straits  and  the  Pacific  on  the  east,  to  the  Gulf  of  Bothnia  on  the 
west, — a  distance  of  nearly  six  thousand  miles,  with  an  average  breadth  of  about  fifteen  hun- 
dred miles.    In  this  immense  empire  about  forty  distinct  languages  are  in  use,  having  attached 
to  them  a  great  number  of  different  dialects.    In  the  year  1535  the  extent  of  the  Russian  do- 
minions was  estimated  at  thirty-seven  thousand  German  square  miles;  but  in  the  year  1850  it 
had  increased  to  ten  times  that  amount.    (For  early  history  of  Russia  see  p.  309.) 

2.  Kiev,  or  Kiow,  the  capital  of  the  modern  Russian  province  of  the  same  name,  is  on  the 
Dnieper,  two  hundred  and  twenty  miles  north  of  Odes'  sa,  the  nearest  port  on  the  Black  Sea. 
Kiev  was  the  former  residence  of  the  grand  dukes  of  Russia— the  earliest  seat  of  the  Christian 
religion  in  Russia— and  for  a  considerable  period  the  capital  of  the  empire.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

3.  Moscow,  still  one  of  the  capitals  of  the  Russian  empire,  and  the  grand  entrepot  of  its  in- 
ternal commerce,  is  situated  on  the  navigable  river  Moskwa,  a  branch  of  the  Volga,  four  hun- 
dred miles  south-east  from  St.  Petersburg.    It  was  founded  in  the  year  1147.    (Map  No.  XII.) 

4.  Poland,  see  p.  311. 
a.  Gibbon,  iv.  251. 


288  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

eriminately  Turks,  Jews,  and  Christians  who  opposed  them.  Jeru- 
salem was  taken ;  and  it  is  said  every  soul  in  it  was  put  to  the  sword ; 
but  at  length  the  Turks  and  Christians,  uniting  their  forces,  utterly 
defeated  the  Corasmins,  and  thus  delivered  Palestine  from  one  of 
the  most  terrible  scourges  that  had  ever  been  inflicted  on  it. 

31.  The    ravages   of   the    Corasmins    in    Palestine   called   forth 
x.  THE      *ke  Six^  crusade,  which  was  led  by  Louis  IX.,  king 
SIXTH       of  France,  commonly  called  St.  Louis.     He  began  by  an 

CRUSADE.  attack  on  Egypt ;  but  after  some  successes  he  was  de- 
feated, made  prisoner  when  enfeebled  by  disease,  and  forced  to 
purchase  his  liberty  by  the  payment  of  an  immense  ransom.  (A.  D. 
1250.)  Twenty  years  later  St.  Louis  embarked  on  a  second  cru- 
sade— the  last  of  those  great  movements  for  the  redemption  of  the 
Holy  Land.  The  fleet  of  Louis  being  driven  by  a  storm  into  Sar 
dinia,  here  a  change  of  plans  took  place,  and  it  was  resolved  to  at 
tack  the  Moors  of  Africa.  The  French  landed  near  Carthage,  and 
took  the  city ;  but  a  pestilence  soon  carried  off  Louis  and  the  greater 
portion  of  his  army,  when  the  expedition  was  abandoned. 

32.  From  this  time  the  fate  of  the  Eastern  Christians  grew  daily 
more  certain ;  and  in  the  year  1291  a  Turkish  army  of  two  hundred 
thousand  men  appeared  before  the  walls  of  Acre,  the  last  strong- 
hold of  the  crusaders  in  Palestine.     After  a  tedious  siege  the  city 
was  taken  ;  and  thus  the  last  vestige  of  the  Christian  power  in  Syria 
was  swept  away.     The  crusades  had  occupied  a  period  of  nearly  two 
centuries,  and  had  led  two  millions  of  Europeans  to  find  their  graves 
in  Eastern  lands ;  and  yet  none  of  the  objects  of  these  expeditions 
had  been  accomplished  ; — a  sad  commentary  upon  the  folly  and  fa- 
naticism of  the  age.     The  effects  of  these  holy  wars  upon  the  state 
of  European  society  will  be  referred  to  in  a  subsequent  chapter.8- 

III.  ENGLISH  HISTORY. — 1.  Our  last  reference  to  the  history  of 

England  was  to  that  period  rendered  brilliant  by  the 

AFTER  THE   reign  of  Alfred  the  Great,  the  real  founder  of  the  Eng- 

DEATH  OF    Hsh  monarchy ;  and  we  now  proceed  to  give  a  brief  but 

connected  outline  of  the  continuation  of  English  history 

during  the  central  period  of  the  Middle  Ages,  which  has  just  passed 

in  review  before  us. 

2.  After  the  death  of  Alfred,  in  the  first  year  of  the  tenth  cen- 
tury, (A.  D.  901,)  England,  still  a  prey  to  the  ravages  of  the  Danes, 

a.  See  Part  III.  ch.  ix.  of  the  University  Edition. 


]  MIDDLE  AGES.  289 

and  intestine  disorder,  relapsed  into  confusion  and  barbarism ;  and 
under  a  succession  of  eight  sovereigns,1  from  the  time  of  Alfred,  its 
history  presents  little  that  is  important  to  the  modern  reader. 
During  the  reign  of  Ethelred  II.,  the  last. of  these  rulers,  tho 
Danes  and  Norwegians,  led  by  Sweyn  king  of  Denmark,1  acquired 
possession  of  the  greater  portion  of  the  kingdom ;  and  on  several 
occasions  Ethelred  purchased  a  momentary  respite  from  their  rav- 
ages by  large  bribes,  which  only  increased  their  avidity,  and  insured 
their  return.  At  length  the  weak  and  cruel  monarch  ordered  the 
massacre  of  all  the  Danes  in  the  Saxon  territories.  (A.  D.  1002.) 
The  execution  of  the  barbarous  mandate  occasioned  the  renewal  of 
hostilities :  the  English  nobles,  in  contempt  of  their  sovereign,  of- 
fered the  crown  to  Sweyn ;  while  Ethelred  fled  for  refuge  to  the 
court  of  Richard,  duke  of  Normandy,  whose  sister  he  had  married. 
On  the  death  of  Sweyn,  in  the  year  1014,  the  Danish  army  in  Eng- 
land chose  his  son  Canute  to  succeed  him ;  while  the  Saxon  chiefs, 
with  their  wonted  inconstancy,  recalled  Ethelred.  On  the  death  of 
the  latter,  his  son  Edmund,  surnamed  Ironside,  from  his  hardihood 
and  valor,  was  chosen  king  by  the  English  ;  but  by  his  death,  (A.  D. 
1016,)  after  a  few  months,  Canute,  in  accordance  with  a  previous 
treaty,  was  left  in  undisturbed  possession  of  the  whole  of  England. 

3.  Canute,  surnamed  the  Great,  proved  to  be  the  most  powerful 
monarch  of  the  age.     By  marrying  Emma,  the  widow  of  Ethelred, 
he  conciliated  the  vanquished  Britons,  and  disarmed  the  hostility  of 
the  duke  of  Normandy ;  while  the  earl  of  Godwin,  the  most  power- 
ful of  the  English  barons,  was  gained  to  his  interests,  by  receiving 
the  hand  of  the  king's  daughter.     In  the  year  1025  he  subdued 
Sweden,  and  Norway"  two  years  later,  and  on  his  death  (Nov.  1036) 
he  left  his  vast  possessions  of  Denmark,  Sweden,  Norway,  and  Eng- 
land, to  be  divided  among  his  children.     His  administration  of  the 
government  of  England  was  at  first  harsh  ;  but  he  gradually  emerged 
from  his  original  barbarism,  embraced  Christianity,  encouraged  liter- 
ature, and   adopted  some  wise   institutions  for  the  benefit  of  his 
Anglo  Saxon  subjects. 

4.  After  the  death  of  Canute,  two  of  his  sons,  Harold  and  Hardi- 
canute,  reigned  in  succession  over  England;  after  which,  in   1041, 

1.  Denmark^  Sweden,  and  Norway  ; — see  p.  308. 

2.  Sweden  and  Norway.    See  Denmark,  p.  308. 

a.  Edward  I.  the  Elder,  901.    Athelstan,  925.    Edmund  T.,  941.    Edred,  946.    Edwy,  955, 
Edgar,  950.    Edward  II.,  the  Martyr,  975.    Ethelred  II .,  978. 


290  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAET  IL 

f  i '    •  • 

the  crown  returned  to  the  ancient  Saxon  family,  in  the  person  of 

Edward  the  Confessor,  a  younger  son  of  Ethelred.  The  mild  char- 
acter of  Edward  endeared  him  to  his  Saxon  subjects,  notwithstand- 
ing the  partiality  which  he  showed  to  his  Norman  favorites  •  but  his 
reign  of  twenty-five  years  was  weak  and  inglorious,  and  it  was  dis- 
turbed by  the  rebellion  of  the  earl  of  Godwin,  by  occasional  hostili- 
ties with  the  Welsh  and  Scotch,  and  by  intrigues  for  the  succession. 
On  his  death,  (1066,)  Harold,  son  of  Godwin,  took  possession  of  the 
throne ;  but  scarcely  had  he  overcome  his  brother  Tostig,  who  dis- 
puted the  supremacy  with  him,  when  he  found  a  more  formidable 
competitor  in  William,  duke  of  Normandy,  to  whom  the  late  king 
had  either  bequeathed  or  purposed  the  succession.  On  the  25th  of 
September,  1066,  Harold  gained  a  great  victory  over  his  brother; 
but,  three  days  later,  William  landed  in  Sussex,1  at  the  head  of  sixty 
thousand  men,  and  on  the  fourteenth  of  October  fought 
CONQUESTS*  with  Harold  the  Woody  battle  of  Hastings,2  which  ter- 
minated the  Saxon  dynasty,  and  put  William  the  Nor- 
man in  possession  of  the  throne  of  England.  Harold  was  killed  in 
battle  ;  the  English  army  was  nearly  destroyed,  and  a  fourth  part  of 
the  Normans  slain.  The  victory  gave  to  William  the  title  of  the 
Conqueror ;  and  the  subjugation  of  the  realm  by  him  is  termed,  in 
English  history,  the  Norman  conquest. 

5.  This  conquest,  however,  was  gradual,  for  the  immediate  results 
of  the  battle  of  Hastings  gave  to  William  less  than  a  fourth  part  of 
the  kingdom ;  and  his  wars  for  the  subjugation  of  the  West,  the 
North,  and  the  East,  were  protracted  during  a  period  of  seven  years. 
William  treated  the  English  as  rebels  for  appearing  in  the  field 
against  him,  and  distributed  their  lands  among  his  Norman  followers. 
To  this  distribution,  the  titles  and  revenues  of  many  of  the  English 
nobility  owe  their  origin.a  The  northern  Saxons  made  a  vigorous 
resistance,  and  William  treated  them  with  a  severity  in  proportion 
to  the  valor  and  pertinacity  of  their  defence — laying  waste  the 
country  with  fire  and  sword,  until,  in  some  countries,  the  danger  of 
rebellion  was  removed  by  a  total  dearth  of  inhabitants. 

"r.  is  a  southern  county  of  England,  on  the  English  channel,  west  of  Kent. 

A»  -idsti-ngs,  now  a  town  of  ten  thousand  inhabitants,  is  fifty-four  miles  south-east  from  Lon- 
don. It  is  pleasantly  situated  in  a  vale,  surrounded  on  every  side,  except  toward  the  sea,  by  hills 
and  cliffs.  On  a  hill  east  of  the  town  are  still  to  be  seen  banks  and  trenches,  supposed  to  have 
been  the  work  of  the  Normans  at  the  time  of  the  invasion.  (Map  No.  XVI.) 

a.  See  Notes,  Warwick,  Richmond,  &.C.,  p.  306. 


CHAP.  II]  MIDDLE  AGES.  291 

6.  The  foundations  of  the  feudal  system  had  existed  in  England 
before  the  conquest;  but  the  distribution  of  the  conquered  lands 
among  the  Norman  followers  of  William,  gave  that  prince  the  op- 
portunity of  fully  establishing  the  system  as  it  then  existed,  in  its 
maturity,  on  the  continent.     Preparatory  to  the  introduction  of  the 
feudal  tenures,  William  caused  a  survey  to  be  made  of  all  the  lands 
in  the  kingdom,  the  particulars  of  which  were  inserted  in  what  is 
called  the  Doomsday  Book,  or  Book  of  Judgment,  which  is  still  in 
being.     Under  the  iron  rule  of  the  conqueror  the  Anglo  Saxons  be- 
came vassals  of  their  Norman  lords ;  the  name  Saxon  was  made  a 
term  of  reproach ;  and  the  Saxon  language  was  regarded  as  barba- 
rous ;  while  the  Norman-French  idiom  was  employed  in  all  the  acts 
of  administration. 

7.  On  the  death  of  William,  in  the  year  1087,  his  second  son, 
William  Rufus,  took  possession  of  the  throne,  to  the  prejudice  of  his 
elder  brother  Robert,  then  absent  in  Normandy.     His  reign,  and 
that  of  his  brother  and  successor,  Henry  I.,  are  distinguished  by  few 
events  of  importance  ;  but  both  plundered  the  kingdom  :  an  ancient 
Saxon  chronicle  says  that  the  former  was  -"  loathed  by  nearly  all  his 
people,  and  odious  to  God  ;"  and  of  the  latter  it  is  said  that  "justice 
was  in  his  hands  a  source  of  revenue,  and  judicial  murder  a  frequent 
instrument  of  extortion." 

8.  Henry  had  married  a  Saxon  princess  ;  and  to  his  daughter  Ma- 
tilda, by  this  marriage,  he  designed  to  leave  the  crown ;  but  his 
nephew  Stephen  defeated  his  intentions  by  immediately  seizing  the 
vacant  throne  on  the  death  of  Henry.     (1135.)     A  long  civil  war 
that  followed  was  terminated  by  a  general  council  of  the  kingdom 
which  adopted  Henry  Plantagenet,1  Matilda's  son,  as  the  successor 
of  Stephen.     One  year  later  the  boisterous  life  and  wretched  reign 
of  Stephen  were  brought  to  a  close,  when  Henry  II.,  the  first  of 
the  Plantagenet  dynasty,  ascended  the  throne  of  England.    (A.  D. 
1154.) 

9.  By  inheritance  and  marriage,  Henry  possessed,  in  addition  to 
the  duchy  of  Normandy,   the  fairest   provinces   of  north-western 

1.  Plantagenet  is  the  surname  of  the  kings  of  England  from  Henry  II.  to  Richard  III. 
inclusive.  Antiquarians  are  much  at  a  loss  to  account  for  the  origin  of  this  name ;  and  the 
best  derivation  they  can  find  for  it  is,  that  Fulk,  the  first  earl  of  Anjou  of  that  name,  being 
etung  with  remorse  tor  some  wicked  action,  went  in  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem  as  a  work  of 
atonement ;  where,  being  soundly  scourged  with  broom  twigs,  which  grew  plentifully  on  the 
spot,  he  ever  after  took  the  surname  of  Plantagenet,  or  broomstalky  which  was  retained  by  his 
noble  posterity.  (Encyclopedia.) 


292  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  II 

France ;  and  these,  in  connection  with  his  English  dominions,  ren- 
dered him  one  of  the  most  powerful  monarchs  in  chris- 
TION  OF      tendom.     He  also  reduced  Ireland1  to  a  state  of  subjec- 
IRELAND.     tior^  an(j  formaiiy  annexed  it  to  the  English  crown,  al- 
though the  complete  conquest  of  that  country  was  not  effected  until 
nearly  four  centuries  later.     By  a  wise  and  impartial  administration 
of  the  government,  Henry  gained  the  affections  of  his  people  ;  but  he 
was  long  engaged  in  a  kind  of  spiritual  warfare  with  the  pope,  and 
the  close  of  his  life  was  clouded  by  domestic  misfortunes.     His  sons, 
instigated  by  their  mother,  and  aided  by  Louis  VII.,  king  of  France, 
repeatedly  rebelled  against  him ;  and  he  finally  died  of  a  broken 
heart,  after  a  long  reign  of  thirty -five  years.     (A.  D.  1189.) 

10.  Henry  was  succeeded  by  his  eldest  son  Richard,  surnamed 
the  Lion-hearted,  who  immediately  on  his  accession,  after  plundering 
his  subjects  of  an  immense  sum  of  money,  embarked  on  a  crusade 
to  the  Holy  Land.  After  filling  the  world  with  his  renown,  being 
wrecked  in  his  homeward  voyage,  and  travelling  in  disguise  through 
Germany,  he  was  seized  and  imprisoned,  and  only  obtained  his  lib- 
erty by  an  immense  ransom,  which  was  paid  by  his  subjects.  The 

1.  Ireland  is  a  large  island  west  of  England,  from  which  it  is  separated  by  the  Irish  Sea  and 
St.  George's  Channel.  Its  divisions,  best  known  in  history,  are  the  four  great  provinces,  Ulster 
in  the  north,  Leinster  in  the  east,  Connaught  in  the  west,  -and  Munster  in  the  south. 

Irish  historians  speak  of  Greek,  Phoenician,  Scotch,  Spanish,  and  Gaulic  colonies  in  Ireland, 
before  the  Christian  era ;  for  which,  however,  there  is  no  historical  foundation.  The  oldest 
authentic  Irish  records  were  written  between  the  tenth  and  twelfth  centuries ;  but  some  of 
them  go  back,  with  some  consistency,  as  far  as  the  Christian  era.  The  early  inhabitants  of, 
Ireland  were  evidently  more  barbarous  than  even  those  of  Britain.  In  the  fifth  century  Christ! 
anity  was  introduced  among  them  by  St.  Patrick,  a  native  of  North  Britain,  who  in  his  youth 
had  been  carried  a  captive  into  Ireland ;  but  the  new  faith  did  not  nourish  until  a  century  01 
two  later;  and  it  appears  that,  even  then,  the  learning  of  the  Irish  clergy  did  not  extend  be- 
yond  the  walls  of  the  monasteries.  In  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries  the  Danes  made  them- 
selves masters  of  the  greater  part  of  the  coasts  of  the  island,  while  the  interior,  divided  among 
a  number  of  barbarous  and  hostile  chiefs,  was  agitated  by  internal  wars,  which  no  sense  of 
common  dangers  could  interrupt.  In  the  early  part  of  the  eleventh  century,  Brian  Born,  king 
of  Munster,  united  the  greater  part  of  the  island  under  his  sceptre,  and  expelled  the  Danes  ; 
but  soon  after  his  death,  A.  D.  1014,  the  kingdom  was  again  divided  ;  and  sanguinary  wars 
continued  to  rage  between  opposing  princes  until  the  invasion  by  Henry  II.  of  England,  in  the 
year  1169.  So  early  as  1155  Henry  had  projected  the  conquest  of  Ireland,  and  had  obtained 
from  pope  Adrian  IV.  full  permission  to  invade  and  subdue  the  Irish,  for  the  purpose  of  re- 
forming them.  The  grant  was  accompanied  by  a  stipulation  for  the  payment  to  St.  Peter,  of  a 
penny  annually  from  every  house  in  Ireland, — this  being  the  price  for  which  the  independence 
of  the  Irish  people  was  coolly  bartered  away.  Henry,  however,  conquered  only  the  four 
counties  Dublin,  Meath,  Louth,  and  Kildare,  being  a  part  of  Leinster,  on  the  eastern  coast. 
In  1315  Edward  Bruce,  brother  of  the  king  of  Scotland,  being  invited  over  by  the  /Irish,  landed 
in  Ireland,  and  caused  himself  to  be  proclaimed  king  ;  but  not  being  well  supported,  he  was 
finally  defeated  and  killed  in  the  battle  of  Dundalk,  in  the  year  1318,  after  which  the  Scotch 
forces  were  withdrawn.  It  was  not  until  the  time  of  Cromwell  that  English  supremacy  was 
full  jr  estab  .ished  in  every  part  of  the  island.  (Map  No.  XVI.) 


CHAP.  IL]  MIDDLE  AGES.  293 

reign  of  this  famous  knight  is  chiefly  signalized  by  his  deeds  in  Pal- 
estine, and  is  of  little  importance  in  English  history. 

11.  Richard  was  succeeded  by  his  profligate  brother  John,  sur 
named  Lackland.     (A.  D.  1 199.)     In  a  long  struggle  with  Philip 
Augustus  of  France,  John  lost  most  of  his  continental  possessions : 
by  stripping  the  church  of  its  treasures  he  made  the  pope  his  enemy ; 
and  after  a  vain  attempt  to  brave  the  storm  of  his  vengeance,  he 
made  a  cowardly  submission,   swore  allegiance  to  the  pope,   and 
agreed  to  hold  his  kingdom  tributary  to  the  holy  see.     The  barons, 
provoked  by  the  tyranny  and  vices  of  their  sovereign,  next  took  up 
arms  against  him  :  they  received  with  indignation  the  pope's  decla- 
ration in  favor  of  his  vassal, — took  possession  of   London, — and 
finally  compelled  the  king  to  yield  to  their  demands,  and  to  sign  the 
Magna  Charta,  or  Great  Charter  of  rights  and  liberties,  which  laid 
the  first  permanent  foundation  of  British  freedom. a     John  attempt- 
ed to  annul  the  conditions  imposed,  and,  being  absolved  by  the  pope 
from  the  oath  which  he  had  taken  to  the  barons,  he  collected  an 
army  of  mercenary  soldiers  from  Germany,  and  proceeded  to  lay 
waste  the  kingdom  ;  but  the  barons  proffered  the  crown  to  Louis,  the 
eldest  son  of  the  French  monarch,  who  came  over  with  a  large  army  to 
enforce  his  claims,  when  the  sudden  death  of  John  arrested  impending 
dangers,  and  prevented  England  from  becoming  a  province  of  France. 

12.  On  the  death  of  John,  his  eldest  son,  Henry  III.,  then  in 
the  tenth  year  of  his  age,  was  acknowledged  king  by  the  nobility  and 
the  people.     Henry  was  a  weak  and  fickle  sovereign  ;  and  during  his 
long  reign  of  more  than  half  a  century,  the  country  was  agitated  by 
internal  commotions,  caused  by  the  king's  prodigality,  favoritism,  op- 
pressive exactions,  and  continual  violation  of  the  people's  rights  in  direct 
opposition  to  the  principles  of  the  Great  Charter.     Again  the  barons 
resisted,  and  called  a  parliament,  when  the  king  was  virtually  de- 
posed.    (A.  D.  1258.)     An  attempt  to  regain  his  authority  led  to 
all  the  horrors  of  civil  war.     In  another  parliament,  called  by  the 
barons,  (A.  D.   1265,)  and  embracing  delegates  from  the  counties, 
cities,  and  boroughs,  we  find  the  first  germs  of  popular  representa- 
tion in  England ;  and  although,  eventually,  the  baronial  party,  whose 
tyranny  was  found  scarcely  less  than  that  of  the  king,  was  over- 
thrown, yet  their  incautious  innovation  had  already  laid  the  basis  of 
the  future  House  of  Commons. 

a.  The  Great  Charter  was  signed  on  the  19th  of  June,  1215,  at  Runnymede,  on  the  Thames, 
between  Staines  and  Windsor. 


294  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAET  II 

13.  Henry  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  Edward  I.,  who,  at  the  time 
of  his  father's  death,  was  absent  on  the  last  crusade  to  the  Holy 
Land.     (A.  D.  1272.)     The  active  and  splendid  reign  of  this  prince, 
who  left  behind  him  the  character  of  a  great  statesman  and  com- 
mander, was  mostly  occupied  with  the  attempt  to  unite  the  whole  of 
Great  Britain  under  one  sovereignty.     When  JLlewellyn,  prince  of 

iv  SUBJU-    Wales,1  refused  to  perform  the  customary  homage  to  the 
CATION  OF    English  crown,  Edward  declared  war  against  him,  over- 
WALES.      ran  fae  country?  an(}  subdued  it,  after  a  brave  resistance. 
(1277—1283.) 

14.  The  remainder  of  Edward's  reign  was  filled  with  attempts  to 
subjugate   Scotland,   to   which  country  the    English  monarch  laid 
claim  as  lord  paramount,  by  the  rights  of  fealty  and  succession.     A 
Scotch  king,  taken  prisoner  by  Henry  II.,  had  been  compelled,  as  the 
price  of  his  release,  to  do  homage  for  his  crown  j  and  the  same  had 
been  demanded  of  later  princes,  in  return  for  lands  which  they  held 
in  England.     By  the  death  of  Alexander  III.  of  Scotland,  in  the 
year  1283,  the  crown  devolved  on  his  grand  daughter  the  princess 
Margaret,  who  was  a  niece  of  Edward  I.  of  England.     This  lady 
was  soon  after  affianced  to  Edward's  only  son,  the  prince  of  Wales; 
and  thus  the  prospect  of  uniting  the  crowns  of  the  two  kingdoms 
seemed  near  at  hand,  when  the  frail  bond  of  union  was  suddenly 
destroyed  by  the  untimely  death  of  the  princess. 

15.  The  two  principal  Scotch  competitors  for  the  crown  were  now 
John  Baliol  and  Robert  Bruce,  who  agreed  to  submit  their  claims  to 
the  decision  of  Edward.     The  latter  decided  in  favor  of  Baliol,  on 
condition  of  his  becoming  a  vassal  of  the  English  king.     (A.  D.  1 292.) 

1.  Wales,  anciently  called  Cambria^  a  principality  in  the  west  of  Great  Britain,  having  oa 
the  north  and  west  the  Irish  Sea,  and  on  the  south  and  south-west  Bristol  Channel,  is  about  one 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  in  length  from  north  to  south,  and  from  fifty  to  eighty  in  breadth.  The 
Welsh  are  descendants  of  the  ancient  Britons,  who,  being  driven  out  of  England  by  the  Anglo 
Saxons,  took  refuge  in  the  mountain  fastnesses  of  Wales,  or  fled  to  the  continent  of  Europe, 
where  they  gave  their  name  to  Brittany.  In  the  ninth  century  Wales  was  divided  into  three 
sovereignties,  North  Wales,  South  Wales,  and  the  intermediate  district  called  Powis,— the 
reigning  princes  of  which  were  held  together  by  some  loose  ties  of  confederacy.  In  the  year 
933  the  English  king  Athelstan  compelled  the  Welsh  principalities  to  become  his  tributaries ; 
and  upon  the  treaty  then  concluded  with  them,  founded  on  the  feudal  relation  of  lord  and  vas- 
sal, the  Normans  based  their  claim  of  lordship  paramount  over  all  Wales.  During  the 
eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries,  South  Wales  was  the  scene  of  frequent  contests  between  the 
Welsh  and  Normans.  When  Edward  I.  claimed  feudal  homage  of  Llewellyn,  the  duty  of 
fealty  was  acknowledged  by  the  latter ;  but  he  was  unwilling,  by  going  to  London,  to  place 
himself  in  the  power  of  a  monarch  who  had  recently  violated  a  solemn  treaty  with  him ;  and 
hence  arose  a  war  which  resulted  in  the  death  of  Llewellyn,  and  the  subjugation  of  his 
country.  A.  D.  1282-5.  (Map  No.  XVI.) 


CHAP.  IL]  MIDDLE  AGES.  295 

The  impatient  temper  of  Baliol  could  not  brook  the  humiliating  acts 
of  vassalage  required  of  him ;  and  when  war  broke  out  between 
France  and  England,  he  refused  military  aid  to  the  latter,  and  con- 
cluded a  treaty  of  alliance  with  the  French  monarch.     (A.  D.  1292.) 
"War  between  England  and  Scotland  followed ;  and  Baliol,  after  a 
brief  resistance,  being  defeated  in  the  great  battle  of 
Dunbar,1  was  forced  to  make  submission  to  Edward  in  v'  ^^IS 
terms  of  abject  supplication.     The  victor  returned  to 
London,  carrying  with  him  not  only  the  Scottish  crown  and  sceptre, 
but  also  the  sacred  stone  on  which  the  Scottish  monarchs  were  placed 
when  they  received  the  royal  inauguration.     (A.  D.  1296.) 

16.  Scarcely,  however,  had  Edward  crossed  the  frontiers,  when  the 
Scots  reasserted  their  independence,  and  under  the  brave  Sir  Wil- 
liam Wallace,  a  man  of  obscure  birth,  but  worthy  to  be  ranked 
among  the  foremost  of  patriots,  defeated  the  English  at  Stirling," 
and  recovered  the  whole  of  Scotland  as  rapidly  as  it  had  been  lost. 
Again  Edward  advanced,  at  the  head  of  a  gallant  muster  of  all  the 
English  chivalry,  and  the  Scots  were  defeated  at  Falkirk 3     (A.  D. 
1298.)     The  adherents  of  Wallace  mutinied  against  him;   and  a 
few  years  later  the  hero  of  Scotland  was  treacherously  betrayed  into 
the  hands  of  Edward,  and  being  condemned  for  the  pretended  crime 
of  treason,  was  infamously  executed,  to  the  lasting  dishonor  of  the 
English  king.     (A.  D.  1305.) 

1 7.  The  cause  of  Scottish  freedom  was  revived  by  Robert  Bruce, 
grandson  of  the  Bruce  who  had  been  competitor  for  the  throne 
against  Baliol.     In  the  spring  of  the  year   1306  he  was  crowned 
king  at  Scone4  by  the  revolted  barons.     In  the  following  year,  Ed- 


1.  Dunbar  is  a  seaport  of  Scotland,  twenty-seven  miles  north-east  from  Edinburgh.    The 
ancient  castle  of  Dunbar,  the  scene  of  many  warlike  exploits,  stood  on  a  lofty  rock,  the  base 
of  which  was  washed  by  the  sea.    It  was  taken  by  Edward  I.  in  1296 ; — four  times  it  received 
•within  its  walls  the  unfortunate  Queen  Mary ; — and  it  was  in  the  vicinity  of  Dunbar  that  Crom- 
well defeated  the  Scots  under  General  Leslie,  in  1650.    (Map  No.  XVI.) 

2.  Stirling  is  a  river  port  and  fortress  of  Scotland,  on  the  Forth,  thirty  miles  north-west  from 
Edinburgh.    Its  fine  old  castle  is  placed  on  a  basaltic  rock,  rising  abruptly  three  hundred  feet 
from  the  river's  edge.    (Map  No.  XVI.) 

3.  Falkirk  is  an  ancient  town  of  Scotland,  twenty-two  miles  north-west  from  Edinburgh,  and 
three  nvles  south  of  the  Frith  of  Forth.    In  the  valley,  a  little  north  of  the  town,  the  Scotch, 
under  Wallace,  were  defeated  on  the  22d  of  July,  1298.    In  this  battle  fell  Sir  John  Stewart, 
the  commander  of  the  Scottish  archers,  and  Sir  John  the  Grahame,  the  bosom  friend  of  Wal- 
lace.   The  tomb  of  Grahame,  which  the  gratitude  of  his  countrymen  has  thrice  renewed,  is 
to  be  seen  in  the  churchyard  of  Falkirk.    On  a  moor,  half  a  mile  south-west  from  the  town, 
Charles  Stuart,  the  Pretender,  gained  a  victory  over  (he  royal  army  in  1746.    (Map  No.  XVI.    K.) 

4.  5con«,  now  a  small  village  of  Scotland,  is  a  little  above  Perth,  on  the  river  Tay,  eighteen 
miles  west  from  Dundee,  and  thirty-five  north-west  from  Edinburgh.    It  was  formerly  the  real- 


296  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAUT  II 

ward,  assembling  a  mighty  army,  to  render  resistance  hopeless,  took 
the  field  against  him,  but  he  died  on  his  march,  and  the  expedition 
was  abandoned  by  his  son  and  successor,  Edward  II.,  in  opposition 
to  the  dying  injunctions  of  his  father.  (A.  D.  1307.)  Still  the  war 
continued,  and  the  Scotch  were  generally  successful ;  but  after  seven 
years  Edward  himself  marched  against  the  rebels  at  the  head  of 
more  than  a  hundred  thousand  men ;  but  being  met  by  Bruce  at  the 
head  of  little  more  than  a  third  of  that  number,  he  experienced  a 
total  defeat  in  the  battle  of  Bannockburn,1  which  established  the  in- 
dependence of  Scotland.  (A.  D.  June  24th,  1314.) 

18.  The  northern  nations  of  Europe,  during  the  tenth,  eleventh, 
twelfth,  and  thirteenth  centuries,  were  much  less  advanced  in  civilization 
than  those  which  sprung  from  the  wrecks  of  the  Roman  empire  ;  and 
their  obscure  annals  offer  little  to  our  notice  but  the  germs  of  rude  king- 
doms in  the  early  stages  of  formation.  In  the  south-west  of  Europe, 
the  wars  between  the  Moors  and  Christians  of  the  Spanish  peninsula 
had  already  continued  during  a  period  of  more  than  five  centuries, 
with  ever-varying  results ;  but  the  overthrow  of  the  Western  cali- 
phate of  Cordova,  in  the  year  1030,  followed  by  the  dismemberment 
of  the  Moham'  medan  empire  of  Spain,  into  several  independent 
States,  (A.  D.  1238,)  struck  a  fatal  blow  at  the  Saracen  dominion. 
But,  unfortunately,  the  Christian  provinces  also  were  little  united, 
and  it  was  not  uncommon  for  the  Christian  princes  to  form  alliances 
with  the  Moors  against  one  another.  The  founding  of  the  Moorish 
kingdom  of  Granada,  in  1238,  for  a  time  delayed  the  fall  of  the 
Moslems ;  but  the  Christians  gradually  extended  their  power,  until, 
near  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century,  Granada  yielded  to  the  tor- 
rent that  had  long  been  setting  against  it,  and  with  its  fall  the  su- 
premacy of  the  Christian  faith  and  power  was  acknowledged  through- 
out the  peninsula.* 

dence  of  the  Scottish  kings — the  place  of  their  coronation — and  has  been  the  scene  of  many 
historical  events.  The  remains  of  its  ancient  palace  are  incorporated  with  the  mansion  of  the 
earl  of  Mansfield.  (Map  No.  XVI.) 

1.  Bannockburn,  the  name  of  which  is  inseparably  connected  with  one  of  the  most  mem- 
orable events  in  British  history,  is  three  miles  south-west  from  Stirling.  About  one  mile  west 
from  the  village  James  III.  was  defeated  in  1488,  by  his  rebellious  subjects  and  his  son  James 
IV.,  and,  afier  being  wounded  in  the  engagement,  was  assassinated  at  a  mill  in  the  vicinity. 
(Map  No.  XVI.) 

a.  See  next  Section,  pp.  317-18.  and  Notes. 


CHAP.  IL]  MIDDLE  AGES.  297 

SECTION    III. 

GENERAL  HISTORY    DURING   THE   FOURTEENTH    AND    FIFTEENTH    CENTURIES. 

1.  ENGLAND  AND  FRANCE  DURING  THE  FOURTEENTH  AND 
FIFTEENTH  CENTURIES. 

ANALYSIS.    1.  Continuation  of  the  histories  of  France  and  England.— 2.  Defeat  of  Edward 

II.  in  the  battle  of  Bannockburn.    Edward  offends  the  barons.    [Gascony.]    The  Great  Charier 
confirmed,  and  annual  parliaments  ordained. — 3.  Rebellion  of  the  barons,  and  death  of  Ed- 
ward.   Reign  of  Edward  III.    Invasion  of  Scotland.    [Halidon  Hill.] 

FRENCH  AND  ENGLISH  WARS. — 4.  Edward  disputes  the  succession  to  the  throne  of  France. 
Invasion  of  France,  and  battle  of  Creasy.  [Cressy.]  Defeat  of  the  Scots,  and  capture  of  Calais. 
[Durham.  Calais.] — 5.  Renewal  of  the  war  with  France,  and  victory  of  Poictiers.  (1356.) 
Anarchy  in  France.  Treaty  of  Bretigny.  The  conquered  territory.  [Bretiguy.  Aquitaine. 
Bordeaux.]— 6.  Renewal  of  the  war  with  France  in  1368.  Relative  condition  of  the  two  powers. 
The  French  recover  their  provinces.  [Bayonne.  Brest,  and  Cherbourg.] — 7.  Death  of  Edward 

III.  of  England,  and  Charles  V.  of  France.    The  distractions  that  followed  in  both  kingdoms. 
[Orleans.     Lancaster.    Gloucester.]    Wat  Tyler's  insurrection.    [Bluckheath.]—  8.  Character 
of  Richard  II.    He  is  deposed,  and  succeeded  by  Henry  IV.    (1399.)    The  legal  claimant. 
Origin  of  the  contentions  between  the  houses  of  York  and  Lancaster. — 9.  Insurrection  against 
Henry.    [Shrewsbury.] — 10.  Accession  of  Henry  V.,  and  happy  change  in  his  character.    He 
invades  France,  and  defeats  the  French  in  the  battle  of  Agincourt. — 11.  Civil  war  in  France, 
and  return  of  Henry.    The  treaty  with  the  Burgundian  faction.    Opposition  of  the  Orleans 
party.    [The  States  General.    The  dauphin.]— 12.  The  infant  king  of  the  English,  Henry  VI., 
and  the  French  king  Charles  VII.    Joan  of  Arc.    Her  declared  mission. — 13.  Successes  of  the 
French,  and  fate  of  Joan. — 14.  The  English  gradually  lose  all  their  continental  possessions,  ex- 
cept Calais.    Tranquillity  in  France. 

15.  Unpopularity  of  the  reigning  English  family.  Popular  insurrection.  Beginning  of  the 
WARS  or  THE  Two  ROSKS.  [St.  Albans.] — 16.  Sanguinary  character  of  the  strife.  First  period 
of  the  war  closes  with  the  accession  of  Edward  IV.,  of  the  house  of  York.— 17.  The  French 
king.  The  reign  of  Edward  IV.  The  earl  of  Warwick.  Overthrow  of  the  Lancastrians. 
The  fate  of  Margaret,  her  son,  and  the  late  king  Henry  IV.  [Warwick.  Tewkesbury.] — 18. 
The  cotemporary  reign  of  Louis  XI.  of  France.  The  relations  of  Edward  and  Louis. — 19. 
Fate  of  Edward  V.,  and  accession  of  Richard  III.  Defeat  and  death  of  Richard,  and  end  of 
the  "  Wars  of  the  Two  Roses."  [Richmond.  Bosworth.] 

20.  REIGN  OP  HENRY  VII.  The  impostors  Simnel  and  Warbeck.  [Dublin.]— 21.  Treaties 
with  France  and  Scotland.  The  Scottish  marriage.— 22.  Why  the  reigu  of  Henry  VII.  is  an 
important  epoch  in  English  history. 

II.   OTHER  NATIONS  AT  THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY. 

1.  DENMARK,  SWEDEN  AND  NORWAY.    Union  of  Calmar.    [Caiman] 

2.  The  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE.     Its  early  history.      [Dnieper.     Novogorod.]     Divisions  of  the 
kingdom  in  the  eleventh  century. — 3.  Tartar  invasions.    The  reign  of  John  III.  duke  of  Mos- 
cow.   Russia  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century.— 4.  Founding  of  the  OTTOMAN  EMPIRE,  on  the 
ruins  of  the  Eastern  or  Greek  empire.    [Emir.]    The  Turkish  empire  at  the  close  of  the  four- 
teenth century.    The  sultan  Bajazet  overthrown  by  Tamerlane. — 5.  The  TARTAR  EMPIRE   OF 
TAMERLANE.    Defeat  of  the  Turks.    Turks  and  Christians  unite  against  the  Tartars.    Death 
of  Tamerlane.      [Samarcand.     Angora,]— 6.  Taking  of  Constantinople  by  the  Turks,  and 
extinction  of  the  Eastern  empire. 

7.  POLAND.  Commencement  and  early  history  of  Poland.  Extent  of  the  kingdom  at  the 
close  of  the  fifteenth  century.  [Poland.  Lithuania.  Teutonic  knights.  Moldavia.]— 8.  The 
GERMAN  EMPIRE  at  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century.  Elective  monarchs. — 9.  Causes  that 
render  the  history  of  Germany  exceedingly  complicated.  The  three  powerful  States  of  Ger- 
many about  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century.  [Luxemburg.  Bohemia.  Moravia.  Silesia. 


298  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  II 

Lusatia.  Brandenburg.  Holland.  Tyrol.  Austria.] — 10.  Austrian  princes  of  Germany.  Im- 
portant changes  made  during  the  reign  of  Maximilian.  [Worms.] — 11.  SWITZERLAND  revolts 
from  Austria.  Long-continued  wars.  Switzerland  independent  at  the  close  of  the  fifteenth 
century.  [Rutuli.  William  Tell.  Morgarten.  Sempach.]— 12.  ITALIAN  HISTORY  during  the 
central  period  of  the  Middle  Ages.  The  Italian  republics.  [Genoa.]  Duchy  of  Milan. — 13. 
The  Florentines.-  Contests  between  the  Genoese  and  Venetians.  [Levant.]  Genoa  at  the 
close  of  the  fifteenth  century.— 14.  History  of  Venice.  Her  power  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth 
century.  [Morea.]  The  popes,  and  kings  of  Naples.  Interference  of  foreign  powers. — 15. 
SPAIN.  Union  of  the  most  powerful  Christian  States.  Overthrow  of  the  Saracen  dominions  in 
Spain.  [Navarre.  Aragon.  Castile.  Leon.  Granada.]— 16.  History  of  PORTUGAL.  [Farther 
account  of  Portugal.] 

III.   DISCOVERIES. 

1.  Navigation,  and  geographical  knowledge,  during  the  Dark  Ages.  Revival  of  commerce. 
[Pisa.]  Discovery  of  the  magnetic  needle.  The  art  of  printing.  Discovery  of  the  Canaries, 
Portuguese  discoveries.  [Canaries.  Cape  de  Verd  and  Azore  islands.] — 2.  Views  and  objects 
of  Prince  Henry.  His  death.  Fame  of  the  discoveries  patronized  by  him.  Christopher  Co- 
lumbus. The  bold  project  conceived  by  him.  [Lisbon.  Ireland.  Guinea.]— 3.  The  trials  of 
Columbus.  His  final  triumph,  in  the  discovery  of  America.  Vasco  de  Gama.  Closing 
remarks. 

1.  ENGLAND  AND  FRANCE  DURING  THE  FOURTEENTH  AND  FIFTEENTH 
CENTURIES. — 1.  France   and   England  occupy  the  most  prominent 
place  in  the  history  of  European  nations  during  the  closing  period 
of  the  Middle  Ages  ;  and  as  their  annals,  during  most  of  this  period, 
are  so  intimately  connected  that  the  history  of  one  nation  is  in  great 
part  the  history  of  both,  the  unity  of  the  subject  will  best  be  pre- 
served, and  repetition  avoided,  by  treating  both  in  connection. 

2.  The  reign  of  Edward  II.   of  England,  whose  defeat  by  the 
Scots  in  the  famous  battle  of  Bannockburn  has  already  been  men- 
tioned, although  inglorious  to  himself,  and  disastrous  to  the  British 
arms,  was  not,  on  the  whole,  unfavorable  to  the  progress  of  constitu- 
tional liberty.     The  unbounded  favoritism  of  Edward  to  Gaveston, 
a  handsome  youth  of  Gascony,1  whom  the  king  elevated  in  wealth 
and  dignities  above  all  the  nobles  in  England,  roused  the  resentment 
of  the  barons ;  and  the  result  was  the  banishment  of  the  favorite, 
and  a  reformation  of  abuses  in  full  parliament.     (A.  D.  1313.)    The 
Great  Charter,  so  often  violated,  was  again  confirmed ;  and  the  im 
poitant  provision  was  added,  that  there  should  be  an  annual  assem 
bling  of  parliament,  for  protection  of  the  people,  when  "  aggrieved 
by  the  king's  ministers  against  right." 

3.  But   other   favorities   supplied   the   place  of   Gaveston :    the 
nobles  rebelled  against  their  sovereign  :  his  faithless  queen  Isabella, 
gister  of  the  king  of  France,  took  part  with  the  malcontents,  and 

1.  Gascony,  before  the  French  Revolution,  was  a  province  of  France,  situated  between  the 
Garonne,  the  sea,  and  the  Pyrenees.  The  Gascons  are  a  people  of  much  spirit ;  but  their  exag- 
geration in  describing  their  exploits  has  made  the  term  gasconade  proverbial.  (Map  No.  XIII.) 


CHAP.  II. J  MIDDLE   AGES.  299 

Edward  was  deposed,  imprisoned,  and  afterwards  murdered.  (A.  D. 
1327.)  Edward  III.,  crowned  at  fourteen  years  of  age,  unable  to 
endure  the  presence  of  a  mother  stained  with  the  foulest  crimes, 
caused  her  to  be  imprisoned  for  life,  and  her  paramour,  Mortimer, 
to  be  executed.  He  then  applied  himself  to  redress  the  grievances 
which  had  proceeded  from  the  late  abuses  of  authority ;  after  which 
he  invaded  Scotland,  and  defeated  the  Scots  at  Halidon  Hill;1  but 
on  his  withdrawal  from  the  country,  the  Scottish  arms  again  tri- 
umphed. 

4.  On  the  death,  in  the  year  1328,  of  Charles  IV.  of  France,  the 
last  of  the  male  descendants  of  Philip  the  Fair,  the  x  FRENCH 
crown  of  that  kingdom  became  the  object  of  contest  be-  AND  ENGLISH 
tween  Edward  III.  of  England,  the  son  of  Philip's  WAE8' 
daughter  Isabella,  and  Philip  of  Valois,  son  of  the  brother  of  Philip. 
After  war  had  continued  several  years  between  the  two  nations,  with 
only  occasional  intervals  of  truce,  in  the  year  1346  Edward,  in  per- 
son, invaded  France,  and,  supported  by  his  heroic  son  Edward,  called 
the  Black  Prince,  then  only  fifteen  years  of  age,  gained  a  great  vic- 
tory over  the  French  in  the  famous  battle  of  Cressya — slaying  more 
of  the  enemy  than  the  total  number  of  his  own  army.  (Aug.  26th, 
1346.)  A  few  weeks  after  the  battle  of  Cressy,  the  Scots,  who  had 
seized  the  opportunity  of  Edward's  absence  to  invade  England,  were 
defeated  in  the  battle  of  Durham,3  and  their  king  David  Bruce  taken 
prisoner.  (Oct.  17,  1346.)  To  crown  the  honors  of  the  campaign, 
the  important  seaport  of  Calais,4  in  France,  surrendered  to  Edward, 
after  a  vigorous  siege ;  and  this  important  acquisition  was  retained 
by  the  English  more  than  two  centuries. 

1.  Halidon  Hill  is  an  eminence  north  of  the  river  Tweed,  not  far  from  Berwick. 

2.  Cressy,  or  CVecy,  is  a  small  village,  in  the  former  province  of  Picardy,  ninety-five  miles 
north-west  from  Paris.    It  is  believed  that  cannon,  but  of  very  rude  construction,  were  first 
employed  by  the  English  in  this  battle.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

3.  Durham,  the  capital  of  the  county  of  the  same  name,  is  an  important  city  in  the  north  of 
England,  two  hundred  and  thirty  miles  north-west  from  London.    The  field  on  which  the  bat- 
tie  was  fought,  some  distance  north  of  Durham,  on  the  road  to  Newcastle,  (Oct.  J7th,  1346,) 
was  called  Neville's  Cross.    (Map  No.  XVI.) 

4.  Calais  (Eng.  Cal-is,  Fr.  Kah-la',)  a  seaport  of  France,  on  the  Straits  of  Dover,  in  tho 
former  province  of  Picardy,  is  fifty  miles  north  of  Cressy.    In  1558  Calais  was  retaken  by  sur- 
prise by  the  duke  of  Guise.    In  1596  it  was  again  taken  by  the  English  under  the  archduke 
Albert,  but  in  1598  was  restored  to  France  by  the  treaty  of  Nervins. 

The  costinate  resistance  which  Calais  made  to  Edward  HI.  in  1347,  is  said  to  have  so  much 
ince~»  the  conqueror  that  he  determined  to  put  to  death  six  principal  burgesses  of  the  town, 
who,  to  save  their  fellow  citizens,  had  magnanimously  placed  themselves  at  his  disposal ;  but 
that  he  was  turned  from  his  purpose  only  by  the  tears  and  entreaties  of  his  queen  Philippa.  It 
Is  believed,  however,  that  FroUsart  alone,  among  his  cotemporaries,  relates  this  story  ;  and 
doubts  may  very  reasonably  be  entertained  of  its  truth.  (Map  No.  XIII.) 


300  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  JL 

5.  After  a  truce  of  eight  years,  during  which  occurred  the  death 
of  the  French  monarch,  Philip  of  Valois,  and  the  accession  of  his 
eon  John  to  the  throne  of  France,  war  was  again  renewed,  but  was 
speedily  terminated  by  a  great  victory,  which  the  Black  Prince  ob- 
tained over  king  John  in  the  battle  of  Poictiers.     (Sept.  1356.)    The 
French  monarch,  although  taken  prisoner,  and  conveyed  in  triumph 
to  London,  was  treated  with  great  moderation  and  kindness ;  but  his 
captivity  produced  in  France  the  most  horrible  anarchy,  which  was 
carried  to   the  utmost  extreme  by  a  revolt  of  peasants,  or  serfs, 
against  their  lords,  in  most  of  the  provinces  surrounding  the  capital.a 
At  length,  while  king  John  was  still  a  prisoner,  the  two  nations  con- 
cluded a  treaty  at  Bretigny,1  (A.  D.  1360,)  which  provided  that  king 
John  should  be  restored  to  liberty,  and  that  the  English  monarch 
should  renounce  his  claim  to  the  throne  of  France,  and  to  the  pos- 
session of  Normandy  and  other  provinces  in  the  north ;  but  that  the 
whole  south-west  of  France,  embracing  more  than  a  third  of  the 
kingdom,  and  extending  from  the  Rhone  nearly  to  the  Loire,  should 
be  guaranteed  to  England.      The  territory  obtained  from  France 
was  erected  into  the  principality  of  Aquitaine,8  the  government  of 
which  was  intrusted  to  the  Black  Prince,  who,  during  several  years, 
kept  his  court  at  Bordeaux.3 

6.  The  treaty  with  France  was  never  fully  ratified ;  and  in  the 
year  1368  war  between  the  two  countries  was  commenced  anew,  the 
blame  of  the  rupture  being  thrown  by  each  nation  upon  the  other. 
In  the  interval  since  the  late  treaty  a  great  change  had  taken  place 
in  the  condition  of  the  rival  powers  :  king  Edward  was  now  declining 
in  age ;  and  his  son  the  Black  Prince  was  enfeebled  by  disease ;  and 
the  ceded  French  provinces  were  eager  to  return  to  their  native  king ; 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  France  had  recovered  from  her  great  losses, 
and  the  wise  and  popular  Charles  V.  occupied  the  throne,  in  the 
place  of  the  rash  and  intemperate  John.     France  gradually  recovered 

1.  Bretigny  is  a  small  hamlet  six  miles  south-east  from  Chartres,  and  fifty  miles  south-west 
from  Paris,  in  the  former  province  of  Orleans. 

2.  Jlquitaine  (rfquitania)  was  the  name  of  the  Roman  province  in  Gaul  south  of  the  Loire. 
Since  the  time  of  the  Romans  it  has  been  sometimes  a  kingdom  and  sometimes  a  duchy.    Be- 
fore the  revolution,  what  remained  of  this  ancient  province  passed  under  the  name  of  Gui- 
eime.    Bordeaux  was  its  capital.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

3.  Bordeaux,  called  by  the  Romans  Burdigala,  an  important  commercial  city  and  seaport  of 
France,  is  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Garonne,  fifty-five  miles  from  its  mouth,  and  three  hundred 
and  seven  miles  south-west  from  Paris.  Montesquieu  and  Montaigne,  Edward  the  Black  Prince, 
pope  Clement  V.,  and  Richard  II.  of  England,  were  natives  of  this  city.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

a.  Feb.  1358.    This  revolt  was  called  La  Jacquerie,  from  Jacques  Bon  Homme,  the  leader 
of  the  rebels. 


CHAP.  II]  MIDDLE  AGES.  301 

most  of  her  provinces  without  obtainining  a  single  victory,  although 
the  keys  of  the  country — Bordeaux,  Bayonne,1  Calais,  Brest,  and 
Cherbourg2 — were  still  left  in  the  hands  of  the  English. 

7.  On  the  death  of  Edward  (A.  D.  1377)  the  crown  fell  to  the 
son  of  the  Black  Prince,  Richard  II.,  then  only  eleven  years  of  age. 
Three  years  later,  Charles  V.,  by  his  death,  left  the  crown  of  France 
to  his  son  Charles  VI.,  a  youth  of  only  twelve  years.  Both  kingdoms 
suffered  from  the  distractions  attending  a  regal  minority  : — in  France 
the  people  were  plundered  by  the  exactions  of  the  regents,  and  the 
kingdom  harassed  by  the  factious  struggles  for  power  between  the 
dukes  of  Bur'  gundy  and  Orleans ;'  and  in  England  similar  results 
attended  the  contests  for  the  regency  between  the  king's  uncles,  the 
dukes  of  Lancaster,4  York,5  and  Gloucester.6  In  the  year  1381  the 
injustice  of  parliamentary  taxation  occasioned  a  famous  revolt  of 

1.  Bayonne  is  on  the  south  side  of  the  Adour,  four  miles  from  its  mouth,  near  the  south- 
western extremity  of  France.    Bayonne  is  strongly  fortified,  and,  although  often  besieged,  has 
never  been  taken.  The  military  weapon  called  the  bayonet  takes  its  name  from  this  city,  where 
it  is  said  to  have  been  first  invented,  and  brought  into  use  at  the  siege  of  Bayonne,  during  the 
war  between  Francis  I.  and  Charles  V.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

2.  Brest  and  Cherbourg  are  small  but  strongly-fortified  seaport  towns  in  the  north-west  of 
France.   Cherbourg  was  the  last  town  in  Normandy  retained  by  the  English.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

3.  Bur' gundy  and  Orleans.    An  account  of  Bur'  gundy  has  already  been  given.     Orleans,  a 
city  of  France,  and  formerly  capital  of  the  province  of  the  same  name,  is  situated  on  tha 
Loire,  sixty-eight  miles  south-west  from  Paris.    Orleans  occupied  the  site  of  the  ancient  Gena- 
bum,  the  emporium  of  the  Cornutes,  which  was  taken  and  burned  by  Caesar.    (Caesar  B. 
VII.  12.)    It  subsequently  rose  to  great  eminence,  and  was  unsuccessfully  besieged  by  At'  tila 
and  Odoacer.    It  became  the  capital  of  the  first  kingdom  of  Bur'  gundy  under  the  first  race  of 
French  kings.    Philip  of  Valois  erected  it  into  a  duchy  and  peerage  in  favor  of  his  son ;  and 
Orleans  has  since  continued  to  give  the  title  of  duke  to  a  prince  of  the  blood  royal.    Charles 
VI.  conferred  the  title  of  "duke  of  Orleans"  on  his  younger  brother,  who  became  the  founder 
of  the  Valois-Orleans  line.    Louis  XIV.  conferred  it  on  his  younger  brother  Philip,  the  founder 
of  the  Bourbon  dynasty  of  the  house  of  Orleans.    Louis  Philip  was  the  first  and  only  ruliug 
prince  of  the  Bourbon-Orleans  dynasty.    ( Map  No.  XIII.) 

4.  Lancaster,  which  has  given  its  name  to  the  "dukes  of  Lancaster,"  is  a  seaport  town  on 
the  coast  of  the  Irish  Sea,  forty-six  miles  from  Liverpool,  and  two  hundred  and  five  miles 
north-west  from  London.    Lancaster  is  supposed,  from  the  urns,  altars,  and  other  antiquities 
found  there,  to  have  been  a  Roman  station.    The  first  earl  of  Lancaster  was  created  in  1266. 
In  1351  Henry,  earl  of  Derby,  was  made  duke  of  Lancaster :  John  Gaunt,  fourth  son  of  Ed- 
ward III.,  married  Blanch,  the  duke's  daughter,  and,  by  virtue  of  this  alliance,  succeeded  to 
the  title.    His  son  Henry  of  Bolingbroke  became  duke  of  Lancaster  on  his  father's  death  in 
1398.  and  finally  Henry  IV.,  king  of  England  in  1399,  from  which  time  to  the  present  this 
duchy  has  been  associated  with  the  regal  dignity.    (Map  No.  XVI.) 

5.  York,    See  Note,  p.  209.    (Map  No.  XVI.) 

6.  Gloucester  is  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Severn,  ninety-three  miles  north-west  from  London. 
It  was  founded  by  the  Romans  A.  D.  44 ;  and  Roman  coins  and  antiquities  are  frequently  dug 
tip  on  the  supposed  site  of  the  old  encampment.    Richard  II.  created  his  uncles  dukes  of  York 
and  Gloucester;  and  since  that  time  the  ducal  title  has  remained  the  highest  title  of  English 
nobility.    The  duke  of  Lancaster  was  the  only  one  who  really  possessed  a  duchy  (the  county 
of  Lancaster;  subject  to  his  government,  and  -hat  was  reunited  to  the  crown  in  1461.    (Map 
No.  XVI.) 


302  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PABT  IL 

the  lower  classes,  headed  by  the  Blacksmith  Wat  Tyler,  similar  to 
the  insurrection  of  the  French  peasants  which  raged  in  1358.  In 
both  nations  these  events  mark  the  advance  of  the  serfs,  in  their 
progress  toward  emancipation,  to  that  stage  in  which  their  hopes  are 
roused,  and  their  wrongs  still  unredressed.  The  serfs  of  Englanl 
demanded  equal  laws,  and  the  abolition  of  bondage :  to  the  number 
of  sixty  thousand  they  assembled  at  Blackheath,1 — obtained  possess- 
ion of  London,  and  put  to  death  the  chancellor  and  primate,  as  evil 
counsellors  of  the  crown,  and  cruel  oppressors  of  the  people ;  but 
the  fall  of  their  leader  struck  terror  into  the  insurgents,  and  the  re- 
volt was  easily  extinguished,  while  the  honor  of  the  crown  was  sul- 
lied by  a  revocation  of  the  promised  charters  of  enfranchisement 
and  pardon.  More  than  fifteen  hundred  of  the  mutineers  perished 
by  the  hand  of  the  hangman. 

8.  It  was  not  till  the  age  of  twenty-three  that  Richard  escaped 
from  the  tutelage  of  his  uncles ;  and  then  his  indolence,  dissipation, 
and  prodigality,  brought  him  into  contempt ;  and  during  his  absence 
in  Ireland  a  successful  revolution  elevated  his  cousin,  Henry  of  Lan- 
caster, surnamed  Bolingbroke,  to  the  throne.     (A.  D.  1399.)     The 
parliament  confirmed  the  deposition  of  Richard,  who  was  soon  after 
privately  assassinated  in  prison.8-     The  accession  of  Henry  IY.  to 
the  throne  met  with  no  opposition,  although  he  was  not  the  legal 
claimant,  the  hereditary-  right  being  in  Edward  Mortimer,  who  was 
descended  from  the  second  son  of  Edward  III.,  whereas  Henry  was 
descended  from   the  third  son.     The  claim  of  Mortimer  was  at  a 
later  period  vested  by  marriage  in  the  family  of  the  duke  of  York, 
descended  from  the  fourth  son  of  Edward;   and  hence  began  the 
contentions  between  the  houses  of  York  and  Lancaster. 

9.  The  discontented  friends  of  Henry  proved  his  most  dangerous 
enemies ;  for  the  Percys,  who  had  enthroned  him,  dissatisfied  with 
his  administration,  took  up  arms  and  involved  the  country  in  civil 
war;b  but  in  the  great  battle  of  Shrewsbury2  (July  21,   1403)  the 

1.  Blackheath  is  an  elevated  raoory  tract  in  the  vicinity  of  the  British  metropolis,  south-west 
of  the  city.    The  greater  portion  is  in  the  parish  of  Greenwich. 

2.  Shrewsbury  is  situated  on  the  Severn,  one  hundred  and  thirty-eight  miles  north-west  from 
London.    William  the  Conqueror  gave  the  town  and  surrounding  country  to  Roger  de  Mont- 
gomery, who  built  here  a  strong  baronial  castle ;  but  in  1102  the  castle  and  property  were  for- 
feited to  the  crown.    Shrewsbury,  from  its  situation  close  to  Wales,  was  the  scene  of  many 
border  frays  between  the  Welsh  and  EngHsh.    In  the  battle  of  July  1403,  the  fall  of  the  famous 
Lord  Percy,  surnamed  Hotspur,  by  an  unknown  hand,  decided  the  victory  in  the  king's  favor. 
(Map  No.  XVI.) 

a.  Read  Shakspeare's  "  King  Richard  II." 

b.  Read  Shakspeare's  "  First  Part  of  Kin?  Henry  IV 


CHAP.  II]  MIDDLE  AGES.  303 

insurgents  were  defeated,  although  the  insurrection  was  still  kept  up 
a  number  of  years,  chiefly  by  the  successful  valor  of  Owen  Glendower, 
the  Welsh  ally  of  the  Percys. 

10.  Henry  IV.  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Henry  V.  in  the  year 
1413.     The  previous  turbulent  and  dissipated  character  of  the  new 
sovereign  had  given  little  promise  of  a  happy  reign ;  but  immediate- 
ly after  his  accession  he   dismissed  the  former  companions  of  his 
vices, — took  into  his  confidence  the  wise  ministers  of  his  father, — 
and,  laying  aside  his  youthful  pleasures,  devoted  all  his  energies  to 
the  tranquillizing  of  the  kingdom,  and  the  wise  government  of  the 
people.a     Taking  advantage  of  the  disorders  of  France,  and  the  tem- 
porary insanity  of  its  sovereign  Charles  VI.,  he  revived  the  English 
claim  to  the  throne  of  that  kingdom,  and  at  the  head  of  thirty  thou- 
sand men  passed  over  into  Normandy  to  support  his  pretensions. 
After  his  army  had  been  wasted  by  a  contagious  disease,  which  re- 
duced it  to  eleven  thousand  men,  he  met  and  defeated  the  French 
army  of  fifty  thousand  in  the  battle  of  Agincourt,1 — slaying  ten 
thousand  of  the  enemy  and  taking  fourteen  thousand  prisoners,  among 
whom  were  many  of  the  most  eminent  barons  and  princes  of  the 
realm.     (Oct.  24,  1415.) 

11.  The  Orleans  and  Burgundian  factions  which  had  temporarily 
laid  aside  their  contentions  to  oppose  the  invader,  renewed  them  on 
the  departure  of  Henry,  and  soon  involved  the  kingdom  in  the  hor- 
rors of  civil  war.     In  the  midst  of  these  evils  Henry  returned  to 
follow  up  his  victory,  and  fought  his  way  to  Paris,  when  the  Bur- 
gundian faction  tendered  him  the  crown  of  France,  with  the  promise 
of  its  aid  to  support  his  claim.     A  treaty  was  soon  concluded  with 
the  queen  of  the  insane  king  and  the  duke  of  Bur'  gundy,  by  which 
it  was  agreed  that  Henry  should  marry  Catherine,  the  daughter  of 
Charles,  and  succeed  to  the  throne  on  the  death  of  her  father  ;  while 
in  the  meantime  he  was  to  govern  the  kingdom  as  regent.     (May, 
1420.)     The  States  General a  of  the  kingdom  assented  to 'the  treaty; 
and  the  western  and  northern  provinces  owned  the  sway  of  England ; 
but  the  central  and  south-eastern  districts  adhered  to  the  cause  of 


1.  Agincourt  is  a  small  village  of  France  in  the  former  province  of  Artois,  one  hundred  and 
ten  miles  north  from  Paris.    (Map  No.  XI1L) 

2.  By  the  States  General  is  meant  the  great  council  or  general  parliament  of  the  nation, 
composed  of  representatives  from  the  nobility,  the  clergy,  and  the  municipalities.    The  country 
districts  sent  no  representatives.    (See  University  Edition,  p.  824.) 

a.  Happily  portrayed  in  Shafcspeare's  "Second  Paa  of  King  Henry  IV,"  Act  v.,  Scene  ii. 
andv. 


304  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART!! 

the  dauphin,1  afterwards  Charles  VII.,  the  only  surviring  son  of  his 
father,  and  the  head  of  the  Orleans  party.  Henry  Y.  did  not  live  to 
wear  the  crown  of  France ;  and  the  helpless  Charles  survived  him 
only  two  months.  (Died  A.  D.  1422.) 

12.  The  English  king  left  a  son,  Henry  VI.,  then  only  nine 
months  old,  to   inherit  his  kingdom.     France,  however,  was  now 
openly  divided  between  the  rival  monarchs — its  native  sovereign 
Charles  VII.,  and  the  English  king,  in  the  person  of  the  infant 
Henry.     In  the  war  which  followed,  the  prospects  of  the  English 
were  gradually  improving,  when  they  received  a  fatal  check  from  the 
extraordinary  appearance  of  a  heroine,  the  famous  Joan  of  Arc, 
whom  the  credulity  of  the  age  believed  to  have  been  divinely  com- 
missioned for  the  salvation  of  the  French  nation.     Moved  by  a  sort 
of  religious  phrensy,  this  obscure  country  girl  was  enabled  to  inspire 
her  sovereign,  the  priests,  the  nobles,  and  the  army,  with  the  truth 
of  her  holy  mission,  which  was,  to  drive  the  English  from  Orleans, 
which  they  were  then  besieging,  and  to  open  the  way  for  the  crown- 
ing of  Charles  at  liheims,  then  in  the  hands  of  the  enemy. 

13.  Superstition  revived  the  hopes  of  the  French,  and  inspired 
the  English  with  manifold  terrors — the  harbingers  of  certain  defeat : 
in  a  short  period  all  the  promises  of  the  maiden  were  fulfilled,  and 
in  accordance  with  her  predictions  she  had  the  happiness  to  see 
Charles  VII.  crowned  in  the  cathedral.     Her  mission  ended,  she 
wished  to  retire  to  the  humble  station  from  which  Providence  had 
called  her,  but  being  retained  with  the  army,  she  afterwards  fell  into 
the  hands  of  the  English,  who  inhumanly  condemned  and  executed 
her  for  the  imaginary  crime  of  sorcery. 

14.  In  the  death  of  Joan  of  Arc  the  English  indeed  destroyed  the 
cause  of  their  late  reverses  ;  but  nothing  could  stay  the  new  impulse 
which  her  wonderful  successes  had  given  to  the  French  nation.     In 
the  year  1437  Charles  gained  possession  of  his  capital,  after  twenty 
years  exclusion  from  it ;  the  Burgundian  faction  had  previously  be- 
come reconciled  to  him,  and  thenceforward  the  war  lost  its  serious 
character,  while  the  struggle  of  the  English  grew  more  and  more 
feeble,  until,  in  1453,  Calais  was  the  only  town  of  the  continent  re- 
maining  in  their   hands.      From  this   period   until   the  death   of 

1.  Dauphin  is  the  title  of  the  eldest  son  of  the  king  of  France.  In  1349  Hambert  II.  trans- 
ferred his  estate,  the  province  of  Dauphiny,  to  Philip  of  Valois,  on  condition  that  the  eldest 
son  of  the  king  of  France  should,  in  future,  be  called  the  dauphin,  and  govern  this  territory. 
The  dauphin,  however,  retains  only  the  title,  the  estates  having  long  been  united  with  the 
crow u  lands. 


CHAP.  IL]  MIDDLE  AGES.  305 

Charles  VII.,  in  1461,  France  enjoyed  domestic  tranquillity,  while 
civil  wars  of  the  fiercest  violence  were  raging  in  England. 

15.  The  hereditary  claim  of  the  house  of  York  to  the  English 
throne  has  already  been  mentioned,     (p.  302.)     Henry  was  a  weak 
prince,  and  subject  to  occasional  fits  of  idiocy ;  but  his  wife,  Marga- 
ret of  Anjou,1  a  woman  of  great  spirit  and  ambition,  possessing  the 
allurements,  but  without  the  virtues,  of  her  sex,  ruled  in  his  name. 
The  haughtiness  of  the  queen,  the  dishonor  brought  on  the  English 
arms  by  the  loss  of  Fraace,  and  the  imbecility  and  insignificance  of 
Henry,  when  contrasted  with  the  popular  virtues  of  Richard  duke 
of  York,  rendered  the  reigning  family  unpopular  with  the  nation ; 
and  when  Richard  advanced  his  pretensions  to  the  crown,  a  powerful 
party  rallied  to  his  support.     A  formidable  rising  of  the  people  .in 
the  year   1450,  under  a  leader  who  is  known  in  history  under  the 
nickname  of  Jack  Cade,  first  manifested  the  gathering  n  THE  WAttS 
discontent.     Five  years  later  civil  war  between  the  York-  OF  THE  TWO 
ists  and  Lancastrians  broke  out  in  different  parts  of  the 
kingdom;  and  in  the  first  battle,  at  St.  Albans,2  King  Henry  was 
taken  prisoner.     The  Yorkists  wore,  as  the  symbol  of  their  party,  a 
white  rose,  and  the  Lancastrians  a  red  rose  ;  and  the  contests  which 
marked  their  struggle  for  power  are  usually  called  the  "  wars  of  the 
two  roses." 

16.  We  have  not  room  to  enter  into  details  of  the  sanguinary 
strife  that  followed.     "  In  my  remembrance,"  says  a  cotemporary 
writer,*  "  eighty  princes  of  the  blood  royal  of  England  perished  in 
these  convulsions ;  seven  or  eight  battles  were  fought  in  the  course 
of  thirty  years ;  and  their  own  country  was  desolated  by  the  English 
as  cruelly  as  the  former  generation  had  wasted  France."     After  many 
vicissitudes  of  fortune,  in  which  Henry  was  twice  defeated  and  taken 
prisoner,  and  Richard  and  his  second  son  were  slain,  at  the  close  of 
the  first  period  of  the  war  the  white  rose  triumphed,  and  Edward 
IV.,  eldest  son  of  the  late  duke  of  York,  became  king  of  England. 
(A.  D.  1461.) 

17.  Charles  VII.  of  France  died  the  same  year,  and  was  succeed- 

1.  Anjou  was  an  ancient  province  of  France,  on  both  sides  of  the  Loire,  north  of  Poitou. 
In  the  year  1246  Louis  IX.  of  France  bestowed  this  province  en  his  younger  brother  Charles, 
with  the  title  of  count  of  Anjou ;  but  in  1328  it  fell  to  the  crown,  at  the  accession  of  Philip  VI. 
Subsequently  different  princes  of  the  blood  bore  the  title  of  Anjou  ;  and  Margaret,  who  b^- 
carae  queen  of  England,  was  the  daughter  of  Ren6  of  Anjou.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

2.  St.  Albans  is  a  small  town  twenty  miles  north-west  from  London, 
a.  Philip  de  Comines. 

20 


306  MODERN   HISTORY.  [PAKT  II. 

ed  on  the  throne  by  his  son  Louis  XI.  The  reign  of  Edward  IV. 
of  England  was  a  reign  of  terror.  Once  he  was  deposed,  and  Henry 
reinstated,  by  the  great  power  and  influence  of  the  earl  of  Warwick,1 
to  whom  the  people  gave  the  name  of  king-maker.  But  "Warwick 
afterwards  fell  in  battle ;  and  in  the  year  1471  the  heroic  Margaret 
and  her  son  were  defeated  and  taken  prisoners,  and  the  power  of  the 
Lancastrians  was  overthrown  in  the  desperate  battle  of  Tewkesbury,* 
which  concluded  this  sanguinary  war.  Margaret  was  at  first  im- 
prisoned, but  afterwards  ransomed  by  the  king  of  France  :  her  son 
was  assassinated :  Henry  VI.  breathed  his  last,  as  a  prisoner,  in  the 
Tower  of  London  ;  and  Edward  was  finally  established  on  the  throne. 

18.  The  reign  of  Edward  IV.  was  throughout  cotemporary  with 
that  of  Louis  XI.  of  France,  a  prince  of  a  tyrannical,  superstitious, 
crafty,  and  cruel  nature,  but  who  possessed  such  a  fund  of  comic 
humor,  and  such  oddities  of  thoughts  and  manner,  as  to  throw  his 
atrocious  cruelties  into  the  shade.     The  relations  of  these  two  princes 
with  each  other  were  in  a  high  degree  dishonorable  to  both.     Ed- 
ward, by  threatening  war  upon  France,   obtained  from   Louis  the 
secret  payment  of  exorbitant  pensions  for  himself  and  his  ministers ; 
and  the  latter  were  with  much  reason  charged  with  being  the  hired 
agents  of  the  French  king.     Both  these  princes  died  in   1483,  and 
both  were  succeeded  by  minors. 

19.  Edward  V.,  at  the  age  of  twelve  years,  succeeded  his  father 
as  king  of  England ;  but  after  a  nominal  reign  of  little  more  than 
two  months,  the  young  king  and  his  brother  the  duke  of  York  were 
murdered  in  the  Tower,  at  the  instigation  of  their  uncle  the  duke  of 
Gloucester,  who  caused  himself  to  be  proclaimed  king,  with  the  title 
of  Richard  III.     But  the  whole  nation  was  alienated  by  the  crimes 
of  Richard :  the  claims  of  the  Lancastrian  family  were  revived  by 
Henry  Tudor,  earl  of  Richmond  ;*  and  at  the  decisive  battle  of  Bos- 

1.  The  earldom  of  Warwick  dates  from  the  time  of  William  the  Conqueror,  who  bestowed 
the  town  and  caatle  of  that  name,  with  the  title  of  earl,  on  Henry  de  Newburg,  one  of  his  fol- 
lowers.   The  town  of  Warwick,  capital  of  the  county  of  the  same  name,  is  on  the  river  Avon, 
eighty-two  miles  north-west  from  London.    (Map  No.  XVI.) 

2.  Tewkesbury  is  on  the  river  Avon,  near  its  confluence  with  the  Severn,  thirty-three  miles 
louth-west  from  Warwick,  and  ninety  miles  north-west  from  London.    The  field  on  which  the 
battle  was  fought,  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  town,  is  still  called  the  "  Bloody  Meadow." 

3.  Richmond,  which  gave  a  title  to  the  dukes  of  that  name,  is  in  the  north  of  England,  forty- 
one  miles  north-west  from  York.    Its  castle  was  founded  by  the  first  earl  of  Richmond,  who 
received  from  William  the  Conqueror  the  forfeited  estates  of  the  earl  of  Mercia,  and  built 
Richmond  castle  to  protect  his  family  and  property.    The  title  and  property,  after  being 
possessed  by  different  persons  allied  to  the  blood  royal,  were  at  length  vested  in  the  crown  by 
the  accession  of  Henry,  earl  of  Richmond,  to  the  throi  3,  with  the  title  of  Henry  VII.    (Map 
No.  XVI.) 


CHAP.  IL]  MIDDLE  AGES.  307 

worth  field,1  Richard  was  defeated  and  s..ain  (1485).  The  crown 
which  Richard  wore  in  the  action  was  immediately  placed  on  the  hea^d 
of  the  earl  of  Richmond,  who  was  proclaimed  king,  with  the  title  of 
Henry  VII.  His  marriage  soon  after  with  the  princess  Elizabeth, 
heiress  of  the  house  of  York,  united  the  rival  claims  of  York  and 
Lancaster  in  the  Tudor  family,  and  put  an  end  to  the  civil  contests 
which,  for  more  than  half  a  century,  had  deluged  England  with  blood. 

20.  The  early  part  of  the  rei-gn  of  Henry  VII.  was  disturbed  by 
two  singular  enterprises, — the  attempt  made  in  Ireland, 

by  Lambert  Simnel,  to  counterfeit  the  person  of  the  IIL  RKIG*  °F 

A  liLNHi    VII* 

young  earl  of  Warwick,  nephew  of  Edward  IV.,  and  the 
only  remaining  male  heir  of  the  house  of  York ;  and  the  similar 
attempt  of  Perkin  Warbeck  to  counterfeit  the  young  duke  of 
York,  one  of  the  princes  who  had  been  murdered  in  the  Tower  at 
the  instigation  of  Richard  III.  Both  impostors,  claiming  the  right 
to  the  throne,  received  their  principal  support  in  Ireland ;  but  the 
former,  after  being  crowned  at  Dublin,2  and  afterwards  defeated  in 
battle,  (1487,)  ended  his  days  as  a  menial  in  the  king's  household, — 
while  the  latter,  after  throwing  himself  upon  the  king's  mercy,  being 
detected  in  subsequent  plots,  expiated  his  crime  on  the  scaffold. 

21.  The  most  important  of  the  foreign  relations  of  Henry  were 
a  treaty  with  France,  which  stipulated  that  no  rebel  subjects  of 
either  power  should  be  harbored  or  aided  by  the  other  ;  and  a  treaty 
of  peace  with  Scotland,  by  which  Margaret,  eldest  daughter  of  Henry, 
was  given  in  marriage  to  the  Scottish  king,  James  V.,  a  marriage 
from  which  have  sprung  all  the  sovereigns  who  have  reigned  in  Great 
Britain  since  the  time  of  Elizabeth      The  reply  of  Henry  to  his 
counsellors  who  objected  to  the  Scottish  marriage,  that  the  kingdom 
of  England  might  by  that  connection  fall  to  the  king  of  Scotland, 
shows  a  great  degree  of  sagacity,  that  has  been  verified  by  the  result. 
"  Scotland  would  then,"  said  Henry,  "  become  an  accession  to  Eng- 
land, not  England  to  Scotland,  for  the  greater  would  draw  the  less : 
it  is  a  safer  union  for  England  than  one  with  France." 

22.  The  reign  of  Henry  VII.  may  justly  be  considered  an  im- 
portant era  in  English  history.     It  began  in  revolution,  at  the  close 

1.  Boaworth  is  a  small  town  ninety-five  miles  north-west  from  London.    In  the  battle-field,  in 
the  vicinity  of  this  town,  is  an  eminence  called  Crown  Hill,  where  Lord  Stanley  is  said  to  have 
placed  Richard's  crown  on  the  earl  of  Richmond's  head.    (Map  No.  XVI.) 

2.  Dublin,  the  capital  of  Ireland,  is  on  the  eastern  sea-coast  of  the  island,  at  the  mouth  of 
the  river  Lifiey,  two  hundred  and  ninety-two  miles  north-west  from  London.    It  was  cjalled 
by  the  Danes  Divelin,  or  Dubhlin,  "  the  black  pool,"  from  its  vicinity  to  the  mu  Jdy  swamps  at 
the  mouth  of  the  river.  It  has  a  population  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand.  (Map  No.  XVI.) 


&08  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAET  II. 

'..'a-.i.^     .    '  -"m*     -  .  '•'-*»'  ^ 

of  the  long  and  bloody  wars  between  the  houses  of  York  and  Lan- 
caster :  it  effected  a  change  in  descents  :  it  marks  the  decline  of  the 
feudal  system,  the  waning  power  of  the  baronial  aristocracy,  and  a 
corresponding  increase  of  royal  prerogatives :  it  was  coternporary  with 
that  greatest  of  events  in  Modern  History,  the  discovery  of  Amer- 
ica,— with  the  advance  in  knowledge  and  civilization  that  dawned 
upon  the  closing  period  of  the  Middle  Ages;  with  the  consolidation 
of  the  great  European  monarchies  into  nearly  the  shape  and  extent 
which  they  retain  at  the  present  day;  and  with  the  growth  of  the 
"  balance  of  power"  system,  .which  neutralized  the  efforts  of  princes  at 
universal  dominion.  A  general  survey  of  the  condition  of  the  prin- 
cipal States  of  Europe  at  this  period  will  better  enable  us  to  com- 
prehend the  relations  of  their  subsequent  history. 

II.   OTHER  NATIONS  AT  THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY. — 
1.   Of  the  States  of  Northern  Europe — Denmark,1  Sweden,  and  Nor- 
way,— constituting  the  ancient  Scandinavia,  merit  our 
SWEDEN,  AND  first  attention.     After  these  kingdoms  had  long   been 
NORWAY,     agitated  by  internal  dissensions,  they  were  finally,  by 
the  treaty  of  Calmar,*  (1397,)  united  into  a  single  monarchy,  near 

1.  Denmark  embraces  the  whole  of  the  peninsula  north  of  Germany,  early  known  as  the 
Cimbric  Chersonese,  and  afterwards  as  Jutland.  Its  earliest  known  inhabitants  were  the  Cimbri. 
(See  p.  171.)  The  famous  but  mysterious  Odin,  the  Mars  as  well  as  the  Mohammed  of  Scan- 
dinavian history,  is  said  to  have  emigrated,  with  a  band  of  followers,  from  the  banks  of  the 
Tan'  ais  to  Scandinavia  about  the  middle  of  the  first  century  before  the  Christian  era,  and  to 
have  established  his  authority,  and  the  Scythian  religion,  over  Denmark,  Norway,  and  Sweden. 
Skiold,  son  of  Odin,  is  said  to  have  ruled  over  Denmark ;  but  his  history,  and  that  of  his  pos- 
terity for  many  generations,  are  involved  in  fable.  Hengist  and  Horsa,  the  two  Saxon  chiefs 
who  conquered  England  in  the  fifth  century,  reckoned  Odin,  (or  Wodin  in  their  dialect,)  as 
their  ancestor.  Gorm  the  Old,  son  of  Hardicanute  I.,  (Horda-knut,)  united  all  the  Danish 
States  under  his  sceptre  in  the  year  863.  His  grandson  Sweyn,  subdued  a  part  of  Norway  in 
the  year  1000,  and  a  part  of  England  in  1014.  His  son  Canute  completed  the  conquest  of  Eng- 
land in  1016,  and  also  subdued  a  part  of  Scotland.  Canute  embraced  the  Christian  religion, 
and  introduced  it  into  Denmark ;  upon  which  a  great  change  took  place  in  the  character  of  the 
people.  At  his  death,  in  1036,  he  left  the  crowns  of  Denmark  and  England  to  his  son  Hardi- 
canute II.  In  1385,  Margaret,  daughter  of  the  Danish  prince  Waldemar,  and  wife  of  Haquin 
king  of  Norway,  styled  the  Semir'  amis  of  the  North,  ascended  the  throne  of  Norway  and 
Denmark.  In  1389  she  was  chosen  by  the  Swedes  as  their  sovereign ;  and  in  1397  the  treaty 
of  Calmar  united  the  throe  crowns— it  was  supposed  forever.  In  1448,  the  princes  of  the 
family  of  Skiold  having  become  extinct,  the  Danes  promoted  Christian  I.,  count  of  Oldenburg, 
to  the  throne.  He  was  the  founder  of  the  royal  Danish  family  which  has  ever  since  kept 
possession  of  the  throne.  In  1523  the  Swedes  emancipated  themselves  from  the  cruel  and 
tyrannical  yoke  of  Christian  IT.,  king  of  Denmark.  In  their  struggle  for  independence  they 
were  led  by  the  famous  Gustavus  Vasa,  who  was  raised  to  the  throne  of  Sweden  by  the  unani- 
mous suffrages  of  his  fellow  citizens.  Norway  remained  connected  with  Denmark  till  1814, 
when  the  allied  powers  gave  it  to  Sweden,  as  indemnity  for  Finland.  (Map  No.  XIV.) 

2.  Calmar,  rendered  famous  by  the  treaty  of  1397,  is  a  seaport  town  on  the  small  island  of 
Quarnholm,  which  is  in  the  narrow  strait  that  separates  the  island  of  Oland  from  the  south- 
eastern coast  of  Sweden.  (Map  No.  XIV.) 


.]  MIDDLE  AGES.  3Q& 

the  close  of  the  fourteenth  century,  through  the  influence  of  Marga- 
ret of  Denmark,  whose  extraordinary  talents  and  address  have  ren- 
dered her  name  illustrious  as  the  "  Semir'amis  of  the  North."  But 
the  union  of  Calmar,  although  forming  an  important  epoch  in  Scan- 
dinavian history,  was  never  firmly  consolidated ;  and  after  having 
heen  renewed  several  times,  was  at  length  irreparably  broken  by 
Sweden,  which,  in  the  early  part  of  the  sixteenth  century,  (1521,) 
under  the  conduct  of  the  heroic  Gustavus  Vasa,  recovered  its  ancient 
independence. 

2.  East  and  south-east  of  the  Scandinavian  kingdoms  were  the 
numerous  Sclavonic  tribes,  which  were  gradually  gathered  into  the 
empire  of  Russia.  The  original  cradle  of  that  mighty 
empire  which  dates  back  to  the  time  of  Rurick,  a  chief-  ^^IKK* 
tain  cotemporary  with  Alfred  the  Great,  was  a  narrow 
territory  extending  from  Kiev,  along  the  banks  of  the  Dnieper,1  north 
to  Novogorod.2  Darkness  for  a  long  time  rested  upon  early  Russian 
history,  but  it  has  been  in  great  part  dispelled  by  the  genius  and  re- 
search of  Karanisin,  and  it  is  now  known  that  as  early  as  the  tenth 
century  the  Russian  empire  had  attained  an  extent  and  importance, 
as  great,  comparatively,  among  the  powers  of  Europe,  as  it  boasts  at 
the  present  day.  About  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  century  the 
system  of  dividing  the  kingdom  among  the  children  of  successive 
monarchs  began  to  prevail,  and  the  result  was  ruinous  in  the  ex- 
treme, occasioning  innumerable  intestine  wars,  and  a  gradual  decline 
of  the  strength  and  consideration  of  the  empire. 

3>.  Toward  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century  the  Tartar  hordes 
of  Northern  Asia,  falling  upon  the  feeble  and  disunited  Russian 
States,  found  them  an  easy  prey ;  and  during  a  period  of  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years,  Russia,  under  the  Tartar  yoke,  suffered  the 
direst  atrocities  of  savage  cruelty  and  despotism.  At  length,  about 
the  year  1480,  John  III.,  duke  of  Moscow,  the  true  restorer  of  his 

1.  Dnieper^  the  Borysthenes  of  the  ancients,  still  frequently  called  by  its  ancient  name,  is  a 
large  river  of  European  Russia.    It  rises  near  Smolensko,  runs  south,  and  falls  into  the  Black 
Sea,  north-east  of  the  mouths  of  the  Danube.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

2.  Novogorod,  or  Novgorod,  called  also  Veliki,  or  "  the  Great,"  formerly  the  most  important 
city  in  the  Russian  empire,  is  situated  on  the  river  Volkhof,  near  its  exit  from  Lake  llmen, 
•ne  hundred  miles  south-east  from  St  Petersburg!!,  and  three  hundred  and  five  north-west 
from  Moscow.    The  Volkhof  runs  north  to  Lake  Ladoga.    So  impregnable  was  I»ovgorod 
once  deemed  as  to  give  rise  to  the  proverb, 

Quis  contra  Deos  et  magnam  Novogordiam  ? 
"Who  can  resist  the  Gods  awl  Great  Novgorod?" 
From  Novgorod  to  Kiev  is  a  distance  of  nearly  six  nundred  miles. 


310  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  II. 

country's  glory,  succeeded  in  abolishing  the  ruinous  system  by  which 
the  regal  power  had  been  frittered  away,  while  at  the  same  time  he 
threw  off  the  yoke  of  the  Moguls,  and  repulsed  their  last  invasion 
of  his  country.  Under  the  reign  of  this  wise  and  powerful  prince, 
the  many  petty  principalities  which  had  long  divided  the  sovereignty 
were  consolidated,  and,  at  the  end  of  the  century,  Russia,  although 
scarcely  emerged  from  its  primitive  barbarian  darkness,  was  one  of 
the  great  powers  of  Europe. 

4.  South  of  the  country  inhabited  by  the  Russians,  we  look  in 
vain,  at  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century,  for  the  once 
'"EM-PIKE  **  ^ame<^  Greek  empire  of  Justinian,  or,  as  sometimes  called, 
the  Eastern  empire  of  the  Romans.  The  account  which 
we  have  given  of  the  crusades  represents  the  Turks,  a  race  of  Tartar 
origin,  as  spread  over  the  greater  part  of  Asia  Minor.  About  the 
beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century,  a  Turkish  enair,a  called  Otto- 
man, succeeded  in  uniting  several  of  the  petty  Turkish  States  of  the 
peninsula,  and  thus  laid  the  foundation  of  the  Ottoman  empire. 
About  the  year  1358  the  Ottoman  Turks  first  obtained  a  foothold  in 
Europe ;  and  at  the  close  of  the  fourteenth  century  their  empire  ex- 
tended from  the  Euphrates  to  the  Danube,  and  embraced,  onheld  as 
tributary,  ancient  Greece,  Thes'  saly,  Macedonia,  and  Thrace,  while 
the  Roman  world  was  contracted  to  the  city  of  Constantinople,  and 
even  that  was  besieged  by  the  Turks,  and  closely  pressed  by  the  ca- 
lamities of  war  and  famine.  The  city  would  have  yielded  to  the 
efforts  of  Bajazet,  the  Turkish  sultan  ;  but  almost  in  the  moment  of 
victory  the  latter  was  overthrown  by  the  famous  Timour,  or  Tamer- 
lane, the  new  Tartar  conqueror  of  Asia. 

5  About  the  year  1370,  Tamerlane,  a  remote  descendant  of  the 
Great  Gengis  Khan,  (p.  286,)  had  fixed  the  capital  of  his  new  do- 
minions at  Samarcand,1  from  which  central  point  of  his  power  he 

1,  Samarcand,  anciently  called  Marakanda,  now  a  city  of  Independent  Tartary,  in  Bokhara, 
was  the  capital  of  the  Persian  satrapy  of  Sogdiana.  (See  Map  No.  IV.)  Alexander  is  thought 
to  have  pillaged  it.  It  was  taken  from  the  sultan  Mahomet,  by  Gengis  Khan,  in  1220 ;  and 
under  Timo,  v  or  Tamerlane,  it  became  the  capital  of  one  of  the  largest  empires  in  the  world, 
and  the  cen.^;  of  Asiatic  learning  and  civilization,  at  the  same  time  that  it  rose  to  high  dis- 
tinction on  account  of  its  extensive  commerce  wilh  all  parts  of  Asia.  Samarcand  is  now  in  a 

a.  Emir,  an  Arabic  word,  meaning  a  leader,  or  commander,  was  a  title  first  given  to  the 
caliphs ;  but  when  they  assumed  the  title  of  sultan,  that  of  emir  was  applied  to  their  children. 
At  length  it  was  bestowed  upon  all  who  were  thought  to  be  descendants  of  Mahomet  in  the 
line  of  his  daughter  Fatimah. 


OHAP.  IL]  MIDDLE  AGES.  311 

made  thirty -five  victorio  is  campaigns, — conquering  all  Persia,  North- 
ern Asia,  and  Hindostan, — and  before  his  death  he  had   ^  TARTAR 
placed   the    crowns   of  twenty-seven  kingdoms   on   his   EMPIRE  OF 
head.     In  the  year  1402  he  fought  a  bloody  and  decisive  TAMERLANE- 
battle  with  the  Turkish  sultan  Bajazet,  on  the  plains  of  Angora,1  in 
Asia  Minor,  in  which  the  Turk  sustained  a  total  defeat,  and  fell  into 
the  hands  of  the  conqueror.     Tamerlane  would  have  carried  his 
conquests  into  Europe  ;  but  the  lord  of  myriads  of  Tartar  horsemen 
was  not  master  of  a  single  galley ;  and  the  two  passages  of  the  Bos- 
porus and  the  Hellespont  were  guarded,  the  one  by  the  Christians, 
the  other  by  the  Turks,  who  on  this  occasion  forgot  their  animosities 
to  act  with  union  and  firmness  in  the  common  cause.     Two  years 
later  Tamerlane  died,  at  the  age  of  sixty-nine,  while  on  his  march 
for  the  invasion  of  China 

6.  The  Ottoman  empire  not  only  soon  recovered  from  the  blow 
which  Tamerlane  had  inflicted  upon  it,  but  in  the  year  1453,  during 
the  reign  of  Mahomet  II.,  effected  the  final  conquest  of  Constanti- 
nople.    On  the  29th  of  May  of  that  year  the  city  was  carried  by 
assault,  and  given  up  to  the  unrestrained  pillage  of  the  Turkish 
soldiers  :  the  last  of  the  Greek  emperors  fell  in  the  first  onset :  the 
inhabitants  were  carried  into  slavery ;  and  Constantinople  was  left 
without  a  prince  or  a  people,  until  the   sultan  established  his  own 
residence,  and  that  of  his  successors,  on  the  commanding  spot  which 
had  been  chosen  by  Constantine.     The  few  remnants  of  the  Greek 
or  Roman  power  were  soon  merged  in  the  Ottoman  dominion ;  and 
at  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century  the  Turkish  empire  was  firmlj 
established  in  Europe. 

7.  While  at  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century  the  three  Scandina- 
vian kingdoms  of  the  North,  and  Russia,  formed,  as  it 

.  .  V.  POLAND. 

were,  separate  worlds,  having  no  connection  with  the 

rest  of  Europe,  Poland,8  the  ancient  Sarmatia,  supplying  the  connect- 

decayed  condition :  gardens,  fields,  and  plantations,  occupy  the  place  of  its  numerous  streets 
and  mosques ;  and  we  search  in  vain  for  its  ancient  palaces,  whose  beauty  is  so  highly  eulo- 
gized by  Arab  historians. 

1.  Angora,  a  town  of  Natolia  in  Asia  Minor,  (see  Note,  Roum,  p.  281,)  is  the  same  as  the 
ancient  Ancyra,  which,  in  the  time  of  Nero,  was  the  capital  of  Galatia.    Here  St.  Paul  preached 
to  the  Galatians. 

2.  The  Poles  were  a  Sclavonic  tribe  (a  branch  of  the  Sarmatians),  who,  in  the  seventh  cen 
tury,  passed  up  the  Dnieper,  and  thence  to  the  Niemen  and  the  Vistula.    About  the  middle  of 
the  tenth  century  they  embraced  Christianity,  and  toward  the  end  of  the  same  century  were 
first  called  Poles,  that  is,  Sdavonians  of  the  plain.    The  numerous  principalities  into  which 


3i2  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  It 

ing  link  between  the  Sclavonian  and  German  tribes,  had  risen  to  a 
considerable  degree  of  eminence  and  power.  The  history  of  Poland 
commences  with  the  tenth  century ;  but  the  prosperity  of  the  king- 
dom began  with  the  reign  of  Casimir  the  Great.  (1333-1370.)  In 
the  year  1386  Lithuania1  was  added  to  Poland ;  and  about  the  mid- 
dle of  the  following  century  the  Polish  sovereign,  Wladislas,  was 
presented  with  the  crown  of  Hungary,  which  he  had  nobly  defended 
against  the  Turks.  But  Hungary  soon  reverted  again  to  the  German 
empire.  After  long  wars  with  the  Teutonic  knights,2  who,  since  the 
crusades,  had  firmly  established  their  order  in  the  Prussian  part  of 
the  Germanic  empire,  the  knights  were  everywhere  defeated  during 
the  reign  of  Casimir  IV.,  (1444-1492,)  who  added  a  large  part  of 
Prussia  to  the  Polish  territories.  The  Turkish  province  of  Mol- 
davia3 also  became  tributary  to  Poland  ;  and  at  the  close  of  the  fif- 
teenth century  this  kingdom  had  extended  its  power  from  the  Baltic 
to  the  Euxine,  along  the  whole  frontier  of  European  civilization, 
thus  forming  an  effectual-  barrier  to  the  Western  States  of  Europe 
against  barbarian  invasion. 

8.  The  German  empire,  at  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century,  com- 
prised a  great  number  of*  States  lying  between  France  and  Poland, 
extending  even  west  of  the  Rhine,  and  embracing  the  whole  of  cen- 

the  Poles  were  divided  were  first  united  into  one  kingdom  in  1025,  under  king  Bolealaus  I. ; 
but  Poland  was  afterwards  subdivided  among  the  family  of  the  Piasts  until  1305,  when  Wladis- 
las, king  of  Cracow,  united  with  hiss  overeignty  the  two  principal  remaining  divisions,  Great 
and  Little  Poland.  From  1370  to  1382  Hungary  was  united  with  Poland.  The  union  with 
Lithuania  in  1386,  occasioned  by  the  marriage  of  the  grand  duke  of  Lithuania  with  the  queen 
of  Poland,  was  more  permanent.  After  the  Lithuania  nobility,  in  1569,  united  with  Great  and 
Little  Poland,  in  one  diet,  Poland  became  the  most  powerful  State  in  the  North.  Although  Po- 
land has  ceased  to  constitute  an  independent  and  single  State — Its  detached  fragments  having 
become  Austrian,  Prussian,  or  Russian  provinces -still  the  country  is  distinctly  separated  from 
those  which  surround  it,  by  national  character,  language,  and  manners.  The  present  Poland 
possessing  the  name  without  the  privileges  or  a  kingdom,  and  reduced  to  a  territory  extending 
two  hundred  miles  north  and  south,  and  two  hundred  east  and  west,  is,  substantially,  a  part  of 
the  Russian  empire.  (Map  No.  XVII.) 

1.  The  greater  part  of  Lithuania,  once  forming  the  north-eastern  division  of  Poland,  has 
been  united  to  Russia.    It  is  comprised  in  the  present  governments  of  Mohilew,  Witepsk, 
Minsk,  Wilna,  and  Grodno.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

2.  The  Teutonic  Knights  composed  a  religious  order  founded  in  1190  by  Frederic,  duke  of 
Suabia,  during  a  crusade  in  the  Holy  Land,  and  intended  to  be  confined  to  Germans  of  noble 
rank.    The  original  object  of  the  association  was  to  defend  the  Christian  religion  against  the 
infidels,  and  to  take  care  of  the  sick  in  the  Holy  Land.    By  degrees  the  order  made  several 
conquests,  and  acquired  great  riches ;  and  at  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century  it  possessed 
a  large  extent  of  territory  extending  from  the  Oder  to  the  Gulf  of  Finland.    The  war  with 
the  Poles  greatly  abridged  its  power,  and  finally  the  order  was  abolished  by  Napoleon,  in  the 
war  with  Austria,  April  24th,  1809. 

3.  Moldavia,  nominally  a  Turkish  province,  but  in  reality  under  the  protection  of  Russia, 
embraces  the  north-eastern  part  of  the  ancient  Dacia.    (Maps  Nos.  IX.  and  XVII.) 


CHAP.  II]  MIDDLE   AOEa  313 

tral  Europe.     The  Carlovingian  sovereigns  of  Germany  were  hered- 
itary monarchs ;  but  as  early  as  the  year  887  the  great 
vassals  of  the  crown  deposed  their  emperor,  and  elected 
another  sovereign,  and  from  that  remote  period  the  em- 
perors of  Germany  have  continued  to  be  elective. 

9.  Owing  to  the  great  number  of  the  Germanic  States,  which  were 
of  different  grades,  from  large  principalities  down  to  free  cities  and 
the  estates  of  earls  or  counts — the  frequent  changes  of  territory 
among  them,  by  marriages,  alliances,  and  conquests, — the  weakness 
of  the  federal  tie  by  which  they  were  united — and  their  conflicting 
interests,  and  frequent  wars  with  each  other  and  with  the  emperor, — 
the  history  of  Germany  is  exceedingly  complicated,  and  generally 
devoid  of  great  points  of  interest.  Many  of  the  States  had  their 
own  sovereigns,  subordinate  to  their  common  emperor.  About  the 
middle  of  the  fourteenth  century  there  were  three  powerful  States  in 
Germany,  which  had  absorbed  nearly  all  the  rest;  These  were  1st, 
Luxemburg*  which  possessed  Bohemia,'  Moravia,3  and  part  of  Si- 
lesia,4 and  Lusatia  :6  2d,  Bavaria,  which  had  acquired  Brandenburg,' 
Holland,7  and  the  Tyrol  :8  and  3d,  Austria*  which,  in  addition  to  a 

1.  The  Grand  Duchy  of  Luxemburg  was  divided  in  the  year  1833,  between  Holland  and  Bel- 
gium.   The  town  of  Luxemburg,  one  hundred  and  eighty-five  miles  north-east  from  Paris, 
containing  one  of  the  strongest  fortresses  in  Europe,  belongs,  with  a  portion  of  the  surround- 
ing country,  to  Holland.    (Map  No.  XV.) 

2.  Bohemia,  having  Silesia  and  Saxony  on  the  north,  Moravia  and  the.  arch-duchy  of  Austria 
on  the  south-east,  and  Bavaria  on  the  west,  forms  an  important  portion  of  the  Austrian  empire. 
(Map  No.  XVII.) 

3.  Muraoia,  an  important  province  of  Austria,  lies  east  of  Bohemia.    In  1783  a  portion  of 
Silesia  was  incorporated  with  it.    Moravia  is  the  country  anciently  occupied  by  the  Quadi  and 
Marcomanni,  who  waged  fierce  wars  against  the  Romans.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

4.  Silesia  is  north-east  of  Bohemia  and  Moravia,  embracing  the  country  on  both  sides  of  the 
Oder.    (Map  No  XVII.) 

5.  Lusatia  was  a  tract  of  country  having  Brandenburg  on  the  north,  Silesia  on  the  east,  Bo- 
hemia and  Bavaria  on  the  south,  and  Meissen  on  the  west.    It  is  now  embraced  in  the  east- 
ern part  of  the  kingdom  of  Saxony,  east  of  Dresden,  the  southern  part  of  Brandenburg,  and 
the  north-western  part  of  Silesia.    It  was  divided  into  Upper  and  Lower  Lusatia,  the  former 
being  the  southern  portion  of  the  territory.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

6.  Brandenburg-,  the  most  important  of  the  Prussian  States,  lies  between  Mecklenburg  and 
Pomerania  on  the  north,  and  West  Prussian  Saxony  and  the  kingdom  of  Saxony  on  the  south. 
It  includes  Berlin,  the  capital  of  the  Prussian  empire.     (Map  No.  XVII.) 

7.  Holland  has  the  Prussian  German  States  on  the  south-east,  Belgium  on  the  south,  and 
the  eea  on  the  west.    (Maps  Nos.  XV.  and  XVII.) 

8.  The  Tyrol,  (comprising  the  ancient  Rhcetia  with  a  part  of  Noricum,  see  Map  No.  IX.,) 
is  a  province  of  the  Austrian  empire,  east  of  Switzerland,  and  having  Bavaria  on  the  north, 
ami  Lombardy  on  the  south.    The  Tyrolese,  although  warmly  attached  to  liberty,  have  always 
been  steadfast  adherents  of  Austria.    ( Map  No.  XVII.) 

9.  The  arch-duchy  of  Austria,  the  nucleus  and  centre  of  the  Austrian  empire,  lies  on  both 
•idee  of  the  Danube,  having  Bohemia  and  Moravia  on  the  north,  and  Styria  and  Carinthia  on 
the  south.    In  the  time  of  Charlemagne,  about  the  year  800,  the  margravate  of  Austria  was 


-,    ;    ;  ;•     -    ,; 

314  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

large  number  of  hereditary  States,  possessed  much  of  the  Suabian 
territory.  (See  Suabia,  p.  270.) 

10.  In  the  year  1438  the  German  princes  elected  an  emperor  from 
the  house  of  Austria;   and,  ever  since,   an  Austrian  prince,  with 
scarcely  any  intermission,   has  occupied  the  throne  of  Germany. 
Near  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century  the  German   States,  then 
under  the  reign  of  Maximilian  of  the  house  of  Austria,  made  an  im- 
portant change  in  their  condition,  by  which  the  private  wars  and 
feuds,  which  the  laws  then  authorized,  and  the  right  to  carry  on 
which  against  each  other  the  petty  States  regarded  as  the  bulwark 
of  their  liberty,  were  made  to  give  place  to  regular  courts  of  justice 
for  the  settlement  of  national  controversies.     In  the  year  1495,  at  a 
general  diet  held  at  Worms,1  the  plan  of  a  Perpetual  Public  Peace 
was  subscribed  to  by  the  several  States  :  oppression,  rapine,  and  vio- 
lence, were  made  to  yield  to  the  authority  of  law,  and  the  public 
tranquillity  was  thus,  for  the  first  time  in  Germany,  established  on  a 
firm  basis. 

11.  For  a  considerable  period  previous  to  the  beginning  of  the 

fourteenth  century,  Switzerland,  the  Helvetia  of  the  Ho- 
ZERLAND"    mans>  ^ad  formed  an  integral  part  of  the  Germanic  em- 
pire; but  in  the  year  1307  the  house  of  Austria,  under 
the  usurping  emperor  Albert,  endeavored  to  extend  his  sway  over  the 
rude  mountaineers  of  that  inhospitable  land.     The  tyranny  of  Aus- 
tria provoked  the  league  of  Rutuli  ;a  the  famous  episode  of  the  hero 
William  Tell 3  gave  a  new  impulse  to  the  cause  of  freedom  ;  and  in 

formed  south  of  the  Danube,  by  a  body  of  militia  which  protected  the  south-east  of  Germany 
from  the  incursions  of  the  Asiatic  tribes.  In  1156  its  territory  was  extended  north  of  the  Dan- 
ube, and  made  a  duchy.  In  1438  the  ruling  dynasty  of  Austria  obtained  the  electoral  crovvu 
of  the  German  emperors,  and  in  1453  Austria  was  raised  to  an  arch-duchy.  In  1526  it  acquired 
Bohemia  and  Hungary,  and  attained  the  rank  of  a  European  monarchy.  (Map  No.  XVII.) 

1.  Worms  is  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Rhine,  forty-two  miles  south-west  from  Frankfort. 
(Map  No.  XVII.) 

2.  Rutuli  was  a  meadow  slope  under  the  Salzburg  mountain,  in  the  canton  of  Uri,  and  on 
the  west  bank  of  the  Lake  of  Lucerne,  where  the  confederates  were  wont  to  assemble  at  dead 
of  night,  to  consult  for  the  salvation  of  their  country.    (Map  No.  XIV.) 

3.  The  story  of  William  Tell,  one  of  the  confederates  of  Rutuli,  is,  briefly,  as  follows.    Gess- 
ler  the  Austrian  governor  had  carried  his  insolence  so  far  as  to  cause  his  hat  to  be  placed 
upon  a  pole,  as  a  symbol  of  the  sovereign  power  of  Austria,  and  to  order  that  all  who  passed 
should  uncover  their  heads  and  bow  before  it.    Tell,  having  passed  the  hat  without  making 
obeisance,  was  summoned  before  Gessler,  who,  knowing  that  he  was  a  good  archer,  command- 
ed him  to  shoot,  from  a  great  distance,  an  apple  placed  on  the  head  of  his  own  son,— promis- 
ing him  his  life  if  he  succeeded.    Tell  hit  the  apple,  but,  accidentally  dropping  a  concealed 
arrow,  was  asked  by  the  tyrant  why  he  had  brought  two  arrows  with  him  ?    "  Had  I  shot  my 
child,"  replied  the  archer,  "  the  second  shaft  was  for  thee :— and,  be  sure,  I  should  not  have 


OHAP.  II]  MIDDLE  AGES.  315 

the  year  1308  the  united  cantons  of  Uri,  Schwytz,  and  Unterwalden,1 
strucK  their  first  blow  for  liberty,  and  expelled  their  oppressors  from 
the  country.  In  1315  the  Swiss  gained  a  great  victory  over  the 
Austrians  at  Morgarten,"  and  another  at  Sempach8  in  1386  ;  but  they 
were  regarded  as  belonging  to  the  Germanic  empire  until  about  the 
close  of  the  fifteenth  century,  when,  in  the  famous  Suabian  war,  army 
after  army  of  the  Austrians  was  defeated,  and  the  emperor  Maxi- 
milian himself  compelled  to  effect  a  disgraceful  retreat.  This  was 
the  last  war  of  the  early  Swiss  confederates  in  the  cause  of  freedom ; 
and  the  peace  concluded  with  Maximilian  in  1499  established  the 
independence  of  Switzerland. 

1'2.  The  condition  of  Italy  during  the  central  period  of  the  Mid- 
dle Ages  has  already  been  described.     (Sec  II.)     At  the  close  of 
that  period  Italy  still  formed,  nominally,  a  part  of  the 
Germanic  empire  ;  but  the  authority  of  the  German  em-  VITI' IT 
perors  had  silently  declined  during  the  preceding  cen- 
turies, until  at  length  it  was  reduced  to  the  mere  ceremony  of  coro 
nation,  and  the  exercise  of  a  few  honorary  and  feudal  rights  over  the 
Lombard  vassals  of  the  crown.     In  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  cen- 
turies, numerous  republics  had  sprung  up  in  Italy ;  and,  animated 
by  the  spirit  of  liberty,  they  for  a  time  enjoyed  an  unusual  degree 
of  prosperity ;  but  eventually,  torn  to  pieces  by  contending  factions, 
and  a  prey  to  mutual  and  incessant  hostilities,  they  fell  under  the 
tyranny  of  one  despot  after  another,  until,  in  the  early  part  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  Florence,  Genoa,4  and  Venice,  were  the  only  im- 

missed  my  mark  a  second  time."  Gessler,  in  a  rage  not  unmixed  with  terror,  declared  that 
although  he  had  promised  Tell  his  life,  he  should  pass  it  in  a  dungeon ;  and  taking  his  captive 
bound,  started  In  a  boat  to  cross  the  Lake  of  Lucerne,  to  his  fortress.  But  a  violent  storm 
arising,  Tell  was  set  at  liberty,  and  the  helm  committed  to  his  hands.  He  guided  the  boat  suc- 
cessfully to  the  shore,  when,  seizing  his  bow,  by  a  daring  leap  he  sprung  upon  a  rock,  leaving 
the  barque  to  wrestle  with  the  billows.  Gessler  escaped  the  storm,  but  only  to  fall  by  the  un- 
erring arrow  of  Tell.  The  death  of  Gessler  was  a  signal  for  a  general  rising  of  the  Swiss  cantons. 

1.  t/ri,  Schwytz,  Unterwalden,  see  Map  No.  XIV. 

2.  Morgartc-n,  the  narrow  pass  in  which  the  battle  was  fought,  is  on  the  eastern  shore  of  the 
small  Lake  of  Egeri,  in  the  canton  of  Schwytz,  seventeen  miles  east  from  Lucerne.    {Map 
No.  XIV.) 

3.  Sempach  is  a  small  town  on  the  east  bank  of  the  small  lake  of  the  same  name,  seven  miles 
northwest  from  Lucerne.    (Map  No.  XIV.) 

4.  Genoa,  a  maritime  city  of  northern  Italy,  Is  at  the  head  of  the  gulf  of  the  same  name, 
seventy-five  miles  south-east  from  Turin.    After  the  downfall  of  the  empire  of  Charlemagne, 
Genoa  erected  itself  into  a  republic.    In  1174  it  possessed  an  extensive  territory  in  north-west- 
ern Italy,  nearly  all  of  Provence,  and  the  island  of  Corsica.    Genoa  carried  on  long  wars  with 
Pisa  and  Venice,— that  with  the  latter  being  one  of  the  most  memorable  in  the  Italian  annals  of 
the  Middle  Ages. 


316  MODERN  HI&FORY.  [PART  II 

portant  States  that  had  escaped  the  general  catastrophe.  Nearly  all 
the  numerous  free  towns  and  republics  of  Lombardy  had  been  con- 
quered by  the  duchy  of  Milan,  which  acknowledged  a  direct  de- 
pendence on  the  German  emperor. 

13.  The  Florentines,  who  greatly  enriched  themselves  by  their 
commerce  and  manufactures,  maintained  their  republican  form  of 
government,  from  about  the  close  of  the  twelfth  century,  during  a 
period  of  nearly  two  hundred  and  fifty  years.     The  Genoese  and  Ve- 
netians, whose  commercial  interests  thwarted  each  other,  both  in  the 
Levant1  and  the  Mediterranean,  quarreled  repeatedly;  but  eventu- 
ally the  Venetians  gained  the  superiority,  and  retained  the  command 
of  the  sea  in  their  own  hands.     Of  all  the  Italian  republics,  Genoa 
was  the  most  agitated  by  internal  dissensions  ;  and  the  Genoese,  vol- 
atile and  inconstant,  underwent  frequent  voluntary  changes  of  mas- 
ters.    At  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century  Genoa  was  a  dependency 
of  the  duchy  of  Milan,  although  subsequently  it  recovered  once  more 
its  ancient  state  of  independence. 

14.  Venice,  to  whose  origin  we  have  already  alluded,  was  the 
earliest,  and,  for  a  long  time,  the  most  considerable,  commercial  city 
of  modern  Europe.     At  a  very  early  period  the  Venetians  began  to 
trade  with  Constantinople  and  other  eastern  cities ;  the  crusades,  to 
which  their  shipping  contributed,  increased  their  wealth,  and  extend- 
ed their  commerce  and  possessions ;  and  toward  the  end  of  the  fif- 
teenth century,  besides  several  rich  provinces  in  Lombardy,  the  re- 
public was  mistress  of  Crete  and  Cyprus,  of  the  greater  part  of  the 
Morea,2  or  Southern  Greece,  and  of  most  of  the  isles  in  the  jEgean 
Sea.     The  additional  powers  that  at  this  time  shared  the  dominion 
of  Italy,  were  the  popes,  and  the  kings  of  Naples ;  but  the  temporal 
domains  of  the  former  were  small,  and  those  of  the  latter  soon  passed 
into  other  hands ;  for  the  continual  wars  which  all  the  Italian  States 
waged  with  each  other  had  already  encouraged  foreign  powers  to 
form  plans  of  conquest  over  them.     In  the  year  1500  Ferdinand  of 
Spain  deprived  France  of  Naples  ;  and  from  this  time  the  Spaniards, 
who  were  already  masters  of  Sicily  and  Sardinia,  became,  for  more 
than  a  hundred  years,  the  predominating  power  in  Italy. 

1 ,  The  Levant  is  a  term  applied  to  designate  the  eastern  coasts  of  the  Mediterranean,  from 
Bouthern  Greece  to  Egypt.    In  the  Middle  Ages  the  trade  with  these  countries  was  almost 
exclusively  in  the  hands  of  the  Italians,  who  gave  to  them  the  general  appellation  of  Levants^ 
or  eastern  countries.    (Italian,  Levante  :  French,  Levant.) 

2.  Jllorca,  the  ancient  Peloponnesus,  or  southern  Greece,  is  said  to  derive  its  modern  name 
from  its  resemblance  to  a  mulberry  leaf.    (Greek,  morea,  a  mulberry  tree.) 


ODAP.  II]  MIDDLE  AGES.  317 

15.  Turning  to  Spain,  we  behold  there,  in  the  beginning  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  the  three  Christian  States  of  Navarre,1 
Aragon,8  Castile*  and  Leon*  united,  and  the  Moorish 
kingdom  of  Granada.6  Frequent  dissensions  among  the  Christian 
States  had  long  prevented  unity  of  action  among  them,  but  in  the 
year  1474  Ferdinand  V.  ascended  the  throne  of  Aragon ;  and,  as 
he  had  previously  married  Isabella,  a  princess  of  Castile,  the  two 
most  powerful  Christian  States  were  thus  united.  The  plan  of  ex- 
pelling the  Moors  from  Spain  had  long  been  agitated;  and  in  1481 
the  war  for  that  purpose  was  commenced  by  Ferdinand  and  Isabella. 
Ten  years,  however,  were  spent  in  the  sanguinary  strife,  before  the 

1.  Navarre  is  in  the  northern  part  of  Spain,  having  France  and  the  Pyrenees  on  the  north, 
Aragon  on  the  east,  Old  Castile  on  the  south,  and  the  Basque  provinces  (Biscay,  Guipuzcoa, 
and  Alava)  on  the  west.    A  portion  of  ancient  Navarre  extended  north  of  the  Pyrenees,  and 
afterwards  formed  the  French  province  of  Beam.    (See  Map  No.  XIII.)    During  many  cen- 
turies Navarre  was  an  independent  kingdom,  but  in  1284  it  became  united,  by  intermarriage, 
with  that  of  France.    In  1329  it  again  obtained  a  sovereign  of  its  own.    Although  still  claimed 
by  France,  in  1512  Ferdinand  of  Aragon  united  all  the  country  south  of  the  Pyrenees  to  the 
crown  of  Spain.    In  1590  Henry  IV.,  grandson  of  Henry  king  of  Navarre,  ascended  the  throne 
of  France  ;  and  from  that  time  to  the  reign  of  Charles  X.,  the  French  monarchs,  (with  the  ex- 
ception of  Napoleon,)  assumed  the  title  of  "king  of  France  and  Navarre ;"  but  only  the  small 
portion  of  Navarre  north  of  the  Pyrenees  remained  annexed  to  the  French  monarchy.    Span- 
ish Navarre  is  still  governed  by  its  separate  laws,  and  has,  nominally  at  least,  the  same  con- 
stitution which  it  enjoyed  when  it  was  a  separate  monarchy  ;  but  its  sovereignty  is  rested  in 
the  Spanish  crown.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

2.  Aragon  was  bounded  on  the  north  by  the  Pyrenees,  east  by  Catalonia,  south  by  Valencia, 
and  west  by  Castile  and  Navarre.    While  a  separate  kingdom  it  was  the  most  powerful  of  tho 
peninsular  States,  and  comprised,  in  1479,  under  the  sovereignty  of  Ferdinand,  exclusive  of 
Aragon  proper,  Navarre,  Catalonia,  Valencia,  and  Sardinia.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

3.  Castile  is  the  central  and  largest  division  of  modern  Spain.    The  northern  portion  being 
that  first  recovered  from  the  Saracens,  is  called  Old  Castile,  and  comprises  the  modern  prov- 
inces of  Burgos,  Soria,  Segovia,  and  Avila :  the  southern  portion,  called  New  Castile,  comprises 
the  provinces  of  Madrid,  Guadalaxara,  Cuenca,  Toledo,  and  La  Manicha.    After  the  expulsion 
of  the  Saracens,  and  various  vicissitudes,  the  sovereignty  of  Castile  was  vested  by  marriage  in 
Sancho  III.  king  of  Navarre,  whose  son  Ferdinand  was  made  king  of  Castile  in  1034.    Three 
years  later  he  was  crowned  king  of  Leon.    The  crowns  of  Castile  and  Leon  were  repeatedly 
separated  and  united,  till,  by  the  marriage  of  Isabella,  who  held  both  crowns,  with  Ferdinand, 
king  of  Aragon,  in  1497,  the  three  kingdoms  were  consolidated  into  one.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

4.  The  kingdom  of  Leon  was  bounded  north  by  Asturias,  east  by  Old  Castile,  south  by  Es- 
tremadura,  and  west  by  Galicla  and  Portugal.    During  the  eighth  century,  this  district,  after 
the  expulsion  of  the  Moors,  was  formed  into  a  kingdom,  called  after  its  capital,  and  connected 
with  Asturias.    It  was  first  added  to  Castile  in  1037,  in  the  reign  of  Ferdinand  I.  king  of  Cas- 
tile, who  was  king  of  Leon  in  right  of  his  wife ;  but  it  continued  in  an  unsettled  state  till  1230, 
when  it  was  finally  united,  by  inheritance,  to  the  dominions  of  Ferdinand  III.  king  of  Castile. 
(Map  No.  XIII ) 

5.  G-anada,  consisting  of  the  south-eastern  part  of  ancient  Andalusia,  (Note  p.  232,)  is  on 
the  Mediterranean  coast,  in  the  south-eastern  part  of  Spain.    On  the  breaking  up  of  the  Afri- 
can empire  in  Spain,  in  the  year  1238,  Mohammed  ben  Alhamar  founded  the  Moorish  king- 
dom of  Granada,  making  the  city  of  Granada  his  capital.    Granada  remained  in  the  possession 
of  the  Moors  two  hundred  and  fifty  years,  which  comprise  the  season  of  Us  prosperity.    In 
1492  it  surrendered  to  Ferdinand  the  Catholic,  being  the  last  foothold  of  Saracen  power  in 
Spain.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 


318  MODERN   HISTORY.  [PABT  IL 

Christians  were  enabled  to  besiege  Granada,  the  Moorish  capital; 
but  the  capitulation  of  that  city  in  January,  1492,  put  an  end  to  the 
Saracen  dominion  in  the  Spanish  peninsula,  after  it  had  existed  there 
during  a  period  of  eight  hundred  years.  In  the  year  1512  Ferdi- 
nand invaded  and  conquered  Navarre ;  and  thus  the  whole  of  Spain 
WAS  united  under  the  same  government. 

16.  Toward  the  close  of  the  eleventh  century,  the  frontier  province 
of  Portugal,1  which  had  been  conquered  by  the  Chris- 
*TUGA*~     tians  from   the    Moors,  was   formed    into  an  earldom 
tributary  to   Leon  and  Castile  ;   but  in  the  twelfth  cen- 
tui  7  it  was  erected  into  an  independent  kingdom,  and  in  the  early 
pait  of  the  thirteenth  it  had  reached  its  present  limits.     The  history 
of  Portugal  is  devoid  of  general  interest,  until  the  period  of  those 
voyages  and  discoveries  of  which  the  Portuguese  were  the  early  pro- 
moters, and  which  have  shed  immortal  lustre  on  the  Portuguese  name. 

III.  DISCOVERIES. — 1.  A  brief  account  of  the  discoveries  of  the 
fifteenth  century  will  close  the  present  chapter.  From  the  subver- 
sion of  the  Roman  empire,  until  the  revival  of  letters  which  succeed- 
ed the  Dark  Ages,  no  advance  was  made  in  the  art  of  navigation ; 
and  even  the  little  geographical  knowledge  that  had  been  acquired 

1.  Portugal,  anciently  called  Lusitania,  (Note  p.  166,)  was  taken  possession  of  by  the  Ro- 
mans about  two  hundred  years  before  the  Christian  era  ;  previously  to  which  the  Phoenicians, 
Carthaginiana,  and  Greeks,  traded  to  its  shores,  and  probably  planted  colonies  there.  In  the  fifth 
century  it  was  inundated  by  the  Germanic  tribes,  and  in  712  was  conquered  by  the  Saracens. 
Soon  after,  the  Spaniards  of  Castile  and  Leon,  aided  by  the  native  inhabitants,  wrested  north- 
ern Portugal,  between  the  Minho  and  the  Douro,  from  the  Moors,  and  placed  counts  or  govern- 
ors over  this  region.  About  the  close  of  the  eleventh  century  Henry,  a  Burgundian  prince, 
came  into  Spain  to  seek  his  fortune  by  his  sword,  in  the  wars  against  the  Moors.  Alphonso 
VI.  king  of  Castile  and  Leon,  gave  to  the  chivalric  stranger  the  hand  of  his  daughter  in  mar- 
riage, and  also  the  earldom  of  the  Christian  provinces  of  Portugal.  In  1139  the  Portuguese 
earl,  Alphonso  I.,  having  gained  a  brilliant  victory  over  the  Moors,  his  soldiers  proclaimed  him 
king  on  the  field  of  battle  ;  and  Portugal  became  an  independent  kingdom.  Its  power  now 
rapidly  increased :  it  maintained  its  independence  against  the  claims  of  Castile  and  Leon  ;  and 
Alphonso  extended  his  dominions  to  the  borders  of  Algarve,  in  the  south.  In  1-249  Alphonso 
III.  conquered  Algarve,  and  thus,  in  the  final  overthrow  of  the  Moorish  power  in  Portugal,  ex- 
tended the  kingdom  to  its  present  limits. 

The  language  of  Portugal  is  merely  a  dialect  of  the  Spanish ;  but  the  two  people  regard 
each  other  with  a  deep-rooted  national  antipathy.  The  character  attributed  to  the  Portuguese 
is  not  very  flattering.  "  Strip  a  Spaniard  of  all  his  virtues,  and  you  make  a  good  Portuguese 
of  him,"  says  the  Spanish  proverb.  "  I  have  heard  it  more  truly  said,"  says  Dr.  Southey, 
"  add  hypocrisy  to  a  Spaniard's  vices,  and  you  have  the  Portuguese  character.  The  two  na- 
tions differ,  perhaps  purposely,  in  many  of  their  habits.  Almost  every  man  in  Spain  smokes ; 
the  Portuguese  never  smoke,  but  most  of  them  take  snuff.  None  of  the  Spaniards  will  use  a 
wheelbarrow :  none  of  the  Portuguese  will  carry  a  burden :  the  one  says,  '  it  is  only  fit  for  beasts 
to  draw  carriages  ;'  the  other,  that  '  it  is  fit  only  for  beasts  to  carry  burdens.' "  (Map  No.  XIII.) 


CHAP.  II]  MIDDLE  AGES.  319 

was  nearly  lost  during  that  gloomy  period.  Upon  the  returning 
dawn  of  civilization,  however,  commerce  again  revived ;  and  the 
Italian  States,  of  which  Venice,  Pisa,1  and  Genoa,  took  the  lead, 
soon  became  distinguished  for  their  enterprising  commercial  spirit. 
The  discovery  of  the  magnetic  needle  gave  a  new  impulse  to  naviga- 
tion, as  it  enabled  the  mariner  to  direct  his  bark  with  increased  bold- 
ness and  confidence  farther  from  the  coast,  out  of  sight  of  whose 
landmarks  he  before  seldom  dared  venture ;  while  the  invention  of 
the  art  of  printing  disseminated  more  widely  the  knowledge  of  new 
discoveries  in  geography  and  navigation.  In  the  fourteenth  century 
the  Canary2  islands,  believed  to  be  the  ^Fortunate  islands  of  the 
ancients,  were  accidentally  rediscovered  by  the  crew  of  a  French 
ship  driven  thither  by  a  storm.  But  the  career  of  modern  discovery 
was  prosecuted  with  the  greatest  ardor  by  the  Portuguese.  Under 
the  patronage  of  prince  Henry,  son  of  king  John  the  First,  Cape 
Bojador,  before  considered  an  impassable  limit  on  the  African  coast, 
was  doubled  ;  the  Cape  de  Verd 3  and  Azore*  islands  were  discovered ; 
and  the  greatest  part  of  the  African  coast,  from  Cape  Blanco  to 
Cape  de  Verd,  was  explored.  (1419 — 1430.) 

2.  The  grand  idea  which  actuated  prince  Henry,  was,  by  circum- 
navigating Africa,  to  open  an  easier  and  less  expensive  route  to  the 
Indies,  and  thus  to  deprive  the  Italians  of  the  commerce  of  those 
fertile  regions,  and  turn  it  at  once  upon  his  own  country.  Although 
prince  Henry  died  before  he  had  accomplished  the  great  object  of 
his  ambition,  the  fame  of  the  discoveries  patronized  by  him  had 
rendered  his  name  illustrious,  and  the  learned,  the  curious,  and  the 


1.  P/sa,  the  capital  of  one  of  the  most  celebrated  republics  of  Italy,  and  now  the  capital  of 
the  province  of  its  own  name  in  the  grand  duchy  of  Tuscany,  is  on  the  river  Arno,  about 
eight  miles  from  its  entrance  into  the  Mediterranean,  and  thirteen  miles  north-east  from  Leg- 
horn.   In  the  tenth  century  Pisa  took  the  lead  among  the  commercial  republics  of  Italy,  and 
in  the  eleventh  century  its  fleet  of  galleys  maintained  a  superiority  in  the  Mediterranean.    In 
the  thirteenth  century  a  struggle  with  Genoa  commenced,  which,  after  many  vicissitudes,  ended 
in  the  total  ruin  of  the  Pisans.    Pisa  subsequently  became  the  prey  of  various  petty  tyrants, 
and  was  finally  united  to  Florence  in  1406. 

2.  The  Canaries  are  a  group  of  fourteen  islands  belonging  to  Spain.    The  peak  of  Teneriffe, 
a  half  extinct  volcano,  on  one  of  the  more  distant  islands,  is  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles 
from  the  north-west  coast  of  Africa,  and  eight  hundred  miles  south-west  from  the  straits  of 
Gibraltar. 

3.  The  Cape  de  Verd  islands,  belonging  to  Portugal,  are  off  the  west  coast  of  Africa,  about 
three  hundred  and  twenty  miles  west  from  Cape  de  Verd. 

4.  The  Azores  (az-Bres')  are  about  eight  hundred  miles  west  from  Portugal.    The  name  is 
said  to  be  derived  from  the  vast  number  of  hawks,  (called  by  the  Portuguese  affor,)  by  which 
they  were  frequented.  At  the  time  of  their  discovery  they  were  uninhabited,  and  covered  with 
forest  and  underwood. 


320  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

adventurous,  repaired  to  Lisbon1  to  increase  their  knowledge  by  the 
discoveries  of  the  Portuguese,  and  to  join  in  their  enterprises.  Among 
them  Christopher  Columbus,  a  native  of  Genoa,  arrived  there  about 
the  year  1470.  He  had  already  made  himself  familiar  with  the 
navigation  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  had  visited  Iceland  ;2  and  he 
now  accompanied  the  Portuguese  in  their  expeditions  to  the  coast  of 
Gruinea3  and  the  African  islands.  But  while  others  were  seeking  a 
passage  to  India  by  the  slow  and  tedious  process  of  sailing  around 
the  southern  extremity  of  Africa,  the  bold  and  daring  mind  of  Co- 
lumbus conceived  the  project  of  reaching  the  desired  land  by  a  west- 
ern route,  directly  across  the  Atlantic.  The  spherical  figure  of  the 
earth  was  then  known,  and  Columbus  doubted  not  that  our  globe 
might  be  circumnavigated. 

3.  Of  the  gradual  maturing  and  development  of  the  theory  of  Co- 
lumbus,— of  the  poverty  and  toil  which  he  endured,  and  the  ridicule, 
humiliation,  and  disappointments  which  he  encountered,  as  he  wan- 
dered from  court  to  court,  soliciting  the  patronage  which  ignorance, 
bigotry,  prejudice,  and  pedantic  pride,  so  long  denied  him, — and  of  his 
final  triumph,  in  the  discovery  of  a  new  continent,  equal  to  the  old 
world  in  magnitude,  and  separated  by  vast  oceans  from  all  the  earth 
before  known  to  civilized  man, — our  limits  forbid  us  to  enter  into 
details,  and  it  would  likewise  be  superfluous,  as  these  events  have  al- 
ready been  familiarized  to  American  readers  by  the  chaste  and  glow- 
ing narrative  of  their  countryman  Irving.  In  the  year  1492,  the 
genius  of  Columbus,  more  than  realizing  the  dreams  of  Plato's 
famous  Atlantis,4  revealed  to  the  civilized  world  another  hemisphere, 

1.  Lisbon,  the  capital  and  principal  seaport  of  Portugal,  is  situated  on  the  right  bank,  and 
near  the  mouth,  of  the  Tagus.    The  Moors  captured  the  city  in  the  year  716,  and,  with  some 
slight  exceptions,  it  remained  in  their  power  till,  in  1145,  Alphonso  I.  made  it  the  capital  of 
his  kingdom.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

2.  Iceland  is  a  large  island  in  the  Northern  Ocean,  on  the  confines  of  the  polar  circle.    It 
was  discovered  by  a  Norwegian  pirate  in  the  year  8S1,  and  was  soon  after  settled  by  Norwe- 
gians.   In  the  year  028  the  inhabitants  formed  themselves  into  a  republic,  which  existed  nearly 
four  hundred  years ;  after  which  Iceland  again  became  subject  to  Norway.    On  the  annexation 
of  that  kingdom  to  Denmark,  Iceland  was  transferred  with  it. 

3.  Guinea  is  a  name  applied  by  European  geographers  to  designate  that  portion  of  the  Afri- 
can coast  extending  from  about  eleven  degrees  north  of  the  equator,  to  seventeen  degrees 
south. 

4.  Atlantis  was  a  celebrated  island  supposed  to  have  existed  at  a  very  early  period  in  the 
Atlantic  Ocean,  and  to  have  been,  eventually,  sunk  beneath  its  waves.    Plato  is  the  first  who 
gives  an  account  of  it,  and  he  obtained  his  information  from  the  priests  of  Egypt.    The  state- 
ment which  he  furnishes  is  substantially  as  follows : 

"  In  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  over  against  the  pillars  of  Hercules,  lay  a  very  large  and  fertile 
island,  whose  surface  was  variegated  by  mountains  and  valleys,  its  coasts  indented  with  many 
navigable  rivers,  and  its  fields  well  cultivated.  In  its  vicinity  were  other  islands  from  which 


CHAP.  IL]  MIDDLE  AGES.  321 

and  first  opened  a  communication  between  Europe  and  America  that 
will  never  cease  while  the  waters  of  the  ocean  continue  to  roll  be- 
tween them.  Five  years  after  the  discovery  of  America,  Vasco  de 
Gama,  a  Portuguese  admiral,  doubled  the  Gape  of  Good  Hope,  and 
had  the  glory  of  carrying  his  national  flag  as  far  as  India.  These 
were  the  closing  maritime  enterprises  of  the  fifteenth  century :  they 
opened  to  the  Old  World  new  scenes  of  human  existence  :  new  na- 
tions, new  races,  and  new  continents,  rapidly  crowded  upon  the 
vision ;  and  imagination  tired  in  contemplating  the  future  wonders 
that  the  genius  of  discovery  was  about  to  develop. 

there  was  a  passage  to  a  large  continent  lying  beyond.  The  island  of  Atlantis  was  thickly  set- 
tled and  very  powerful :  its  kings  extended  their  sway  over  Africa  as  far  as  Egypt,  and  over 
Europe  until  they  were  checked  by  the  Athenians,  who,  opposing  themselves  to  the  invaders, 
became  the  conquerors.  But  at  length  that  Atlantic  island,  by  a  flood  and  earthquake,  was 
suddenly  destroyed,  and  for  a  long  time  afterwards  the  sea  thereabouts  was  full  of  rocks  and 
shoals." 

A  dispute  arose  among  the  ancient  philosophers  whether  Plato's  statement  was  based  upon 
reality,  or  was  a  mere  creation  of  fancy.  Posidonius  thought  it  worthy  of  belief:  Pliny  re- 
mains undecided.  Among  modern  writers,  Rudbeck  labors  to  prove  that  Sweden  was  the 
Atlantis  of  the  ancients :  Bailly  places  it  in  the  farthest  regions  of  the  north,  believing  that  the 
Atlantides  were  the  far-famed  Hyperboreans ;  while  others  connect  America,  with  its  Mexican 
and  Peruvian  remains  of  a  remote  civilization,  with  the  legend  of  the  lost  Atlantis.  In  con- 
nection with  this  view  they  point  to  the  peculiar  conformation  of  our  continent  along  the 
shores  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  where  everything  indicates  the  sinking,  at  a  remote  period,  of  a 
large  tract  of  land,  the  place  of  which  is  now  occupied  by  the  waters  of  the  Gulf.  And  mjiy 
not  the  mountain  tops  of  this  sunken  land  still  appear  to  view  as  the  islands  of  the  West  Indian 
group ;  and  may  not  the  large  continent  lying  beyond  Atlantis  and  the  adjacent  islands  have 
been  none  ether  than  America  ? 

21 


322  MODERN   HISTORY.  [PAET  II. 


CHAPTER    III. 

EUROPEAN  HISTORY  DURING  THE  SIXTEENTH  CENTURY 

I.   INTRODUCTORY. 

ANALYSTS.  I.  The  unity  of  ancient  history.  How  broken,  in  the  history  of  the  Middle 
Ages.  Still  less  unity  in  modern  history.  How,  only,  confusion  can  be  avoided.— 2.  Approxi- 
mation towards  a  knowledge  of  universal  history.  Future  plan  of  the  work.  What  must  not 
be  overlooked,  and  what  alone  we  can  hope  to  accomplish.— 3.  State  of  Europe  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  sixteenth  century.  Condition  of  Persia.  Mogul  empire  in  Hindostan.  China. 
Egypt.  The  New  World.  Where,  only,  we  look  for  historic  unity. 

II.  THE  AGE  OF  HENRY  VIIL,  AND  CHARLES  V. 

1.  Rise  of  the  STATES-SYSTEM  OF  EUROPE.  Growing  intricacy  of  the  relations  between 
States. — 2.  Causes  of  the  first  development  of  the  States-system. — 3.  The  Great  power  of  Austria 
under  Charles  V. — 4.  Ferdinand,  the  brother  of  Charles.  Philip  II.,  son  of  Charles. — 5.  Beginning 

Of  THE  RIVALRY  BETWEEN  FRANCIS  I.  AND  CHARLES  V.  The  faVOr  Of  HENRY  VIII.  OF  ENG- 
LAND courted  by  both. — 6.  Favorable  position  of  Henry  at  the  time  of  his  accession. — 7.  Ef- 
forts of  Charles  and  Francis  to  win  his  favor.  The  result. — 8.  Efforts  of  Francis  to  recover 
Navarre.  The  Italian  war  that  followed.  Francis  defeated,  and  made  prisoner,  in  the  battle 
of  Pavia.  [House  of  Bourbon.'] — 9.  Imprisonment,  and  release,  of  Francis. — 10.  A  general 
league  against  Charles  V. — 11.  Operations  of  the  duke  of  Bourbon  in  Italy.  Pillage  of  Rome, 
and  death  of  Bourbon. — 12.  Captivity  of  the  pope.  The  French  army  in  Italy.  The  peace  of 
Cambray. — 13.  The  domestic  relations  of  Henry  VIII. — 14.  The  rise,  power,  and  fall,  of  Wolsey. 
[Wolsey's  soliloquy.] 

J5.  THE  REFORMATION.  The  maxim  of  religious  freedom.  Papal  power  and  pretensions  at 
this  period.  Persecution  of  reformers.  [Wicklifle.  Council  of  Constance.  The  Albigenses.] 
Effect  of  advancing  civilization  on  papal  power.  Avarice  of  pope  Leo.  X.  Indulgences. 
Martin  Luther.  [Wittemberg.]— 16.  Luther's  first  opposition  to  the  Church  of  Rome.  His 
gradual  progress  in  rejecting  the  doctrines  and  rites  of  popery.  His  writings  declared  heretical. 
He  burns  the  papal  bull  of  condemnation. — 17.  Declaration  of  the  Sorbonne.  [Sorbonne.] 
The  diet  of  Worms.  Henry  VIIL  joins  in  opposing  Luther.— 18.  Circumstances  in  Luther's 
favor.  Decrees  of  the  diet  of  Spires.  Protest  of  the  Reformers.  [Spires.]— 19.  The  diet  of  Augs- 
burg, 1530.  [Augsburg.J— Melancthon.  Result  of  the  diet.  League  of  the  Protestants.  Henry 
VIII.  and  Francis  I.  favor  the  Protestant  cause. — 20. -Invasion  of  Hungary  by  the  Turks.  Cru- 
sade of  Charles  V.  against  the  Moors.  [Algiers  ]  Renewal  of  the  war  by  the  French  monarch. 
[Savoy.]  Invasion  of  France  by  Charles. — 21.  Brief  truce,  and  renewal  of  the  war.  [Nice.] 
The  Parties  to  this  war,  and  its  results.  [Cerisoles.  Boulogne.] — 22.  War  carried  on  by  Charles 
against  his  Protestant  German  subjects.  Revolt  of  Maurice  of  Saxony. — 23.  Surprise  and  mor 
tification  of  Charles,  and  final  treaty  of  Augsburg.  [Passau.] 

24.  Circumstances  which  led  to  the  ABDICATION  AND  RETIREMENT  OF  CHARLES  V.  [St.  Just.] — 
25.  The  emperor  in  his  retirement.— 26.  The  Protestant  States  of  Europe.  Character  of  the  Refor- 
mation in  England.  Religious  intolerance  of  Henry.  Character  of  Henry's  government.— 27. 
Brief  reign  of  Edward  VI.  Reign  of  Mary.  Character  of  her  reign.  War  with  France.  [St. 
<Quentin.]  Death  of  Mary,  and  accession  of  Elizabeth,  1588. 

III.  THE  AGE  OF  ELIZABETH. 

1.  The  claims  of  Elizabeth  not  recognized  by  the  Catholic  States.  MARY  OF  SCOTLAND.— 2. 
Progress  of  Protestant  principles  in  England.  Philip  II.  Effect  of  the  rivalry  between  France 
and  §pain.— 3.  Death  of  Henry  II.  of  France.  Francis  II.  and  Charles  IX.  Mary  proceeds  to 


CHAP.  III.J  SIXTEENTH   CENTURY.  323 

Scotland.  Principal  events  of  her  reign.  She  throws  herself  on  the  protection  of  Elizabeth.— 
4.  The  attempts  to  establish  the  Inquisition  on  the  continent.  Circumstances  which  led  to  the 
CIVIL  AND  KKLiuious  WAR  IN  FRANCE.  [Havre-de-grace.]— 5.  Character  of  this  war.  Atroci- 
ties committed  on  both  sides.  [Guienne.  Dauphiny.]— 6.  Battle  of  Dreux.  Capture  of  the 
opposing  generals,  and  conclusion  of  the  war  by  the  treaty  of  Amboise.  f  Amboise.]— 7.  Re- 
newal of  the  war.  The  "Lame  Peace."  Treachery  of  the  Catholics.  Peace  of  St.  Germain. 
[St.  Germain.";— a  Designs  of  the  French  court.  Preparations  for  the  destruction  of  the  Prot- 
estants.—9.  MASSACRE  or  ST.  BARTHOLOMEW.— 10.  General  massacre  throughout  the  king- 
dom. Noble  conduct  of  some  officers.  The  princes  of  Navarre  and  Conde.  The  joy  excited 
by  the  massacre.— 11.  Effects  produced.  Renewal  of  the  civil  war.  The  feelings  of  Charles- 
his  sickness,  and  death. 

12.  The  duke  of  Alva's  administration  of  TUB  NETHERLANDS.  The  "  Pacification  of  Ghent," 
and  expulsion  of  the  Spaniards.  [Ghent.]— 13.  Causes  that  led  to  the  "union  of  Utrecht." 
[Utrecht.]  The  States-general  of  1580.  [Antwerp.]  Continuance  of  the  war  by  Philip.— 14. 
The  remaining  history  and  fate  of  Mary  of  Scotland. — 15.  Resentment  of  the  Catholics.  Com- 
plaints, and  projects  of  Philip. — 16.  Vast  preparations  of  Philip  against  England,  and  sailing  of 
THK  SPANISH  ARMADA.  Preparations  for  resistance. — 17.  Disasters,  and  final  destruction  of 
the  fleet.  Important  results.  Decline  of  the  Spanish  power. — 18.  History  of  France  during 
the  remainder  of  the  sixteenth  century.  Charles  IX.,  Henry  III.,  and  Henry  IV.  Termination 
of  the  religious  wars  by  the  EDICT  OF  NANTES.— 19.  History  of  England  after  the  defeat  of  the 
Spanish  Armada.  Irish  insurrection  of  1598. — 20.  CHARACTER  OF  ELIZABETH. 

IV.  COTEMPORARY  HISTORY. 

1.  Prominent  events  of  the  sixteenth  century  not  included  in  European  history.  The  POR 
TUGUKSE  COLONIAL  EMPIRE.  Union  of  Portugal  with  Spain.  The  Hollanders.  [Ormus. 
Goa.] — 2.  SPANISH  COLONIAL  EMPIRK.  Services  of  Cortez,  and  the  treatment  which  he  re- 
ceived.— 3.  The  conquests  of  Pizarro.  The  Spanish  empire  in  America  at  the  close  of  the  six- 
teenth century.  Influence  of  the  precious  metals  upon  Spain. — 4.  THE  MOGUL  EMPIRE  IN 
INDIA. — 5.  THE  PERSIAN  EMPIRE.  The  reign  of  Ismael. — 6.  The  reign  of  Tamasp.  His  three 
eons.  The  youthful  Abbas  becomes  ruler  of  the  empire. — 7.  General  character  of  his  reign. 
His  character  as  a  parent  and  relative.  How  he  is  regarded  by  the  Persians.— 8.  Remaining 
history  of  Persia. 

I.  INTRODUCTORY. — 1.  In  the  history  of  ancient  Europe,  two  pre- 
dominating nations, — first  the  Greeks,  and  afterwards  the  Romans, 
occupy  the  field ;  preserving,  in  the  mind  of  the  reader,  a  general 
unity  of  action  and  of  interest.  In  the  history  of  the  Middle  Ages 
this  unity  is  broken  by  the  forcible  dismemberment  of  the  Roman 
empire,  by  the  confusion  that  followed  the  inroads  of  the  barbarians, 
and  that  attended  their  first  attempt  at  social  organization,  and  by 
the  introduction  of  a  broader  field  of  ioquiry,  embracing  countries 
and  nations  previously  unknown.  In  Modern  History,  subsequent 
to  the  fifteenth  century,  there  is  still  less  apparent  unity,  if  we  con» 
sider  the  increased  extent  of  the  field  to  be  explored,  and  the  still 
greater  variety  of  nations,  governments,  and  institutions,  submitted 
to  our  view ;  and  to  avoid  inextricable  confusion,  and  dry  summaries 
of  unintelligible  events,  we  are  under  the  necessity,  in  a  brief  com- 
pend  like  the  present,  of  selecting  and  developing  the  principal 
points  of  historic  interest,  and  of  rendering  all  other  matters  subor- 
dinate to  the  main  design. 


324  MODERN   HISTORY.  [PART  II. 

2.  But  while  it  would  be  in  vain  to  attempt,  within  the  limits  of  a 
work  like  the  present,  to  give  a  separate  history  of  every  nation,  the 
reader  should  not  lose  sight  of  any, — that,  as  opportunities  occur, 
he  may  have  a  place  in  the  general  framework  of  history  for  the  stores 
which  subsequent  reading  may  accumulate.     It  was  in  accordance 
with  these  views,  that,  near  the  close  of  the  preceding  chapter,  we 
took  a  general  survey  of  the  nations  of  Europe ;  and  although  a  few 
of  the  European  kingdoms  will  still  continue  to  claim  our  chief  at- 
tention in  the  subsequent  part  of  this  history,  we  must  not  shut  our 
eyes  to  the  fact  that  they  embraced,  during  this  period,  but  a  small 
portion  of  the  population  of  the  globe ;   and  that  a  History,  strictly 
universal,  would  comprise  the  cotemporary  annals  of  more  than  a 
hundred  different  nations.     The  extent  of  the  field  of  modern  his- 
tory is  indeed  vast ;  in  it  we  can  select  only  a  few  verdant  spots,  with 
which  alone  we  can  hope  to  make  the  reader  familiar ;  while  the 
riches  of  many  an  unexplored  region  must  be  left  to  repay  the  labor 
of  future  researches. 

3.  At  the  opening  of  the  sixteenth  century,  Great  Britain,  Scot- 
land,   France,    Spain,    Portugal,    Germany,    Poland,    Prussia,   and 
Turkey,  were  distinct  and  independent  nations ;  Hungary  and  Bo- 
hemia were  temporarily  united  under  one  sovereignty ;  Denmark, 
Sweden,  and  Norway,  still  feebly  united  by  the  union  of  Calmar, 
were  soon  to  be  divided  again ;  the  Netherlands,  known  as  the  do- 
minions of  the  house  of  Burgundy,  had  become  a  dependence  of  the 
Austrian  division  of  the  Germanic  empire ;  and  Italy,  comprising 
the  Papal  States,  and  a  number  of  petty  republics  and  dukedoms, 
was  fast  becoming  the  prey  of  surrounding  sovereigns.     In  the  East, 
Persia,  after  having  been  for  centuries  the  theatre  of  perpetual  civil 
wars,  revolutions,  and  changes  of  no  interest  to  foreigners,   again 
emerged  from  obscurity  at  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
and,  toward  the  end  of  that  period,  under  the  Shah  Abbas,  surnamed 
the  Great,  established  an  empire  embracing  Persia  Proper,  Media, 
Mesopotamia,  Syria,  and  Farther  Armenia.     About  the  same  time  a 
Tartar  or  Mogul  empire  was  established  in  Hindostan  by  a  descend- 
ant of  the  great  conqueror  Tamerlane.     China  was  at  this  time,  as 
it  had  long  been,  a  great  empire,  although  but  little  known.     Egypt, 
under  the  successors  of  the  victorious  Saracens,  still  preserved  the 
semblance  of  sovereignty,  until,  in  1517,  the  Turks  reduced  it  to  the 
condition  of  a  province  of  the  Ottoman  empire.     Such  were   the 
principal  States,  kingdoms,  and  nations,  of  the   Old  Werld,  whosf 


CHAT.  Ill]  SIXTEENTH  CENTURY.  325 

annals  find  a  place  on  the  page  of  universal  history ;  and,  turning 
to  the  West,  beyond  the  wide  ocean  whose  mysteries  had  been  so  re- 
cently unveiled  by  the  Genoese  navigator,  we  find  the  germs  of  civil- 
ized nations  already  starting  into  being ; — and  History  must  enlarge 
its  volume  to  take  in  a  mere  abstract  of  the  annals  that  now  begin 
to  press  forward  for  admission  to  its  pages.  Amidst  this  perplexing 
profusion  of  the  materials  of  history,  we  turn  back  to  the  localities 
already  familiar  to  the  reader,  and  seek  for  historic  unity  where  only 
it  can  be  found, — in  those  principles,  and  events,  that  have  exerted 
a  world-wide  influence  on  the  progress  of  civilization,  and  the  des- 
tinies of  the  human  race. 

II.  THE  AGE  OF  HENRY  VIII.  AND  CHARLES  V. — 1.  About  the 
period  of  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century  a  new  era  opens  in 
European  history,  in  the  rise  of  what  has  sometimes  been  called  "  the 
States-system  of  Europe;"  for  it  was  now  that  the  re- 1  TIJESTATE9. 
ciprocal  influences  of  the  European  States  on  each  other  SYSTEM  OF 
began  to  be  exerted  on  a  large  scale,  and  that  the  weaker 
States  first  conceived  the  idea  of  a  balance-of-power  system  that 
should  protect  them  against  their  more  powerful  neighbors.  Hence 
the  increasing  extent  and  intricacy  of  the  relations  that  began  to 
grow  up  between  States,  by  treaties  of  alliance,  embassies,  negotia- 
tions, and  guarantees ;  and  the  more  general  combination  of  powers 
in  the  wars  that  arose  out  of  the  ambition  of  some  princes,  and  the 
attempts  of  others  to  preserve  the  political  equilibrium. 

2.  The  inordinate  growth  of  the  power  of  the  house  of  Austria, 
in  the  early  part  of  the  sixteenth  century,  first  developed  the  de- 
fensive and  conservative  system  to  which  we  have  alluded ;  and  for 
a  long  time  the  principal  object  of  all  the  wars  and  alliances  of 
Europe  was  to  humble  the  ambition  of  some  one  nation,  whose  pre- 
ponderance seemed  to  threaten  the  liberty  and  independence  of  the 
rest. 

3.  It  has  been  stated  that  the  marriage  of  Maximilian  of  Austria, 
with  Mary  of  Bur'  gundy,  secured  to  the  house  of  Austria  the  whole 
of  Bur'  gundy,   and  the  "  Low  Countries,"  corresponding  to  the 
modern  Netherlands.     In  the  year  1506,  Charles,  known  in  history 
as  Charles  V.,  a  grandson  of  Maximilian  and  Mary  of  Austria,  and 
also  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  of  Spain,  inherited  the  Low  Countries : 
on  the  death  of  Ferdinand,  in  1516,  he  became  heir  to  the  whole 
Spanish  succession,  which  comprehended  Spain,  Naples,  Sicily,  and 


326  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PABT  II 

Sardinia,  together  with  Spanish  America.  To  these  vast  possessions 
were  added  his  patrimonial  dominions  in  Austria;  and  in  1519  the 
imperial  dignity  of  the  Germanic  empire  was  conferred  upon  him  by 
the  choice  of  the  electors,  when  he  was  only  in  his  nineteenth  year. 

4.  Charles  soon  resigned  to  his  brother  Ferdinand  his  hereditary 
Austrian  States ;  but  the  two  brothers,  acting  in  concert  for  the  ad- 
vancement of  their  reciprocal  interests,  were  regarded  but  as  one 
power  by  the  alarmed  sovereigns  of  Europe,  who  began  to  suspect 
that  the  Austrian  princes  aimed  at  universal  monarchy ;  and  their 
jealousy  was  increased  when  Ferdinand,  by  marriage,  secured  the  ad- 
dition of  Hungary  and  Bohemia  to  his  dominions ;  and,  at  a  later 
period,  Charles,  in  a  similar  manner,  obtained  for  his  son,  afterwards 
Philip  II.  of  Spain,  the  future  sovereignty  of  Portugal. 

5.  When  the  imperial  throne  of  Germany  became  vacant  by  the 

death  of  Maximilian,  Francis  I.  of  France  and  Charles 

YALRY  BE-    V.  were  competitors  for  the  crown ;  and  on  the  success 

TWEEN  FRAN-  of  the  latter,   the  mutual  claims  of  the  two  princes 

cis  i.  AND    Qn  eacj1  Otner's  dominions,  especially  in  Italy  and  the 

Low   Countries,   soon    made    them   declared   enemies. 

France  then  took  the  lead  in  attempting  to  regulate  the  balance  of 

in.  HENRY   Power  against  the  house  of  Austria;  and  the  favor  of 

viii.  OF      Henry  VIII.  of  England  was  courted  by  the  rival  mon- 

lND<     archs,  as  the  prince  most  likely  to  secure  the  victory  to 

whomsoever  he  should  give  the  weight  of  his  influence. 

6.  In  year   1509  Henry  VIII.,  then  at  the  age  of  eighteen,  had 
succeeded  his  father  Henry  VII.  on  the  throne  of  England, — re- 
ceiving at  the  same  time  a  rich  treasury  and  a  flourishing  kingdom, 
and  uniting  in  his  person  the  opposing  claims  of  the  houses  of  York 
and  Lancaster.     The  real  power  of  the  English  monarch  was  at  this 
time  greater  than  at  any  previous  period ;  and  Henry  VIII.  might 
have  been  the  arbiter  of  Europe,  in  the  rivalries  and  wars  between 
Francis  I.  and  Charles  V.,  had  not  his  actions  been  the  result  of 
passion,  vanity,  caprice,  or  resentment,  rather  than  of  enlightened 
policy. 

7.  Each  of  the  rival  princes  sedulously  endeavored  to  enlist  the 
English  monarch  in  his  favor  :  both  gave  a  pension  to  his  prime 
minister,  cardinal  Wolsey ;  and  each  had  an  interview  with  the 
king — Francis  meeting  him  at  Calais,  and  Charles  visiting  him  in 
England, — but  the  latter  won  Henry  through  the  influence  of  Wol- 
sey, whose  egregrious  vanity  he  duped  by  encouraging  his  hopes  of 


OHAP.  Ill]  SIXTEENTH  CENTURY.  327 

promotion  to  the  papal  crown.  Moreover,  Henry  was,  at  the  begin- 
ning, ill-disposed  towards  the  king  of  France,  who  virtually  governed 
Scotland  through  the  influence  of  the  regent  Albany ;  and,  by  an 
alliance  with  Charles,  he  hoped  to  recover  a  part  of  those  domains 
which  his  ancestors  had  formerly  possessed  in  France.  Charles  also 
gained  the  aid  of  the  pope,  Leo  X. ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  Francis 
was  supported  by  the  Swiss,  the  Genoese,  and  the  Venetians. 

8.  In  the  year  1520  Francis  seized  the  opportunity  of  an  insur- 
rection in  Spain  to  attempt  the  recovery  of  Navarre,  which  had  been 
united  to  the  French  crown  by  marriage  alliance  in  1490,  and  con- 
quered by  Ferdinand  of  Spain  in  1512.     Navarre  was  won  and  lost 
in  the  course  of  a  few  months,  and  the  war  was  then  transferred  to 
Italy.     In  two  successive  years  the  French  governor  of  Milan  was 
driven  from  Lombardy  :  the  Duke  of  Bourbon,1  constable  of  France, 
the  best  general  of  Francis,  who  had  received  repeated  affronts  from 
the  king,  his  master,  deserted  to  Charles,  and  was  by  him  invested 
with  the  chief  command  of  his  forces;  and  in  the  year  1525  Francis 
himself  was  defeated  by  his  rebellious  subject  in  the  battle  of  Pavia, 
and  taken  prisoner,  but  not  until  his  horse  had  been  killed  under 
him,  and  his  armor,  which  is  still  preserved,  had  been  indented  by 
numerous  bullets  and  lances.     In  the  battle  of  Pavia  the  French 
army  was  almost  totally  destroyed.     In  a  single  line  Francis  con- 
veyed the  sad  intelligence  to  his  mother.     "  Madam  all  is  lost  but 
honor." 

9.  Francis  was  conveyed  a  prisoner  to  Madrid  ;  and  it  was  only 
at  the  expiration  of  a  year  that  he  obtained  his  release,  when  a  fever, 
occasioned  by  despondency,  had  already  threatened  to  put  an  end, 
at  once,  to  his  life,  and  the  advantages  which  Charles  hoped  to  de- 
rive from  his  captivity.     Francis  had  already  prepared  to  abdicate 
the  throne  in  favor  of  his  son  the  dauphin,  when  Charles  decided  to 

1.  The  house  of  Bourbon  derives  its  name  from  the  small  village  of  Bourbon  in  the  former 
province  of  Bourbonnais,  now  in  the  department  of  Allier,  thirteen  miles  west  from  Moulins, 
and  one  hundred  and  sixty-five  miles  south  from  Paris.  (Map  No.  XIII.)  In  early  times  this 
town  had  lords  of  its  own,  who  bore  the  title  of  barons.  Aimer,  who  lived  in  the  early  part 
if  the  tenth  century,  is  the  first  of  these  barons  of  Whom  history  gives  any  account.  The  male 
princes  of  this  line  having  become  extinct,  Beatrix,  duchess  of  Bourbon,  married  Robert, 
second  son  of  St.  Louis ;  and  their  son  Louis,  duke  of  Bourbon,  who  died  in  1341,  became  the 
founder  of  the  house  of  Bourbon.  Two  branches  of  this  house  took  their  origin  from  the  two 
sons  of  Louis.  The  elder  line  became  extinct  at  the  death  of  the  constable  of  Bourbon,  who 
defeated  Francis  at  Pavia,  and  was  himself  killed  in  1527,  in  the  assault  of  the  city  of  Rome. 
From  the  other  line  have  sprung  several  branches, — first,  the  royal  branch,  and  that  of  Cond6  ; 
since  which  the  former  has  undergone  several  subdivisions,  giving  sovereigns  to  France,  to 
Spain,  the  two  Sicilies,  and  Lucca  and  Parma. 


328  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  II 

release  the  captive  monarch,  after  exacting  from  him  a  stipulation  to 
surrender  Bur' gundy,  to  renounce  his  pretensions  to  Milan  and  Na- 
ples, and  to  ally  himself,  hy  marriage,  with  the  family  of  his  enemy. 
But  Francis,  before  his  release,  had  secretly  protested,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  his  chancellor,  against  the  validity  of  a  treaty  extorted  from 
him  while  a  prisoner ;  and,  once  at  liberty,  it  was  not  difficult  for 
him  to  elude  it.  His  joy  at  his  release  was  unbounded.  Being  es- 
corted to  the  frontiers  of  France,  and  having  passed  a  small  stream 
that  divides  the  two  kingdoms,  he  mounted  a  Turkish  horse,  and 
putting  him  at  full  speed,  and  waving  his  hand  over  his  head,  ex- 
claimed aloud,  several  times,  "I  am  yet  a  king  !"  (March  18,  1526.) 

10.  The  liberation  of  Francis  was  the  signal  for  a  general  league 
against  Charles  V.     The  Italian  States,  which,  since  the  battle  of 
Pavia,  had  been  in  the  power  of  the  Spanish  and  German  armies, 
now  regarded  the  French  as  liberators  ;  the  pope  put  himself  at  the 
head  of  the  league  ;  the  Swiss  joined  it ;  and  Henry  VIII.,  alarmed 
at  the  increasing  power  of  Charles,  entered  into  a  treaty  with  Francis, 
so  that  the  very  reverses  of  the  French  monarch,  by  exciting  the 
jealousy  of  other  States  against  his  rival,  rendered  him  much  stronger 
in  alliances  than  before. 

1 1 .  During  these  events,  the  rebel  Duke  of  Bourbon  remained  in 
Italy,  quartering  his  mercenary  troops  on  the  unfortunate  inhabit- 
ants of  Milan  ;  but  when  the  Italians  declared  against  the  emperor, 
all  Italy  was  delivered  up  to  pillage.     To  obtain  the  greater  plunder, 
Bourbon  marched  upon  Rome,  followed  not  only  by  his  own  soldiers, 
but  by  an  additional  force  of  fourteen  thousand  brigands  from  Ger- 
many.    Pope  Clement,  terrified  by  the  greatness  of  the  danger  which 
menaced  the  States  of  the  Holy  See,  discharged  his  best  troops,  and 
shut  himself  up  in  the  castle  of  St.  Angelo.     Rome  was  attacked, 
and  carried  by  storm,  although  Bourbon  fell  in  the  assault ;  the  pil- 
lage was   universal,  neither  convents  nor  churches  being  spared ; 
from  seven  to  eight  thousand  Romans  were  massacred  the  first  day ; 
and  not  all  the  ravages  of  the  Goths  and  Huns  surpassed  those  of 
the  army  of  the  first  prince  in  Christendom. 

12.  The  pillage  of  Rome,  and  the  captivity  of  the  pope,  excited 
great  indignation  throughout  Europe ;  and  the  hypocritical  Charles, 
instead  of  sending  orders  for  his  liberation,  ordered  prayers  for  his 
deliverance  to  be  offered  in  all  the  Spanish  churches.     At  this  fa- 
vorable moment  Francis  sent  an  army  into  Italy,  which  penetrated 
to  the  very  walls  of  Naples ;  but  here  his  prosperity  ended  ;  and  the 


CHAP   fIL]  SIXTEENTH    CENTURY.  329 

impolicy  of  the  French  king,  in  disgusting  and  alienating  his  most 
faithful  allies,  lost  for  him  all  the  advantages  which  he  had  gained. 
Both  the  rival  monarchs  now  desired  peace,  but  both  strove  to  dis- 
semble their  real  sentiments  :  although  Charles  had  been  generally 
fortunate  in  the  contest,  yet  all  his  revenues  were  expended ;  and 
he  desired  a  respite  from  the  cares  of  war  to  enable  him  to  crush 
the  Reformation,  which  had  already  made  considerable  progress  in 
his  German  dominions.  A  peace  was  therefore  concluded  at  Cam- 
bray,  in  August  1529,  which  was  as  glorious  to  Charles  as  it  was  dis- 
graceful to  France  and  her  monarch.  The  former  remained  supreme 
master  of  Italy ;  the  pope  submitted  ;  the  Venetians  were  shorn  of 
their  conquests ;  and  Henry  VIII.  reaped  nothing  but  the  emperor's 
enmity  for  his  interference. 

13.  The  conduct  of  Henry  VIII.  in  his  domestic  relations  reflects 
disgrace  upon  his  name,  and  is  a  dark  stain  upon  his  character.     He 
was  first  married  to  Catherine  of  Aragon,  daughter  of  Ferdinand 
and  Isabella  of  Spain,  and  aunt  of  Charles  V.  of  Germany,  a  woman 
much  older  than  himself,  but  who  acquired  and  retained  an  ascend- 
ancy over  his  affections  for  nearly  twenty  years.     For  divorcing  her, 
and  marrying  Anne  Boleyn,  he  was  excommunicated  by  the  pope, — a 
measure  which  induced  him.  to  break  of  all  allegiance  to  the  Holy 
See,  and  declare  himself  supreme  head  of  the  English  church.    Three 
years  after  his  second  marriage,  a  new  passion  for  Jane  Seymour,  one 
of  the  queen's  maids  of  honor,  effaced  from  his  memory  all  the  vir- 
tues and  graces  of  Anne  Boleyn  ;  and  seventeen  days  saw  the  latter 
pass  from  the  throne  to  the  scaffold.     The  marriage  ceremony  with 
the  lady  Jane  was  performed  on  the  day  following  the  execution. 
Her  death  followed,  in  little  more  than  a  year.     In  1540  Henry 
married  Anne  of  Cleves,  on  the  recommendation  of  his  minister 
Cromwell ;  but  his  dislike  to  his  new  wife  hastened  the  fall  of  that 
minister,  who  was  unjustly  condemned  and  executed  on  a  charge  of 
treason.     Soon  after,  Henry  procured  a  divorce  from  Anne,  and 
married  Catherine  Howard,  niece  of  the  duke  of  Norfolk ;  but  on  a 
charge  of  dissolute  conduct  Catherine  was  brought  to  the  scaffold. 
In  1543  the  king  married  Catherine  Parr,  who  alone,  of  all  his  wives, 
survived  him ;  and  even  she,  before  the  king's  death,  came  near  being 
brought  to  the  block  on  a  charge  of  heresy. 

14.  Soon  after  the  accession  of  Henry,  the  celebrated  Wolsey  ap- 
peared on  the  theatre  of  English  politics.     Successfully  courting  the 
favor  of  the  monarch,  he  soon  obtained  the  first  place  in  the  royal 


330  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAET  II 

favor,  and  became  uncontrolled  minister.  Numerous  ecclesiastical 
dignities  were  conferred  upon  him  :  in  1518,  the  pope,  to  ingratiate 
himself  with  Henry,  created  Wolsey  cardinal.  Courted  by  the  em- 
perors of  France  and  Germany,  he  received  pensions  from  both ; 
and  ere  long  his  revenues  nearly  equalled  those  of  the  crown,  part 
of  which  he  expended  in  pomp  and  ostentation,  and  part  in  laudable 
munificence  for  the  advancement  of  learning.  When  Henry,  seized 
with  a  passion  for  Anne  Boleyn,  one  of  the  queen's  maids  of  honor, 
formed  the  design  of  getting  rid  of  Catherine,  and  of  making  the 
new  favorite  his  wife,  Wolsey  was  suspected  of  abetting  the  delays 
of  the  court  of  Rome,  which  had  been  appealed  to  by  Henry  for  a 
divorce.  The  displeasure  of  the  king  was  excited  against  his  minis- 
ter ;  and,  in  the  course  of  three  years,  Wolsey,  repeatedly  accused 
of  treason,  and  gradually  stripped  of  all  his  possessions,  died  of  a 
broken  heart.  (1530.)  In  his  last  moments  he  is  said  to  have  ex- 
claimed, in  the  bitterness  of  humiliation  and  remorse,  "  Had  I  but 
served  my  Glod  as  diligently  as  I  have  served  my  king,  he  would  not 
have  given  me  over  in  my  gray  hairs.  "a 

a.  The  following  soliloquy  is  put  by  Shakspeare  into  the  mouth  of  the  humbled  favorite  on 
the  occasion  of  his  surrendering  to  Henry  the  great  seal, — and  also  his  dying  advice  to  hia  at- 
tendant Cromwell : 

"  Farewell,  a  long  farewell  to  all  my  greatness ! 

This  is  the  state  of  man ;  To-day  he  puts  forth 

The  tender  leaves  of  hope,  to-morrow  blossoms 

And  bears  his  blushing  honors  thick  upon  him: 

The  third  day  comes  a  frost,  a  killing  frost ; 

And,— when  he  thinks,  good  easy  man,  full  swely 

His  greatness  is  a  ripening, — nips  his  root, 

And  then  he  falls,  as  I  do.    I  have  ventur'd 

Like  little  wanton  boys  that  swim  on  bladders, 

This  many  summers  in  a  sea  of  glory ; 

But  far  beyond  my  depth ;  my  high-blown  pride 

At  length  broke  under  me ;  and  now  has  left  me, 

Weary,  and  old  with  service,  to  the  mercy 

Of  a  rude  stream,  that  must  forever  hide  me. 

Vain  pomp  and  glory  of  this  world,  I  hate  ye  ; 

I  feel  my  heart  new  open'd  :  O,  how  wretched 

Is  that  poor  man,  that  hangs  on  princes  favors ! 

There  is,  betwixt  that  smile  we  would  aspire  to, 

That  sweet  aspect  of  princes,  and  their  ruin, 

More  pangs  and  fears  than  wars  or  women  have ; 

And  when  he  falls,  he  falls  like  Lucifer, 

Never  to  hope  again." 

"Cromwell,  I  charge  thee,  fling  away  ambition  ; 
By  that  sin  fell  the  angels ;  how  can  man  then, 
The  image  of  his  Maker,  hope  to  win  by't  ? 
Love  thyself  last ;  cherish  those  hearts  that  hate  thee; 
Corruption  wins  not  more  than  honesty : 


CHAP,  in.]  SIXTEENTH  CENTURY.  331 

15.  During  the  stirring  and  eventful  period  of  the  early  rivalries 
of  Francis  I.  and  Charles  V. — a  period  full  of  great 
events,  of  conquests  and  reverses,  all  arising  out  of  the  J-OKMATION 
selfish  views  of  individual  monarchy,  but  none  of  them 
causing  any  lasting  change  or  progress  in  human  affairs,  the  great 
principle  of  religious  freedom 'began  to  agitate  all  classes,  and  to 
give  fresh  life  to  the  public  mind  in  Europe.  At  this  time  the 
pope,  as  the  head  of  the  Catholic  religion,  assumed  to  himself  both 
spiritual  and  temporal  power  over  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  world  : 
often,  amidst  the  blackest  crimes,  and  immersed  in  the  grossest  sensu- 
alities, he  avowed,  and  his  adherents  proclaimed,  the  doctrine  of  his 
infallibility,  or  "  entire  exemption  from  liability  to  err ;"  and  al- 
though bold  men  in  every  age  had  protested  against  papal  pretensions, 
yet  the  great  mass  of  the  people,  the  clergy,  the  nobility,  and  the 
monarchs,  still  regarded  the  pope  as  supreme  and  infallible  authority 
over  the  thoughts  and  the  actions  of  men.  The  memory  and  opin- 
ions of  Wickliffe1  the  reformer  had  been  solemnly  condemned  by  the 
council  of  Constance3  thirty  years  after  his  death  :  John  Huss,  and 

1.  Wickliffe,  born  in  England  about  the  year  13-24 — called  the  "morning  star  of  the  Reforma- 
tion''—^^ an  eminent  divine  and  ecclesiastical  reformer.     He  vigorously  attacked  papal 
usurpation,  and  the  abuses  of  the  church.    The  pope  insisted  on  his  being  brought  to  trial  as  a 
heretic ;  but  he  was  effectually  protected  by  his  patron,  the  duke  of  Lancaster.  He  died  in  1384. 

2.  Constance,  a  city  highly  interesting  from  its  historical  associations,  is  situated  on  the  river 
Rhine,  at  the  point  where  the  river  unites  the  upper  part  of  the  Lake  of  Constance  with  the 
lower.    Though  mostly  within  the  natural  limits  of  Switzerland,  the  city  belongs  to  the  grand 
duchy  of  Baden.    (Maps  Nos.  XIV.  and  XVII.) 

The  great  object  of  the  celebrated  Council  of  Constance,  which  continued  in  session  from 
1414  to  1418,  was  to  remove  the  divisions  in  the  church,  settle  controversies,  and  vindicate  the 
authority  of  general  councils,  to  which  the  Roman  pontiff  was  declared  to  be  amenable. 
When,  in  1411,  Sigismund  ascended  the  throne  of  Germany,  there  were  three  popes,  each  of 
whom  had  anathematized  the  two  others.  To  put  an  end  to  these  disorders,  and  stop  the  in- 
fluence of  John  Huss,  a  native  of  Bohemia,  who  had  adopted  and  zealously  propagated  the 
doctrines  of  Wickliffe,  Sigismund  summoned  a  general  council.  The  pretended  heresies  of 
Wickliffe  and  Uuss  were  condemned;  and  the  latter,  notwithstanding  the  assurances  of  safety 
gfven  him  by  the  German  emperor,  was  burnt  at  the  stake,  July  6th,  1415.  His  friend  and 
companion,  Jerome  of  Prague,  met  with  the  same  fate,  May  30th,  1416.  After  the  ecc.'esiastW 
cal  dignitaries  supposed  they  had  sufficiently  checked  the  progress  of  heresies  by  these  execu- 


Still  in  thy  right  hand  carry  gentle  peace, 

To  silence  envious  tongues.    Be  just  and  fear  not : 

Let  all  the  ends  thou  aimst  at,  be  thy  country's, 

Thy  God's,  and  truth's ;  then  if  thou  fall'st,  O  Cranwell 

Thou  fall'at  a  blessed  martyr." 

"  O  Cromwell,  Cromwell, 
Had  I  but  serv'd  my  God  with  half  the  zeal 
I  serv'd  my  king,  he  would  not  to  mine  age 
Have  left  me  naked  to  mine  enemies." 

Shakspeare's  Henry  VIIL,  Act  III.,  Scene  II. 


332  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAET  D 

Jerome  of  Prague,  with  a  host  of  less  celebrated  martyrs,  had  been 
publicly  burned  for  professing  heretical  opinions ;  and  the  creed  of 
the  unfortunate  Albigenses1  had  been  extinguished  in  blood.  Yet 
as  civilization  advanced,  the  moral  power  and  authority  of  the  popes 
declined  ;  and  the  spirit  of  religious  inquiry  daily  grew  more  rife  :  the 
pope  was  less  popular  in  his  own  dominions  than  at  a  distance ;  and 
while  the  imperial  city  was  sacked  by  the  haughty  Bourbon,  and  the 
pope  himself  was  held  a  prisoner  by  a  tumultuous  soldiery,  his  emis- 
saries were  collecting  tribute  in  the  German  dominions,  and  along 
the  shores  of  the  Baltic.  The  avarice  of  the  pope,  Leo  X.,  was 
equal  to  the  credulity  of  the  Germans ;  and  billets  of  salvation,  or 
indulgencies  professing  to  remit  the  punishment  due  to  sins,  even 
before  the  commission  of  the  contemplated  crime,  were  sold  by  thou- 
sands among  the  German  peasantry.  Martin  Luther,  a  man  of  high 
reputation  for  sanctity  and  learning,  and  then  professor  of  theology 
at  Wittemberg2  on  the  Elbe,  first  called  in  question  the  efficacy  of 

tions,  they  proceeded  to  depose  the  three  popes,  or  anti-popes,  John  XXIII.,  Gregory  XII.,  and 
Benedict  XIII.  They  next  elected  Martin  V.,  and  thus  put  an  end  to  a  schism  that  had  lasted 
forty  years. 

Travellers  are  still  shown  the  hall  where  the  council  assembled ;  the  chairs  on  which  sat  the 
emperor  and  the  pope ;  the  house  in  which  Huss  was  apprehended ;  his  dungeon  hi  the  Do- 
inican  monastery ;  and,  in  the  nave  of  the  cathedral,  a  brazen  plate  let  into  the  floor  on  the 
spot  where  the  venerable  martyr  listened  to  his  sentence  of  death  ;  also  the  place,  in  a  garden, 
where  he  was  burnt. 

The  decrees  and  excommunications  of  the  council  were  despised  in  Bohemia ;  and  in  a 
bloody  war  of  seventeen  years'  duration  the  Bohemian  adherents  of  Huss  took  terrible  ven- 
geance upon  the  emperor,  the  empire,  and  the  clergy,  for  his  death — a  revenge  which  the  gentle 
and  pious  mind  of  Huss  would  never  have  approved.  After  the  close  of  this  war,  the  religious 
freedom  of  the  Hussites  continually  suffered  more  and  more ;  and  the  stricter  sect  of  the  di- 
minished band  was  finally  merged  111  the  fraternity  of  Bohemian  and  Moravian  brethren,  which 
arose  in  1457,  and,  under  the  most  violent  persecutions,  exhibited  an  honorable  steadfastness 
of  faith,  and  the  most  exemplary  purity. 

1.  Mbigenses  is  a  name  given  to  several  heretical  sects  in  the  south  of  France,  who  agreed 
in  opposing  the  dominion  of  the  Roman  hierarchy,  and  in  endeavoring  to  restore  the  sim- 
plicity of  primitive  Christianity.    In   1209  they  were  first  attacked,  in  a  cruel  and  desolating 
war,  by  the  army  of  the  cross,  called  together  by  pope  Innocent  III.— the  first  war  which  the 
church  waged  against  heretics  within  her  own  dominions.    In  1229  Louis  VIII.  of  France  fell 
in  a  campaign  against  the  heretics.    It  is  said  that  hundreds  of  thousands  fell,  on  both  sides, 
in  this  war ;  but  the  Albigenses  were  subdued,  and  the  inquisition  was  called  in  to  extirpate 
any  remaining  germs  of  heresy.    The  name  of  the  Albigenses  disappeared  about  the  middle 
of  the  thirteenth  century ;  but  fugitives  of  their  party  formed,  in  the  mountains  of  Piedmont 
and  Lombardy,  what  is  called  the  French  Church,  which  was  continued  to  the  times  of  the 
Hussites  and  the  Reformation. 

2.  Wittemberg,  a  town  of  Prussian  Saxony,  on  the  Elbe,  is  fifty  miles  south-west  from  Berlin. 
(Map  No.  XVII.)    It  derives  its  chief  interest  from  its  having  been  the  cradle  of  the  Reforma- 
tion,— Luther  and  Melancthou  having  both  been  professors  in  its  university,  and  their  remains 
being  deposited  in  its  cathedral.    A  noble  bronze  statue  of  the  great  reformer  was  erected  in 
the  market-place  in  1821.    "It  represents,  in  colossal  proportions,  the  full-length  figure  of 
Luther,  supporting  in  his  left  hand  the  Bible,  kept  open  by  the  right,  pointing  to  a  passage  in 


CHAP.  III.]  SIXTEENTH  CENTURY.  333 

these  indulgences ;  and  his  word,  like  a  talisman,  broke  the  spell  of 
Romish  supremacy. 

16.  In    1517  Luther  first  read  in  public  his  famous  theses,  or 
propositions,  in  which  he  bitterly  inveighed  against  the  traffic  in  in- 
dulgences, and  challenged  all  the  learned  men  of  the  day  to  contest 
them  with  him  in  a  public  disputation.     Luther  did  not  at  once  form 
the  resolution  to  separate  from  the  Romish  Church  ;  but  the  pressure 
of  circumstances,  and  the  warmth  of  controversy  with  his  adversa- 
ries, impelled  him  from  one  step  to  another ;  and  as  he  enlarged  his 
observation  and  reading,  and  discovered  new  abuses  and  errors,  he 
began  to  entertain  doubts  of  the  pope's  divine  authority — rejected 
the  doctrine  of  his  infallibility — gradually  abolished  the  practice  of 
mass,  auricular  confession,  and  the  worship  of  images — denied  the 
doctrine  of   purgatory,   and  opposed  the  fastings  of  the  Romish 
Church,  monastic  vows,  and  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy.     In  1520  the 
pope  declared  the  writings  of  Luther  heretical ;  and  Luther  in  re- 
turn solemnly  burned,  on  the  public  square  of  Wittemberg,  the  pa- 
pal bull  of  condemnation,  and  the  volumes  of  the  canon  law  of  the 
Romish  Church. 

17.  In  1521  the  council  of  the  Sorbonne,1  in  Paris,  under  the  in- 
fluence of  the  French  monarch,  declared,  "  that  flames,  and  not  reason- 
ing, ought  to  be  employed  against  the  arrogance  of  Luther;"    and 
in  the  same  year  the  diet  of  Worms,  at  which  Charles  V.  himself 
presided,  pronounced  the  imperial  ban  of  excommunication  against 
Luther,  his  adherents,  and  protectors,  condemned  his  writings  to  be 
burned,  and  commanded  him  to  be  seized  and  brought  to  punish- 
ment.    The  king  of  England,  Henry  VIII.,  who  made  pretensions 
to   theological  learning,  wrote  a  volume  against  Luther ;  and  the 
pope  was  so  pleased  with  this  token  of  Henry's  religious  zeal,  that 
he  conferred  upon  him  the  title  of  "  defender  of  the  faith"  an  ap- 
pellation still  retained  by  the  sovereigns  of  England. 

the  inspired  volume.  The  pedestal  on  which  the  statue  stands  is  formed  of  a  solid  block  of 
red  polished  granite,  twenty  feet  in  height,  ten  feet  in  width,  and  eight  feet  in  depth.  On  each 
of  its  sides  is  a  central  tablet  bearing  a  poetical  inscription,  the  import  of  the  principal  being 
that  Mf  the  Reformation  be  God's  work,  it  is  imperishable ;  if  the  work  of  man,  it  will  fall."1 

1.  The  Sorbonne,  originally  a  college  for  the  education  of  secular  clergymen  at  the  university 
of  Paris,  founded  about  the  year  1250,  became  so  famous  that  its  name  was  extended  to  the 
whole  theological  faculty  of  the  university.  The  kings  seldom  took  any  steps  affecting  religion 
or  the  church  without  having  asked  the  opinion  of  the  Sorbonne,  which,  inimical  both  to  the 
Jesuits  and  the  Reformation,  steadfastly  maintained  the  liberties  of  the  Galilean  church.  But 
the  Sorbonne  outlived  its  fame :  its  spirit  often  degenerated  into  blind  zeal  and  pedantic  obsti- 
nacy :  its  condemnation  of  the  writings  of  Helvetius,  Rousseau,  and  Marmontel,  subjected  it  to 
much  derision  ;  and  the  Revolution  of  1789  put  an  end  to  its  existence. 


334  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  11. 

18  But  notwithstanding  this  opposition  from  high  quarters,  the 
age  was  rife  for  changes :  the  art  of  printing  rapidly  spread  the 
tenets  of  the  reformers ;  and  many  of  the  German  princes  espoused 
the  cause  of  Luther,  and  gave  him  protection.  But  Charles  V., 
after  the  peace  of  Cambray,  had  determined  to  arrest  the  farther 
progress  of  the  Reformation ;  and  for  this  purpose  he  proceeded  to 
Germany,  where  he  assembled  a  diet  of  the  empire  at  Spires,1  March 
1  529 ;  and  here  the  majority  of  the  States,  which  were  Catholic, 
decreed  that  the  edicts  of  the  diet  of  Worms  should  be  retained, 
and  that  all  those  who  had  been  gained  over  to  the  new  doctrine 
should  abstain  from  farther  innovations.  The  reformers,  including 
nearly  half  the  German  princes,  entered  a  violent  protest  against 
these  proceedings,  on  which  account  they  were  distinguished  as 
PROTESTANTS, — an  appellation  since  applied  indiscriminately  to  all 
the  sects,  of  whatever  denomination,  that  have  withdrawn  from  the 
Romish  church. 

19.  In  the  year  1530  Charles  assembled  another  diet  of  the  em- 
pire at  Ausburg,3  to  try  the  great  cause  of  the  Reformation,  hoping 
to  be  able  to  effect  a  reconcilation  between  the  opposing  parties,  al- 
though he  was  urged  by  the  pope  to  have  recourse  at  once  to  the  most 
rigorous  measures  against  the  stubborn  enemies  of  the  Catholic  faith. 
The  learned  and  peaceable  Melancthon  presented  to  the  diet  the  ar- 
ticles of  the  Lutheran  creed,  since  known  by  the  name  of  the  con- 
fession of  Augsburg;  but  no  reconciliation  of  opposing  opinions 
could  be  effected ;  and  the  Protestants  were  commanded  to  renounce 
their  errors,  upon  pain  of  being  put  under  the  ban  of  the  empire. 
Charles  was  preparing  to  employ  violence,  when  the  Protestant 
princes  of  Germany  concluded  a  defensive  league,  (Dec.  1530),  and 
having  obtained  promises  of  aid  from  the  kings  of  France,  England, 
and  Denmark,  held  themselves  ready  for  combat.  At  this  time 
Henry  VIII.,  although  abhorring  all  connection  with  the  Lutherans, 
was  fast  approaching  a  rupture  with  the  pope,  who  stood  in  the  way 
of  the  king's  contemplated  divorce  from  his  first  wife  Catherine,  and 

1.  Spires,  one  of  the  most  ancient  cities  of  Germany,  is  in  Rhenish  Bavaria,  on  the  west 
bank  of  the  Rhine,  twenty-two  miles  south  of  Worms.    There  may  still  be  seen  at  Spires  the 
outer  walls  of  an  old  palace  in  which  no  fewer  than  forty-nine  diets  have  been  held,  the  moat 
celebrated  jf  which  was  that  of  1529.    In  the  celebrated  cathedral  of  Spires  nine  German  em- 
perors, and  many  other  celebrated  personages,  have  been  buried.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

2.  Augsburg  is  a  city  of  Bavaria,  between,  and  near  the  confluence  of,  the  rivers  Wertach 
and  Lech,  branches  of  the  Danube,  thirty-five  miles  northwest  from  Munich.    Augsburg  i8 
very  ancient,  Augustus  having  settled  a  colony  in  it  about  twelve  years  B.  C.,  and  named  it 
Augusta  rindelicorun      (Map  No.  XVII.) 


CHAP.  III.]  SIXTEENTH  CENT  (TRY.  335 

his  marriage  with  the  afterwards  unfortunate  Anne  Boleyn ;  and 
Francis,  although  he  burned  heretics  in  France,  did  not  hesitate  to 
league  himself  with  the  reformers  of  Germany,  in  order  to  weaken 
the  power  of  his  rival. 

20.  In  addition  to  these  obstacles  to  the  purpose  of  Charles,  at 
this  moment  the  Turkish  sultan,  Solyman  the  Magnificent,  invaded 
Hungary,  at  the  head  of  three  hundred  thousand  men ;  and  Charles, 
fearing  the  consequences  of  a  religious  war  at  this  juncture,  hastened 
to  offer  to  the  Protestants  all  the  toleration  they  demanded,  until 
the  next  diet.  After  the  Turks  had  been  defeated,  and  driven  back 
upon  their  own  territories,  Charles  thought  it  his  duty,  as  the  great- 
est monarch,  and  the  protector  of  entire  Christendom,  to  make  a 
crusade  against  the  piratical  Moors  of  Northern  Africa,  who,  under 
their  leader  Barbarossa,  held  Tunis  and  Algiers,1  and  were  in  close 
alliance  with  the  Turkish  sultan.  In  the  summer  of  1535  he  landed 
at  Tunis  at  the  head  of  thirty  thousand  men,  defeated  the  Moors  in 
battle,  and,  to  his  inexpressible  joy,  was  enabled  to  set  at  liberty 
twenty-two  thousand  Christian  captives,  whom  the  Moors  had  re- 
duced to  slavery.  On  his  return  from  this  expedition  he  found  the 
king  of  France  preparing  for  war  against  him ;  and  the  hostilities 
which  immediately  broke  out  between  the  rival  monarchs  delayed  the 
decisive  rupture  between  the  Catholics  and  Protestants  of  Germany 
for  a  period  of  twelve  years.  In  the  summer  of  1535  Francis  in- 
vaded Savoy,2  and  threatened  Milan ;  and  in  the  following  year 

1.  Algiers,  or  Algeria,  a  country  of  northern  Africa,  having  the  city  Algiers  for  its  capital, 
comprises  the  Numidia  proper  of  the  ancients.    It  formed  part  of  the  Roman  empire ;  but 
during  the  reign  of  Valentinian  III.,  count  Boniface,  the  governor  of  Africa,  revolted,  and 
called  in  the  Vandals  to  his  assistance.    The  latter  having  taken  possession  of  the  country,  held 
it  till  they  were  expelled  by  Belisarius,  A.  D.  534,  who  restored  Africa  to  the  Eastern  empire. 
It  was  overran  and  conquered  by  the  Saracens  in  the  seventh  century :  in  the  early  part  of  the 
sixteenth  century  Ferdinand  of  Spain  wrested  several  provinces  from  them  ;  but  ere  long  the 
Spanish  yoke  was  thrown  off  by  the  famous  Corsairs  known  in  history  as  Barbarossa  I.  and 
II.    Algiers  then  became  ihe  centre  of  the  new  empire  founded  by  the  Barbarossas,  and  for  a 
long  period  carried  on  almost  incessant  hostilities  against  the  powers  of  Christendom,  capturing 
their  ships,  and  reducing  their  subjects  to  slavery.    Attempts  were  made  at  different  times  to 
abate  this  nuisance.    In  1541,  Charles  V.,  six  years  after  his  expedition  against  Tunis,  attacked 
Algiers ;  but  his  fleet  having  been  nearly  destroyed  by  a  storm,  he  was  compelled  to  return, 
with  great  loss.    Both  France  and  England  repeatedly  chastised  the  insolence  of  the  Algerines, 
by  bombarding  their  city  ;  but  in  general  the  European  powers  purchased  exemption  from  the 
attacks  of  Algerine  cruisers  by  paying  tribute  to  the  dey.    In  1815  the  Americans  compelled 
the  dey  to  renounce  all  tribute  from  them,  and  pay  sixty  thousand  dollars  as  indemnification 
for  their  losses;  and  in  the  following  year  the  English  bombarded  Algiers,  destroyed  the  Al- 
gerine  fleet,  in  the  harbor,  and  compelled  the  dey  vo  set  all  his  Christian  slaves  at  liberty,  and 
engage  to  cease  his  piracies.    Finally,  in  1830,  a  war  arose  between  France  and  Algiers,  which 
has  resulted  in  the  reduction  of  the  latter  to  a  province  of  the  French  empire. 

2.  Savoy,  now  included  in  the  kingdom  of  Sardinia,  is  in  north-western  Italy,  south  of  the 


336  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  II 

Charles  V.  entered  the  south  of  France  with  a  large  force  ;  but  the 
French  marshal,  Montmorency,  who  commanded  there,  acting  the 
part  of  the  Roman  Fabius,  avoided  a  general  battle,  laid  waste  the 
country,  and  finally  compelled  the  emperor  to  retreat  in  disgrace, 
with  the  wreck  of  a  ruined  army. 

21.  In  1538  the  rival  monarchs,  having  exhausted  all  their  pecu- 
niary resources,  concluded,  at  Nice,1  a  truce  of  ten  years,  through 
the  mediation  of  the  pope  ;  but  in  1542  war  was  again  renewed, — 
the  king  of  Scotland  and  the  sultan  of  Turkey,  together  with  the 
Protestant  princes  of  Germany,  Denmark,  and  Sweden,  uniting  with 
France,  and  the  king  of  England  taking  part  with  the  emperor 
Charles  V.     In  vain  Francis  and  Solyman,  uniting  their  fleets,  bom- 
barded the  castle  of  Nice ;  and  the  odious  spectacle  of  the  crescent 
and  the  cross  united,  alienated  all  the  Christian  world  from  the  king 
of  France.     (1543.)     The  French,  however,  gained  the  brilliant  vic- 
tory of  Ceriscles"  against  the  allies,  (April  1544,)  but  Henry  VIII., 
crossing  over  to  France,  captured  Boulogne.3    (Sept.  1544.)    Already 
Charles  had  penetrated  within  thirteen  leagues  of  Paris,  when  he 
formed  a  separate  treaty  with  Francis,  at  Cressy.     A  short  time  later 
a  peace  was  proclaimed  between  Francis  and  Henry,  both  of  whom 
died  in  the  same  year,  1547. 

22.  At  the  time  of  the  death  of  the  king  of  France  and  the  king 
of  England,  Charles  V.  was  engaged  in  a  war  with  his  Protestant 
German  subjects,  having  now  determined,  in  concert  with  the  pope, 
to  adopt  decisive  measures  for  putting  down  the  Reformation  in  his 
dominions.     At  the  commencement  of  the  war,  the  Protestant  Ger- 
man States,  although  abandoned  by  France,  Denmark,  and  England, 
leagued  together  for  the  common  defence ;  but  Maurice  of  Saxony, 
one  of  the  leading  Protestant  princes,  deserted  to  the  emperor,  and 
the  isolated  members  of  the  league  were  soon  overthrown.     The  rule 
of  Charles  now  became  highly  tyrannical ;  and  Catholics  and  Prot- 
estants equally  declaimed  against  him.     At  length  Maurice,  to  whom 
Charles  was  chiefly  indebted  for  his  recent  victories,  being  secretly 

Lake  of  Geneva,  and  bordering  on  France  and  Switzerland.  (Map  No.  XIII.)  Savoy  waa 
under  the  Roman  dominion  till  the  year  400 :  it  belonged  to  Bur'  gundy  till  530,  to  France  till 
879,  to  Aries  till  1000,  when  it  had  its  own  counts,  and,  in  1416,  was  erected  into  a  duchy. 
In  1792  it  became  a  part  of  France,  and  in  1814  and  1815  was  ceded  to  Sardinia.  (Maps 
Nos.  XIV.  and  XVII.) 

1.  JVice  is  a  seaport  of  north-western  Italy,  ninety-five  miles  south-west  from  Genoa.    (Map 
No.  XIII.) 

2.  Cerisoles  is  a  small  village  of  Piedmont,  near  Carignan,  in  north-western  Italy. 

3.  Boulogne  is  u  seaport  town  of  France  on  the  English  Channel,  near  the  Straits  of  Dover, 
twenty  miles  south-west  from  Calais.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 


CHAP.  IILJ  SIXTEENTH  CENTURY.  337 

dissatisfied  with  the  conduct  of  the  emperor,  formed  a  bold  plan  for 
establishing  religious  freedom,  and  German  liberties,  but  concealed 
his  projects  until  the  most  favorable  moment  for  putting  them  into 
execution.  Having  concluded  a  secret  treaty  with  Henry  II.  of 
France,  the  son  and  successor  of  Francis,  in  1552  he  suddenly  pro- 
claimed war  against  the  emperor,  issuing  at  the  same  time  a  mani- 
festo of  grievances. 

23.  Charles,  taken  completely  by  surprise,  narrowly  escaped  being 
made  prisoner  ;  and  after  having  had  the  mortification  of  seeing  all 
his  projects  overthrown  by  the  man  whom  he  had  most  trusted,  he 
was  compelled  to  sign  the  convention  of  Passau1  with  the  Protest- 
ants.    Three  years  later,  the  bad  success  of  the  war  which  he  car- 
ried on  against  France  changed   this  convention  into  the  definite 
peace  of  Augsburg,  (Sept.  1555,)  by  which  the  free  exercise  of  re- 
ligion was  secured  to  the  Protestants  throughout  Germany,  although 
neither  party  was  allowed  to  seek  proselytes  at  the  expense  of  the 
other.     Such  was  the  first  victory  of  religious   liberty  under  the 
banner  of  the  Reformation.     The  spirit  that  had  been  awakened, 
pursued,  from  this  time,  a  determined  course,  and  all  the  efforts  of 
princes  were  not  able  to  arrest  its  progress. 

24.  The  treaty  of  Augsburg  was  to  Charles  V.  the  hand- writing 
on  the  wall  which  showed  him  that  the  end  of  the  mighty  power 
which  he  had  wielded  was  fast  approaching.     So  offended  was  the 
pope  at  the  sanction  which  Charles  had  given  to  the  principles  of 
religious  toleration,  that  he  became  the  avowed  enemy  of  the  house 
of  Austria,  and  entered  into  a  close  alliance  with  the 

young  king  of   France.     Charles  saw,  from  afar,  the  TIONAND&K- 
storm  that  was  approaching,  and,  abandoned  as  he  was  TIREMENT  OK 
by  fortune,  afflicted  by  disease,  and  opposed  in  his  de- 
clining years  by  a  rival  in  the  full  vigor  of  life,  he  wisely  resolved 
not  to  forfeit  his  fame  by  vainly  struggling  to  retain  a  power  which 
he  was  no  longer  able  to  wield ;  and,  in  imitation  of  Diocletian,  to 
the  surprise  of  the  world  he  abdicated  his  throne,  and  having  re- 
signed his  German  empire  to  his  brother  Ferdinand,  and  his  king- 
doms of  Spain,  the  Netherlands,  and  Italy,  to  his  son  Philip,  he  re- 
tired to  end  his  days  in  the  solitude  of  the  monastery  of  St.  Just.1 

1.  Passau  is  a  fortified  frontier  city  of  eastern  Bavaria,  on  the  southern  bank  of  the  Danube. 
It  derives  its  chief  historical  importance  from  the  treaty  concluded  there  in  1552.    (Map  No. 
XVII.) 

2.  The  monastery  of  St.  Just  is  in  the  province  of  Estremadura  in  Spain,  near  the  town  of 
Plagencia,  about  one  hundred  and  twenty  miles  south-west  from  Madrid.    (Map  No.  XIII.; 

22 


338  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  II 

25.  The  ex-emperor  divided  the  hours  of  his  retirement  between 
pious  meditation  and  mechanical  inventions,  taking  little  interest  in 
the  affairs  of  the  world  around  him.     It  is  related  of  him  that,  for 
amusement,  he  once  endeavored  to  make  two  watches  go  exactly 
alike.     Several  times  he  thought  he  had  succeeded  ;  but  all  in  vain — 
the  one  went  too  fast,  the  other  too  slow.     At  length  he  exclaimed  ! 
"  Behold,  not  even  two  watches  can  I  bring  to  agree  with  each  other; 
and  yet,  fool  that  I  was,  I  thought  that  I  should  be  able  to  govern, 
like  the  works  of  a  watch,  so  many  nations  all  living  under  different 
skies,  in  different  climes,  and  speaking  different  languages."    Finally, 
shortly  before  his  death,  he  caused  a  solemn  rehearsal  to  be  made 
of  his  own  funeral  obsequies — a  too  faithful  picture  of  that  eclipsed 
glory  which  he  had  survived.     He  died  in  the  year  1558,  being  at 
the  time  in  the  fifty -sixth  year  of  his  age. 

26.  During  the  reign  of  Charles  V.,  England,  Sweden,  and  Den- 
mark, had  followed  the  example  of  Germany  in  separating  from  the 
church  of  Rome.     The  Reformation  in  England,  however,  was,  at 
this  early  period,  a  political  rather  than  a  moral  and  religious  change, 
accomplished  by  the  king  and  the  aristocracy  with  little  regard  to  the 
dictates  of  conscience  or  the  convictions  of  reason,  and  retaining  in 
part  the  Catholic  hierarchy.     By  a  decree  of  parliament  (1534)  the 
king  was  acknowledged  as  the  protector  and  supreme  head  of  the 
Church  of  England ;  the  monasteries  were  suppressed,   and   their 
property,  amounting  to  more  than  a  million  of  dollars,  was  given  to 
the  crown.     Nothing  would  induce  the  king  to  renounce  the  title, 
which  he  had  received  from  the  pope,  of  "  defender  of  the  faith ;" 
and,  with  equal  intolerance,  he  persecuted  both  Catholics  and  Pro- 
testants,— the  former  for  having  denied  his  supremacy,  and  the  latter 
as  heretics.     But  while  Henry  VIII.  merely  withdrew  his  kingdom 
from  the  authority  of  the  pope,  the  true  principles  of  the  Reforma- 
tion were  spreading  among  the  people.     The  government  of  Henry 
was  administered  with  numerous  violations,  both  of  the  chartered 
privileges  of   Englishmen,   and  of  those   still  more   sacred  rights 
which  national  law  has  established  ;  and  yet  we  meet,  in  cotemporary 
authorities,  with  no  expressions  of  abhorrence  at  his  tyranny ;  but 
the  monarch  is  often  mentioned,  after  his  death,  in  language  of  eulogy. 
Although  he  had  few  qualities  that  deserve  esteem,  he  had  many 
which  a  nation  is  pleased  to  behold  in  a  sovereign. 

27.  On  the  death  of  Henry  VIII.,  in  1547,  and  the  accession 


CHAP.  Ill]  SIXTEENTH  CENTURY.  339 

ef  his  son  Edward a  VI.,  then  in  the  tenth  year  of  his  age,  the 
Protestant  religion  prevailed  in  England ;  but  this  amiable  prince 
died  at  the  early  age  of  fifteen ;  and  after  a  rash  attempt  of  a 
few  of  the  nobility  to  seat  Lady  Jane  Grey,  niece  to  Henry  VIII., 
on  the  throne,  the  sceptre  passed  to  the  hands  of  Edward's  sister 
Mary,b  (1553)  called  the  "Bloody  Mary,"  an  intolerant  Catholic 
and  cruel  persecutor  of  the  Protestants.  In  her  reign,  of  only  five 
years'  duration,  more  than  eight  hundred  miserable  victims  were 
burnt  at  the  stake, — martyrs  to  their  religious  opinions.  Mary  mar- 
ried Philip  II.  of  Spain,  the  son  and  successor  of  Charles  V.,  who 
induced  her  in  1557  to  unite  with  him  in  the  war  against  France. 
Among  the  events  of  this  war,  the  most  remarkable  are  the  victory 
of  St.  Quentin,1  gained  by  the  Spaniards,  and  the  conquest  of  Calais 
by  the  French,  under  the  duke  of  Guise,  the  last  possession  of  the 
English  in  France.  (1558.)  In  the  same  year  occurred  the  death 
of  Mary,  about  a  month  later  than  the  death  of  Charles  V.  Mary 
was  succeeded  by  her  sister  Elizabeth,  the  daughter  of  Anne  Boleyn, 
under  whose  reign  the  Protestant  religion  became  firmly  established 
in  England. 

III.    THE  AGE  OF  ELIZABETH. — 1.  As  the  marriage  of  Henry 
VIII.  with  Anne  Boleyn  had  not  been  sanctioned  by  the  Romish 
Church,  the  claims  of  Elizabeth  were  not  recognized  by  the  Catholic 
States  of  Europe ;  and,  the  youthful   Mary,  queen  of 
Scotland,  the  niece  of  Henry  VIII. ,  who  was  the  next    gCJJ£^£F 
heir  to  the  crown  if  the  illegitimacy  of  Elizabeth  could 
be  established,  was  regarded  by  them  as  the  rightful  claimant  of  the 
throne.     Mary,  who  had  been  educated  in  France,  in  the  Catholic 
faith,  and  had  been  married  when  very  young  to  the  dauphin,  was 
persuaded  by  the  king  of  France,   and  her  maternal  uncles,   the 
Guises,  to  assume  the  arms  and  title  of  queen  of  England ;  a  false 
step  which  laid  the  foundation  of  all  her  subsequent  misfortunes. 

2.  Elizabeth  endeavored  to  promote  Protestant  principles,  as  the 

1.  St.  Quentin,  formerly  a  place  of  great  strength,  is  a  town  of  France,  in  the  former  province 
of  Picardy,  eighty  miles  north-cast  from  Paris.  On  the  10th  of  August,  1557,  the  army  of 
Philip  II.,  commanded  by  the  duke  of  Savoy,  engaged  the  French,  commanded  by  the  consta- 
ble Montmorenci,  near  this  town,  when  the  French  were  totally  defeated,  with  the  loss  of  all 
their  artillery  and  baggage,  and  about  seven  thousand  men  killed  and  prisoners.  The  town, 
defended  by  the  famous  admiral  Coligni,  soon  afterwards  fell  into  the  bauds  of  the  Spaniards, 
(Map  No.  XIII.) 

a.  Son  of  Henry  VIII.  and  Jane  Seymour. 

b.  Daughter  of  Henry's  first  wife  Catherine. 


340  MODERN   HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

best  safeguard  of  her  throne  ;  and  in  the  year  1559  the  parliament 
formally  abolished  the  papal  supremacy,  and  established  the  Church 
of  England  in  its  present  form.  On  the  other  side  Philip  II.  was 
the  champion  of  the  Catholics ;  and  hence  England  now  became  the 
counterpoise  to  Spain,  as  France  had ,  been  during  the  reign  of 
Charles  V.,  while  the  ancient  rivalry  between  France  and  Spain  pre 
vented  these  Catholic  powers  from  cordially  uniting  to  check  the 
progress  of  the  Reformation. 

3.  On  the  death  of  Henry  II.  of  France,  by  a  mortal  wound  re- 
ceived at  a  tournament,  (1559)  the  feeble  Francis  II.,  the  husband 
of  Mary  of  Scotland,  ascended  the  throne,  but  died  the  following 
year,  (Dec.  1560,)  and  was  succeeded  by  his  brother  Charles  IX., 
then  at  the  age  of  only  ten  years.     Mary  then  left  France  for  her 
native  dominions ;    but  she  found  there  the  Romish  church   over- 
thrown, and  Protestantism  erected  in  its  stead.     The  marriage  of 
the  queen  to  the  young  Henry  Stuart,  Lord  Darnley,  in  spite  of  the 
remonstrances  of  Elizabeth,  led  to  the  first  open  breach  between 
Mary  and  her  Protestant  subjects.     Darnley,  jealous  of  the  ascend- 
ancy which  an  Italian,  David  Rizzio,  Mary's  private  secretary,  had 
acquired  over  her,  headed  a  band  of  conspirators  who  murdered  the 
favorite  before  the  eyes  of  the  queen.     Soon  after,  the  house  which 
Darnley  inhabited  was  blown  up  by  powder  ;  Darnley  was  buried  un- 
der its  ruins  ;  and  three  months  later  Mary  married  the  earl  of  Both- 
well,  the  principal  author  of  the  crime.     An  insurrection  of  the  Pro- 
testant lords  followed  these  proceedings  ;  Mary  was  forced  to  dismiss 
Bothwell,  and  resign  the  crown  to  her  infant  son  James  VI.,  but 
subsequently  endeavoring  to  resume  her  authority,  and  being  defeat- 
ed by  the  regent  Murray,  her  own  brother,  she  fled  into  England, 
and  threw  herself  upon  the  protection  of  Elizabeth,  her  deadly  enemy. 
(1568.)     Elizabeth  retained  the  unfortunate  Mary  a  prisoner,  gave 
the  guardianship  of  her  young  son  to  whom  she  pleased,  and,  through 
her  influence  over  the  Protestant  nobility  of  Scotland,  was  enabled 
to  govern  that  country  mostly  at  her  will. 

4.  During  these  events  in  Scotland  Elizabeth  was  carrying  on  a 
secret  war  against  the  attempts  of  Philip  II.  to  establish  the  inqui- 
sition in  the  Netherlands,  and  also  against  a  similar  design  of  the 
Catholic  party  in  France,  which  ruled  that  country  during  the  mi- 
nority  of  the  sovereign.     In  both  these  countries  the  attempts  of  the 
Catholic  rulers  provoked  a  desperate  resistance.      In  France,  banish- 

,      ment  or  death  had  become  the  penalty  of  heresy,  when,  in  January 


C«APIIL]  SIXTEENTH  CENTURY.  Sit 

1562,  an  edict  was  issued  by  the  government,  through  the  influence 
of  the  queen  regent,  granting  tolerance  to  the  Hugue- 
nots, as  the  French  Protestants  were  called,  and  allowing    RELIGIOUS 
them  to  assemble  for  worship  outside  the  walls  of  towns.      WAR  IN 
The    powerful   family   of    Guises   were    indignant    at 
the  countenance  thus  given  to  heresy ;  and  as  the  duke  of  Guise 
was  passing  through  a  small  village,  his  followers  fell  upon  the  Pro- 
testants who  were  assembled  outside  the  walls  in  prayer,  and  killed 
sixty  of  their  number.     This  atrocity  was  the  signal  for  a  general 
rising ;  the  prince  of  Conde,  the  leader  of  the  Protestant  party,  took 
possession  of  Orleans,  and  made  that  town  the  head-quarters  of  the 
Huguenots,  as  the  capital  was  of  the  Catholics,  while  at  the  same 
time  the  aid  of  Philip  of  Spain  was  openly  proffered  to  the  Guises, 
and  Conde  concluded  a  treaty  with  Elizabeth,  to  whom  he  delivered 
Havre-de-Grace1  in  return  for  a  corps  of  six  thousand  men. 

5.  At  the  opening  of  this  civil  and  religious  war,  the  greatest  en 
thusiasm  prevailed  on  both  sides, — in  the  opposing  armies  prayers 
were  heard  in  common,  morning  and  evening, — there  was  no  gam- 
bling, no  profane  language,  nor  dissipation ;  but,  under  an  exterior 
of  sanctity,  feelings  of  the  most  vindictive  hate  were  nourished,  and 
the  direst  cruelties  were  openly  perpetrated  in  the  name  of  religion. 
The  Catholic  governor  of  Guienne8  went  through  his  province  with 
hangmen,  marking  his  route  by  the  victims  whom  he  hung  on  the 
trees  by  the  road-side.     On  the  other  hand,  a  Protestant  baron  in 
Dauphiny3  precipitated  his  prisoners  from  the  top  of  a  tower  on 
pikes ; — both  parties  made  retaliatory  reprisals,  each  spilling  blood 
upon  scaffolds  of  its  own  erection. 

6.  The  first  great  battle  was  fought  at  Dreux,*  the  prince  of  Conde 
commanding  the  army  of  the  Protestants,  and  the  constable  Mont- 
morency  that  of  the  Catholics ;  but  while  the  latter  won  the  field,  each 
of  the  two  generals  became  prisoner  to  the  opposite  party.     The 
duke  of  Guise,  who  was  next  in  command  to  Montmorency,  treated 

1.  Havre-de-grace,  now  called  Havre,  is  a  fortified  town,  and  the  principal  commercial  sea- 
port, on  the  western  coast  of  France,  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  Seine,  one  hundred  and  nine 
miles  north-west  from  Paris.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

2.  The  province  of  Guienne  was  in  the  south-west  part  of  the  kingdom,  on  both  sides  of  the 
Garonne.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

3.  The  province  of  Dauphiny^  of  which  Grenoble  was  the  capital,  was  in  the  south-eastern 
part  of  France,  having  Bur'  gundy  on  the  north,  Italy  on  the  east,  Provence  on  the  south,  and 
the  Rhine  on  the  west.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

4.  Drewz,  the  ancient  seat  of  the  counts  of  Dreux,  is  a  town  of  France,  forty-five  miles  a 
little  south  of  west  from  Paris.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 


342  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAET  IL 

his  captive  rival  with  the  utmost  generosity :  they  shared  the  same 
tent — the  same  bed ;  and  while  Conde,  from  the  strangeness  of  his 
position,  remained  wakeful,  Guise,  he  declared,  enjoyed  the  most  pro- 
found sleep.  The  admiral  Coligni  succeeded  to  the  command  of  the 
defeated  Huguenots ;  and  Orleans,  their  principal  post,  was  only 
saved  by  the  assassination  of  the  duke  of  Guise,  whom  a  Protestant, 
from  behind,  wounded  by  the  discharge  of  a  pistol.  The  capture  or 
death  of  the  chiefs  on  both  sides,  Coligni  excepted,  brought  about 
an  accommodation;  and  in  March,  1563,  the  treaty  of  Amboise1  was 
declared,  granting  to  the  Protestants  full  liberty  of  worship  within  the 
towns  of  which  they  then  were  in  possession. 

7.  The  treaty  of  Amboise  was  scarcely  concluded  when  its  terms 
began  to  be  modified  by  the  court,  so  that,  as  a  cotemporary  writer 
observes,  "  edicts  took  more  from  the  Protestants  in  peace  than  force 
could  take  from  them  in  war."     The  Protestant  leaders,  Conde  and 
Coligni,  tried  in  vain  to  get  possession  of  the  young  king ;  and  a  battle 
was  fought  in  the  very  suburbs  of  Paris,  in  which  the  aged  Mont- 
morency  was  slain.     (1567.)     A  "  Lame  Peace,"  a  concluded  in  the 
following  year,  confirmed  that  of  Amboise  ;  but  the  wary  Protestant 
leaders  saw  in  it  only  a  trap  to  ensnare  them  as  soon  as  their  army 
should  be  disbanded.     The  mask  was  soon  thrown  off  by  an  attempt 
of  the  court  to  seize  the  two  chiefs  :  the  Huguenots  were  defeated 
in  four  battles ;  Conde  was  slain,  and  Coligni  severely  wounded ; 
but  in  1570  the  peace  of  St.  Germain2  was  concluded ;  and  amnesty 
and  liberty  of  worship  were  again  granted  to  the  Protestants. 

8.  The  object  of  the  court,  however,  was  not  peace,  but  vengeance ; 
and  Charles  IX.,  now  in  his  twentieth  year,  engaged  zealously  in  the 
project  of  his  mother  Catherine,  to  entice  the  Protestant  leaders  to 
the  capital,  and  there  massacre  them,  and  afterwards  carry  on  a  war 
of  extermination  against  the  Huguenots  throughout  the  kingdom. 
For  the  purpose  of  enticing  the  Huguenots  to  the  capital,  and  lulling 
them  into  security,  it  was  proposed  that  young  Henry  of  Navarre,  a 
Protestant,  should  espouse  the  king's  sister  Margaret, — a  marriage 

1.  Amboise  is  a  town  and  castle  on  the  Loire,  in  the  former  province  of  Touraine,  fifteen 
miles  east  of  Tours.    The  castle  occupies  the  summit  of  a  rock  about  ninety  feet  in  height. 
(Map  No.  XIII.) 

2.  St.  Germain  is  a  town  of  France,  on  a  hill  near  the  south  bank  of  the  Seine,  six  miles 
north  of  Versailles,  and  nine  miles  north-west  from  Paris.    It  is  chiefly  noted  for  its  palace, 
originally  built  by  Charles  V.,  and  often  the  residence  of  the  kings  of  France.    James  11.  of 
England,  with  most  of  his  family,  passed  their  exile,  and  died,  in  it.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

a.  So  called  as  well  from  its  infirm  and  uncertain  nature,  as  from  the  accidental  lameness  of 
its  two  negotiators. 


CHAP.  IIL]  SIXTEENTH  CENTURY.'  343 

which  would,  in  itself,  be  a  bond  of  union  between  the  two  parties. 
The  nuptials  were  celebrated  with  the  greatest  magnificence ;  and 
amid  the  festivities  which  followed,  the  plan  of  the  massacre  was 
matured.  When  the  decree  of  extermination  was  placed  before 
Charles  for  his  signature,  he  at  first  hesitated,  appalled  by  the  enor- 
mity of  the  deed,  but  at  length  signed  it,  exclaiming,  "  let  none  es- 
cape to  reproach  me." 

9.  About  three  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  St.  Bartholomew's  day, 
the  24th  of  August,  1572,  the  young  duke  of  Guise  and  his  band  of 
cut-throats  commenced  the  bloody  work  by  breaking  into 

the  apartment  of  the  aged  Coligni,  and  slaying  him  while    CRE  OF  ST. 
engaged  in  prayer ;    the  tocsin  was  sounded,  and  the     BARTHOL- 
Catholics  of  Paris,  with  the  sign  of  the  cross  in  their 
caps  to  distinguish  them,  rushed  forth  to  the  massacre  of  their 
brethren.    What  is  surprising,  the  victims  made  no  resistance  !    They 
would  not  derogate,  at  such  a  moment,  from  their  character  of  mar- 
tyrs.    The  massacre  lasted,  in  Paris,  eight  days  and  nights,  without 
any  apparent  diminution  of  the  fury  of  the  murderers. 

10.  Charles  commanded  the  same  scene  to  be  renewed  in  every 
town  throughout  the  kingdom ;  and  fifty  thousand  Protestants  are 
believed  to  have  fallen  victims  to  the  monarch's  order.     A  few  com- 
manders, however,  refused  to  obey  the  edict :  one  wrote  back  to  the 
court,  "  that  he  commanded  soldiers,  not  assassins;"  and  even  the 
public  executioner  of  a  certain  town,  when  a  dagger  was  put  into  his 
hands,  threw  it  from  him,  and  declared  himself  above  the  crime. 
The  prince  of  Navarre,  who  had  espoused  the  king's  sister,  and  his 
companion  the  young  prince  of  Conde,  were  spared  only  on  the  con- 
dition of  becoming  Catholics ;  but  both  yielded  in  appearance  only. 
A  circumstance  as  horrible  as  the  massacre  itself,  was  the  joy  it  ex- 
cited.    Philip  II.,  thinking  Protestantism  subdued,  sent  to  congratu- 
late the  court  of  France :  medals  to  commemorate  the  event  were 
struck  at  Rome ;  and  the  pope  went  in  state  to  his  cathedral,  and 
returned  public  thanks  to  Heaven  for  this  signal  mercy. 

11.  But  the  crime  from  which  so  much  was  expected,  produced 
neither  peace  nor  advantage ;  and  the  civil  war  was  renewed  with 
greater  force  than  ever :  mere  abhorrence  of  the  massacre  caused 
many  Catholics  to  turn  Huguenots ;  and  although  the  latter  were  at 
first  paralyzed  by  the  blow,  the  former  were  stung  by  remorse  and 
shame.     Charles  himself  seemed  stricken  already  by  avenging  fate. 
As  the  accounts  of  the  murders  of  old  men,  women,  and  children,  were 


344  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  II. 

successively  brought  to  him,  while  the  massacre  continued,  he  drew 
aside  M.  Ambroise,  his  first  surgeon,  to  whom  he  was  much  attached, 
although  he  was  a  Protestan't,  and  said  to  him,  "  Ambroise,  I  know 
not  what  has  come  over  me  these  two  or  three  days,  but  I  find  my 
mind  and  body  in  disorder ;  I  see  everything  as  if  I  had  a  fever  ; 
every  moment,  as  well  waking  as  sleeping,  the  hideous  and  bloody 
faces  of  the  killed  appear  before  me  ;  I  wish  the  weak  and  innocent 
had  not  been  included."  From  that  time  a  continued  fever  preyed 
upon  him,  and,  eighteen  months  later,  carried  him  to  the  grave, 
(May  1574,)  but  not  until  he  had  been  compelled  to  grant  the  Hu- 
guenots a  peace,  after  seeing  that  his  grand  and  sweeping  crime  had 
but  enfeebled  the  Catholic  party,  instead  of  insuring  its  triumph. 

12.  At  the  time  of  the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew,  civil  war 

was  raging  in  the  Netherlands.  During  the  six  years 
NETHER-  of  the  administration  of  the  duke  of  Alva,  Philip's  gov- 
LANDS.  erllor  in  that  country,  the  laud  was  desolated  by  the  in- 
satiate cruelty  of  one  of  the  greatest  monsters  of  wickedness  the 
world  has  ever  seen ;  and  it  is  the  recorded  boast  of  Alva  himself 
that,  during  his  brief  administration,  he  caused  eighteen  thousand  of 
the  inhabitants  to  perish  by  the  hands  of  the  executioner.  At  length, 
in  1572,  a  general  rising  against  the  Spanish  power  was  organized, 
the  prince  of  Orange  being  at  the  head  of  the  revolters.  After  a 
war  of  varied  fortunes  on  both  sides,  in  1576  the  States-general,  or 
congress,  of  most  of  the  Batavian  and  Belgic  provinces,  met,  and  as- 
sumed the  reins  of  government  in  the  name  of  the  king,  and  soon 
after  concluded  a  union  between  the  States,  which  is  known  as  the 
Pacification  of  Ghent.1  The  expulsion,  from  the  country,  of  Spanish 
soldiers  and  other  foreigners  was  decreed ;  Alva's  sanguinary  de- 
crees and  edicts  against  heresy,  were  repealed,  and  religious  tolera- 
tion guaranteed. 

13.  Ere  long,  however,  the  confederacy  thus  formed  fell  to  pieces, 
owing  to  jealousies  between  the  Catholic  and  Protestant  States ; 
and  it  became  evident  that  freedom  could  be  attained  only  by  a  closer 
union  of  the  provinces,  resting  on  an  entire  separation  from  Spain. 
Acting  on  this  belief,  in  January  1579  the  prince  of  Orange  con- 
voked an  assembly  of  deputies  at  Utrecht,'2  where  was  signed  the 

1.  Ghent  is  a  city  of  Belgium,  thirty  miles  north-west  from  Brussels.    It  belonged,  success- 
ively, to  the  counts  of  Flanders  and  the  dukes  of  Bur'  gundy  ;  but  the  citizens  enjoyed  a  great 
degree  of  independence.    It  was  the  birth-place  of  the  emperor  Charles  V.    (Map  No.  XV.) 

2.  Utrecht  is  a  city  of  Holland,  on  the  old  Rhine,  twenty  miles  south-east  from  Amsterdam.    In 


CHAP.  Ill]  SIXTEENTH   CENTURY.  346 

famous  act  called  the  Union  of  Utrecht,  the  real  basis  or  fundamental 
compact  of  the  Republic  of  the  United  provinces.  Early  in  the 
following  year,  1580,  the  States-general  assembled  at  Antwerp,1  and, 
in  spite  of  all  the  opposition  of  the  Catholic  deputies,  the  authority 
of  Spain  was  renounced  forever,  and  the  "  United  Provinces"  de- 
clared a  free  and  independent  State.  Philip,  however,  still  waged 
a  vindictive  war  against  them,  while  they  received  important  aid 
from  Elizabeth  of  England,  a  circumstance  which  led  Philip  to  de- 
clare war  against  the  latter  country. 

14.  The  destinies  of  the  unhappy  queen  of  Scotland  had  long 
been  implicated  with  the  designs  of  the  Catholics  of  Europe  against 
the  power  and  throne  of  Elizabeth.  About  the  time  of  the  massacre 
of  St.  Bartholomew,  the  infamous  duke  of  Alva,  the  Spanish  gov- 
ernor of  the  Netherlands,  had  formed  a  project  of  uniting  with  th« 
English  Catholics  and  Mary  in  a  confederacy  against  Elizabeth ;  and 
Mary  was  charged  with  countenancing  the  design  ;  but  although  par- 
liament applied  for  her  immediate  trial,  Elizabeth  was  satisfied  with 
increasing  the  rigor  and  strictness  of  her  confinement.  Mary  was 
subsequently,  and  repeatedly,  charged  with  being  cognizant  of  simi- 
lar plans ;  but  her  participation  in  any  of  them  is  exceedingly  doubt- 
ful. At  length,  however,  an  act  of  parliament  was  passed  authoriz- 
ing her  trial ;  and  after  an  investigation,  in  which  law  and  justice 
were  little  regarded,  she  was  condemned  to  death.  Elizabeth,  after 
some  delay  and  hesitation,  signed  the  warrant  for  her  execution, 
which,  she  said,  she  designed  to  keep  by  her,  to  be  used  only  in  case 
of  the  attempt  of  Mary  to  escape  ;  but  her  council,  having  obtained 
possession  of  it  from  her  private  secretary,  hastily  despatched  it  to 
those  who  had  charge  of  the  prisoner,  and  the  unhappy  Mary  was 
beheaded,  after  having  been  in  captivity  nineteen  years.  (1587.) 

]  5.  The  execution  of  the  queen  of  Scots  inflamed  the  resentment 
of  the  Catholics  throughout  Europe,  and  gave  additional  vigor  to 
the  preparations  of  Philip  II.  for  an  invasion  of  England,  a  project 
which  he  had  long  had  in  contemplation,  and  by  which  he  hoped  to 
destroy  the  power  of  the  great  supporter  of  the  Prostestant  cause. 
With  justice,  perhaps,  Philip  complained  of  the  depredations  which 

addition  to  the  famous  act  called  the  *  Union  of  Utrecht,"  signed  here  oa  the  28th  of  January, 
1579,  the  treaties  of  Utrecht  which  terminated  the  war  of  the  Spanish  succession,  and  gave 
peace  to  Europe,  (see  p.  405,  were  concluded  here  in  1713  and  J714.  (Map  No.  XV.) 

1.  Antwerp  is  a  maritime  city  of  Belgium,  on  the  north  bank  of  the  Scheldt,  twenty-six 
miles  north  from  Brussels.  In  the  sixteenth  century  Antwerp  enjoyed  a  more  extensive  foreigu 
Irade  than  any  other  city  in  Europe.  (Mtp  No.  XV.) 


346  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

the  English,  under  their  great  admiral  Sir  Francis  Drake,  had  for 
many  years  committed  on  the  Spanish  possessions  in  South  America, 
and  more  than  once  on  the  coasts  of  Spain  itself;  and  now  a  vast 
armament  was  prepared  to  sweep  the  English  from  the  seas,  ravage 
their  coasts,  burn  their  towns,  and  dethrone  their  Protestant  queen, 

16.  In  May,  1588,  the  Spanish  fleet  of  one  hundred  and  thirty 
ships,  some  the  largest  that  had  ever  plowed  the  deep,  carrying,  ex- 

v  THE  elusive  of  eight  thousand  sailors,  no  less  than  twenty 
SPANISH  thousand  of  the  bravest  troops  in  the  Spanish  armies,  a 
ARMADA.  }arge  invading  force  in  those  days,  sailed  from  the  har- 
bor of  Lisbon  for  the  English  coast.  The  pope  had  blessed  the  ex- 
pedition, and  offered  the  sovereignty  of  England  as  the  conqueror's 
prize ;  and  the  Catholics  throughout  Europe  were  so  confident  of 
success  that  they  had  named  the  armament  "  The  Invincible  Ar- 
mada." The  queen  of  England  beheld  the  preparations,  and  heard 
the  vauntings  of  her  enemies,  with  a  resolution  worthy  of  the  occa- 
sion and  the  cause.  She  visited  the  seaports  in  person,  superintend- 
ed the  preparations  for  defence,  and  on  horseback  addressed  the 
troops ;  and  such  was  the  enthusiasm  which  she  everywhere  inspired, 
that  even  her  Catholic  subjects  joined  their  countrymen,  heart  and 
hand,  against  foreign  domination.  Lord  Howard  of  Effingham  was 
appointed  admiral  of  the  fleet;  Drake,  Hawkins,  and  Frobisher,  the 
most  renowned  seamen  in  Europe,  served  under  him  ;  while  an  army 
of  forty-five  thousand  men  was  organized  for  the  defence  of  the 
coast  and  the  capital. 

17.  After  the  Armada  had  sailed  from  Lisbon  it  suffered  consider- 
ably from  a  storm  off  the  French  coast :  in  passing  through  the  Eng- 
lish Channel  it  was  seriously  harassed,  during  several  days,  by  the 
lighter  English  vessels ;  and  while  at  anchor  off  Calais,  the  English 
sent  a  number  of  fire-ships  into  the  midst  of  the  fleet,  destroyed 
several  vessels,  and  threw  the  others  into  such  confusion  that  the 
Spanish  admiral  no  longer  thought  of  victory,  but  only  of  escape 
As  the  south  wind  blew,  he  was  unable  to  retrace  his  course,  and 
therefore  resolved  to  return  by  coasting  the  northern  shores  of  Scot- 
land and  Ireland.     But  his  disasters  were  not  ended  :  many  of  his 
vessels  were  driven,  by  a  storm,  on  the  coasts  of  Norway  and  Scot- 
land :  off  the  Irish  coast  a  second  storm  was  experienced,  with  al- 
most equal  loss ;  and  only  a  few  shattered  vessels  of  this  mighty  ar- 
mament returned  to  Spain,  to  bring  intelligence  of  the  calamities  that 
had  overwhelmed  the  rest.     The  defeat  of  the  armada  was  regarded 


CHAP.  IIL]  SIXTEENTH   CENTURY.  34? 

as  the  triumph  of  the  Protestant  cause;  it  exerted  a  favorable  in- 
fluence on  the  welfare  of  the  United  Provinces,  and  virtually  secured 
their  independence ;  and  it  raised  the  courage  of  the  Huguenots  in 
France,  and  completely  destroyed  the  decisive  influence  which  Spain 
had  long  maintained  in  the  affairs  of  Europe.  Henceforth  the  naval 
power  and  the  commerce  of  Spain  declined ;  and  the  king,  at  his 
death  in  1598,  bequeathed  a  vast  debt  to  a  nation  whose  resources, 
notwithstanding  her  rich  mines  of  gold  and  silver  hi  the  New  World, 
were  already  exhausted. 

18.  The  internal  history  of  France,  since  the  massacre  of  St.  Bar- 
tholomew, and  the  death  of  Charles  IX.,  is  filled  with  deplorable 
civil  wars  during  most  of  the  remaining  portion  of  the  sixteenth 
century.     Charles  was  succeeded  by  his  brother  Henry  III.,  who 
endeavored  to  play  the  opposing  Catholic  and  Protestant  parties 
against  each  other  ;  but  being  obliged,  at  length,  by  the  violence 
of  the    Catholic  leagite,  to  throw  himself  on  the  protection  of  the 
Protestants,   he   was    assassinated   by   James    Clement,    a   fanatic 
monk,  just  as  he  was  on  the  point  of  driving  his  enemies  from 
Paris.     (Aug.   1589.)     In  the  death  of  Henry  III.,  the  house  of 
Valois  became  extinct,  and  the  throne  passed  by  right  of  inherit- 
ance to  the  house  of  Bourbon,  in  the  person  of  the  Protestant  Henry 
of  Navarre,  who  now  became  king  of  France,  with  the  title  of  Henry 
IV.     He  was  at  first  opposed  by  the  Catholic  league ;  but.  after  a 
struggle  of  four  years,  in  which  he  received  some  aid  from  Eliza- 
beth of  England,  he  abjured  the  Protestant  faith,  and  thus  became 
king  of  a  united  people.     (1593-4.)     To  the  Huguenots,  however, 
he  atoned  for  his  compulsory  desertion,  by  issuing,  in      ^  THK 
1598,  the  celebrated  Edict  of  Nantes,1  which  terminated     EDICT  OF 
the  religious  wars  that  had  distracted  France  during 
thirty-six  years.     The  Edict  of  Nantes  secured  to  the  Protestants 
the  free  exercise  of  their  religion,  and  an  equal  claim  with  the  Catho- 
lics to  all  offices  and  dignities.     The  parliament  made  considerable 
opposition  to  the  registering  of  this  edict,  and  the  king  was  obliged 
to  use  menaces,  as  well  as  persuasion,  to  overcome  their  obstinacy. 

19.  The  history  of  England,  after  the  defeat  of  the  Spanish  Ar- 
mada, offers  few  events  of  interest  during  the  remainder  of  the  reign 

1.  Nantes  is  a  celebrated  commercial  city  and  seaport  of  France,  about  thirty-four  miles 
from  the  mouth  of  the  Loire,  and  two  hundred  and  ten  south-west  from  Paris.  Before  the 
conquest  of  Gaul  by  the  Romans  it  was  already  a  considerable  city,  and  the  capital  of  the 
JVamnetes,  who  distinguished  themselves  by  their  opposition  to  Julius  Caesar.  (Map  No.  XIII.) 


348  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

of  Elizabeth.  A  general  insurrection,  however,  broke  out  in  Ire- 
land in  1598,  the  design  of  which  was  to  effect  the  entire  expulsion 
of  the  English  from  the  island ;  but  although  the  insurgents  were 
supplied  with  troops  and  ammunition  by  the  Spanish  monarch,  and 
the  pope  held  out  ample  indulgences  in  favor  of  those  who  should 
enlist  to  combat  the  English  heretics,  yet  the  rebels  ultimately  failed 
in  their  enterprise,  after  a  sanguinary  war  which  lasted  six  years. 

20.  The  splendor  of  Elizabeth's  reign  is  a  theme  on  which  Eng- 
lish historians  love  to  dwell.     At  this  time  England  held  the  balance 
vii  CHARAC-  °^  Power  in  Christendom,  a  position  that  was  owing,  in 
TER  OF      no  small  degree,  to  the  personal  character  of  the  sover- 
[    eign.     No  monarch  of  England  ever  surpassed  Elizabeth 
in  firmness,  penetration,  and  address ;  and  none  ever  conducted  the 
government  with  more  uniform  success.     Yet  her  political  maxims 
were  arbitrary  in  the  extreme ;  and  she  had  little  regard  for  the  lib- 
erties of  her  people,  or  the  privileges  of  parliament — believing  that 
her  subjects  were  entitled  to  no  other  rights  than  their  ancestors  had 
enjoyed.     The  principles  of  the  English  constitution  were  not  yet 
developed.     Elizabeth  died  in  the  year  1603,  being  then  in  the  sev- 
entieth year  of  her  age,  and  the  forty-fifth  of  her  reign. 

IV.  COTEMPORARY  HISTORY. — 1.  If  we  pass  from  European  his- 
tory to  that  of  other  portions  of  the  world  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
the  most  prominent  events  that  attract  our  notice  are  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Portuguese  in  Southern  Asia,  and  of  the  Spaniards  in 
Mexico  and  South  America, — the  rise  of  a  Mogul  empire  in  India, 
and  of  a  new  dynasty  in  Persia.  After  the  fleet  of  De  Gama  had 
doubled  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  the  enterprises  of  the  Portuguese 
were  directed  to  the  securing  of  the  commerce  of  the  Indian  seas ;  but, 
soon  after,  under  the  viceroyalty  of  the  illustrious  Albuquerque, 
they  formed  numerous  settlements  and  established  forts  and  trading 
houses  throughout  all  the  coasts.  In  the  vear  1507  Al- 

I.  THE  FOR-  _ 

TUGUESE      buquerque  took  possession  of    Urmus,    then  the  most 
COLONIAL     splendid  and  polished  city  of  Asia,  situated  at  the  en- 
trance of  the  Persian  Gulf ;  and  when  the  king  of  Persia, 

1.  Ormus,  anciently  called  Ozyris,  is  a  rocky  island  at  the  mouth  of  the  Persian  Gulf.  It 
would  scarcely  be  worth  notice  were  it  not  for  its  former  celebrity  and  importance.  Before  the 
appearance  of  the  Portuguese  in  the  East  it  was  a  great  emporium,  being  the  centre  of  the 
trade  of  the  Persian  Gulf,  and  of  the  contiguous  countries,  and  possessing  great  wealth.  The 
Portuguese  held  it  till  1622,  when  it  was  wrested  from  them  by  Shah  Abbas,  assisted  by  an 
English  fleet.  The  booty  acquired  by  the  captors  on  this  occasion  is  said  to  have  amounted  to  two 
millions  sterling.  This  once  rich  and  flourishing  emporium  is  now  in  a  state  of  irreparable  decay. 


CHAP.  HI]  SIXTEENTH  CENTURY.  349 

to  whom  it  had  long  belonged,  demanded  tribute  from  the  Portu- 
guese, the  viceroy,  pointing  to  his  cannons  and  balls,  replied  :  "  There 
is  the  coin  with  which  the  king  of  Portugal  pays  tribute."  The  at- 
tempts of  the  Venetians  and  Mohammedans  to  expel  the  intruders 
were  ineffectual,  and  in  1510,  Goa,1  the  chief  of  the  Portuguese  es- 
tablishments, was  made  the  capital  of  the  Portuguese  empire  in 
India.  The  Portuguese  introduced  themselves  into  China  also  ;  and 
when  their  colonial  empire  was  at  its  greatest  extent,  it  embraced 
the  coasts  of  Africa  from  Guinea  to  the  Red  Sea,  and  extended 
over  all  Southern  and  Eastern  Asia ;  although  throughout  this  vast 
extent  of  country,  they  had  little  more  than  a  chain  of  factories  and 
forts.  On  the  union  of  Portugal  with  Spain  (1580),  the  Portuguese 
East  India  possessions  followed  the  fate  of  the  mother  country,  and 
passed  into  the  unskilful  hands  of  the  Spaniards  (1582) ;  but  when 
the  intolerable  cruelty  of  the  Spanish  government  had  driven  the 
Dutch  to  revolt,  the  latter  extended  their  commerce  to  the  Indies, 
and,  at  the  close  of  the  century,  had  possession  of  nearly  all  that  had 
formed  the  colonial  empire  of  the  Portuguese. 

2.  The  Spaniards  were  more  successful  in  making  and  retaining 
conquests  in  the  New  World.     Soon  after  the  discovery  n  8PANISH 
of  America  they  extended  their  settlements  over  the     COLONIAL 
islands  of  the  "West  Indies,  which  were  depopulated  by     EMPIRE- 
the  excessive  and  unhealthy  labor  imposed  by  them  upon  the  na- 
tives.    In  1519  the  adventurer  Cortez  landed  with  a  small  force  on 
the  eastern  coast  of  Mexico ;  and  in  the  course  of  two  years  the 
wealthy  and  populous  kingdom  of  the  Montezumas  was  reduced  to  a 
province  of  Spain.     Yet,  after  all  his  services  to  his  country,  Cortez, 
like  Columbus,  was  persecuted  at  home.     It  was  with  difficulty  that 
he  could  gain  an  audience  from  the  emperor,  Charles  Y.     When  one 
day  he  pushed  through  the  crowd  which  surrounded  the  coach  of  the 
emperor,  and  placed  his  foot  on  the  step  of  the  door,  Charles  asked 
who  this  man  was.     "  It  is  he,"  replied  Cortez,  "  who  has  given  you 
more  kingdoms  than  your  ancestors  left  you  cities." 

3.  After  Mexico,  the  Spaniards  sought  other  countries  to  conquer 
and  depopulate.     In  1532  Pizarro,  a  soldier  of  fortune,  taking  with 
him  a  force  of  only  two  hundred  and  fifty  foot  soldiers,  sixty  horse- 

1.  Goa,  (the  old  town,)  is  on  an  island  of  the  same  name  on  the  south-western  coast  of  Hin- 
dostan,  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  south-east  from  Bombay.  The  old  city,  now  almost  de- 
serted except  by  priests,  is  "a  city  of  churches;  and  the  wealth  of  provinces  seems  to  have 
been  expended  in  their  erection."  New  Goa,  built  on  the  sea-shoro  about  five  miles  from  the 
old  town,  is  a  well-built  city,  with  a  population  of  about  twenty  thousand. 


350  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

men,  and  twelve  small  cannon,  invaded  Peru,  the  greatest,  the  best 
governed,  and  most  civilized  nation  of  the  New  World.  Pizarro 
and  his  companions  marked  their  route  with  blood ;  but  wherever 
they  directed  their  course  they  conquered  in  the  name  of  Charles 
V. ;  and  before  the  close  of  the  century  the  Spanish  empire  in 
America  embraced  the  islands  of  the  West  Indies,  all  Mexico  and 
Peru,  and  the  coasts  of  nearly  all  South  America.  The  enormous 
quantity  of  the  precious  metals  which  Spain  drew  from  her  American 
possessions  contributed  to  make  her,  for  awhile,  the  preponderating 
power  in  Europe  ;  but  an  inordinate  thirst  for  the  gold  and  silver  of 
America  led  the  Spaniards  to  neglect  agriculture  and  manufactures. 
The  Spanish  colonies  increased  but  slowly  in  population  ;  the  capital 
itself  was  ruined ;  and  before  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century  the 
best  days  of  Spain  were  over. 

4.  During  the   three  hundred  years  previous  to  1525,  India,  or 
Hindostan,  was  governed  by  Afghan  princes,  whose  seat 
MOGUL  EM-    of  government  was  Delhi.     In  1525,  Baber,  the  fifth  in 
PIRE  IN      descent  from  Tamerlane,  and  sovereign  of  a  little  princi- 
pality between  Kashgar1  and  Samarcand,  entered  Hin- 
dostan at  the  head  of  a  large  army,  defeated  and  killed  the  last 
Affghan  sovereign,  and  seated  himself  on  the  throne  of  Delhi.2    With 
him  began  the  race  of  Mogul  princes,  as  they  are  called  by  Eu- 
ropeans, although  their  native  tongue  was  Turkish.     In  the  next  cen- 
tury the  Mogul  empire  was  consolidated  under  Aurungzebe,  who,  by 
murdering  his  relatives,  and  shutting  his  father  up  in  his  harem,  was 
enabled  to  ascend  the  throne  of  Hindostan  in  1659.    But  notwithstand- 
ing the  means  by  which  he  had  obtained  sovereign  authority,  he  gov- 
erned with  much  wisdom,  consulted  the  welfare  of  his  people,  watched 
over  the  preservation  of  justice,  and  the  purity  of  manners,  and,  by 
a  wise  administration,  sought  to  confirm  his  own  power.     After  his 
death,  in  1707,  the  Mogul  empire  began  to  decline;  and  even  under 


1.  Kashgar,  the  most  western  town  of  any  importance  in  the  Chinese  empire,  is  about  four 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  east  from  Samarcand.    It  was  a  celebrated  commercial  city  before  the 
Christian  era,  and,  under  several  dynasties,  it  long  formed  an  independent  kingdom.    The 
Chinese  obtained  possession  of  it  about  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

2.  Delhi  is  a  cUy  of  northern  Hindostan,  about  eight  hundred  and  thirty  miles  north-west,  from 
Calcutta.    It  appears  that  no  less  than  seven  successive  cities  have  stood  on  the  ground  occupied 
by  Delhi  and  its  ruins.    Delhi  was  the  residence  of  the  Hindoo  rajahs  before  1 193,  when  it  was 
conquered  by  the  Aflghans.    In  1398  Delhi  was  taken  and  plundered  by  Tamerlane ;  in  1525 
by  Baber;  in  1736  the  Mahrattas  burned  the  suburbs,  and  in  1739  Delhi  was  entered  and  pil- 
laged by  Nadir  Shah.    Since  1803  it  has,  together  with  its  territory,  virtually  belonged  to  the 
British. 


CHAP.  Ill]  SIXTEENTH  CENTURY.  351 

Aurungzebe  it  was  much  inferior,  in  extent  and  resources,  to  the  em- 
pire now  held  by  Britain  in  the  same  country. 

5.  We  have  already  alluded  to  the  revival  of  the  Persian  empire 
at  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century.     At  that  period  we  find 
the  youthful  Ismael,  who  traced  his  descent  to  the  Sheik      IV  THE 
Suffee,  a  holy  person  who  lived  in  the  time  of  Tamer-      PERSIAN 
lane,  heading  a  band  of  adherents  against  a  neighboring 
prince,  and,  in  the  course  of  four  years,  reducing  all  Persia  to  his 
sway.     For  fifteen  years  fortune  smiled  on  his  arms ;  but  he  was  at 
length  defeated  by  Selim,  the  sultan  of  Constantinople.     The  latter, 
however,  reaped  no  real  advantage  from  his  dearly-bought  victory ; 
and  when  Ismael  died  he  left  a  name  on  which  the  Persians  dwell 
with  enthusiasm,  as  the  restorer  of  their  country,  and  the  founder 
of  one  of  the  most  brilliant  of  the  Mohammedan  dynasties — called 
the  Sufeean,  or  Sujfavean,  from  the  holy  sheik  Suffee. 

6  Tamasp  succeeded  his  father  Ismael,  when  only  ten  years  of 
age.  His  reign  was  long  and  prosperous.  Anthony  Jenkinson,  one 
of  the  earliest  adventurers  to  Persia,  visited  the  court  of  Tamasp  as 
an  envoy  from  queen  Elizabeth ;  but  the  intolerance  of  the  Moham- 
medan soon  drove  the  Christian  away.  The  three  sons  of  Tamasp 
in  succession  made  an  effort  for  the  crown ;  but  their  short  reigns 
merit  little  notice.  At  length,  in  1582,  the  youthful  Abbas,  a 
grandson  of  Tamasp,  was  proclaimed  king  by  some  of  the  discontent- 
ed nobles,  and  forced  to  appear  in  arms  against  his  father  Moham- 
med, who  was  deserted  by  his  army,  and  is  not  mentioned  again  in 
history.  But  Abbas  did  not  long  remain  a  tool  in  the  hands  of 
others,  for,  seizing  the  reigns  of  power,  he  soon  rose  to  distinction, 
defeated  the  Turks  in  many  battles,  in  1622  took  Orrnuz  from  the 
Portuguese,  and  became  supreme  ruler  of  a  mighty  empire.  During 
nis  reign  commenced  an  amicable  intercourse  between  the  English 
and  Persian  nations,  which  continued  for  many  years. 

7.  Abbas  was,  in  many  respects,  an  enlightened  prince :  his  foreign 
policy  was  generally  liberal,  and  he  extended  toleration  to  other  re- 
ligions :  he  spent  his  revenues  in  improvements :  caravanseras, 
bridges,  aqueducts,  bazaars,  mosques,  and  colleges,  arose  in  every 
quarter  ;  and  Ispahan1  the  capital  was  splendidly  embellished.  But 

1.  Ispahan,  formerly  the  capital  of  Persia,  is  situated  between  the  Caspian  Sea  and  the  Persian 
Gulf,  two  hundred  and  eleven  miles  south  of  Teheran,  the  modern  capital.  Although  Ispahan 
has  now  a  population  of  over  one  hundred  thousand,  yet  it  presents  to  the  traveller,  in  its 
buildings  at  least,  little  beyond  the  magnificent  ruins  of  its  former  greatness.  Under  the  reign 
of  Shah  Abbas,  Ispahan  wa8  tho  emporium  of  the  Asiatic  world.  The  city  was  at  that  time 


352  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAKT  II. 

as  a  parent,  and  relative,  the  character  of  Abbas  appears  in  a  moat 
revolting  light.  He  had  four  sons,  on  whom  he  doated  as  long  as 
they  were  children,  but  when  they  grew  up  toward  manhood  they 
became  objects  of  jealousy,  if  not  of  hatred  :  their  friends  were  con- 
sidered as  his  enemies ;  and  praises  of  them  were  as  a  knell  to  his 
soul.  The  eldest  was  assassinated,  and  the  eyes  of  the  rest  put  out, 
by  order  of  their  inhuman  parent.  Horrid  tragedies  were  of  fre- 
quent occurrence  in  the  harem  of  this  Eastern  tyrant.  Yet  such  is 
the  king  whom  the  Persians  most  admire ;  and  so  precarious  is  the 
nature  of  despotic  power  in  Persia,  that  monarchs  of  a  similar  char- 
acter alone  have  successfully  ruled  the  nation.  When  this  monarch 
ceased  to  reign,  Persia  ceased  to  prosper. 

8.  Abbas  was  succeeded  by  a  series  of  imbecile  tyrants,  and  in 
1 722  the  country  was  overrun  by  the  Aflghans,  who,  during  seven 
wretched  years,  converted  the  fairest  provinces  of  Persia  into  deserts, 
her  cities  into  charnel  houses,  and  destroyed  the  lives  of  a  million 
of  her  people.  At  length  the  famous  Kouli  Khan,  a  brigand  chief, 
was  raised  to  the  throne  with  the  title  of  Nadir  Shah.  He  distin- 
guished himself  alike  by  his  victories  and  his  ferocity ;  but  being 
assassinated  in  1743,  his  death  was  followed  by  a  long-continued 
civil  war.  The  most  noted  of  the  Persian  monarchs  since  the  death 
of  Nadir  Shah  have  been  the  eunuch  Mehemet  Khan,  Futteh  AH 
Shah,  and  Abbas  Mirza,  the  latter  of  whom  ascended  the  throne  in 
1835. 

twenty-four  miles  in  circuit,  and  contained  a  million  of  people.  Its  bazaars  were  filled  with 
merchandize  from  every  quarter  of  the  globe,  mingled  with  rich  bales  of  its  own  celebrated 
manufactures ;  and  the  Shah's  court  was  the  resort  of  ambassadors  from  the  proudest  kingdoms 
of  the  East,  and  from  Europe  also. 


CHAP.  IV.J  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  353 

CHAPTER    IV. 

THE    SEVENTEENTH    CENTURY. 

I.  THE  THIRTY  YEARS'  WAR. 

ANALYSIS.  1.  German  history  from  1558  to  1618.  The  events  that  led  to  the  "Thirty 
Years'  War."  Extent  of  that  war. — 2.  Ferdinand  succeeds  Matthias  as  emperor  of  Germany, 
but  is  deposed  in  Bohemia.  Frederic  the  elector-palatine.  THJT  PALATINE  PERIOD  or  THK 
WAR.  [Prague.]— 3.  Mansfeldt  is  unable  to  cope  with  the  imperial  generals.  Protestant  alli- 
ance with  the  Danes,  and  opening  of  the  DANISH  PERIOD  OF  THK  WAR.  Defeat  of  the  Danish 
king  by  Tilly.  [Lutter.  Gottingen.  Brunswick.] — 4.  The  Danes  are  driven  from  Hungary, 
and  most  of  Denmark  is  conquered.  Ambitious  views  of  Ferdinand.  Siege  of  Stralsund. 
Treaty  of  Lubec.  [Stralsund.  Lubec.]— 5.  The  hopes  of  a  general  peace.  Tyranny  of  Ferdi- 
nand, and  revolt  of  the  Protestants.  Interposition  of  Gustavus  Adolphu^  and  opening  of  the 
SWEDISH  PERIOD  OF  THE  WAR  —6.  Intrigues  of  Richelieu,- leading  to  the  invasion  of  Germany 
by  the  Swedes  in  1630.  [Rochelle.]— 7.  Contempt  in  which  the  Swedes  were  held  by  the  Ger- 
mans. [Pomerania.]  Character  of  the  opposing  forces.  The  military  system  of  Gustavus.— 8. 
Early  successes  of  the  Swedes.  Magdeburg  plundered  and  burned  by  the  imperialists.  [Mag- 
deburg.]—9.  Compensation  for  the  loss  of  Magdeberg.  [Leipsic.]  Gustavus  overruns  Ger- 
many. Death  of  Tilly.— 10.  Successes  of  Wallenstein.  [Nuremburg.  Dresden.]  Death  of 
Gustavus.  [Lutzen.] — 11.  Close  of  the  Swedish  period  of  the  war,  and  death  of  Wallenstein. 
The  FRKNCH  PERIOD  OF  THE  WAR.— 12.  Circumstances  of  the  leaguing  of  the  French  with  the 
Protestants.  The  Rhine  becomes  the  chief  seat  of  the  war. — 13.  The  remainder  of  the  Thirty 
Years'  War.  Death  of  Ferdinand.  Death  of  Louis  XIII.  and  Richelieu.  Treaty  of  Westphalia. 
[Westphalia.]  Condition  of  Germany.— 14.  Chief  articles  of  the  treaty  of  Westphalia. 

II.  ENGLISH  HISTORY :— THE  ENGLISH  REVOLUTION. 

1.  England  during  the  period  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War.  UNION  OF  ENGLAND  AND  SCOTLAND, 
1603.— 2.  The  character  of  JAMES  I.,  and  the  character  of  his  reign.— 3.  His  successor  CHARLES 
I.  His  misfortunes. — 4.  Difficulties  that  immediately  followed  his  accession.  The  second  and 
third  parliament.  Dissolution  of  the  latter.— 5.  The  interval  until  the  assembling  of  another 
parliament.  Conduct  of  the  English  clergy,  and  persecution  of  the  puritans.  SCOTCH  REBEL- 
LION. March  of  the  Covenanters  into  England.  Fourth  and  fifth  parliament.— 6.  Opening  acts 
of  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT.  Impeachment  of  Strafford  and  Laud.  Remarks. — 7.  Continued 
encroachments  of  Parliament,  Irish  rebellion.  Impeachment  of  five  members  of  the  Com- 
mons.— 8.  The  king  erects  his  standard  at  Nottingham,  and  opens  the  CIVIL  WAR — 1642.  [Not- 
tingham.] Strength  of  the  opposing  parties.— H.  The  battles  of  Edghill  and  Newbery.  [Edg- 
hill.  Newbery.] — 10.  THE  SCOTCH  LKAOUK. — 11.  Campaigns  of  1644  and  1645.  [Marston- 
Moor.  Naseby.]  The  king  a  prisoner.— 12.  Civil  and  religious  dissensions.  OLIVER  CROM- 
WELL.— 13.  The  reaction  in  favor  of  the  king  arrested  by  Cromwell.  TRIAL  AND  EXECUTION 
OF  CHARLES  I.  1649.— 14.  Remarks  upon  this  measure.  Character  of  Charles. — 15.  ABOLITION 
OF  MONARCHY.  Cromwell's  military  successes.  [Worcester.] — 16.  WAR  WITH  HOLLAND. 
Navigation  act.  Naval  battle. — 17.  Continuance  of  the  war,  and  defeat  of  the  British.  [Good 
win  Sands.]  Bravado  of  Tromp.— 18.  Defeat  of  the  Dutch  in  the  English  Channel.  The  final 
conflict,  and  death  of  Tromp.  Peace  with  Holland.— 19.  Controversy  between  Cromwell  and 
Parliament.  THE  PROTECTORATE.— 20.  Continued  dissensions  and  parliamentary  opposition 
to  Cromwell.  The  army.  War  with  Spain.— 21.  Character  of  Cromwell's  administration.  At- 
tempt  to  invest  him  with  the  dignity  of  king.— 22.  Remainder  of  Cromwell's  life.  His  death.— 
23.  Richard.  His  abdication.  Anarchy.  RESTORATION  OF  MONARCHY,  1660.— 24.  First  im- 
pressions produced  by  Charles  II.  His  character.  The  parliament  of  1661.— 25.  Manners  and 

23 


354  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  11 

morals  of  the  nation.— 26.  Increasing  discontent.  War  with  Holland.  The  capital  threatened. 
[Dunkirk.  Chatham,]— 27.  The  plague  of  1665.  The  great  fire  of  1666.— 28.  Treaty  of  Breda. 
[Breda.  New  Netherlands.  Acadia  and  Nova  Scotia.]  Another  war  with  Holland.  Treaty 
ofNimeguen.  [Orange.  Nimeguen.]— 29.  The  professions  and  the  secret  designs  of  Charles. 
His  intrigues  with  the  French  monarch.  His  growing  unpopularity.  Popish  plot.  Russell  and 
Sidney.  Absolute  power  of  the  king.  His  death.— 30.  JAMES  II.  His  general  policy.  The 
approaching  crisis. — 31.  Arbitrary  and  unpopular  measures  of  the  king.  [Windsor.] — 32. 
Monmouth's  rebellion.  The  inhuman  Jeffries.— 33.  Events  of  the  REVOLUTION  OF  1688.— 34. 
Settlement  of  the  crown  on  William  and  Mary.  Declaration  of  rights. — 35.  Scotch  and  Irish 
rebellion.  [Killiecrankie.]  Events  that  led  to  a  general  European  war.  French  history  towards 
the  close  of  the  century.  Death  of  William,  1702. 

III.  FRENCH  HISTORY  :-WARS  OF  LOUIS  XIV. 

I.  The  ADMINISTRATION  OF  CARDINAL  RICHELIEU,  1624 — 42. — 2.  MAZARIN'S  ADMINISTRA- 
TION, 1642—61.  Treaty  of  Westphalia,  and  war  of  the  Fronde.— 3.  Continuance  of  the  war  be- 
tween France  and  Spain.  Cond6  and  Turenne.  England  joins  France  in  the  war.  [Arras. 
Valenciennes.  Flanders.]— 4.  Both  France  and  Spain  desirous  of  peace.  Treaty  of  the  Pyren- 
ees, 1659.  [Bidassoa.  Gravelines.  Roussillon.  Franche-Comte.]— 5.  Louis  assumes  the 
administration  of  government.  [Louvre.  Invalides.  Versailles.  Languedoc.] — 6.  Ambitious 
projects  of  Louis.  His  invasion  of  the  Spanish  Netherlands.  [Brabant.]— 7.  Capture  of 
Franche-Comte.  Triple  alliance  against  Louis.  Treaty  of  Aix-la-Cbapelle.  [Aix-la-Chapelle.] 
— 8.  Designs  of  Louis  against  Holland. — 9.  The  bayonet.  Comparative  strength  of  the  French 
and  Dutch  forces. — 10.  Invasion  of  Holland.  [Amsterdam.]  The  inhabitants  think  of  aban- 
doning their  country'.  Prince  William  of  Orange  effects  a  general  league  against  the  French 
monarch.  (1674.) — 11.  The  war  in  the  Spanish  Netherlands.  Turenne  and  Conde.  Duquesae. 
— 12.  Peace  of  Nimeguen,  1678.  Remarks  of  Voltaire. — 13.  Great  prosperity  and  increasing 
ascendancy  of  France.  The  greatest  glories  of  the  reign  of  Louis. — 14.  Madame  de  Maintenon. 
Revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes.— 15.  General  league,  and  war,  against  Louis,  1686—8.  His 
activity  in  meeting  his  enemies. — 16.  Successes  of  the  French  commanders.  Battle  of  La 
Hogue.  [Beachy  Head.  Namur.  La  Hogue.]— 17.  Campaign  of  1693.  Peace  of  Ryswlck, 
1697.  State  of  France  at  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century.  [Nerwinden.  Ryswick. 
Strasburg.] 

IV.  COTEMPORARY  HISTORY. 

1.  Increasing  extent  of  the  field  of  history. — 2.  DENMARK,  SWEDEN,  AND  NORWAY.  Gustavus 
Adolphus,  and  his  successors.— 3.  POLAND,  during  the  seventeenth  century.  The  reign  of  John 
Sobieski,  1674—97.  His  victories  over  the  Turks.  [Kotzim].— 4.  Siege  of  Vienna  by  the 
Turks  and  Hungarians.  [Vienna.] — 5.  Its  deliverance  by  Sobieski,  1683. — 6.  Complete  dis- 
comfiture of  the  Turks.  Ingratitude  of  Austria,  and  decline  of  Poland. — 7.  RUSSIA,  at  the 
commencement  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Peter  the  Great.  His  efforts  for  improving  the 
condition  of  his  people  and  country.  [Azof.  Dwina.  Volga.  St.  Petersburg.]— 8.  His  travels, 
&c.  Political  acts  of  his  reign.— 9.  TURKEY  from  the  early  part  of  the  sixteenth  to  the  latter 
part  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Decline  of  her  power  at  the  close  of  the  century.  [Zenta. 
Carlowitz.  Transylvania.  Sclavonia.  Podolia.  Ukraine.]— 10.  ITALY  during  the  seventeenth 
century.  Effects  of  the  Reformation.  Of  the  Spanish  rule  in  Italy. — 11.  The  low  stale  of 
morals.  General  suffering  and  degradation. — 12.  The  SPANISH  PENINSULA  during  the  seven- 
teenth century.  Expulsion  of  the  Moors,  1610.— 13.  Revolt  of  Portugal,  1640.  Independence 
of  Holland,  1648.  Treaty  of  Westphalia,  1648.— 14.  THE  ASIATIC  NATIONS  daring  the  seven- 
teenth century.  Persia.  China. — 15.  The  great  Mogul  empire  of  Asia.  Aurungzebe. — 16.  CO- 
LONIAL ESTABLISHMENTS.  Dutch  colonies.  [Surinam.  Moluccas.  Ceylon.]  Colonial  policy 
of  the  Dutch. — 17.  Spanish  colonial  empire. — 13.  Materials  and  character  of  Spanish  colonial 
history. — 19.  French  colonization  in  the  New  World.  In  the  Old.  [Madagascar.  Pondicherry.] 
— 20.  English  colonial  possessions.  The  London  East  India  Company.  [Java.  Madras.  Bom- 
bay. Calcutta.] — 21.  English  colonization  in  America.  History  of  the  British  American  colo- 
nies during  the  seventeenth  century.  The  early  colonists  of  New  England.— 22.  Instructive 
and  interesting  character  of  early  American  history.  Omission  of  a  separate  compend  of 
American  history  in  this  work. 


CHAP.  IV.]  SEVENTEENTH    CENTURY.  355 

1.  THE  THIRTY  YEARS'  WAR.—!.  From  the  death  of  Charles  V., 
in  the  year  1558,  to  the  year  1618,  there  were  no  events  in  German 
history  that  exercised  any  important  influence  on  the  politics  of 
Europe.      At   the   latter   period,  however,   the  German   emperor, 
Matthias,  succeeded  in  procuring  the  subordinate  crown  of  Bohemia 
for  his  cousin  Ferdinand,  a  bigoted  Catholic ;  a  circumstance  which 
increased  the  hostile  feelings  that  had  long  existed  between  the  Ro- 
man Catholic  and  Protestant  parties  in  Bohemia ;  but  when  Ferdi- 
nand banished  the  new  faith  from  his  dominion,  and  destroyed  the 
Protestant  churches,  his  impolitic  conduct  led  to  a.n  open  revolt  of 
Ms  Protestant  subjects.     (1618.)     This  was  the  commencement  of  a 
thirty  years*  war — the  last  conflict  sustained  by  the  Reformation — a 
war  indeterminate  in  its  objects,  but  one  which,  before  its  close,  in- 
volved, in  its  complicated  relations,  nearly  all  the  states  of  continental 
Europe. 

2.  While  this  petty  war  was  raging  on  the  narrow  theatre  of  the 
Bohemian  territory,  Matthias   died ;  and  Ferdinand,  to  the  great 
alarm  of  the  Protestant  party  throughout  Germany,  was  elected  em- 
peror of  all  the  German  States,  under  the  title  of  Ferdinand  II. 
(1619) ;  but  at  the  very  moment  of  his  election  he  received  the  in- 
telligence of  his  deposition  in  Bohemia,  which  had  just  been  made 
public  among  the  people.     The  Bohemians  now  chose  Frederic,  the 
elector-palatine,  son-in-law  of  the  British  monarch  James  I.,  for  their 
sovereign ;  but  Frederic  was  unequal  to  the  crisis,  and  T  PALAT,NE 
being  besieged  in  his  own  capital,  he  lost  the  battle  of    PERIOD  OF 
Prague1  by  his  negligence  or  cowardice.     Ferdinand,  as-     THK  WAR> 
sisted  by  a  Spanish  force  under  Spinola,  and  by  the  Catholic  league 
of  Germany,  now  overran  Bohemia,  and  compelled  Frederic  to  seek 
refuge  in  Holland,  where  he  dwelt  without  a  kingdom,  and  without 
courage  to  reconquer  it, — maintained  at  the  expense  of  his  father- 
in-law,  the  king  of  England.     The  punishment  inflicted  upom  Bohe- 
mia was  severe  in  the  extreme  :  twenty-seven  of  the  Protestant  lead- 
ers were  condemned  to  death ; — by  degrees  all  Protestant  clergyman 
were  banished  from  the  country  ; — and,  finally,  it  was  declared  that 
no  subject  who  did  not  adhere  to  the  Roman  Catholic  church  would 
be  tolerated.     Thirty  thousand  families,  driven  away  by  this  cruel 

•  ./•ti.-:::-".'v» 

].  Prague,  the  capital  city  of  Bohemia,  is  situated  on  both  sides  of  the  Moldau,  a  branch  of 
the  Elbe,  one  hundred  and  fifty-two  miles  north-west  of  Vienna,  and  seventy-two  miles  south- 
east from  Dresden.  Jerome,  the  friend  of  the  great  Bohemian  reformer  John  Huss,  was  a  native 
of  this  citv,  and  was  thence  surnamed,  "  of  Prague."  (Map  No.  XVII.) 


356  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

edict,  took  refuge  in  the  Protestant  States  of  Saxony  and  Brandon- 
burf.     Thus  closed  the  Palatine  period  of  the  thirty  years'  war. 

3.  After  the  flight  of  Frederic,  his  general  Mansfeldt  still  deter- 
mined to  maintain  the  Protestant  cause  against  the  emperor  Ferdi- 
nand ;  but  he  found  himself  unable  to  cope  with  the  imperial  gen- 
erals, Tilly  and  Wallenstein.    The  Protestant  towns  of  Lower  Saxony, 
foreseeing  the  fate  to  which  they  might  be  subjected,  next  took  up 
arms,  and  having  entered  into  an  alliance  with  Christian  IV.  of  Den- 
mark, made  him  captain  general  of  the  confederated 

PERIOD  OF  army.  ( 1 625.)  Thus  opened  the  Danish  period  of  the 
THE  WAR.  ^-ar  With  a  body  of  twenty -five  thousand  men,  consist- 
ing of  Danes,  Germans,  Scotch,  and  English,  the  Danish  king  crossed 
the  Elbe,  where  he  was  joined  by  seven  thousand  Saxons ;  but,  after 
some  successes,  he  was  defeated  by  Tilly  near  the  castle  of  Lutter,1 
on  the  road  from  Gottingen2  to  Brunswick,3  with  the  loss  of  four 
thousand  men,  besides  a  vast  number  of  prisoners.  (Aug.  26th,  1626.) 

4.  In  the  following  year,  1627,  the  Danes  were  driven  from  Ger- 
many by  Wallenstein,  the  imperial  commander,  who  had  now  in- 
creased his  forces  to  one  hundred  thousand  men.     Not  content  with 
driving   Christian  from   Germany,   Wallenstein   pursued   him   into 
Denmark ;  and  soon  the  whole  of  the  peninsula,  with  the  exception 
of  one  fortress,  was  conquered,  and  the  king  was  obliged  to  take 
refuge  in  his  islands.     The  ambitious  views  of  Ferdinand  now  aimed 
at  the  extirpation  of  the  Lutheran  heresy  throughout  his  own  empire, 
and  the  reestablishment  of  the  Catholic  faith  throughout  the  entire 
north,  by  the  subjugation  of  Norway  and   Sweden,  in  addition   to 
Denmark.      As   a   preliminary   step    towards   the    accomplishment 
of  this  gigantic  undertaking,   Wallenstein  was  first  to   secure  the 
dominion  of  the  Baltic  and  the  North  Sea.     Assisted  by  a  Spanish 
fleet,  he  took  possession  of  several  ports  on  the  Baltic ;  but  the  citi- 
zens of  Stralsund,"   aided  by  five   thousand   Swedish  and   Scottish 
troops,  defended  their  walls  with  such  determined  courage  and  per- 
severance, that  Wallenstein  was  forced  to  abandon  the  siege,  after  a 

1.  Lutter,  "near  Barenberg.  in  Hanover,"  south-west  from  Brunswick.     This  battle  was 
fought  Aug.  26th,  1626. 

2.  Gottingen,  in  the  kingdom  of  Hanover,  is  fifty-six  miles  south-west  from  Brunswick.    It  is 
especially  noted  for  its  university,  which,  down  to  1831,  was  fully  entitled  to  its  appellation 
"  the  queen  of  German  universities."    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

3.  Brunswick,  the  early  seat  of  the  dukes  of  that  name,  is  a  city  of  Germany,  situated  on  the 
Ocker,  a  branch  of  the  Weser,  thirty-seven  miles  a  little  south  of  east  from  Hanover.    (Map 
No.  XVII.) 

4.  Stralsund  is  a  strongly-fortified  Prussian  town,  on  the  narrow  strait  of  the  Baltic  which 
separates  the  island  of  Rugen  from  the  continent.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 


.  IV.]  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  357 


loss  of  twelve  thousand  men.  This  signal  discomfiture  induced  the 
emperor  to  consent  to  treat  for  peace  with  Denmark  ;  and  by  the 
treaty  of  Lubec,1  Christian  was  restored  to  his  dominions,  on  the 
condition  of  abandoning  his  German  allies.  (May,  1629.)  Thus 
terminated  the  Danish  period  of  the  thirty  years'  war. 

5.  It  had  been  hoped  that  the  treaty  of  Lubec  would  prove  the 
forerunner  of  a  general  pacification  ;  and  the  subjects,  the  allies,  and 
the  enemies  of  Ferdinand,  now  united  in  imploring  him  to  put  an 
end  to  a  civil  war  which  had  been  waged  with  a  ferocity  hitherto  un- 
known since  the  ages  of  Gothic  barbarism.     But,  the  Protestants 
being  subdued,  and  no  enemy  left  to  oppose  the  emperor,  the  Roman 
Catholics  thought  the  moment  too  favorable  to  be  neglected,  and 
Ferdinand  was  urged  on  by  them  to  exercise  the  most  intolerable 
tyranny  over  his  Protestant  subjects.     The  last  beam  of  hope  froni 
the  emperor's  clemency  was  extinguished,  and  the  Protestants  only 
awaited  the  arrival  of  a  leader  to  throw  off  a  yoke  which  m  SWEDIgH 
had  become  insupportable.     A  deliverer  was  found  in    PERIOD  OF 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  the  Protestant  king  of  Sweden.     The     THE  WAE* 
circumstances  that   led  to   his  interposition,  —  the  opening  of  the 
Swedish  period  of  the  war  —  show  how  tangled  has  often  been  the 
web  of  European  politics. 

6.  Cardinal    Richelieu,   the   able   minister  of    Louis   XIII.   of 
France,  after  having  humbled  the  Huguenots  by  the  capture  of  Ro- 
chelle,8 their  last  stronghold,  directed  his  great  powers  to  the  abase- 
ment of  the  house  of  Austria.     With  this  view  he  was  instrumental 
iii  depriving  Ferdinand  of  his  ablest  general,  "Wallenstein,  whose 
dismissal  from  power  was  successfully  urged  by  an  assembly  of  the 
German  States  in  the  summer  of  1630.     Richelieu  had  previously 

1.  Lubec,  the  capital  of  the  "  Hanseatic  towns,"  is  situated  on  the  river  Trave,  about  twelve 
miles  from  its  entrance  into  the  Baltic,  and  thirty-six  miles  north-east  from  Hamburg.    The 
surrounding  territory  subject  to  Lubec  consists  of  a  district  of  about  eighty  square  miles.    (Map 
No.  XVII.) 

2.  Rochetle  is  a  town  and  seaport  of  France  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  in  the  former  province  of 
Saintonge,  seventy-six  miles  south-east  from  Nantes.    During  the  religions  wars,  and  especially 
after  the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew,  Rochelle  was  a  stronghold  of  the  Protestants.    Invested 
by  the  Catholic  forces  In  1572,  it  withstood  a  long  siege,  terminated  by  a  treaty.    The  numerous 
infractions  of  that  treaty,  in  the  reign  of  Louis  XIII.,  and  under  (he  ministry  of  Richelieu,  led 
to  a  second  siege,  which  commenced  in  August,  1627,  and  was  as  violent  as  the  former,  and 
longer  and  more  decisive.    After  six  months  of  heroic  resistance,  the  famous  engineer,  Mote- 
zeau,  was  directed  to  bar  the  entrance  to  the  harbor  by  an  immense  dyke,  extending  nearly 
five  thousand  feet  into  the  sea,  the  remains  of  which  are  still  visible  at  low  water.    The  result 
was  soon  fatally  apparent.    Famine  quickly  decimated  the  ranks  of  the  besieged  ;  and  after  a 
resistance  of  fourteen  months  and  eighteen  days,  Rochelle  was  compelled  to  capitulate.    Riche- 
lieu n.ade  a  triumphant  entry  into  the  city  ;  the  fortifications  were  demolished,  and  the  Pro- 
testants were  deprived  of  their  last  place  of  refuge.    (  Map  No.  XIII.) 


358  MODERN  HISTORY.  [?AET  IL 

offered  his  successful  mediation  in  negotiating  a  six  years'  armistice 
between  the  hostile  States  of  Sweden  and  Poland,  with  the  view  of 
leaving  Gustavus  Adolphus,  the  Swedish  king,  at  liberty  to  turn  his 
arms  against  the  German  emperor.  All  the  inducements  that  an 
artful  diplomatist  could  urge  were  brought  to  bear  upon  Gustavus,  a 
prince  ardsnt  in  the  Protestant  faith,  and  already  a  sufferer  from 
the  insolence  and  rapacity  of  Wallenstein ;  and  the  result  was  a  dec- 
laration of  war  against  the  German  emperor,  and  an  invasion  of  his 
territory  by  the  Swedes,  in  the  summer  of  1630. 

7.  When  Ferdinand  was  informed  that  the  Swedish  monarch  had 
landed  in  Pomerania1-  at  the  head  of  only  fifteen  thousand  men,  he 
treated  the  affair  with  much  indifference;  and  the  Roman  Catholic 
party  throughout  the  empire  styled  Gustavus,  in  contempt,  the  petty 
snow  king,  who,  they  said,  would  speedily  melt  beneath  the  rays  of 
the  imperial  sun.     But  while  the  German  armies  were  a  motjey  of 
all  creeds  and  nations,  bound  together  only  by  the  ties  of  a  common 
warfare  and  pillage,  the  Swedes  formed  a  phalanx  of  hardy  and  well- 
disciplined  warriors,  strengthened  by  the  confidence  that  God  was  on 
their  side ;  and  to  Him  they  offered  up  their  prayers  twice  a  day, 
each  regiment  having  its  own  chaplain.     Besides  this,  Gustavus  had 
introduced  a  new  system  of  military  tactics  into  his  army ;  and  by 
the  novelty  and  boldness  of  his  positions,  and  the  impetuosity  of  his 
movements,  he  completely  disconcerted  the  adherents  of  the  old  Ger- 
man routine. 

8.  Although  some  of  the  Protestant  princes  of  Germany,  through 
fear  of  their  „  emperor,  or  from  jealousy  of  foreign  dominion,   hesi- 
tated about  joining  the  new  ally  of  their  cause,  yet  the  onset  of  the 
Swedes  was  irresistible  :  they  rapidly  made  themselves  masters  of  all 
Pomerania,  and  took  Frankfort  under  the  eye  of  the  imperial  gen- 
eral Tilly ;  but  they  were  unable  to  relieve  Magdeburg,2  which  Tilly 
plundered  and  burned,  amid  scenes  of  the  most  revolting  atrocity — 
an  act  which  rendered  his  name  infamous  among  all  classes  of  the 
German  population. 

9.  The  unfortunate  loss  of  Magdeburg  was  speedily  compensated 

1.  Pomerania  is  a  large  province  of  Prussia,  extending  east  from  Mecklenberg  about  two 
hundred  miles  along  the  southern  coast  of  the  Baltic.    Gustavus  landed  on  the  islands  Wollen 
and  Usedom,  south-east  of  Stralsund.    The  first  towns  reduced  by  him  were  Wolgast  and 
Stettin.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

2.  Magdeburg  is  a  strongly-fortified  city,  and  the  capital  of  Prussian  Saxony,  situated  on  the 
Elbe,  seventy-four  miles  south-west  from  Berlin.    Magdeburg  has  suffered  numerous  sieges,  but 
Us  fortifications  are  now  so  extensive  that  it  is  said  it  would  require  fifty  thousand  men  to  in« 
rest  it.    It  was  plundered  and  burned  by  Tilly,  May  12th,  153J.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 


CHAP.  IV.]  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  359 

by  formidable  accessions  of  strength  received  from  France  and  Eng- 
land, and  by  a  great  victory  gained  by  Gustavus  over  Tilly  in  the 
vicinity  of  Leipsic.1  (Sept.  7th,  1631.)  Gustavus  now  rapidly 
traversed  Germany  from  the  Elbe  to  the  Rhine,  pursuing  his  victo 
rious  career  to  the  borders  of  Switzerland  :  all  northern  and  western 
Germany,  together  with  Bohemia,  were  in  the  hands  of  the  Protest- 
ants ;  and  early  in  the  following  year  Tilly  himself  was  slain  on  the 
banks  of  the  river  Lech,  a  southern  tributary  of  the  Danube,  in  Ba- 
varia. 

10.  Ferdinand  now  saw  no  alternative,  in  his  sinking  fortunes,  but 
to  call  the  great  and  proud  Wallenstein  from  retirement.  His  res- 
toration at  once  gave  a  new  direction  to  the  war.  He  quickly  seized 
Prague,  and  restored  Bohemia  to  his  sovereign ;  and  Gustavus  was 
now  obliged  to  retire  within  the  walls  of  Nuremberg2  until  he  could 
rally  his  troops,  which  were  scattered  over  Germany.  After  a  tedious 
blockade  of  Nuremberg,  in  which  both  parties  lost  thirty  thousand 
soldiers  by  famine  and  the  sword,  Wallenstein  made  a  sudden  move- 
ment towards  Dresden  ;3  but  the  advance  of  Gustavus  thwarted  his 
plans  and  brought  on  that  fatal  action  in  which  the  Swedish  hero  lost 
his  life.  On  the  16th  of  November,  1632,  the  two  armies  met  at 
Lutzen  ;4  but  scarcely  had  the  battle  commenced  when  Gustavus, 
throwing  himself  before  the  enemy's  ranks,  fell  pierced  by  two  balls. 
After  a  desperate  engagement  the  Protestants  triumphed ;  but  the 
glory  of  their  victory  was  dearly  bought  by  the  death  of  their  leader. 

1.  Leipsic  is  a  celebrated  commercial  city  of  the  kingdom  of  Saxony,  sixty  miles  north-west 
from  Dresden.    It  is  a  manufacturing  town  of  considerable  importance,  and  is  the  greatest 
book  emporium  in  the  world.    In  Oct.  1813,  Leipsic  was  the  scene  of  a  most  tremendous  con- 
flict between  Napoleon  and  the  allies,  in  which  the  French,  greatly  inferior  in  numbers,  were 
repulsed  with  a  heavy  loss.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

2.  Nuremberg  is  a  ciiy  of  Bavaria,  ninety-three  miles  north-west  from  Munich.    It  is  sur- 
rounded by  feudal  walls  and  turrets,  and  these  are  inclosed  by  a  ditch  one  hundred  feet  wide 
and  fifty  feet  deep,  lined  throughout  with  masonry.    Nuremberg  is  celebrated  in  the  history  of 
the  Reformation,  having  early  embraced  its  doctrines.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

3.  Dresden,  the  capital  of  the  kingdom  of  Saxony,  is  situated  on  the  Elbe,  one  hundred 
miles  south-east  from  Berlin,  and  two  hundred  and  thirty  north-west  from  Vienna.    Population 
mostly  Protestant.    It  has  a  great  number  of  literary  and  scientific  institutions,  and  establish- 
ments devoted  to  education.    Dresden  and  its  environs  have  been  the  scene  of  some  of  the 
most  important  conflicts  in  modern  warfare,  particularly  on  the  26th  and  27th  of  August,  1813, 
when  Napoleon  defeated  the  allies  under  its  walls.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

4.  Lutzen  is  a  small  town  of  Prussian  Saxony,  twelve  miles  south-west  from  Leipsic.    It 
would  be  unworthy  of  notice  were  it  not  that  its  environs  have  been  the  scene  of  two  of  the 
most  memorable  conflicts  of  modern  times-,— the  first,  which  occurred  Nov.  IGth,  1632,  and  in 
•which  the  Swedish  monarch  Gustavus  Adolphus  fell ;  and  the  second,  which  took  place  on 
nearly  the  same  ground,  May  2d,  1813,  and  in  which  the  French,  under  Napoleon,  defeated  the 
allies,  who  were  encouraged  by  the  presence  of  the  emperor  Alexander  and  the  king  of  Prussia. 
(Map  No.  XVIL) 


360  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  11. 

11.  Thus  terminated  the  Swedish  period  of  the  "  Thirty  years' 
war ;"  for  although  the  Swedes  still  determined  to  support  the  Pro- 
testant cause  in  Germany,  the  animating  spirit  of  the  war  had  fled, 
and  they  were  unable,  alone,  to  accomplish  anything  effectual.     A 
little  more  than  a  year  after  the  fall  of  Gustavus,  Wallenstein,  being 

iv  FRENCH  accused  °f  treason  to  his  master  and  the  Catholic  cause, 
PERIOD  OF  was  assassinated  by  the  command  of  the  emperor  Fer- 
THE  WAR.  dinana  (Fek  1634<)  We  come  now  to  whafc  hag  been 

called  the  French  period,  embracing  the  closing  scenes  of  this  war. 

12.  The  French  minister,  Richelieu,  had  long  observed,  with  se- 
cret satisfaction,  the  misfortunes  of  the  house  of  Austria,  and  of  the 
German  empire  generally ;  and  now  he  offered  the  aid  of  France  to 
the  Swedes  and  the  German  Protestants,  with  Holland  and  the  duke 
of  Savoy  as  allies,  on  the  condition  of  extending  the  French  frontier 
over  a  portion  of  the  German  territory ;  and  thus  the  persecutor  of 
the  Huguenots  was  leagued  with  the  Protestant  powers  of  Europe 
against  its  Roman  Catholic  princes;- — "a  clear  proof,"  says  a  writer 
of  French  history,  "  that  his  principles  were  politic,  not  bigoted." 
In  a  short  time  French  armies  were  sent  into  Italy,  Germany,  and 
the  Netherlands;  and  from  this  moment  the  provinces  along  the 
Rhine  became  the  chief  seat  of  the  war,  being  pillaged  and  devas- 
tated as  those  along  the  Oder,  Elbe,  and  Weser,  had  been  previously. 

13.  From  the  moment  of  the  active  interference  of  France,  the 
power  of  the  German  imperialists  declined ;  and  the  remainder  of 
this  "  Thirty  years'  war,"  which  was  marked  by  an  unusual  degree 
of  ferocity  on  both  sides,  presents  a  continuation  of  gloomy  and  dis- 
heartening scenes,  in  which  Richelieu  had  the  advantage,  not  from 
military  but  diplomatic  superiority.     Ferdinand  died  in   the  year 
1637,  without  living  to  witness  the  termination  of  the  civil  and  do- 
mestic war  in  which  he  had  been  engaged  from  the  commencement 
of  his  reign.     The  French  monarch  Louis  XIII.,  and  his  minister 
Richelieu,  the  great  fomentors  and  leaders  of  the  war,  died  in  1642, 
after  which  the  negotiations  for  peace,  which  had  been  begun  as  early 
as  1636,  were  the  more  easily  concluded;  and  in  October  1648,  the 
treaty  of  Westphalia1  closed  the  sad  scene  of  the  long  and  sanguinary 

1.  Westphalia  ia  a  province  embracing  all  the  northern  portion  of  the  Prussian  dominions 
west  of  the  Weser  The  "  peace  of  Westphalia"  was  concluded  in  1648,  at  Minister  and  Osna- 
burg,— both  then  in  Westphalia,  but  the  latter  now  in  Hanover.  In  1641  preliminaries  were 
agreed  upon  at  Hamburg:  in  1644  actual  negotiations  were  commenced  at  Osnaburg,  between 
the  ambassadors  of  Austria,  the  German  empire,  and  Sweden  ;  and  at  JMunster  between  those 
of  the  emperor,  France,  Spain,  and  other  powers ;  but  the  articles  adopted  in  both  formed  one 


CHAP.  IV.]  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  361 

"  Thirty  years'  war."  Peace  found  the  German  States  in  a  sadly- 
depressed  condition ;  the  scene  that  was  everywhere  presented  was  a 
wide  waste  of  ruin ;  and  two-thirds  of  the  population  had  perished, 
although  not  so  much  by  the  sword  as  by  contagion,  plague,  famine, 
and  the  other  attendant  horrors  that  follow  in  the  train  of  war. 

14.  The  chief  articles  of  the  treaty  of  Westphalia  were,  1st,  the 
confirmation  of  the  religious  peace  of  Passau,  and  the  consequent 
establishment  of  the  independence  of  the  Protestant  German  powers : 
2d,  the  dismemberment  of  many  of  the  German  States  for  the  purpose 
of  indemnifying  others  for  their  losses ;  and  the  sanction  of  the  com- 
plete sovereignty  of  each  of  the  German  States  within  its  own  terri- 
tory :  3d,  the  extension  of  the  eastern  limits  of  France :  4th,  the 
grant,  to  Sweden,  of  a  considerable  territory  on  the  Baltic  coast,  to- 
gether with  a  subsidy  of  five  millions  of  dollars ;  and  5th,  the  ac- 
knowledgment of  the  independence  of  the  Netherlands  by  Spain,  and 

of  the  Swiss  cantons  by  the  German  empire. 

'-.••:••  '':".  L)i\>i;£  oJ  ifc.'is'. •  liefest  y/aif 

II.  ENGLISH  HISTORY  : — THE  ENGLISH  REVOLUTION. — While  the 
"  Thirty  years'  war"  was  progressing  on  the  continent,  leading  to  the 
final  triumph  of  religious  liberty  there,  England  was  convulsed  by 
domestic  dissensions,  which  eventually  led  to  a  civil  war,  and  the 
temporary  overthrow  of  the  monarchy.     On  the  death  of 
Elizabeth  in  1603,  James  VI.  of  Scotland,  the  son  of  the 
unfortunate  Mary,  succeeded  to  the  throne  of  England,        AND 
with  the  title  of  James  I.     England  and  Scotland  were 
thus  united  under  one  sovereign ;  and  henceforth  the  two  countries 
received  the  common  designation  of  "  Great  Britain." 

2.  The  character  of  James,  the  first  English  monarch  of  the  Stuart 
family,  was  not  calculated  to  win  the  affections  of  his  n< 
subjects.  He  was  as  arbitrary  as  his  predecessors  of  the  JAMES  i. 
Tudor  race  ;  and,  although  excelling  in  the  learning  of  the  times,  he 
was  signally  deficient  in  all  those  noble  qualities  of  a  sovereign  which 
command  respect  and  enforce  obedience.  His  imprudence  in  sur- 
rounding himself  with  Scotch  favorites  irritated  the  English  :  the 
Scotch  saw  with  no  greater  satisfaction  his  attempts  to  subject  them 
to  the  worship  of  the  English  church :  some  disappointed  Roman 
Catholics  formed  a  conspiracy,  which  was  fortunately  detected,  to 
destroy  by  gunpowder  the  king  and  assembled  parliament ;  and  the 

treaty.  After  terras  had  been  settled  between  the  parties  at  Osnabnrg,  the  ministers  repaired 
to  Munater,  where  the  final  treaty  was  concluded,  Oct.  24th,  1R48.  (Map  No.  XVII.) 


362  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAKT  IL 

puritans,  aiming  at  farther  reforms  in  the  church  and  in  the  state, 
were  committed  to  prison  for  even  petitioning  for  some  changes,  not 
in  the  least  inconsistent  with  the  established  hierarchy.  James 
strenuously  maintained  the  "  Divine  right  of  kings ;"  and  his  entire 
reign  was  a  continued  struggle  of  the  house  of  commons  to  restore, 
and  to  fortify,  their  own  liberties,  and  those  of  the  people. 

3.  In  1625  James  was  succeeded  on  the  throne  by  his  son  Charles 
m.         I.,  then  in  the  twenty-fifth  year  of  his  age.     Had  Charles 

CHARLES  i.  lived  a  hundred  years  earlier,  or  had  not  the  reformatory 
spirit  of  the  age  introduced  great  and  important  changes  in  the 
minds  of  men  on  the  subject  of  the  royal  prerogative  and  the  liber- 
ties of  the  people,  he  might  have  reigned  with  great  popularity;  for 
his  stern  and  serious  deportment,  his  disinclination  to  all  licentious- 
ness, and  a  deep  regard  for  religion,  were  highly  suitable  to  the  char- 
acter of  the  English  people  at  this  period  ;  but  it  was  the  misfortune 
of  Charles  to  be  destitute  of  that  political  prudence  which  should 
have  taught  him  to  yield  to  the  necessities  of  the  times. 

4.  The  accession  of  Charles  was  immediately  followed  by  difficul- 
ties with  his  parliament,  which  had  no  confidence  in  the  king,  and 
which  he  suddenly  dissolved,  because  it  refused  to  vote  the  supplies 
demanded  by  him,  and  showed  an  inclination  to  impeach  his  favorite 
minister  Buckingham.     The  second  parliament  proceeded  with  the 
impeachment  of  the  minister,  (1626,)  and  the  king  retaliated  by  im- 
prisoning two  members  of  the  house  on  the  charge  of  "  words  spoken 
by  them  in  derogation  of  his  majesty's  honor  ;"  but  the  exasperation 
of  the  Commons  soon  obtained  their  release.     The  third  parliament, 
called  in  1628,  waiving  all  minor  contests,  demanded  the  king's  sanc- 
tion to  a  "  Petition  of  Right,"  which  set  forth  the  rights  of  the  Eng- 
lish people  as  guaranteed  to  them  by  the  G-reat  Charter,  and  by 
various  laws  and  statutes  of  the  realm.     Charles,  after  many  evasions, 
reluctantly  signed  the  Petition ;  but  in  a  few  months  he  flagrantly 
violated  the  obligations  it  had  imposed  upon  him,  and  in  a  fit  of  in- 
dignation dissolved  parliament,  resolving  never  again  to  call  another. 
(1629—39.) 

5.  During  an  interval  of  about  ten  years,  and  until  the  assembling 
of  another  parliament,  no  opposition,  except  such  as  public  opinion 
interposed,  was  made  to  the  full  enjoyment  of  the  unrestrained  pre- 
rogatives of  the  king.     Monopolies  were  now  revived  to  a  ruinous 
extent,  and  the  benefits  of  them  were  sold  to  the  highest  bidder ;  ille- 
gal duties  were  sustained  by  servile  judges;  unheard-of  fines  were 


CHAP.  IV.]  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  363 

imposed ;  and  no  expedient  was  omitte^  that  might  tend  to  bring 
money  into  the  royal  treasury,  and  thus  enable  the  king  to  rule 
without  the  aid  of  parliament.  The  English  clergy,  at  the  head  of 
whom  was  archbishop  Laud,  one  of  the  chief  advisers  of  the  king, 
usurped,  by  degrees,  the  civil  powers  of  government ;  and  the  puri- 
tans were  so  rigorously  persecuted  that  great  numbers  of  them  sought 
an  asylum  in  America.  In  1637  the  attempts  of  Charles  to  intro- 
duce the  Episcopal  form  of  worship  into  Scotland,  drove  the  Scotch 
presbyterians  to  open  rebellion ;  and  a  covenant  to  defend  the  re- 
ligion, the  laws,  and  the  liberties  of  their  country  against 
every  danger,  was  immediately  framed  and  subscribed 
by  them.  The  covenanters,  having  received  arms  and 
money  from  the  French  minister  Richelieu,  marched  into  England ; 
but  the  English  army  refused  to  fight  against  their  brethren,  when 
the  king,  finding  himself  beset  with  difficulties  on  every  side,  was 
obliged  to  place  himself  at  the  discretion  of  a  fourth  parliament. 
(April  1640.)  This  parliament,  not  fully  complying  with  the  king's 
wishes,  was  abruptly  dissolved  after  a  month's  session ;  but  public 
opinion  soon  compelled  the  king  to  summon  another,  which  assembled 
in  November  of  the  same  year. 

6.  The  new  parliament,  called  the  Long  Parliament,  from  the  ex- 
traordinary length  of  its  session,  first  applied  itself  dili-  v  THB 
gently  to  the  correction  of  abuses  and  a  redress  of  griev-  LONG  PAR- 
ances.  Future  parliaments  were  declared  to  be  triennial ; 
many  of  the  recent  acts  for  taxing  the  people  were  declared  illegal ; 
and  monopolies  of  every  kind  were  abolished — the  king  yielding  to 
all  the  demands  that  were  made  upon  him.  Not  satisfied  with  these 
concessions,  the  commons  impeached  the  earl  of  Strafford,  the  king's 
first  minister,  and  favorite  general,  -accusing  him  of  exercising  pow- 
ers beyond  what  the  crown  had  ever  lawfully  enjoyed,  and  of  a  sys- 
tematic hostility  to  the  fundamental  laws  and  constitution  of  the 
realm.  By  the  unconstitutional  expedient  of  a  bill  of  attainder, 
Strafford  was  declared  guilty ;  and  the  king  had  the  weakness  to  sign 
his  condemnation.  (1641.)  Archbishop  Laud  was  brought  to  trial 
and  executed  four  years  later.  The  severity  of  the  punishment  of 
Strafford,  and  the  magnanimity  displayed  by  him  on  his  trial,  have 
half  redeemed  his  forfeit-fame,  and  misled  a  generous  posterity ;  but 
he  died  justly,  although  the  means  taken  to  accomplish  his  condem- 
nation, by  a  departure  from  the  ordinary  course  of  judicial  proceed- 
ings, established  a  precedent  dangerous  to  civil  liberty. 

(•TV  'f.  .v«5  \iutf'- }     fl\k'--  /••-..> r-j  odj 


VT.    CIVIL 
WAK. 


364  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  II. 

7.  With  a  strong  hand  parliament  now  virtually  took  possession 
of  the  government ;  it  declared  itself  indissoluble  without  its  own 
consent,  and  continued  to  encroach  on  the  prerogatives  of  the  king 
until  scarcely  the  shadow  of  his  former  power  was  left  him.     A  re- 
bellion which  broke  out  in  Ireland  was  maliciously  charged  upon  the 
king  as  its  author ;  and  Charles,  to  refute  the  unworthy  suspicion, 
intrusted  the  management  of  Irish  affairs  to  parliament,  which  the 
latter  interpreted  into  a  transference  to  them  of  the  whole  military 
power  of  the  kingdom.     At  length  Charles,  irritated  by  a  threatening 
remonstrance  on  the  state  of  the  kingdom,  caused  five  members  of 
the  Commons  to  be  impeached ;  and  went  in  person  to  the  House  to 
seize  them, — a  fatal  act  of  indiscretion  which  was  declared  a  breach 
of  privilege  of  parliament,  for  which  Charles  found  it  necessary  to 
atone  by  a  humiliating  message. 

8.  The  difficulties  between  the  king  and  parliament,  and  their  re- 
spective supporters,  at  length  reached  such  a  crisis,  that  in  January 

1642  the  king  left  London,  attended  by  most  of  his  no- 
bility, and,  repairing  to  Nottingham,1  erected  there  the 
royal  standard,  resolving  to  stake  his  claims  on  the  haz- 
ards of  war.  The  adherents  of  parliament  were  not  unprepared  for 
the  contest.  On  the  side  of  the  king  were  ranged  most  of  the  no- 
bility of  the  kingdom,  together  with  the  Roman  Catholics — all  form- 
ing the  high  church  and  monarchy  party ;  while  parliament  had  on 
its  side  the  numerous  presbyterian  dissenters,  and  all  ultra  religious 
and  political  reformers ; — parliament  held  the  seaports,  the  fleet,  the 
great  cities,  the  capital,  and  the  eastern,  middle,  and  southern 
counties  ;  while  the  royalists  had  the  ascendancy  in  the  north  and  west. 

9.  From  1642  until  1647  the  war  was  carried  on  with  various  suc- 
sess.     In  the  battle  of  Edghill,2  fought  in  October   1642,  nothing 
was   decided,   although  five  thousand   men  were  left  dead  on  the 
field.     The  battle  of  Newbury,3  fought  in  the  following  year,  (Sept. 

1.  Nottingham  is  a  city  one  hundred  and  eight  miles  north-west  from  London.    It  was  the 
chief  place  of  rendezvous  for  the  troops  of  Edward  IV.  aud  Richard  III.  during  the  wars  of 
the  Roses.    Soon  after  Charles  I.  raised  his  standard  here  in  1642,  the  inhabitants,  who  were 
attached  to  the  republican  cause,  compelled  him  to  abandon  the  town  and  castle  to  the  parlia- 
mentary forces.    (Map  No.  XVL) 

2.  Edghill  is  a  small  town  in  the  county  of  Warwick,  seventy-two  miles  north-west  from 
London.     (Map  No.  XVI.) 

3.  Newbury  is  a  town  in  Berks  county,  England,  on  the  Kennett,  a  southern  branch  of  the 
Thames,  fifty-three  miles  south-west  from  London.    The  vicinity  of  this  town  is  celebrated  for 
two  battles  fought  during  the  civil  wars  between  the  royalist  and  parliamentary  forces,— Charle* 
I.  commanding  his  army  in  person  on  both  occasions.    The  first  was  fought  Sept.  20th,  1643 ; 
the  second,  Oct.  27th,  1644 ;  but  neither  had  any  decided  result.    (Map  No.  XVI.) 


CHAP  IV.]         SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  365 

20th,  1643,)  was  equally  indecisive ;  but  it  was  attended  with  such 
loss  on  both  sides  that  it  put  an  end  to  the  campaign,  by  obliging 
both  parties  to  retire  into  winter  quarters. 

10.  Both  king  and  parliament  now  began  to  look  for  assistance  to 
other  nations ;  and  while  some  Irish  Roman  Catholics     vir  THK 
joined  the  royal  army,  the  parliament  entered  into  a      SCOTCH 

"  Solemn  League  and  Covenant"  with  the  Scotch  people,  LKAGUE- 
by  which  the  parties  to  it  bound  themselves  to  aid  in  the  extirpation 
of  popery  and  prelacy,  and  to  promote  the  establishment  of  a  church 
government  conformed  to  that  of  Scotland.  The  Scots,  rejoicing  at 
the  prospect  thus  held  out  of  extending  their  mode  of  religion  over 
England,  sent  an  army  of  twenty  thousand  men,  at  the  beginning  of 

1644,  to  cooperate  with  the  forces  of  parliament 

1 1.  The  campaign  of  1644  was  unfortunate  to  the  royal  cause,  the 
Irish  forces  being  dispersed  by  Sir  Thomas  Fairfax,  and  the  royal- 
ists experiencing  a  severe  defeat  at  Marston  Moor,1  (2d  July,)  on 
which  occasion  fifty  thousand  British  combatants  engaged  in  mutual 
slaughter.     In  Scotland  the  royal  cause  was  for  a  time  sustained  by 
the  marquis  of  Montrose ;  but  the  gallant  Scot  was  at  length  over- 
whelmed by  superior  numbers ;  and  in  the  following  year,  June  1 4th, 

1645,  the  battle  of  Naseby,8  gained  by  the  parliamentary  forces,  de- 
cided the  contest  against  the  king,  although  the  useless  obstinacy  of 
the  royalists  protracted  the  war  till  the  beginning  of  1647.a     After 
the  defeat  at  Naseby,  the  king,  relying  on  the  faith  of  uncertain 
promises,  threw  himself  into  the  hands  of  his  Scotch  subjects ;  but  the 
latter,  treating  him  as  a  prisoner,  delivered  him  up  to  the  commission- 
ers of  parliament. 

1 2.  The  war  was  now  at  an  end,  but  civil  and  religious  dissensions 
raged  with  greater  fury  than  ever.     The  late  enemies  of  the  king 
were  divided  into  two  factions,  the  Presbyterians  and  the  Independents, 
the  former  having  a  majority  in  the  parliament,  and  the  latter  form- 
ing a  majority  of  the  army.     At  the  head  of  the  Inde- 
pendent party  was  Oliver  Cromwell,  a  general  of  the 

army,  and  a  man  of  talent  and  address,  who  appears  al- 

1.  Marston  Moor  is  a  small  village  of  Yorkshire,  England,  seven  milea  west  of  the  city  of 
York.    (Map  No.  XVI.) 

2.  Nasetry  is  a  decayed  market  town  of  England,  eleven  and  a-half  miles  north-west  from 
London.    It  is  twenty-nine  miles  north-east  of  the  locality  of  the  battle  of  Edghill.    The  battle 
of  Naseby  was  fought  north  of  the  town,  in  the  plain  that  separated  Naaeby  from  Harborough. 
(Map  No".  XVI.) 

a.  "Some of  the.  castles  of  North  Wales,  the  last  tbat  surrendered,  held  out  till  April  1647."- 
flaUam's  Const.  Hist.    Note  p.  351.) 


566  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

ready  to  have  formed  the  design  of  obtaining  supreme  power.  By 
his  orders  the  king  was  taken  from  the  commissioners  of  parliament, 
and  placed  in  the  custody  of  the  army.  A  proposition  of  parliament 
to  disband  the  army  gave  Cromwell  an  opportunity  to  heighten  the 
disaffection  of  the  soldiers ;  and,  placing  himself  at  their  head,  he 
entered  London,  purged  parliament  of  the  members  obnoxious  to 
him,  and  imprisoned  all  who  disputed  his  authority. 

13.  While  parliament  was  suffering  under  the  military  domination 
of  Cromwell,  a  general  reaction  began  to  take  place  in  favor  of  the 
king.     The  Scots,  ashamed  of  the  reproach  of  having  sold  their  sover- 
eign, now  took  up  arms  in  his  favor ;  but  Cromwell  marched  against 
them  at  the  head  of  an  inferior  force,  and  after  defeating  them, 
entered  Scotland,  the  government  of  which  he  settled  entirely  to  his 
satisfaction.     Parliament  also  entered  into  a  negotiation  with  the 
king,  with  the  view  of  restoring  him  to  power ;  but  Cromwell  sur- 
rounded the  House  of  Commons  with  his  soldiers,  and  excluding  all 
but  his  own  partisans,  caused  a  vote  to  be  passed  declaring  it  treason 
in  a  king  to  levy  war  against  his  parliament.     Under  the  influence 
of  Cromwell,  proposals  were  now  made  for  bringing  the  king  to  trial ; 

and  when  the  few  remaining  members  of  the  House  of 

AND  EXECU-   Lords  refused  their  sanction  to  the  measure,  the  Com- 

TION  OF      mons  voted  that  the  concurrence  of  the  Lords  was  un- 

OHAB.LKS  I.  111  i  -i  .     •          n     11    . 

necessary,  and  that  the  people  were  the  origin  of  all  just 
power.  The  Commons  then  named  a  court  of  justice,  composed 
mostly  of  the  principal  officers  of  the  army,  to  try  the  king ;  and 
on  the  charge  of  having  been  the  cause  of  all  the  bloodshed  during 
the  continuance  of  the  war,  he  was  condemned  to  death.  He  was 
allowed  only  three  days  to  prepare  for  execution ;  and  on  the  30th 
of  January,  1649,  the  misguided  and  unhappy  monarch  was  behead- 
ed, being,  at  the  time,  in  the  forty-ninth  year  of  his  age,  and  the 
twenty  fourth  of  his  reign. 

14.  "  The  execution  of  Charles  the  First,"  says  Hallam,  "  has  been 
mentioned  in  later  ages  by  a  few  with  unlimited  praise,  by  some 
witk  faint  and  ambiguous  censure,  by  most  with  vehement  reproba- 
tion."    Viewing  the  case  in  all  its  aspects,  we  can  find  no  justifica- 
tion for  the  deed ;  for  no  considerations  of  public  necessity  required 
it ;  and  it  was,  moreover,  the  act  of  a  small  minority  of  parliament, 
that  had  usurped,  under  the  protection  of  a  military  force,  a  power 
which  all  England  declared  illegal.     Lingard  asserts  that  "the  men. 
who  hurried  Charles  to  the  scaffold  were  a  small  faction  of  bold  and 


CHAP.  IV.]  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  367 

ambitious  spirits,  who  had  the  address  to  guide  the  passions  and  fanati- 
cism of  their  followers,  and  were  enabled,  through  them,  to  control  the 
real  sentiments  of  the  nation."  The  arbitrary  principles  of  Charles, 
which  he  had  imbibed  in  the  lessons  of  early  youth, — his  passionate 
temper,  and  want  of  sincerity,  indeed  rendered  him  unfit  for  the 
difficult  station  of  a  constitutional  king ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  he 
was  deserving  of  esteem  for  the  correctness  of  his  moral  principles ; 
and  in  private  life  he  would  not  have  been  an  unamiable  man. 

15.  A  few  days  after  the  death  of  Charles,  the  monarchical  form 
of  government  was  formally  abolished ;   the  House  of    x  ABOU. 
Lords  fell  by  a  vote  of  the  Commons  at  the  same  time ;      TION  OF 
the  mere  shadow  of  a  parliament,  known  by  the  appella-    MONARCHY- 
tion  of  the  Rump,  and  supported  by  an  army  of  fifty  thousand  men 
under  the  controlling  influence  of  Oliver  Cromwell,  took  into  its 
hands  all  the  powers  of  government ;  and  the  former  title  of  the 
"  English  Monarchy"  gave  place  to  that  of  the  Commonwealth  of 
England.     The  royalists  being  still  in  considerable  force  in  Ireland, 
Cromwell  repaired  thither  with  an  army,  and  speedily  reduced  the 
country  to  submission ;  after  which  he  marched  into  Scotland  at  the 
head  of  sixteen  thousand  men,  and,  in  the  battle  of  Dunbar,  (Sept. 
13th,  1650,)  defeated  the  royal  covenanters,  who  had  proclaimed 
Charles  II.,  son  of  the  late  king,  as  their  sovereign.     In  the  follow- 
ing year  he  pursued  the  Scotch  army  into  England,  and  completely 
annihilated  it  in  the  desperate  battle  of  Worcester.1     (Sept.  13th, 
1651.) 

16.  Cromwell  had  formed  the  project  of  a  coalition  with  Holland, 
which  was  to  make  the  two  republics  one  and  indivisible  ;     xr  WAR 
but  national  antipathies  could  not  be  overcome ;  and  in-       WITH 
stead  of  the  proposed  coalition  there  ensued  a  fierce  and     HOLLAND. 
bloody  war.    Under  pretence  of  providing  for  the  interests  of  commerce, 
the  British  parliament  passed  the  celebrated  navigation  act,  which 
prohibited  all  nations  from  importing  into  England,  in  their  ships, 
any  commodity  which  was  not  the  growth  and  manufacture  of  their 
own  country ; — a  blow  aimed  directly  at  the  Dutch,  who  were  the 
general  factors  and  carriers  of  Europe.     Ships  were  seized  and  re- 
prisals made  ;  and  in  the  month  of  May,  1652,  the  war  broke  out  by 

1.  Worcester,  the  capital  of  Worcester  county,  England,  is  on  the  eastern  bank  of  the  river 
Severn,  one  hundred  miles  north-west  from  London.  Worcester  is  of  great,  but  uncertain, 
antiquity,  and  is  one  of  the  best  built  towns  in  the  kingdom.  It  is  principally  celebrated  in 
history  for  its  giving  name  to  the  decisive  victory  obtained  there  by  Cromwell  on  the  13th 
Sept.  1651.  (Map  No.  XVI.) 


368  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

a  casual  encounter  of  the  hostile  fleets  of  the  two  nations,  in  the 
straits  of  Dover, — the  Dutch  admiral  Yan  Tromp  commanding  the 
one  squadron,  and  the  heroic  Blake  the  other.  After  five  hours' 
fighting,  the  Dutch  were  defeated,  with  the  loss  of  one  ship  sunk  and 
another  taken. 

17.  The  States-general  of  Holland  were  seriously  alarmed  at  the 
prospect  of  a  naval  war  with  England,  but  the  English  parliament 
would  listen  to  neither  reason  nor  remonstrance  ;  and  in  a  short  time 
the  fleets  of  the  two  nations  were  at  sea  again.     Several  actions  took 
place  with  various  success,  but  on  the  29th  of  November  a  deter- 
mined battle  was  fought  off  the  Goodwin  sands,1  between  the  Dutch 
fleet  commanded  by  Van  Troinp  and  De  Ruyter,  and  the  English 
squadron  under  Blake.     Blake  was  wounded  and  defeated ;  five  Eng- 
lish ships  were  taken,  or  destroyed ;  and  night  saved  the  fleet  from 
destruction.     After  this  victory,  Tromp,  in  bravado,  placed  a  broom 
at  his  mast  head,  to  intimate  that  he  would  sweep  the  English  ships 
from  the  seas. 

18.  Great  preparations  were  made  in  England  to  remove  this  dis- 
grace ;  and  in  the  month  of  February  following  (1653)  eighty  sail, 
under  Blake,  assisted  by  Dean  and  M.cmk,  met,  in  the  English  Chan- 
nel, the  Dutch  fleet  of  seventy-six  vessels,  commanded  by  Van  Tromp, 
who  was  seconded  by  De  Ruyter.     Three  days  of  desperate  fighting 
ended  in  the  defeat  of  the  Dutch,  although  Tromp  acquired  little 
less  honor  than  his  rival,  by  the  masterly  retreat  which  he  con- 
ducted.    In  June  several  battles  were  fought ;  and  in  July  occurred 
the  last  of  these  bloody  and  obstinate  conflicts  for  naval  superiority. 
Tromp  issued  forth  once  more,  determined  to  conquer  or  die,  and 
soon  met  the  enemy  commanded  by  Monk ;  but  as  he  was  animat- 
ing his  sailors,  with  his  sword  drawn,  he  was  shot  through  the  heart 
with    a  musket  ball.      This  event   alone  decided  the  action,  and 
the  defeat  which  the  Dutch  sustained  was  the  most  decisive  of  the 
whole  war.     Peace  was  soon  concluded  on  terms  advantageous  to 
England ;  and  Cromwell,  as  protector,  signed  the  treaty  of  pacifica- 
tion, (April  1654,)  after  having  vainly  endeavored  to  establish  a  union 
of  government,  privileges,  and  interests,  between  the  two  republics. 

19.  While  the  war  with  Holland  was  progressing,  a  controversy 

1.  The  Ooodwin  sands  are  famous  and  very  dangerous  sand  banks,  about  four  miles  from 
the  eastern  coast  of  Kent,  a  few  miles  north-east  from  Dover.  They  are  believed  to  have  once 
formed  part  of  the  Kentish  land,  and  to  have  been  submerged  about  the  end  of  the  reign  of 
William  Rufus.  The  channel  between  them  and  the  main  land  is  called  "  the  Downs,"  a  cele- 
brated roadstead  for  ships,  which  affords  excellent  anchorage.  (Map  No.  XVI.) 


CHAP.  IV.]        SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  369 

had  arisen  between  Cromwell  and  the  army  on  the  one  hand,  and 
the  Long  Parliament  on  the  other.  Each  wished  to  rule  supreme, 
hut  eventually  Cromwell  forcibly  dissolved  the  parliament,  (April 
1653,)  and  soon  after  summoned  another,  composed  wholly  of  mem- 
bers of  his  own  selection.  The  latter,  however,  commonly  called 
Barebonds  parliament,  from  the  name  of  one  of  its  leading  members, 
at  once  commenced  such  a  thorough  reformation  in  every  department 
of  the  state,  as  to  alarm  Cromwell  and  his  associates ;  and  it  was  re- 
solved that  these  troublesome  legislators  should  be  sent  back  to  their 
respective  parishes.  A  majority  of  the  members  voluntarily  sur- 
rendered their  power  into  the  hands  of  Cromwell,  who  put  an  end 
to  the  opposition  of  the  rest  by  turning  them  out  of  doors.  (Dec. 
12th,  1653.)  Four  days  later  a  new  scheme  of  govern-  xn  THB 
ment,  called  "  The  Pr-otectorate,"  was  adopted,  by  which  PROTECTO- 
the  supreme  powers  of  state  were  vested  in  a  lord  pro-  RATE* 
tector,  a  council,  and  a  parliament ;  and  Cromwell  was  solemnly  in- 
stalled for  life  in  the  office  of  "  Lord  Protector  of  the  commonwealth 
of  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland." 

20.  The  parliament  summoned  by  Cromwell  to  meet  in  September 
of  the  following  year,  suspecting  that  the  Protector  aimed  at  kingly 
authority,  commenced  its  session  (1654)  by  an  inquiry  into  the  right 
by  which  he  held  his  power ;  upon  which  Cromwell  plainly  informed 
the  members  that  he  would  send  them  to  their  homes  if  they  did  not 
acknowledge  the  authority  by  which  they  had  been  assembled.  About 
three  hundred  members  signed  a  paper  recognizing  Cromwell's  scheme 
of  government ;  while  the  remainder,  amounting  to  a  hundred  and 
sixty,  resolutely  refused  compliance,  and  were  excluded  from  their 
seats ;  but  although  parliament  was  in  some  degree  purged  by  the 
operation,  it  did  not  exhibit  the  subserviency  which  Cromwell  had 
hoped  to  find  in  it.  On  the  introduction  of  a  bill  declaring  the  Pro- 
tectorate hereditary  in  the  family  of  Cromwell,  a  very  large  majority 
voted  against  it.  The  spirit  which  characterized  the  remainder  of 
the  session  showed  Cromwell  that  he  had  not  gained  the  confidence 
of  the  nation ;  and  an  angry  dissolution,  early  in  the  following  year, 
(Feb.  1655,)  increased  the  general  discontent.  Soon  after,  a  conspiracy 
of  the  royalists  broke  out,  but  was  easily  suppressed ;  and  even  in 
the  army,  among  the  republicans  themselves,  several  officers  allowed 
their  fidelity  to  be  corrupted,  and  took  a  share  in  counsels  that  were 
intended  to  restore  the  commonwealth  to  its  original  vigor  and  puri- 
ty. During  the  same  year  (1655),  a  war  with  Spain  broke  out ;  the 

24 


370  MODERN  HISTORY.  [?ABT  IL 

island  of  Jamaica,  in  the  West  Indies,  was  conquered ;  the  treasure- 
ships  of  the  Spaniards  were  captured  on  their  passage  to  Europe ; 
and  some  naval  victories  were  obtained. 

21.  In  his  civil  and  domestic  administration,  which  was  conducted 
with  ability,  but  without  any  regular  plan,   Cromwell  displayed  a 
general  regard  for  justice  and  clemency;    and  irregularities  were 
never  sanctioned,  unless  the  necessity  of  thus  sustaining  his  usurped 
authority  seemed  to  require  it.     Such  indeed  were  the  order  and 
tranquillity  which  he  preserved — such  his  skilful  management  of  per- 
sons and  parties,  and  such,  moreover,  the  change  in  the  feelings  of 
many  of  the  Independents  themselves,  since  the  death  of  the  late 
monarch,  that  in  the  parliament  of  1656  a  motion  was  made,  and 
carried  by  a  considerable  majority,  for  investing  the  Protector  with 
the  dignity  of  king.     Although  exceedingly  desirous  to  accept  the 
proffered  honor,  he  saw  that  the  army,  composed  mostly  of  stern  and 
inflexible  republicans,  could  never  be  reconciled  to  a  measure  that 
implied  an  open  contradiction  of  all  their  past  professions,  and  an 
abandonment  of  their  principles ;  and  he  was  at  last  obliged  to  re- 
fuse that  crown  which  had  been  solemnly  proifered  to  him  by  the 
representatives  of  the  nation. 

22.  After  this  event,  the  domestic  affairs  of  the  country  kept 
Cromwell  in  perpetual  uneasiness.     The  royalists  renewed  their  con- 
spiracies against  him  ;  and  a  majority  in  parliament  now  opposed  all 
his  favorite  measures ;  a  mutiny  of  the  army  was  apprehended  ;  and 
even  the  daughters  of  the  Protector  became  estranged  from  him.    Over- 
whelmed with  difficulties,  possessing  the  confidence  of  no  party,  hav- 
ing lost  all  composure  of  mind,  and  in  constant  dread  of  assassina- 
tion, his  health  gradually  declined,  and  he  expired  on  the  13th  of 
September,  1658,  the  anniversary  of  his  great  victories,  and  a  day 
which  he  had  always  considered  the  most  fortunate  for  him. 

23.  On  the  death  of  Cromwell,  his  eldest  son,  Richard,  succeeded 
him  in  the  protectorate,  in  accordance,  as  was  supposed,  with  the 
dying  wish  of  his  father,  and  with  the  approbation  of  the  council. 
But  Richard,  being  of  a  quiet,  unambitious  temper,  and  alarmed  at 
the  dangers  by  which  he  was  surrounded,  soon  signed  his  own  abdica- 
tion, and  retired  to  private  life.     A  state  of  anarchy  followed,  and 

xiii.  EESTO-  conten(lmg  factions,  in  the  army  and  the  parliament,  for 

RATION  OF    a  time  filled  the  country  with  bloody  dissensions,  when 

DNAUCHY.    Q.eneraj  Monk,  who  commanded  the  army  in  Scotland, 

marched  into  England  and  declared  in  favor  of  the  restoration  of 


CHAP.  IV.]  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  371 

royalty.  This  declaration,  freeing  the  nation  from  the  state  of  suspense 
in  which  it  had  long  been  held,  was  received  with  almost  universal 
joy :  the  House  of  Lords  hastened  to  reinstate  itself  in  its  ancient 
authority;  and  on  the  18th  of  May,  1660,  Charles  the  Second,  son 
of  the  late  king,  was  proclaimed  sovereign  of  England,  by  the  united 
acclamations  of  the  army,  the  people,  and  the  two  houses  of  par- 
liament. 

24.  The  accession  of  Charles  II.  to  the  throne  of  his  ancestors 
was  at  first  hailed  as  the  harbinger  of  real  liberty,  and  the  promise 
of  a  firm  and  tranquil  government,  although  no  terms  were  required 
of  him  for  the  security  of  the  people  against  his  abuse  of  their  con- 
fidence.    As  he  possessed  a  handsome  person,  and  was  open  and 
affable  in  his  manners,  and  engaging  in  conversation,  the  first  im- 
pressions produced  by  him  were  favorable  ;  but  he  was  soon  found 
to  be  excessively  indolent,  profligate,  and  worthless,  and  to  entertain 
notions  as  arbitrary  as  those  which  had  distinguished  the  reign  of  his 
father.     The  parliament,  called  in  1661,  composed  mostly  of  men 
who  had  fought  for  royalty  and  the  church,  gave  back  to  the  crown 
its  ancient  prerogatives,  of  which  the  Long  Parliament  had  despoiled 
it — endeavored  to  enforce  the  doctrine  of  passive  obedience,  by  com- 
pelling all  officers  of  trust  to  swear  that  they  held  resistance  to  the 
king's  authority  to  be  in  all  cases  unlawful, — and  passed  an  act  of 
religious  uniformity,  by  which  two  thousand  Presbyterian  ministers 
were  deprived  of  their  livings,  and  the  gaols  filled  with  a  crowd  of 
dissenters.     Episcopacy  was  established  by  law ;  and  the  church, 
grateful  for  the  protection  which  she  received  from  the  government, 
made  the  doctrine  of  non-resistance  her  favorite  theme,  which  she 
taught  without  any  qualification,  and  followed  out  to  all  its  extreme 
consequences. 

25.  While  these  changes  were  in  progress,  the  manners  and  morals 
of  the  nation  were  sinking  into  an  excess  of  profligacy,  encouraged 
by  the  dissolute  conduct  of  the  king  in  private  life.     Under  the 
austere  rule  of  the  puritans,  vice  and  immorality  were  sternly  re- 
pressed ;  but  when  the  check  was  withdrawn,  they  broke  forth  with 
ungovernable  violence.     The  cavaliers,  as  the  partisans  of  the  late 
king  were  called,  in  general  affected  a  profligacy  of  manners,  as  their 
distinction  from  the  fanatical  and  canting  party,  as  they  denominated 
the  puritans  ;  the  prevailing  immorality  pervaded  all  ranks  and  pro- 
fessions ;  the  philosophy  and  poetry  of  the  times  pandered  to  the 
general  licentiousness ;  and  the  public  revenues  were  wasted  on  the 


372  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  ±1. 

vilest  associates  of  the  king's  debauchery.  The  court  of  Charles 
was  a  school  of  vice,  in  which  the  restraints  of  decency  were  laughed 
to  scorn  •  and  at  no  other  period  of  English  history  were  the  immo- 
ralities of  licentiousness  practiced  with  more  ostenation,  or  with  less 
disgrace. 

26.  While  Charles  was  losing  the  favor  of  all  parties  and  classes 
by  his  neglect  of  public  business,  and  his  wasteful  profligacy,  the 
general  discontent  was  heightened  by  his  marriage  with  Catherine,  a 
Portuguese  princess,  and  by  the  sale  of  Dunkirk1  to  France  ;  but  still 
greater  clamors  arose,  when,  in  1664,  the  king  provoked  a  war  with  Hol- 
land, by  sending  out  a  squadron  which  seized  the  Dutch  settlements 
on  the  coast  of  Africa,  and  the  Cape  Verde  Islands.     The  House  of 
Commons  readily  voted  supplies  to  carry  on  the  war  with  vigor ;  but 
such  was  the  extravagance,  dishonesty,  and  incapacity  of  those  to 
whom  Charles  had  intrusted  its  management,  that,  after  a  few  inde- 
cisive naval  battles,  it  was  found  necessary  to  abandon  all  thoughts 
of  offensive  war  ;  and  even  then  the  sailors  mutinied  in  the  ports  from 
actual  hunger,  and  a  Dutch  fleet,  sailing  up  the  Thames,  burned  the 
ships  at  Chatham, a  on  the  very  day  when  the  king  was  feasting  with 
the  ladies  of  his  seraglio.     The  capital  was  threatened  with  the 
miseries  of  a  blockade,  and  for  the  first  time  the  roar  of  foreign  guns 
was  heard  by  the  citizens  of  London. 

27.  In  the  summer  of  1665,  while  the  ignominious  war  with  Hol- 
land was  raging,  the  plague  visited  England,  but  was  confined  prin- 
cipally to  London,  where  its  frightful  ravages  surpassed  in  horror 
anything  that  had  ever  been  known  in  the  island.     But  few  recovered 
from  the  disease,  and  death  followed  within  two  or  three  days,  and 
sometimes  within  a  few  hours,  from  the  first  symptoms.     During  one 
week  in   September  more  than  ten  thousand  died ;  and  the  whole 
number  of  victims  was  more  than  a  hundred  thousand.     In  the  fol- 
lowing year  a  fire,  such  as  had  not  been  known  in  Europe  since  the 

1.  Dunkirk,  the  most  northern  seaport  of  France,  is  situated  on  the  straits  of  Dover,  in  the 
former  province  of  French  Flanders,  opposite,  and  forty-seven  miles  east  from,  the  English 
town  of  Dover.    Dunkirk  is  said  to  have  been  founded  by  Baldwin,  count  of  Flanders,  in 
960 :  in  1388  it  was  burned  by  the  English  ;  and  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  it 
alternately  belonged  to  them  and  to  the  Spaniards  and  French.    Charles  II  sold  it  to  Louis 
XIV.  for  two  hundred  thousand  pounds  sterling.    Louis,  aware  of  its  importance,  fortified  it  at 
great  expense,  but  was  compelled,  by  the  treaty  of  Utrecht,  in  1713,  to  consent  to  the  demoli- 
tion of  its  fortifications,  and  even  to  the  shutting  up  of  its  port.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

2.  Chatham  is  a  celebrated  naval  and  military  depot,  on  the  river  Medway,  twenty-eight 
miles  south-east  from  London.    It  was  anciently  called  Cetcham,  or  the  village  of  cottages. 
Many  Roman  remains  have  been  found  in  its  vicinity.    It  is  this  town  which  gives  the  title  of 
earl  to  th«  Pitt  family.    (Map  No.  XVI. 


CHAP.  IV.]  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  373 

conflagration  of  Rome  under  Nero,  laid  in  ruins  two-thirds  of  the 
metropolis, — consuming  more  than  thirteen  thousand  dwellings,  and 
leaving  destitute  two  hundred  thousand  people. 

28.  After  the  war  with  Holland  had  continued  two  years,  Charles 
was  forced,  by  the  voice  of  parliament  and  the  bad  success  of  his 
arms,  to  conclude  the  treaty  of  Breda,1  (July  1667,)  by  which  the 
Dutch  possessions  of  New  Netherlands,9  in  America,  were  confirmed 
to  England,  while  the  latter  surrendered  to  France  Acadia  and  Nova 
Scotia.51  In  1672,  however,  Charles  was  induced  by  the  French 
monarch,  Louis  XIV.,  to  join  him  in  another  war  against  the  Dutch. 
The  combined  armies  of  the  two  kingdoms  soon  reduced  the  republic 
to  the  brink  of  destruction ;  but  the  prince  of  Orange,4  being  pro- 
moted to  the  chief  command  of  the  Dutch  forces,  soon  roused  the 
courage  of  his  dismayed  countrymen  :  the  dykes  were  opened,  laying 
the  whole  country,  except  the  cities,  under  water  ;  and  the  invaders 
were  forced  to  save  themselves  from  destruction  by  a  precipitate  re- 
treat. At  length,  in  1674,  Charles  was  compelled,  by  the  discon- 
tents of  his  people  and  parliament,  who  were  opposed  to  the  war,  to 
conclude  a  separate  treaty  of  peace  with  Holland.  France  continued 
the  war,  but  Holland  was  now  aided  by  Spain  and  Sweden,  while  in  1676 
the  marriage  of  the  prince  of  Orange  with  the  Lady  Mary,  daughter 
of  the  duke  of  York,  the  brother  of  Charles,  induced  England  to 
espouse  the  cause  of  the  republic,  and  led  to  the  treaty  of  Nimeguen6 

1.  Breda  is  a  strongly-fortified  town  of  Holland — province  of  North  Brabant,  on  the  river 
Merk,  thirty  miles  north-east  from  Antwerp.    Breda  is  a  well-built  town,  entirely  surrounded 
by  a  marsh  that  may  be  laid  under  water.    It  was  taken  from  the  Spaniards  by  prince  Maurice 
in  1590,  by  means  of  a  stratagem  suggested  by  the  master  of  a  boat  who  sometimes  supplied 
the  garrison  with  fuel.    With  singular  address  he  contrived  to  introduce  into  the  town,  under 
a  cargo  of  turf,  seventy  chosen  soldiers,  who,  having  attacked  the  garrison  in  the  night,  opened 
the  gates  to  their  comrades.    It  was  retaken  by  the  Spaniards  under  the  marquis  Spinola  in 
1625,  but  was  finally  ceded  to  Holland  by  the  treaty  of  Westphalia  in  1648.    (Map  No.  XV.) 

2.  New  Netherlands,  the  present  New  York,  had  been  conquered  by  the  English  in  1664, 
while  England  and  Holland  were  at  peace ;  and  the  treaty  of  Breda  confirmed  England  in  the 
possession  of  the  country. 

3.  The  French  possessions  in  America,  embracing  New  Brunswick,  Nova  Scotia,  and  the  ad- 
jacent islands,  were  at  first  called  Acadia.    A  fleet  sent  out  by  Cromwell  in  1654  soon  reduced 
Acadia,  but  it  was  restored  by  the  treaty  of  Breda  in  1667. 

4.  The  family  of  Orange  derive  their  title  from  the  little  principality  of  Orange,  twelve  miles 
in  length  and  nine  in  breadth,  of  which  the  city  of  Orange,  a  town  of  south-eastern  France,  was 
the  capital.    Orange,  known  to  the  Romans  by  the  name  of  Arausio,  is  situated  on  the  small 
river  Meyne,  five  miles  east  of  the  Rhone,  and  twelve  miles  north  of  Avignon.    From  the 
eleventh  to  the  sixteenth  century  Orange  had  its  own  princes.    In  1531  it  passed,  by  marriage, 
to  the  count  of  Nassau.    It  continued  in  this  family  till  the  death,  in  1702,  of  William  Henry  of 
Nassau-Orange  (William  III.  of  England),  when  the  succession  became  the  subject  of  a  long 
contest;  and  it  was  not  till  the  peace  of  Utrecht  in  1715  that  this  little  territory  was  finally 
ceded  to  France.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

5.  Jfimtffutn,  or  Jfymtftn,  is  a  town  of  Holland,  province  of  Guelder  land,  on  the  south  side 


374  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAET  IL 

in  1678,  by  which  the  Dutch  provinces  obtained  honorable  and  ad- 
vantageous terms. 

29.  Although  Charles  professed  adherence  to  the  principles  of  the 
Reformation,  jet  his  great  and  secret  designs  were  the  establishment 
of  papacy,  and  arbitrary  power,  in  England.     To  enable  him  to  ac- 
complish these  objects,  he  actually  received,  from  the  king  of  France, 
a  secret  pension  of  two  hundred  thousand  pounds  per  annum,  for 
which  he  stipulated,  in  return,  to  employ  the  whole  strength  of  Eng- 
land, by  land  and  sea,  in  support  of  the  claims  of  Louis  to  the  vast 
monarchy  of  Spain.     But  the  popularity  with  which  Charles  had 
commenced  his  reign  had  long  been  expended  ;  there  was  a  prevail- 
ing discontent  among  the  people, — an  anxiety  for  public  liberty, 
which  was  thought  to  be  endangered, — and  a  general  hatred  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  Religion,  which  was  increased  by  the  circumstance 
that  the  king's  brother,  and  heir  presumptive,  was  known  to  be  a 
bigoted  Roman  Catholic.     Parliament  became  intractable,  and  suc- 
cessfully opposed  many  of  the  favorite  measures  of  the  king  ;  and  at 
length  in  1 678  a  pretended  Popish  Plot  for  the  massacre  of  the  Pro- 
testants threw  the  whole  nation  into  a  blaze.     One  Titus  Gates,  an 
infamous  impostor,  was  the  discoverer  of  this  pretended  plot ;  and 
in  the  midst  of  the  ferment  which  it  occasioned,  many  innocent 
Catholics  lost  their  lives.     At  a  later  period,  however,  a  regular  pro- 
ject for  raising  the  nation  in  arms  against  the  government  was  de- 
tected; and  the  leaders,  among  whom  were  Lord  Russell  and  Alger- 
non Sidney,  being  unjustly  accused  of  participation  in  the  Rye  House 
plot  for  the  assassination  of  the  king,  were  beheaded,  in  defiance  of 
law  and  justice.     (1683.)     From  this  time  until  his  death  Charles 
ruled  with  almost  absolute  power,  without  the  aid  of  a  parliament. 
He  died  suddenly  in  1685.     His  brother,  the  duke  of  York,  imme- 
diately succeeded  to  the  throne,  with  the  title  of  James  II. 

30.  The  reign  of  James  was  short  and  inglorious,  distinguished 
xiv.        by  nothing  but  a  series  of  absurd  efforts  to  render  him- 

JAMES  n.  gejf  independent  of  parliament,  and  to  establish  the 
Roman  Catholic  religion  in  England,  although  he  at  first  made  the 
strongest  professions  of  a  resolution  to  maintain  the  established  gov- 
ernment, both  in  church  and  state.  It  soon  became  evident  that  a 
crisis  was  approaching,  and  that  the  great  conflict  between  the  pre- 

of  the  Waal,  fifty-three  miles  south-east  from  Amsterdam.  It  is  known  in  history  from  the 
treaty  concluded  there  August  10th,  1678,  and  from  its  capture  by  the  French  on  the  8th  of 
Sept.  1794,  after  a  severe  action  in  which  the  allies  were  defeated.  (Map  No.  XV.) 


CHAP.  IV.]  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  375 

rogatives  of  the  crown  and  the  privileges  of  parliament  was  about 
to  be  brought  to  a  final  issue. 

31.  In  the  first  exercise  of  his  authority  James  showed  the  insin- 
cerity of  his  professions  by  levying  taxes  without  the  authority  of 
parliament :  in  violation  of  the  laws,  and  in  contempt  of  the  national 
feeling,  he  went  openly  to  mass  :  he  established  a  court  of  ecclesias- 
tical commission  with  unlimited  power  over  the  Episcopal  church  : 
he  suspended  the  penal  laws,  by  which  a  conformity  had  been  re- 
quired to  the  established  church ;  and  although  any  communication 
with  the  pope  had  been  declared  treason,  he  sent  an  embassy  to 
Rome,  and  in  return  received  a  nuncio  from  his  Holiness,  and  with 
much  ceremony  gave  him  a  public  and  solemn  reception  at  Windsor.1 
In  this  open  manner  the  king  attacked  the  principles  and  prejudices 
of  his  Protestant  subjects,  foolishly  confident  of  his  ability  to  rees- 
tablish the  Roman  Catholic  religion,  although  the  Roman  Catholics 
in  England  did  not  comprise,  at  this  time,  the  one-hundredth  part 
of  the  nation. 

32.  An  important  event  of  this  reign  was  the  rebellion  of  the  duke 
of  Monmouth,  a  natural  son  of  Charles  II.,  who  hoped,  through  the 
growing  discontents  of  the  people  at  the  tyranny  of  James,  to  gain 
possession  of  the  throne ;  but  after  some  partial  successes  he  was  de- 
feated, made  prisoner,  and  beheaded.     After  the  rebellion  had  been 
suppressed,  many  of  the  unfortunate  prisoners  were  hung  by  the 
king's  officers,  without  any  form  of  trial ;  and  when,  after  some  in- 
terval, the  inhuman  Jeffries  was  sent  to  preside  in  the  courts  before 
which  the  prisoners  were  arraigned,  the  rigors  of  law  were  made  to 
equal,  if  not  to  exceed,  the  ravages  of  military  tyranny.     The  juries 
were  so  awed  by  the  menaces  of  the  judge  that  they  gave  their  ver- 
dict as  he  dictated,  with  precipitation  :  neither  age,  sex,  nor  station, 
was  spared  ;  the  innocent  were  often  involved  with  the  guilty ;  and 
the  king  himself  applauded  the  conduct  of  Jeffries,  whom  he  after 
wards  rewarded  for  his  services  with  a  peerage,  and  invested  with  the 
dignity  of  chancellor. 

1.  Windsor  is  a  small  town  on  the  south  side  of  the  Thames,  twenty  miles  south-west  from 
London.  Tt  is  celebrated  for  Windsor  castle,  the  principal  country  seat  of  the  sovereigns  of 
England,  and  one  of  the  most  magnificent  royal  residences  in  Europe.  The  castle,  placed  on 
the  summit  of  a  lofty  eminence  rising  abruptly  from  the  river,  appears  to  have  been  founded 
by  William  the  Conqueror,  and  it  has  been  enlarged  or  embellished  by  most  of  his  successors. 
On  the  north  and  east  sides  of  the  castle  is  the  Little  Park,  a  fine  expanse  of  lawn,  comprising 
nearly  five  hundred  acres :  on  the  south  side  is  the  Great  Park,  comprising  three  thousand 
eight  hundred  acres ;  while  near  by  is  Windsor  forest,  a  tract  fifty-six  miles  in  circumference, 
laid  out  by  William  the  Conqueror  for  the  purpose  of  hunting.  (Map  No.  XVI.) 


376  MODERN   HISTORY.  [PART  1L 

33.  As  the  king  evinced,  in  all  his  measures,  a  settled  purpose  of 
invading  every  branch  of  the  constitution,  many  of  the  nobility  and 
great  men  of  the  kingdom,  foreseeing  no  peaceable  redress  of  their 
grievances,  finally  sent  an  invitation  to  William,  prince  of  Orange, 
the  stadtholder  of  the  United  Dutch  Provinces,  who  had  married  the 
king's  eldest  daughter,  and  requested  him  to  come  over  and  aid  them 

by  his  arms,  in  the  recovery  of  their  laws  and  liberties. 

XV.    REVOLU-       *  J 

TIOX  OF  About  the  middle  of  November,  1688,  William  landed 
1688.  m  England  at  the  head  of  an  army  of  fourteen  thousand 
men,  and  was  everywhere  received  with  the  highest  favor.  James 
was  abandoned  by  the  army  and  the  people,  and  even  by  his  own 
children ;  and  in  a  moment  of  despair  he  formed  the  resolution  of 
leaving  the  kingdom,  and  soon  after  found  means  to  escape  privately 
to  France.  These  events  are  usually  denominated  "  the  Revolution 
of  1688." 

34.  In  a  convention-parliament  which  met  soon  after  the  flight  of 
James,  it  was  declared  that  the  king's  withdrawal  was  an  abdication 
of  the  government,  and  that  the  throne  was  thereby  vacant ;  and  af- 
ter a  variety  of  propositions,  a  bill  was  passed,  settling  the  crown  on 
William  and  Mary,  the  prince  and  princess  of  Orange ;  the  success- 
ion to  the  princess  Anne,  the  next  eldest  daughter  of  the  late  king, 
and  to  her  posterity  after  that  of  the  princess  of  Orange.     To  this 
settlement  of  the  crown  a  declaration  of  rights  was  annexed,  by 
which  the  subjects  of  controversy  that  had  existed  for  many  years, 
and  particularly  during  the  last  four  reigns,  between  the  king  and 
the  people,  were  finally  determined ;  and  the  royal  prerogative  was 
more  narrowly  circumscribed,  and  more  exactly  defined,  than  in  any 
former  period  of  English  history. 

35.  While  the  accession  of  William  and  Mary  was  peaceably  ac- 
quiesced in  by  the  English  people,  some  of  the  Highland  clans  of 
Scotland,  and  the  Catholics  of  Ireland,  testified  their  adherence  to 
the  late  king  by  taking  up  arms  in  his  favor.     The  former  gained  the 
battle  of  Killiecrankie1  in  the  summer  of  1689;  but  the  death  of 
their  leader,  the  viscount  Dundee,  who  fell  in  the  moment  of  victory, 
ended  all  the  hopes  of  James  in  Scotland.     In  the  meantime  Louis 
XIV.  of  France  openly  espoused  the  cause  of  the  fallen  monarch,  and 

1.  Killiecrankie  is  a  celebrated  pass,  half  a  mile  in  length,  through  the  Grampian  hills  in 
Scotland,  in  the  county  of  Perth,  sixty  miles  northwest  from  Edinburgh.  In  the  battle  of  1689, 
fought  at  the  northern  extremity  of  this  pass,  Mackay  commanded  the  revolutionary  forces^ 
and  the  famous  Graham  of  Claverhouse,  Viscount  Dundee,  the  troops  of  James  II.  (Map 
No.  XVI.) 


CHAP.  IV.]  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  377 

furnished  him  with  a  fleet,  with  which,  in  the  spring  of  1689,  James 
landed  in  Ireland,  where  a  bloody  war  raged  until  the  autumn  of 
1691,  when  the  whole  country  was  again  subjected  to  the  power  of 
England.  The  course  taken  by  the  French  monarch  led  to  a  decla- 
ration of  war  against  France  in  May  1689.  The  war  thus  com- 
menced involved,  in  its  progress,  most  of  the  continental  powers, 
nearly  all  of  which  were  united  in  a  confederacy  with  William  for 
the  purpose  of  putting  a  stop  to  the  encroachments  of  Louis.  An 
account  of  this  war  will  be  more  properly  given  in  connection  with 
the  history  of  France,  which  country,  under  the  influence  of  the 
genius  and  ambition  of  Louis  XIV.,  acquires,  in  the  latter  part  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  a  commanding  importance  in  the  history  of 
Europe.  King  William  died  in  the  spring  of  1702,  having  retained, 
until  his  death,  the  chief  direction  of  the  affairs  of  Holland,  under 
the  title  of  stadtholder ;  thus  presenting  the  singular  spectacle  of  a  mon 
archy  and  a  republic  at  the  same  time  governed  by  the  same  individual. 

III.  FRENCH  HISTORY: — WARS  OF  Louis  XIV. — 1.  During  the 
administration  of  Cardinal  Richelieu,  (1624 — 42,)  the 

n  •     •    ,  f   xi          f     ^^        T         •       VTTT        -n  T-   ADMINIS- 

able  minister  of  the  feeble   Louis  XIII.,  JB  ranee  was   TRATION  OF 
ruled  with  a  rod  of  iron.     "  He  made,"  says  Montes-     CARDINAL 

,  ,  .  .  t  ,i  i  .    •         ,1  RICHELIEU. 

queu,  "  his  sovereign  play  the  second  part  in  the  mon- 
archy, and  the  first  in  Europe ;  he  degraded  the  king,  but  he  rendered 
the  reign  illustrious."  He  humbled  the  nobility,  the  Huguenots,  and 
the  house  of  Austria ;  but  he  also  encouraged  literature  and  the  arts, 
and  promoted  commerce,  which  had  been  ruined  by  two  centuries  of 
domestic  war.  He  freed  France  from  a  state  of  anarchy,  but  he  es- 
tablished in  its  place  a  pure  despotism.  No  minister  was  ever  more 
successful  in  carrying  out  his  plans  than  Richelieu  ;  but  his  successes 
were  bought  at  the  expense  of  every  virtue  ;  and  as  a  man  he  merits 
execration.  He  died  in  December  1642,  and  Louis  survived  him  but 
a  few  months,  leaving,  as  his  successor,  his  son  Louis,  then  a  child 
of  only  six  years  of  age. 

2.  During  the  minority  of  Louis   XIV.,   Cardinal  Mazarin,  an 
Italian,  ruled  the  kingdom  as  prime  minister,  under  the  n  MAZARIN>S 
regency  of  the  queen  mother,  Anne  of  Austria.     Under     ADMINIS- 
Mazarin  was  concluded  the  treaty  of  Westphalia,  which     TRATI°N- 
terminated  the  thirty  years'  war  ;  and  during  the   early  part  of  hia 
administration  occurred  the  civil  war  of  the  Fronde?  in  which  the 

2.  "  War  of  the  Fronde"— so  called  because  the  first  outbreak  in  Paris  was  commenced  by 


378  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAET  IL 

magistracy  of  Paris,  supported  by  the  citizens,  rose  against  the  arbi- 
trary powers  of  the  government,  and  promulgated  a  plan  for  the  ref- 
ormation of  abuses ;  but  when  the  young  nobility  affected  to  abet 
and  adopt  its  principles,  they  perverted  the  cause  of  freedom  to  their 
own  selfish  interests ;  and  the  vain  struggle  for  constitutional  liberty 
degenerated  into  the  most  ridiculous  of  rebellions. 

3.  Though  the  treaty  of  Westphalia  (1648)  had  terminated  the 
"  Thirty  years'  war"  among  the  parties  originally  engaged  in  it,a 
yet  France  and  Spain  still  continued  the  contest  in  which  they  had 
at  first  only  a  secondary  share.     The  civil  disturbances  of  the  Fronde, 
occurring  at  this  time,  greatly  favored  the  Spaniards,  who  recovered, 
principally  on  the  borders  of  the  Low  Countries,  many  places  which 
they  had  previously  lost  to  the  French ;  and  by  means  of  the  great 
military  talents  of  Conde,  a  French  general  who  had  been  exiled 
during  the  late  troubles,  and  who  now  fought  on  the  side  of  the 
Spaniards,  the  latter  hoped  to  bring  the  war  to  a  triumphant  issue. 
The  French,  however,  found  in  marshal  Turenne  a  general  who  was 
more  than  a  rival  for  Conde  :  he  defeated  the  latter  in  the  siege  of 
Arras,1  and  compelled  the  Spaniards  to  retreat,  but  was  himself 
compelled  to  abandon  Valenciennes.2     At   this  time   Mazarin,  by 
flattering  the  passions  of  Cromwell,  induced  England  to  take  part  in 
the  contest :  six  thousand  English  joined  the  French  army  in  Flan- 
ders;3 and  Dunkirk,  taken  from  the  Spaniards,  was  given  to  England, 
according  to  treaty,  as  a  reward  for  her  assistance. 

4.  But  France,  though  victorious,  was  anxious  for  peace,  as  the 
finances  of  the  kingdom  were  in  disorder,  and  the  death  of  Cromwell 
had  rendered  the  alliance  with  England  of  little  benefit ;    while 

troops  of  urchins  with  their  slings— fronde  being  the  French  word  for  "  a  sling."  In  derision 
the  insurgents  were  first  called  frondeurs,  or  "  slingers," — an  insinuation  that  their  force  waa 
trifling,  and  their  aim  merely  mischief. 

1.  Jlrras  is  a  city  of  northern  France,  in  the  former  province  of  Artois,  thirty-three  miles 
south-east  from  Agincourt.    Robespierre,  of  infamous  memory,  and  Dainiens,  the  assassin  of 
Louis  XV.,  were  natives  of  Arras. 

2.  Valenciennes  is  a  town  of  north-eastern  France,  on  the  Scheldt,  (skelt),  near  the  Belgian 
frontier.     (Map  No.  XV.) 

3.  In  803  Charles  the  Bold  established  the  county  of  Flanders,  which  extended  from  the 
straits  of  Dover  nearly  to  the  mouths  of  the  Scheldt,    At  different,  times  Flanders  fell  under 
the  dominion  of  Bur' gundy,  Spain,  &c.    Towards  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century  it 
was  divided  into  French,  Austrian,  and  Dutch  Flanders.   French  Flanders  comprised  the  French 
province  of  that  name.    (See  Map  No.  XIII.)    Adjoining  this  territory,  on  the  east,  was  Aus- 
trian Flanders ;  and  adjoining  the  latter,  on  the  east,  was  Dutch  Flanders.    Dutch  and  Austrian 
Flanders  are  now  comprised  in  East  and  West  Flanders,  the  two  north-western  provinces  of 
Belgium  (see  Map  No.  XV.,)  although  the  Dutch  portion  embraced  only  a  small  part  of  East 
Flanders. 

a.  See  p.  314. 


CHAP.  IV.]  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  379 

Spain,  engaged  in  war  with  the  Netherlands  and  Portugal,  gladly 
acceded  to  the  offers  of  reconciliation  with  her  most  powerful  enemy. 
On  the  banks  of  the  Bidassoa1  the  treaty,  usually  known  as  the  treaty 
of  the  Pyrenees,  was  concluded,  (Nov.  1659,)  and  the  infatuated 
Maria  Theresa,  eldest  daughter  of  Philip  of  Spain,  was  given  in 
marriage  to  the  French  monarch ;  although,  to  prevent  the  possible 
union  of  two  such  powerful  kingdoms,  Louis  was  compelled  to  re- 
nounce all  claim  to  the  Spanish  crown,  either  for  himself  or  his  suc- 
cessors. By  the  treaty  of  the  Pyrenees,  Conde  was  pardoned  and 
again  received  into  favor  ;  the  limits  of  France  were  extended  on  the 
English  Channel  to  Gravelines  ;a  while  on  the  south-west  the  Pyrenees 
became  its  boundary,  by  the  acquisition  of  Roussillon.3  Thus  France 
assumed  almost  its  present  form ;  its  subsequent  acquisitions  being 
Franche-Comte4  and  French  Flanders. 

5.  About  a  year  after  the  conclusion  of  the  treaty  of  the  Pyrenees, 
Mazarin  died,  (March  1661,)  and  Louis,  summoning  his  council,  and  ex 
pressing  his  determination  to  take  the  government  wholly 
into  his  own  hands,  strictly  commanded  the  chancellor,    louj^>XIV 
and  secretaries  of  state,  to  sign  no  paper  but  at  his  ex- 
press bidding.     To  the  stern,  economical,  and  orderly  Colbert,  he  in- 
trusted the  management  of  the  treasury ;  and  in  a  brief  period  the 
purchase  of  Dunkirk  from  England,  the  establishment  of  numerous 
manufactures,  the  building  of  the  Louvre,8  the  Invalides,6  and  the 

1.  The  Sidassoa^  which  rises  in  the  Spanish  territory,  and  falls  into  the  Bay  of  Biscay,  forms, 
in  the  latter  part  of  its  course,  the  boundary  between  France  and  Spain.    A  short  distance 
from  its  mouth  it  forms  the  small  Isle  of  the  Pheasants,  where  the  peace  of  the  Pyrenees  was 
concluded  in  1G59.    The  Bidassoa  was  the  scene  of  important  operations  in  the  peninsular  war 
of  1813. 

2.  Oravelines  is  a  small  town  twelve  miles  east  from  Calais.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

3.  Roussillon,  a  province  of  France  before  the  French  Revolution,  was  bounded  on  the  south 
and  east  by  the  Pyrenees  and  the  Mediterranean.    The  counts  of  Roussillon  governed  this  dis- 
trict for  a  long  period.    The  last  count  bequeathed  it  to  Alphonso  of  Aragon  in  1 178.    In  1462 
it  was  ceded  to  Louis  XI.  of  France,  but  in  J493  it  was  restored  to  the  kings  of  Aragon,  and  in 
1659  was  finally  surrendered  to  France  by  the  treaty  of  the  Pyrenees.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

4.  Franche-Comte,  called  also   Upper  Bur' gundy,  had  Bur' gundy  Proper,  or  Lower  Bur'- 
gundy,  on  the  south  and  west.    Besancon  was  its  capital.    In  the  division  of  the  States  of  the 
emperor  Maximilian,  Franche-Comte  fell  to  Spain;  but  Louis  XIV.  conquered  it  in  1674,  and 
it  was  ceded  to  France  by  the  peace  of  Nimeguen,  in  1678.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

5.  The  palace  of  the  Louvre,  one  of  the  finest  regal  structures  in  Europe,  has  not  been  the 
residence  of  a  French  monarch  since  the  minority  of  Louis  XV.,  and  is  now  converted  into  a 
national  museum  and  picture  gallery.    The  pictures  are  deposited  on  the  first  floor  of  a  splendid 
range  of  rooms  above  a  quarter  of  a  mile  in  length,  and  facing  the  river. 

6.  The  Hotel  des  Invalides  (in'-va-leed)  is  a  hospital  intended  for  the  support  of  disabled 
officers  and  soldiers  who  have  been  in  active  service  upwards  of  thirty  years.    It  covers  a 
space  of  nearly  seven  acres,  and  is  one  of  the  grandest  rational  institutions  of  Europe. 


380  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAET  It 

palace  of  Versailles,1  and  the  commencement  of  the  canal  of  Langue- 
doc,2  attested  the  miracles  that  mere  economy  can  work  in  finance. 

6.  Arousing  himself  from  the  thraldom  of  love  intrigues,  Louis 
now  began  to  awake  to  projects  of  ambition.     The  splendor  of  his 
court  dazzled  the  nobility :  his  personal  qualities  won  him  the  affection 
of  his  people  :  he  breathed  a  new  spirit  into  the  administration  5  and 
foreign  potentates,  like  the  proud  nobles  of  his  court,  seemed  to 
quail  before  his   power.     He   repudiated   the   stipulations   of   the 
treaty  of  the  Pyrenees,  on  the  ground  that  the  dower  which  he  was 
to  receive  with  his  wife  had  not  been  paid;  and  on  the  death  of  his 
father-in-law,  Philip  IV.  of  Spain,  by  which  event  the  crown  devolved 
upon  a  sickly  infant,  by  a  second  marriage,  he  laid  immediate  claim 
to  the  Spanish  Netherlands  in  right  of  his  wife, — alleging,  in  sup- 
port of  the  claim,  an  ancient  custom  of  the  province  of  Brabant,3  by 
which  females  of  a  first  marriage  were  to  inherit  in  preference  to  sons 
of  a  second.     The  French  monarch,  after  securing  the  neutrality  of 
Austria,  poured  his  legions  over  the  Belgian  frontier,  and  with  great 
rapidity  reduced  most  of  the  fortresses  as  far  as  the  Scheldt.     The 
captured  towns  were  immediately  fortified  by  the  celebrated  engineer 
Vauban,  and  garrisoned  by  the  best  troops  of  France.     (1667-8.) 

7.  These  successes  encouraged  Louis  to  turn  his  arms  towards 
another  quarter  ;  and  Franche-Comte,  a  part  of  the  old  Bur' gundy, 
but  still  retained  by  the  Spaniards,  was  conquered  before  Spain  was 
aware  of  the  danger.     (Feb.   1668.)     The  Hollanders,  alarmed  at 
the  approach  of  the  French,  became  reconciled  to  Spain ;  and  a 
Triple  Alliance  was  formed  between  Holland,  Sweden,  and  England, 
three  Protestant   powers,  for  the   purpose  of   defending   Catholic 

1.  Versailles  is  nine  miles  south-west  from  Paris.    The  palace  of  Versailles,  of  prodigious 
size  and  magnificence,  has  not  been  occupied  by  the  court  since  1789.    It  was  much  out  of  re 
pair,  when  Louis  Philippe  transformed  it  into  what  may  be  called  a  national  museum,  intended 
to  illustrate  the  history  of  France,  and  to  exhibit  the  progress  of  the  country  in  arts,  arms,  and 
civilization.    (Map  No.  XFII.) 

2.  The  canal  of  Languedoc,  commencing  at  Cette,  fourteen  miles  south-west  of  Montpelier, 
and  extending  to  Toulouse  on  the  Garonne,  a  distance  of  one  hundred  and  forty-eight  miles, 
thus  connects  the  Mediterranean  and  the  Atlantic.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

3.  Brabant,  first  erected  into  a  duchy  in  the  seventh  century,  included  the  Dutch  province  of 
North  Brabant,  and  the  Belgic  provinces  of  South  Brabant  and  Antwerp.    Having  passed,  by 
marriage,  into  the  possession  of  the  house  of  Bur'  gundy,  it  afterwards  descended  to  Charles  V. 
In  the  seventeenth  century  the  republic  of  Holland  took  possession  of  the  northern  part,  (now 
North  Brabant,)  which  was  thence  called  Dutch  Brabant,  while  the  remainder  was  known  as 
Austrian  Brabant.    Both  repeatedly  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  French,  but  in  1815  were  in- 
cluded in  the  kingdom  of  the  Netherlands.    Since  the  revolution  of  1830  North  Brabant  has 
been  included  in  Holland,  and  the  other  provinces,  or  Austrian  Brabant,  in  Belgium.    (Map 
No.  XV.) 


CHAP.  IV.]  SEVENTEENTH    CENTURY.  381 

Spain  against  Catholic  France.  Louis  receded  before  this  menacing 
league,  and  by  restoring  Franche-Comte,  which  he  knew  could  at  any 
time  easily  be  regained,  while  he  retained  most  of  his  Flemish  con- 
quests, concluded  the  treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,1  (1668,)  which  mere- 
ly suspended  the  war  until  the  French  king  was  better  prepared  to 
carry  it  on  with  success. 

8.  The  great  object  of  Louis  was  now  revenge  against  Holland, 
the  originator  of  the  triple  alliance.     Knowing  the  profligate  habits 
of  Charles   II.,  he   purchased  with  ready  money  the  alliance  of 
England ;  he  also  bought  the  neutrality  of  Sweden,  and  the  neigh- 
boring princes  of  Germany,  while  in  the  meantime  he  created  a  navy 
of  a  hundred  vessels,  built  five  naval  arsenals,  and  increased  his  army 
to  a  hundred  thousand  men. 

9.  For  the  first  time  the  bayonet,  so  terrible  a  weapon  in  French 
hands,  was  affixed  to  the  end  of  the  musket ;  and  the  hundred  thou- 
sand soldiers  who  composed  the  French  army,  armed  as  the  French 
were,  might  well  strike  terror  into  the  rulers  of  Holland,  who  could 
raise,  at  most,  an  army  of  only  thirty  thousand  men. 

10.  In  the  spring  of  1672  the  French  armies,  avoiding  the  Spanish 
Netherlands,  passed  through  the  country  betwixt  the  Meuse  and  the 
Rhine,2  crossed  the  latter  river  in  June,  and  rapidly  advanced  to 
within  a  few  leagues  of  Amsterdam,8  when  the  Dutch,  by  opening  the 
dykes,  let  in  the  sea  and  saved  the  metropolis.     But  even  Amster- 
dam meditated  submission ;  one  project  of  the  inhabitants  being  to 
embark,  like  the  Athenians,  on  board  their  fleet,  sail  for  their  East 
India  settlements,  and  abandon  their  country  to  the  modern  Xerxes 
who  had  come  to  destroy  their  liberties.     While  Amsterdam  was 
secure  for  the  present  behind  its  rampart  of  waters,  and  the  French 
armies  were  wintering  triumphantly  in  the  conquered  provinces,  the 
envoys  of  the  Dutch  roused  Europe  against  the  ambition  of  Louis. 

L  Jlix-la-Chapelle  (a-lah-shahpel')  is  an  old  and  well-built  city  of  the  Prussian  States,  near 
the  eastern  confines  of  Belgium,  eighty  miles  east  of  Brussels.  It  was  the  favorite  residence 
of  Charlemagne,  and  for  some  time  the  capital  of  his  empire.  Two  celebrated  treaties  have 
been  concluded  in  this  city ;  the  first,  Mtiy  2d,  16G8,  between  France  and  Spain ;  and  the 
second,  Oct.  18th,  1748,  between  the  different  powers  engaged  in  the  wars  of  the  Austrian  suc- 
cession. Here  also  was  held  the  celebrated  congress  of  the  allied  powers  in  1818.  (Map  No. 
XVIF.) 

2.  The  Meuse  and  the  Rhine  ;— see  Map  No.  XV. 

3.  Amsterdam,  a  famous  maritime  and  commercial  city  of  Holland,  is  on  the  south  bank  of  the 
Y.,  an  inlet  or  arm  of  the  Zuyder  Zee.  Being  situated  in  a  marsh,  its  buildings  are  all  founded 
on  piles,  driven  from  forty  to  fifty  feet  in  a  soil  consisting  of  alluvial  deposits,  peat,  clay,  and 
sand.    The  State-House,  a  magnificent  building  of  freestone,  is  erected  on  a  foundation  of 
thirteen  thousand  six  hundred  and  fifty-nine  piles.     Numerous  canals  divide  the  city  into 
about  a  hundred  islands.    (Map  No.  XV.) 


382  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  It 

Prince  William  of  Orange,  a  general  of  only  twenty-two  years  of 
age,  being  placed  at  the  bead  of  the  Republic,  soon  succeeded  in  de- 
taching England  from  the  unnatural  alliance  which  she  had  formed 
with  her  ancient  enemy :  Spain  and  Austria,  awaking  to  their  interests, 
prepared  to  send  troops  to  aid  the  Dutch;  and  by  1674  nearly  all 
Europe  was  leagued  against  the  French  monarch. 

1 1.  Louis  was  now  obliged  to  abandon  Holland  ;  but,  in  the  Span- 
ish  Netherlands,  his  great  generals,  Conde  and  Turenne,  turning 
upon  the  allied  armies,  for  a  while  kept  all  Europe  at  bay.     In  the 
following  year,  (1675,)  Turenne  was  killed  by  a  cannon  ball  as  he 
was  about  to  enter  Germany ;  and  although  Louis  created  six  new 
marshals,  the  whole  were  not  equal  to  the  one  he  had  lost.     Soon 
after,  Conde  retired,  disabled  by  age  and  infirmity ;  and  with  the 
loss  of  her  great  generals  the  valor  of  France,  on  the  land,  for  a 
while  slumbered.     But  at  this  time  there  appeared  a  seaman  of 
talent  and  heroism,  named  Duquesne,  who,  being  sent  to   succor 
Messina,  which  had  revolted  against  Spain,  defeated  the  fleet  of  De 
Ruyter  in  a  terrible  naval  battle  within  sight  of  Mount  ^Etna.     The 
Dutch  admiral  himself  was  among  the  slain.     In  the  second  battle, 
in   1677,  Duquesne  almost  annihilated  the  Dutch  fleet.     Under  a 
grateful  monarch  this  man   might   have  become  high  admiral  of 
France  ;  but  Louis  was  growing  bigoted  with  his  years,  and  his  faith- 
ful servant  was  reproached  for  being  a  Protestant.     "  When  I  fought 
for  your  majesty,"  replied  the  blunt  sailor,  "  I  never  thought  of 
what  might  be  your  religion."     His  son,  driven  into  exile  for  ad- 
hering to  the  reformed  faith,  carried  away  with  him  the  bones  of  his 
father,  determined  not  to  leave  them  in  an  ungrateful  country. 

12.  In  the  meantime  conferences  took  place  at  Nimeguen*  the 
allies  wished  peace ;  and  France  and  Holland,  the  original  parties  in 
the  war,  were  equally  exhausted.     At  length,  in  August  1678,  the 
treaty  was  signed,  Louis  retaining  most  of  his  conquests  in  the  Spanish 
Netherlands, — all  French  Flanders  in  fact,  as  well  as  Franche-Comte. 
Spain,  from  whom  these  possessions  were  obtained,  assented  to  the 
treaty ;  for  the  imbecile  monarch  of  that  country  knew  not  what 
towns  belonged  to  him,  nor  where  was  the  frontier  line  of  what  he 
still  retained  of  the  Spanish  Netherlands.     "Here  may  be  seen," 
says  Voltaire,  "  how  little  do  events  correspond  to  projects.     Hol- 
land, against  which  the  war  had  been  undertaken,  and  which  had 
nearly  perished,  lost  nothing,  nay,  even  gained  a  barrier ;  while  the 


/!  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  383 

other  powers,  that  had  armed  to  defend  and  guarantee  her  indepen- 
dence, all  lost  something." 

13.  The  years  which  followed  the  peace  of  Nimeguen  were  the 
most  prosperous  for  France ;  and  formed  the  zenith  of  the  reign  of 
Louis  XIV.     All  Europe  had  been  armed  against  him,  and  success 
had  more  or  less  crowned  all  his  enterprises.     He  assumed  to  him- 
self the  title  of  Great ;  and  one  of  his  dukes  even  kept  a  burning 
lamp  before  the  statue  of  the  monarch,  as  before  an  altar ;  the  least 
insult  offered  by  foreign  courts  to  his  representatives,  or  neglect  of 
etiquette,  was  sure  to  bring  down  signal  vengeance.     In  the  years 
1682  and  168^  Algiers  was  bombarded,  then  a  new  mode  of  warfare  : 
in  1684  Genoa  experienced  the  same  fate  because  it  refused  to  allow 
the  French  monarch  to  establish  a  depot  within  its  territory.     Even 
the  pope  was  humbled  before  the  "  Grand  Monarch ;"  some  of  the 
German  princes  were  expelled  from  their  territories ;  and  in  time 
of  peace  French  maurauding  par  ties  devastated  the  Spanish  provinces. 
Louis  increased  his  navy  to  two  hundred  and  thirty  vessels ;  and 
toward  the  end  of  his  reign  his  armies  amounted  to  four  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  men.     But  the  greatest  glories  of  the  reign  of 
Louis  were  those  connected  with  literature  and  the  arts.     Men  of 
letters  now,  for  the  first  time,  began  to  exert  a  great  influence  on  the 
mind  of  the  French  nation ;  and  the  familiar  names  of  Moliere,  Ra- 
cine, Boileau,  La  Fontaine,  Bossuet,  Massillon,  and  Fenelon,  adorned 
the  age  of  Louis,  and  shed  on  the  land  the  brightness  of  their  fame. 
In  the  next  century  the  writings  of  these  men,  and  of  their  success- 
ors, determined  the  fate  of  the  great  monarchy  which  Louis  had  built 
up. 

14.  The  cpeen  of  France  being  dead,  towards  the  year  1685  Louis 
secretly  married   Madame   Scarron,   the  widow  of  the   celebrated 
comic  writer,  on  whom  he  conferred  the  title  of  Madame  De  Main- 
tenon.     This  woman,  who  had  been  educated  a  Calvinist,  and  had 
abjured  her  religion,  would  have  made  all  Protestants  do  the  same ; 
and  it  was  chiefly  through  her  influence,  and  that  of  the  royal  con- 
fessor La  Chaise,  that  the  king,  naturally  bigoted,  became  a  bitter 
persecutor  of  his  Protestant  subjects.     In  1685  he  revoked  the  edict 
of  Nantes,  which  had  given  tolerance  to  all  religions,  forbade  all  ex- 
ercise of  the  Protestant  worship,  and  banished  from  the  kingdom, 
within  fifteen  days,  all  Protestant  ecclesiastics  who  would  not  recant. 
Afterwards  he  closed  the  ports  against  the  fugitives,  sent  to  the  gal- 
leys those  who  attempted  to  escape,  and  confiscated  their  property, 


384  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAKT  IL 

France  lost  by  these  cruel  measures  two  hundred  thousand — some 
say  five  hundred  thousand — of  her  best  subjects ;  and  the  bigotry 
of  Louis  gave  a  greater  blow  to  the  industry  and  wealth  of  his  king- 
dom than  the  unlimited  expenses  of  his  pride  and  ambition. 

15.  The  cruelties  of  Louis  to  the  Protestants  roused  the  hearts 
of  the  Germans,  Dutch,  and  English,  against  him,  and  accelerated  a 
general  war.     In  1686  a  league  was  formed  at  Augsburg  by  all  the 
German  princes  to  restrain  the  encroachments  of  Louis  :  Holland 
joined  it, — Spain  also,  excited  by  jealousy  of  a  domineering  neighbor; 
Sweden,  Denmark,   and  Savoy,  were  afterwards  gained;    and  the 
revolution  of   1688,  by  which  William  of  HollancJ   ascended  the 
throne  of  England,  placed  the  latter  country  at  the  head  of  the 
confederacy.     But  Louis  was   not  daunted  by  the   power  of  the 
league  :  anticipating  his  enemies,  he  was  first  in  the  field,  sending  an 
army  against  Germany  in  1688,  which  ravaged  the  Palatinate1  with 
fire  and  sword.     He  also  sent  an  army  into  Flanders,  one  into  Italy, 
and  a  third  to  check  the  Spaniards  in  Catalonia ;  while  at  the  same 
time  he  sent  a  fleet  and  an  army  to  Ireland,  to  aid  James  II.  in  re- 
covering the  throne  of  England. 

16.  After  the  first  campaign,  in  which   Louis  profited  little,  he 
gave  the  command  of  his  armies  to  new  generals  of  approved  talent, 
and  instantly  the  fortune  of  the  war  changed.     In  1690  Savoy  was 
overrun  by  the  French  marshal  Catinat,  and  Flanders  by  marshal 
Luxembourg :    the  combined  squadrons  of  England  and  Holland 
were  defeated  by  the  French  admiral  Tourville,  off  Beachy  Head  ;a 
and  a  descent  was  made  on  the  coast  of  England.     In  1692  the  for- 
tress of  Namur3  was  taken  by  the  French,  in  spite  of  all  the  efforts 
of  William  and  the  allies  to  relieve  it ;  but  during  the  progress  of  the 
siege  the  French  were  defeated  in  a  terrible  naval  battle  off  Cape 
La  Hogue  ;4  a  battle  that  decided  the  fate  of  the  Stuarts,  and  marks 
the  era  of  England's  dominion  over  the  seas. 

1.  The  Palatinate,  by  which  is  generally  understood  the  Lower  Palatinate,  or  Palatinate  of 
the  Rhine,  was  a  country  of  Germany,  on  both  sides  of  the  Rhine,  embracing  about  sixteen 
hundred  square  miles,  and  now  divided  among  Prussia,  Bavaria,  Baden,  Hesse  Darmstadt^ 
Nassau,  &c.    That  part  of  it  west  of  the  Rhine,  and  belonging  to  Bavaria,  is  still  called  "  The 
Palatinate."    The  Upper  Palatinate,  embracing  a  somewhat  larger  territory,  was  in  Bavaria, 
and  bordered  on  Bohemia.    Amberg  was  its  capital.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

2.  Beachy  Head  is  a  bold  promontory  on  the  southern  coast  of  England,  eighteen  milea 
south-west  from  Hastings.     (Map  No.  XVI.) 

3.  Namur  is  a  strongly-fortified  town  of  Belgium,  at  the  junction  of  the  Sambre  and  Meuse, 
thirty-five  miles  south-east  from  Brussels.    (Map  No.  XV.) 

4.  Cape  La  Hogue  is  a  prominent  headland  of  France,  on  the  English  Channel,  sixteen 
miles  north-west  of  Cherbourg.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 


CHAP.  IV.]         SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  385 

17.  The  campaign  of  1693  was  fortunate  for  the  French,  who 
gained  the  bloody  battle  of  Nerwinden1  over  king  William — defeated 
the  duke  of  Savoy  in  a  general  action  at  Marseilles — made  progress 
against  the  Spaniards  in  Catalonia — and  gained  some  advantages 
at  sea.  But  after  this  year  Louis  no  longer  visited  his  armies  in 
person  j  and  succeeding  campaigns  became  less  fruitful  of  important 
and  decisive  results.  France  had  been  exhausted  by  the  enormous 
exertions  of. her  monarch,  and  all  parties  were  anxious  to  terminate 
a  war  in  which  much  blood  had  been  shed,  much  treasure  expended, 
and  no  permanent  acquisitions  made.  Conferences  for  peace  com- 
menced in  1696;  and  in  the  beginning  of  1697  the  plenipotentiaries 
of  the  several  powers  assembled  at  Ryswick,3  a  small  town  in  Hol- 
land. In  the  treaty,  which  was  signed  in  September,  England  gained 
only  the  recognition  of  the  monarch  of  her  choice  ;  while  the  French 
king's  renunciation  of  the  Spanish  succession,  which  had  been  one 
important  object  of  the  war,  was  not  even  mentioned.  ^  Although 
in  the  treaty  Louis  appeared  to  make  concessions,  yet  he  kept  the 
new  frontier  that  he  had  chosen  in  Flanders,  whilst  the  possession  of 
Strasburg9  extended  the  French  limits  to  the  Rhine.  Louis  had 
baffled  the  most  powerful  European  league  ;  and  although  the  com- 
merce of  the  kingdom  was  destroyed,  and  the  country  exhausted  of 
men  and  money,  while  a  dreadful  famine  was  ravaging  what  war  had 
spared,  yet  at  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century  France  still  pre- 
served, over  surrounding  nations,  the  ascendency  that  Richelieu  had 
planned,  and  that  Louis  XIV.  had  proudly  won. 

IV.  COTEMPORARY  HISTORY. — 1.  Besides  France,  England,  Ger- 
many, and  the  countries  connected  with  them  in  wars  and  alliances, 
the  strictly  universal  history  of  this  period  embraces  a  range  more 
extended  than  that  of  any  previous  century.  On  the  continent  the 
histories  of  the  leading  powers  become  more  and  more  intermingled; 

J.  Neneinden  is  a  small  village  of  Belgium,  about  thirty-three  miles  south-east  from  Brussels. 

2.  Ryswick  is  a  small  town  in  the  west  of  Holland,  two  miles  south-east  from  Hague,  and 
thirty-five  south-west  from  Amsterdam.    The  peace  of  Ryswick  terminated  what  is  known  in 
American  history  as  "  King  William's  War," — a  war  between  the  French  and  the  English 
American  colonies,  attended  with  numerous  inroads  of  the  Indians,  who  were  in  alliance  with 
the  French.    (Map  No.  XV.) 

3.  Straslurg  is  an  ancient  fortified  city  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Rhine,  in  the  former  prov- 
ince of  Alsace.    It  is  principally  noted  for  its  cathedral,  said  to  have  been  originally  founded 
by  Clovis,  in  504.    The  modern  building,  however,  was  begun  in  1015,  but  not  finished  till  the 
fifteenth  century.    Its  spire  reaches  to  the  extraordinary  height  of  four  hundred  and  sixty-six 
feet— about  seven  feet  higher  than  St.  Peter's  in  Rome,  and  about  five  feet  higher  than  the 
great  pyramid  of  Cheops.    (Maps  Nos.  XIII.  and  XVII.) 

25 


386  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

the  Northern  States  are  seen  growing  in  importance,  and  beginning 
to  take  part  in  European  politics ;  while,  abroad,  colonies  are  planted, 
that  are  soon  to  assume  the  rank  of  independent  and  powerful  nations. 

2.  It  was  not  until  after  the  Reformation  that  the  three  Scandi- 

navian States,  Denmark,  Sweden,  and  Norway,  came  into 

I.  DENMARK,  •    i         i 

SWEDEN,  contact  with  the  Southern  nations  of  Christendom,  nor 
AND  until  the  commencement  of  the  "  Thirty  Years'  War," 
in  the  early  part  of  the  seventeenth  century,  that  they 
took  any  active  part  in  the  concerns  of  their  southern  neighbors, 
when,  under  the  conduct  of  the  heroic  Gustavus  Adolphus,  Sweden 
and  her  allies  warred  so  manfully  in  the  cause  of  religious  freedom 
Under  Gustavus,  the  glory  and  power  of  Sweden  attained  their 
greatest  height ;  and  although  the  successes  of  the  Swedish  arms 
continued  under  Christina,  Charles  X.,  and  Charles  XI.,  Swedish 
history  offers  little  further  that  is  interesting  to  the  general  student 
until  the  Recession  of  Charles  XII.  in  1697,  the  extraordinary 
events  of  whose  career  belong  to  the  next  century. 

3.  The  history  of  Poland,  during  most  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 

tury, is  of  less  interest  to  the  general  reader  than  that  of 
Sweden,  being  filled  with  accounts  of  unimportant  do- 
mestic contentions  among  the  nobility,  and  of  foreign  wars  with 
Sweden,  Russia,  and  Turkey,  while  the  mass  of  the  people,  in  the 
lowest  state  of  degradation,  were  slaves,  in  the  fullest  extent  of  the 
term,  and  not  supposed  to  have  any  legal  existence.  The  greatest 
of  the  monarchs  of  Poland  was  John  Sobieski,  elected  to  the  throne 
in  1 674,  the  fame  of  whose  victories  over  the  Turks  threw  a  transient 
splendor  on  the  waning  destinies  of  his  ill-fated  country.  His  first 
great  achievement  was  the  victory  of  Kotzim,1  gained,  with  a  com- 
paratively small  force,  over  an  army  of  eighty  thousand  Mussulmen, 
strongly  intrenched  on  the  banks  of  the  Dniester,  leaving  forty  thou- 
sand of  the  enemy  dead  in  the  precincts  of  the  camp.  (Nov.  1673.) 
All  Europe  was  electrified  with  this  extraordinary  triumph,  the  great- 
est that  had  been  won  for  three  centuries  over  the  infidels. 

4.  Other  victories  of  the  Polish  hero,  scarcely  less  important,  are 
recorded  in  the  annals  of  Poland ;  but  what  has  immortalized  the 
name  of  John  Sobieski  is  the  deliverance  of  Vienna8  in  1683.     A 

1.  Kotiim  is  now  an  important  fortress  of  south-western  Russia,  situated  on  the  right  bank 
of  the  Dniester,  in  the  province  of  Bessarabia.    The  Turks  strongly-fortified  it  in  1718,  but  it 
was  successively  taken  by  the  Russians  in  1730,  1769,  and  1788.     (Map  No.  XVII.) 

2.  Vienna,  the  capital  of  the  Austrian  empire,  is  on  the  southern  bank  of  the  Danube,  three 
hundred  and  thirty  miles  south-east  from  Berlin,  and  eight  hundred  miles  north-west  from 


CHAP.  IV.]  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  387 

revolt  of  the  Hungarians  from  the  dominion  of  Austria,  and  an  alli- 
ance formed  between  them  and  the  Turks,  had  brought  an  army  of 
nearly  three  hundred  thousand  men  against  the  Austrian  capital, 
which  was  defended  by  its  citizens,  and  a  garrison  of  little  more 
than  eleven  thousand  men.  After  an  active  siege  of  more  than  two 
months,  Vienna  was  reduced  to  the  last  extremity.  In  the  mean- 
time the  Austrian  emperor,  who  had  left  his  capital  to  make  what 
defence  it  could  against  the  immense  hosts  of  Turks  that  poured 
down  upon  it,  had  solicited  the  aid  of  the  Polish  king ;  and  Sobieski 
was  not  long  in  making  his  appearance  at  the  head  of  a  small,  but 
resolute  army  of  eighteen  thousand  veterans.  The  combined  Polish 
and  Austrian  forces,  when  all  assembled,  amounted  to  only  seventy 
thousand  men,  whom  the  Turks  outnumbered  more  than  three  to 
one ;  but  Sobieski,  whose  name  alone  was  a  terror  to  the  infidels, 
was  at  once  the  Agamemnon  and  Achilles  of  the  Christian  host. 

5.  Sunday  the  12th  of  September,  1683,  wag  the  important  day 
that  was  to  decide  whether  the  Turkish  crescent  or  the  cross,  was^to 
wave  on  the  turrets  of  Vienna.  At  five  o'clock  in  the  afternoon 
Sobieski  had  drawn  up  his  forces  in  the  plain  fronting  the  Mussul- 
men  camp,  and  ordering  the  advance,  he  exclaimed  aloud,  "  Not  to 
us,  0  Lord,  but  to  thee  be  the  glory."  "Whole  bands  of  Tartar 
troops  broke  and  fled  when  they  heard  the  name  of  the  Polish  hero 
repeated  from  one  end  to  the  other  of  the  Ottoman  lines.  At  the 
same  moment  an  eclipse  of  the  moon  added  to  the  consternation  of 
the  superstitious  Moslems,  who  beheld  with  dread  the  crescent 
waning  in  the  heavens.  With  a  furious  charge  the  Polish  infantry 
seized  an  eminence  that  commanded  the  grand  Vizier's  position, 
when  Kara  Mustapha,  taken  by  surprise  at  this  unexpected  attack, 
fell  at  once  from  the  heights  of  confidence  to  the  depths  of  despair. 
Charge  upon  charge  was  rapidly  hurled  upon  the  already  wavering 
Moslems,  whose  rout  soon  became  general.  In  vain  the  vizier  tried 
to  rally  the  broken  hosts.  "  Can  you  not  aid  me !"  said  he  to  the 

Constantinople.  Population  about  three  hundred  and  seventy  thousand.  In  Roman  history 
Vienna  is  known  as  rindabona,  (see  Map  No.  VIII.,)  and  is  remarkable  as  being  the  place 
where  Marcus  Aurelius  died.  After  the  time  of  Charlemagne,  margraves  or  dukes  held  Vienna 
till  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century,  soon  after  which  it  came  into  the  possession  of  the 
house  of  Hapsburg.  In  1484  it  was  taken  by  the  Hungarians,  whose  king,  Matthias,  made  it 
the  seat  of  his  court.  Since  the  time  of  Maximilian  it  has  been  the  usual  residence  of  the 
arch-dukes  of  Austria,  and  the  emperors  of  Germany.  About  two  miles  from  the  city  is 
Schonbrunn,  the  favorite  summer  residence  of  the  emperor.  It  was  twice  occupied  by  Napo- 
leon: the  treaty  of  Schunbrunn  was  signed  in  it  in  1808,  and  here  the  duke  of  Reichstadt,  son 
of  Napoleon,  died  in  1832.  (Map  No.  TVII.) 


"J 


388  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAKT  IL 

cham  of  the  Tartars,  who  passed  him  among  the  fugitives.  "  I  know 
the  king  of  Poland,"  was  the  reply ;  "  and  I  tell  you,  that  with  such 
an  enemy  we  have  no  safety  but  in  flight.  Look  at  the  sky  ;  see  if 
God  is  not  against  us." 

6.  So  sudden  and  general  was  the  panic  among  the  Turks,  that  at 
six  o'clock  Sobieski  entered  the  camp  where  a  hundred  and  twenty 
thousand  tents  were  still  found  standing  •  the  innumerable  multitude 
of  the   Orientals  had  disappeared ;  but  their  spoils,  their  horses, 
their  camels,  their  splendor,  loaded  the  ground.     The  cause  of  Chris- 
tianity— of   civilization — had  prevailed ;    the  wave  of  Mussulman 
power  had  retired,  never   to  return.     But  Sobieski  received  little 
thanks  from  a  jealous  monarch  for  rescuing  him  and  his  country 
from  irretrievable  ruin  ;  and  Poland — unhappy  Poland  !  had  saved 
a  serpent  from  death,  which  afterward  turned  and  stung  her  for  the 
kindness.     Sobieski  died  in  1696,  in  the  midst  of  the  ruin  that  was 
fast  overwhelming  his  country  through  the  dissensions  and  clamors 
of  a  turbulent  nobility,  and  just  in  time  to  save  his  withered  laurels 
from  being  torn  from  his  brow  by  the  rude  hand  of  rebellion.     With 
him  the  greatness  of  his  native  land  may  be  said  to  have  ended. 

7.  Russia,  at  the  commencement  of  the  seventeenth  century,  was 

immersed  in  extreme  ignorance  and  barbarism  ;  and  al- 
though a  glimmering  of  light  dawned  upon  her  during 
the  reign  of  Alexis,  who  died  in  1677,  yet  the  great  epoch  in  the 
history  of  Russia  is  the  reign  of  Peter  the  Great,  whose  genius  first 
opened  to  its  people  the  advantages  of  civilization.  In  1689,  this 
prince,  then  only  seventeen  years  of  age,  became  sole  monarch  of 
Russia.  The  vigorous  development  of  his  mind  was  a  subject  of 
universal  wonder  and  admiration.  Full  of  energy  and  activity,  he 
found  nothing  too  arduous  to  be  attempted,  and  he  commenced  at 
once  the  vast  project  of  changing  the  whole  system  of  the  govern- 
ment, and  of  reforming  the  manners  of  the  people.  His  first  exer- 
tions were  directed  to  the  remodelling  and  disciplining  of  the  army, 
and  the  improvement  of  his  resources  ;  and  from  the  model  of  a  small 
yacht  on  the  river  which  runs  through  Moscow,  he  constructed  the 
first  Russian  navy.  In  1694  he  took  from  the  Turks  the  advan- 
tageous port  of  Azof,1  which  opened  to  his  subjects  the  commerce  of 

1.  The  sea  of  Azof,  the  Palus  Mteotis  of  the  ancients,  communicates  by  the  narrow  strait  of 
Yenicale,  (an.  Cimmerian  Bosporus,)  with  the  north-western  angle  of  the  Black  Sea.  The 
port  of  Azof  is  at  the  mouth  of  the  Don,  at  the  north-eastern  extremity  of  the  sea  of  Azof. 
The  town,  anciently  called  Tanazs,  ai  i,  in  the  middle  ages,  Tana,  once  had  an  extensive  trade, 
but  is  now  fast  falling  into  decay. 


ii  TM  rn 

CHAP.  IV.]  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  389 

'  ifiti^T   10    •Y»'ji'>    *»Jl    JJJ    i'u7ol<f 

the  Black  Sea.  This  acquisition  enlarged  his  views,  and  he  com- 
menced a  system  of  internal  improvements,  which  had  for  its  ob- 
ject, by  connecting  the  waters  of  the  Dwina/  th'i  Volga,"  and  the 
Don,  to  open  a  water  communication  between  the  Baltic,  Black,  and 
Caspian  Seas.  A  few  years  later  he  laid,  near  the  shores  of  the 
Gulf  of  Finland,  the  foundations  of  St.  Petersburg,3  a  city  which  he 
designed  to  be  the  emporium  of  Northern  commerce  and  the  capital 
of  his  dominions. 

8.  Being  convinced  of  the  superiority  of  the  natives  of  Western 
Europe  over  his  own  barbarous  subjects,  in  1697  he  sent  out  to  Italy, 
Holland,  and  Germany,  two  or  three  hundred  young  men,  to  learn 
the  arts  of  those  countries,  particularly  ship-building  and  navigation ; 
and  in  the  following  year  he  himself  left  his  dominions,  as  a  private 
individual,  to  procure  knowledge  by  his  own  observation  and  experi- 
ence.    He  visited  Amsterdam,  where  he  entered  himself  as  a  com- 
mon carpenter  in  one  of  the  principal  dockyards,  laboring  and  liv 
ing  like  the  other  workmen,  and  demanding  the  same  pay ;  he  also 
went  to  England,  where  he  examined  the  principal  naval  arsenals ;  and 
after  a  year's  absence  returned  home,  greatly  improved  in  mechanical 
science,  and  accompanied  by  numerous  artisans  whom  he  had  engaged 
to  aid  him  in  the  great  design  of  instructing  his  subjects  in  the  arts 
of  more  civilized  nations.     The  chief  political  acts  of  the  reign  of 
this  truly  great  man  belong  to  the  history  of  the  next  century. 

9.  In  the  sixteenth  century  Turkey,  during  the  reign  of  Solyman 
the  Magnificent,  the  cotemporary  of  the  emperor  Charles 

V.,  had  become  the  most  powerful  empire  in  the  world, 
reaching  from  the  confines  of  Austria  on  the  west,  to  the  banks 
of  the  Euphrates  on  the  east,  and  extending  over  Egypt  on  the 
south.  Other  able  princes,  who  succeeded  Solyman,  with  Mussul- 
man pride  held  all  the  rest  of  the  world  in  scorn,  and  the  Ottoman 
arms  continued  to  maintain  their  ascendency  over  those  of  Christen- 
dom until  the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth  century,  when,  in  1683, 
the  famous  Sobieski,  king  of  Poland,  totally  defeated  the  army  em- 

1.  The  Dwina  here  mentioned  rises  near  the  sources  of  the  Volga,  and  empties  into  the  Gulf 
of  Riga,  in  the  Baltic,  nine  miles  below  Riga.    Another  river  of  the  same  name  falls  into  the 
White  Sea,  thirty-five  miles  below  Archangel. 

2.  The  Volga,  or  Wolga,  the  largest  river  of  Europe,  has  its  sources  in  central  Russia,  and 
Its  mouth  in  the  Caspian  Sea.    It  is  the  great  artery  of  Russia,  and  the  grand  route  of  the  in- 
ternal traffic  of  that  empire ;  but  it  is  said  that  its  waters  are  decreasing  in  depth,  and  that 
sandbanks  are  becoming  serious  obstacles  to  its  navigation. 

3.  St.  Petersburg,  the  modern  capital  of  Russia,  and  one  of  the  largest  and  finest  cities  of 
Europe,  ia  situated  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  Neva,  at  its  entrance  into  the  Gulf  of  Finland. 


390  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

-'i'  <:  !/  • 

ployed  in  the  siege  of  Vienna.  This  event,  marks  the  era  of  the 
decline  of  the  Ottoman  power.  A  powerful  league  formed  between 
Austria,  Russia,  Poland,  and  Venice,  followed  upon  the  defeat  of 
the  Ottoman  forces  at  Vienna,  and  in  1687  the  Turks  were  finally 
driven  out  of  Hungary,  and  dispossessed  of  the  greater  portion  of 
Southern  Greece.  In  1697,  while  this  war  continued,  they  sustained 
a  total  defeat  by  the  famous  Prince  Eugene,  in  the  battle  of  Zenta,1 
in  which  they  lost  thirty  thousand  men.  The  treaty  of  Carlowitz3 
in  1699,  completed  the  humiliation  of  the  Porte  ;a  Transylvania,* 
Sclavonia,4  and  Hungary,  being  preserved  to  the  emperor  of  Austria ; 
Podolia,6  with  other  portions  of  the  Ukraine,'  remaining  in  the  pos- 
session of  Poland,  while  Russia  retained  her  conquests  on  the  Black 
Sea.  Morea,  or  Southern  Greece,  was  ceded  to  Venice. 

10.  The  political  history  of  Italy,  during  the  seventeenth  century, 
is  of  trifling  importance,  but  the  social  condition  of  its 
people  merits  a  passing  notice.  The  Reformation  had 
destroyed  the  political  influence  of  the  pope,  who  was  reduced  to  the 
rank  of  a  petty  sovereign  over  the  small  territory  embraced  in  the 
"  States  of  the  Church ;'!  while  Spain,  mistress  of  the  fairest  prov- 
inces of  the  peninsula,  as  well  as  of  its  two  large  and  beautiful 
islands,  inflicted  upon  the  country  numerous  evils  which  made  the 
people  at  once  poor  and  miserable.  The  effects  of  Spanish  rule  are 
faithfully  characterized  by  a  Milanese  writer,  who  forcibly  depicts 
the  wretchedness  of  the  fertile  and  once  populous  valley  of  Lom- 
bardy.  "  The  Spaniards,"  he  remarks,  "  possessed  central  Lombardy 
for  a  hundred  and  seventy-two  years.  They  found  in  its  chief  city 

1.  Zenta  is  a  small  town  of  Southern  Hungary,  on  the  Theiss,  a  northern  branch  of  the  Dan- 
ube, two  hundred  and  forty  miles  south-east  from  Vienna.    (In  history  the  name  of  this  town 
is  variously  spelled  Zenta,  Zentha,  Zeuta,  and  Zeutha.)    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

2.  Carlowitz  is  a  town  of  Austrian  Sclavonia,  on  the  southern  bank  of  the  Danube,  about 
fifty  miles  south  of  Zenta.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

3.  Transylvania  is  the  most  eastern  province  of  the  Austrian  empire,  lying  east  of  Hungary, 
and  north  of  the  Turkish  province  of  Wallachia.    It  is  divided  principally  among  three  dis- 
tinct races,— the  Magyar,  the  Szekler  or  Siculi,  and  the  Saxon.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

4.  Sclavonia,  a  province  of  the  Austrian  empire,  usually  regarded  as  forming  a  part  of  Hun- 
gary, has  Hungary  on  the  north,  and  the  Turkish  provinces  of  Bosnia  and  Servia  on  the  south. 
(Map  No.  XVII.) 

5.  Podolia,  now  a  province  of  south-western  Russia,  lies  along  the  eastern  bank  of  tha 
Dniester.    It  was  long  governed  by  its  own  princes ;  but,  in  1569,  it  was  united  to  Poland.    It 
has  belonged  to  Russia  since  1793.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

6.  The  Urkaine,  (a  word  signifying  "  the  frontier,")  was  an  extensive  country  in  the  south- 
eastern part  of  Russian  Poland,  now  forming  the  Russian  provinces  of  Podolia,  Kiev,  Charkow, 
and  Poltava.    Kiev,  on  the  Dnieper,  was  the  chief  town.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

a.  Porte— the  Ottoman  court,  so  called  from  the  gate  of  the  sultan's  palace  where  justice  ia 
administered ;  as  the  Sublime  Porte.    L.  porta,  Fr.  porte,  "  a  door  or  gate." 


CHAP  IV.]  SEVENTEENTH   CENTURY.  391 

three  hundred  thousand  souls  :  they  left  in  it  scarcely  a  third  of  that 
number.  They  found  in  it  seventy  woollen  manufactories  :  they  left 
in  it  no  more  than  five.  They  found  agriculture  skilful  and  nour- 
ishing :  before  the  province  was  wrested  from  them  they  had  passed 
laws  which  made  emigration  a  capital  crime."  The  Spanish  gov- 
ernors of  the  provinces  looked  upon  the  conquered  countries  as  es- 
tates calculated  to  fill  their  own  and  the  royal  coffers ;  and  not  only 
was  the  nation  drained  of  its  treasure,  but  of  its  blood  also.  The 
flower  of  the  people,  draughted  by  thousands  into  the  Spanish 
armies,  perished  in  the  wars  of  France,  Germany,  and  the  Netherlands. 

1 1.  But  numerous  as  were  the  evils  which  flowed  from  the  admin- 
istrative oppression  of  the  Spaniards,  they  were  light  when  compared 
with  *he  fearful  corruption  in  morals  that  pervaded  the  whole  system 
of  society.     An  insidious  licentiousness,  under  the  garb  of  gallantry, 
had  been  introduced  by  the  Spaniards,  while  the  spirit  of  the  people, 
kindled  into  frenzy  by  Castilian  fancies  about  knightly  honor,  but  no 
longer  ennobled  by  personal  courage,  or  manly  self-respect,  made 
Ttaly,  for  many  generations,  infamous  as  the  scene  of  poisonings  and 
assassinations.     Risings  and  revolutions  of  the  people  were  frequent ; 
during  nearly  the  whole  period  of  the  seventeenth  century  the  coasts 
were  continually  infested  by  Turkish  and  Algerine  corsairs;  the 
fields  were  ravaged  ;  houses,  villages,  and  whole  towns  were  burned ; 
and  thousands  were  carried  away  into  slavery  ;  while,  in  the  interior, 
robbers  were  scarcely  less  destructive,  large  troops  of  whom  plun- 
dered, or  exacted  ransoms,  and  more  than  once  resisted  successfully 
battalions  of  regular  soldiers.     Such  is  the  mournful  picture  pre- 
sented by  Italy,  the  land  of  Roman  greatness  and  renown,  during 
the  seventeenth  century. 

12.  The  principal   events,   to   which   we   have   not   already  al- 
luded, that   mark   the   history  of  the  Spanish  penin-         VI 
sula  during  the  seventeenth  century,  are  the  expulsion      SPANISH 
of  the   Moors,   the   revolt   of  Portugal,   and   the   ac-    PKN1NSULA- 
knowledgment   of  the    independence   of    Holland.      Twice   during 
the  sixteenth  century,  the  Moors,  or  Moriscos,  had  risen  against 
their  Christian  masters ;    they  had  been  dispersed,  from  Granada3 
among  the  other  Spanish  provinces,  and  compelled,  against  their 
will,    to   receive    Christian   baptism.      Tranquillity   could   scarcely 
be  hoped  from  so  arbitrary  a  measure  ;  and  the  Moriscos,  thirsting 
for  revenge,  entered  into  a  correspondence  with  the  African  princes, 
whom  they  urged  to  invade  the  peninsula,  promising  to  rise  on  the 


392  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAET  IL 

first  signal.  This  circumstance  becoming  known,  the  expulsion  of  the 
whole  body  was  decreed,  and  the  cruel  mandate  was  carried  into 
execution,  although  not  without  open  resistance  in  several  of  the 
provinces.  (1610.)  In  all,  no  fewer  than  six  hundred  thousand  of 
the  most  ingenious  and  industrious  portion  of  the  community  were 
forcibly  driven  from  their  homes,  while  large  numbers^  by  making  a 
profession  of  Christianity,  were  permitted  to  remain.  This  was  a 
blow  no  less  fatal  to  the  prosperity  of  Spain,  than  the  revocation  of 
the  edict  of  Nantes  was  to  a  sister  kingdom. 

13.  Portugal  had  been  united  to  Spain  in  1580,  partly  by  con- 
quest, and  partly  in  accordance  with  the  wishes  of  a  portion  of  its 
nobility  ;  but  the  union  failed  to  give  satisfaction  to  the  people  of  the 
former  country.     Finding  themselves  ground  to  the  dust  by  intoler- 
able taxes  and  forced  loans,  their  complaints  disregarded,  their  per- 
sons insulted,  and  their  prosperity  at  an  end,  in  1640  they  organized  a 
general  revolt,  and  the  sway  of  Spain  over  Portugal  was  forever  broken, 
by  the  election,  to  the  throne,  of  the  duke  of  Braganza,1  with  the  title 
of  John  IV.     To  complete  the  humiliation  of  Spain,  eight  years  later, 
in  the  treaty  of  Munster,2  she  was  compelled  to  acknowledge  the  in- 
dependence of  Holland,  after  having  maintained  against  her  a  warfare 
of  eighty  years'  duration,  only  interrupted  by  a  brief  truce  of  twelve 
years  from  1609  to  1621;  and  even  during  this  period,  hostilities 
did  not  cease  in  the  Indies.     The  disasters  that  were  befalling  Ro- 
man Catholic  Spain  were  fast  overwhelming  that  proud  monarchy 
with  disgrace  and  ruin,  while   the  new  Republic  of  Holland  was 
taking  its  place,  as  a  free  and  independent  State,  among  the  most 
powerful  nations  of  Europe.     The  treaty  of  Westphalia,  signed  the 
same  year,  1648,  secured  to  Holland  internal  tranquillity,  by  recon- 
ciling the  conflicting  interests  of  her  own  people,  and  guaranteeing 
the  enjoyment  of  civil  and  religious  liberty, — one  of  the  noble  aims 
and  results  of  Christian  civilization. 

14.  The  history  of  the  Asiatic  nations  in  the  seventeenth  century, 

merits  but  little  notice.  During  this  period  a  series  of 
ASIATIC  imbecile  tyrants  ruled  over  Persia.  Their  reigns  were 
NATIONS.  genera]iy  peaceful,  but  the  higher  classes  were  enervated 

1.  Braganza  is  a  town  at  the  north-eastern  extremity  of  Portugal.    In  1142  it  was  erected 
into  a  duchy,  and  in  1040,  John,  eighth  duke  of  Braganza,  ascended  the  Portuguese  throne, 
under  the  title  of  John  IV.    His  descendants  continue  to  enjoy  the  crown  of  Portugal,  and 
have  also  acquired  that  of  Brazil.    The  town  and  surrounding  district  of  Braganza  still  belong 
to  the  king  of  Portugal  as  the  duke  of  Braganza.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

2.  Munster,  a  town  of  Westphalia,  is  ninety-five  miles  north-east  from  Aix-la-chapelle.    The 
treaty  of  Munster  was  a  part  of  that  of  Westphalia.    See  Westphalia,  p.  300.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 


CHAP.  IV.]  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  393 

by  luxury,  and  the  martial  spirit  of  the  people  suffered  so  much 
from  inaction,  that  early  in  the  following  century  the  Affghans,  a 
warlike  people  on  the  confines  of  India,  invaded  the  kingdom,  and 
placed  the  royal  diadem  on  the  head  of  their  chief  Mahmoud.  In 
1644  an  important  revolution  was  terminated  in  China,  by  which  the 
Manchoos,  a  race  sprung  from  the  expelled  Mongols  and  the  eastern 
Tartars,  established  themselves  firmly  in  the  empire,  after  a  war  of 
twenty-seven  years'  duration.  Happily  for  the  country,  Shunchy, 
the  first  emperor  of  the  Manchoo-Tartar  dynasty,  showed  himself  a 
generous  and  enlightened  monarch ;  and  his  son  and  successor 
Kang-hy,  who  had  the  singular  fortune  to  reign  sixty  years,  was  one 
of  the  most  illustrious  sovereigns  that  ever  ruled  the  country, — the 
Chinese  historians  ascribing  to  him  almost  every  virtue  that  can 
adorn  a  throne. 

15.  In  the  early  part  of  the  seventeenth  century  the  great  Mogul 
empire  of  Asia,  having  northern  Hindostan  for  the  seat  of  its  central 
power,  and  the  Persian  dominions  for  its  western  limits,  gradually 
declined  in  greatness  until,  in  1659,  the  famous  Aurungzebe  succeed- 
ed to  the  throne,  by  the  imprisonment  of  his  father.     Under  this 
prince,  who  ruled  with  the  most  tyrannical  cruelty,  establishing  Mo- 
hammedanism throughout  his  dominions  by  a  rigorous  persecution 
of  the  Hindoos,  and  the  destruction  of  their  temples,  the  Mogul  em- 
pire was  extended  and  consolidated ;  but  on  his  death,  in  1 707,  it 
experienced  a  rapid  decline,  and  was  soon  broken  into  fragments. 

16.  The  seventeenth  century  marks  the  era  of  the  establishment 
of  the  principal  Dutch,  Spanish,  French,  and  English    vm  COLQ_ 
colonies  in  the  New  World,  and  on  the  coasts  of  Asia  NIAL  ESTAB- 
and  Africa.     Near  the  close  of  the  preceding  century  the   LISHMENTS- 
Dutch  had  founded  the  colony  of  Surinam1  in  South  America,  and 
in  1607  they  gained  a  footing  in  the  East  Indies  by  capturing,  from 
the  Portuguese,  the  Moluccas2  or  Spice  Islands,  which  they  continued 
to  hold  against  all  competitors.     A  few  years  later  they  founded 
New  Amsterdam,  now  New  York.     In  1619  they  founded  Batavia, 

1:  Surinam,  or  Dutch  Guiana,  is  on  the  north-eastern  coast  of  South  America,  having  French 
Guiana  on  the  east,  and  English  Guiana  on  the  west. 

2.  The  Moluccas,  of  which  Amboyna  is  the  principal,  are  a  cluster  of  small  islands  north 
of  Australia  or  New  Holland,  and  between  Celebes  and  New  Guinea.  They  are  distinguished 
chiefly  for  the  production  of  spices,  particularly  nutmegs  and  cloves.  When  in  1511  the  Por- 
tuguese discovered  these  islands,  the  Arabians  were  already  settled  there.  The  Portuguese  had 
almost  the  entire  monopoly  of  the  spice  trade  till  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
when  the  Dutch  took  the  islands  from  them.  Since  1796  the  Moluccas  have  been  twice  coil- 
quf  red  by  the  English,  but  by  the  peace  of  Paris  in  1815  they  were  restored  to  the  Dutch. 


394  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  U. 

in  the  island  of  Java; — about  the  same  time  they  wrested  the  Jap- 
anese trade  from  the  Portuguese.  In  1650  they  seized  and  colonized 
the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  which  had  previously  been  claimed  by  the 
English,  and  six  years  later  they  expelled  the  Portuguese  from  the 
island  of  Ceylon.1  The  Dutch  adopted,  in  their  colonial  regulations, 
a  more  exclusive  system  of  policy  than  other  nations ;  and  this,  to- 
gether with  their  harsh  treatment  of  the  natives,  was  the  principal 
cause  of  the  final  ruin  of  their  empire  in  the  Indies. 

17.  The  numerous  colonies  founded  by  Spain  in  the  New  World 
during  the  previous  century  had  now  become  consolidated  into  one 
vast  empire,  embracing  most  of  the  islands  of  the  West  Indies,  to- 
gether with  the  extensive  realms  of  Mexico  and  Peru,  over  which 
the  Spanish  monarch  ruled  with  the  most  absolute  despotism.  The 
immense  wealth  derived  from  these  possessions  excited  the  envy  and 
cupidity  of  all  Europe ;  and  frequently,  during  the  wars  of  the  sev- 
enteenth century,  the  Spanish  fleets,  laden  with  the  gold  and  silver 
of  the  New  World,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Dutch,  French,  or 
English  cruisers ;  while  bands  of  pirates,  or  Buccaneers,  who  had 
their  coverts  among  the  small  islands  of  the  West  Indies,  often 
plundered  the  coasts,  and  roamed  at  will,  the  terror  of  the  Spanish 


18.  The  materials  for  a  history  of  the  Spanish  possessions  in  the 
New  World,  during  nearly  three  centuries,  are  exceedingly  meagre 
and  uninteresting,  treating  of  little  but  the  same  unvarying  rule  of 
arbitrary  and  avaricious  viceroys  or  governors,  of  commercial  re- 
strictions the  most  odious  and  oppressive,  and  of  the  miseries  of  an 
aboriginal  population,  the  most  abject  that  could  possibly  be  conceived. 

19.  The  French  colonization,  in  the  New  World,  during  the  sev- 
enteenth century,  embraces  only  the  founding  of  Quebec,  and  a  few 
other  feeble  settlements  in  the  Canadas ;  and,  at  the  very  close  of 
the  century,  the  landing  of  two  hundred  emigrants,  and  the  erection 
of  a  rude  fort,  in  Lower  Louisiana.     Nor  was  anything  importan 
accomplished  by  the  French,  during  this  period,  in  the  newly  discov- 
ered regions  of  the  Old  World.     About  the  middle  of  the  century 
they  attempted  to  make  Madagascar2  one  of  their  colonies,  a  scheme 

1.  Ceylon  is  a  large  island  belonging  to  Great  Britain,  near  the  southern  extremity  of  Hin- 
dostan.    The  cinnamon  tree,  which  was  found  only  in  Ceylon  and  Cochin-China,  is  its  most 
valuable  production.    Extensive  ruins  of  cities,  canals,  aqueducts,  bridges,  temples,  &,c.,  show- 
that  Ceylon  was,  at  a  remote  period,  a  rich,  populous,  and  comparatively  civilized  country. 
After  Holland  had  been  erected  into  the  Batavian  republic  in  171)5,  the  English  took  possession 
of  Ceylon,  and  at  the  peace  of  Amiens,  in  1802,  it  was  formally  ceded  to  them. 

2.  Madagascar  is  a  large  mand  off  the  eastern  coast  of  South  Africa,  from  which  it  is  sepa- 


CHAP.  IV.]  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  395 

which  proved  futile  on  account  of  the  extreme  unhealthiness  of  the 
island.  In  1672  the  French  purchased  the  town  of  Pondicherry,1 
in  Hindostan,  from  its  native  sovereign,  and  established  there  a 
colony  with  every  reasonable  prospect  of  success ;  but  the  place  was 
several  times  taken  from  them  by  the  Dutch  and  the  English,  until, 
finally,  it  was  restored  at  the  treaty  of  Paris  in  1815,  and  is  now  the 
principal  French  settlement  on  the  Asiatic  continent. 

20.  In  the  latter  part  of  the  sixteenth  century  the  English  began  to 
turn  their  attention  to  the  commerce  of  the  East  Indies ;  and  in  the  year 
1  GOO  a  company  of  London  merchants,  known  as  the  London  East  India 
Company,  obtained  a  charter  from  queen  Elizabeth,  giving  to  them  the 
exclusive  right  of  trading  with  those  distant  countries.  During  the 
seventeenth  century  the  London  company  made  little  progress  in  ef- 
fecting settlements  in  the  Indies ;  and  at  the  close  of  that  period,  a 
small  part  of  the  island  of  Java,3  Fort  St.  George  at  Madras,3  the 
island  of  Bombay,4  and  Fort  William  erected  at  Calcutta5  in  1699, 

rated  by  Mozambique  Channel.  Soon  after  the  peace  of  1815  the  French  formed  several  small 
colonies  on  the  eastern  coast  of  the  island  ;  and  from  J818  to  1825  the  English  missionaries  had 
some  success  in  converting  the  natives ;  but  since  the  latter  period  the  missionaries  have  been 
forbidden  to  approach  the  island,  and  Madagascar  may  now  be  reckoned  among  the  barbarous 
countries  of  eastern  Africa. 

1.  Pondicherry  is  a  town  of  Hindostan,  on  the  south-eastern  coast,  eighty  miles  south-west 
from  Madras.    Population  about  fifty-five  thousand.    The  French  possessions  in  India,  com- 
prising Pondicherry,  Chandernagore,  Karical  in  the  Carnatic,  Mah6  in  Malibar,  and  Vanaon  in 
Orissa,  with  the  territory  attached  to  each,  have  a  total  population  of  about  one  hundred  and 
sixty-six  thousand,  of  whom  one  thousand  are  whites. 

2.  Java  is  a  large  island  of  the  Asiatic  archipelago,  south  of  Borneo,  belonging  principally  to 
the  Dutch,  and  the  centre,  as  well  as  the  most  valuable,  of  their  possessions  in  the  East.    Area, 
a  little  less  than  that  of  the  State  of  New  York.    Population  between  five  and  six  millions. 
The  Portuguese  reached  Java  in  1511,  and  the  Dutch  in  1595.    The  latter  founded  Batavia  in 
1619.    In  1811  Java  was  taken  by  a  British  force,  and  held  till  1816,  when,  in  pursuance  of  the 
treaty  of  Paris,  it  was  restored  to  the  Dutch. 

3.  Madras  is  a  large  city  on  the  south-eastern  coast  of  Hindostan,  eight  hundred  and  seventy 
miles  south-west  from  Calcutta.    Population  upwards  of  four  hundred  thousand.    Madras  is 
badly  situated,  has  no  harbor,  and  is  almost  wholly  unapproachable  by  sea.    It  was  the  first 
acquisition  made  in  India  by  the  British,  who  obtained  it  by  grant  from  the  rajah  of  Bijnagur, 
in  161J9,  with  permission  to  erect  a  fort  there.    The  fort  was  besieged  in  1702  by  one  of  Aurung- 
zebe's  generals ;  and  in  1744  by  the  French,  to  whom  it  surrendered  after  a  bombardment  of 
three  days.    It  was  restored  to  the  English  at  the  peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  and  successfully  sus- 
tained a  memorable  siege  by  the  French  under  Lally  in  1758-9 ;  since  which  it  has  experienced  no 
hostile  attack.    Madras  is  the  capital  of  the  British  presidency  of  the  same  name,  which  embraces 
the  whole  of  South  Ilindostan,  extending  about  flve  hundred  miles  north  from  Cape  Comorin. 

4.  Bombay  is  built  on  an  island  of  the  same  name,  on  the  western  coast  of  Hindostan,  ten 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  south-west  from  Calcutta.    Population  about  two  hundred  and  forty 
thousand.    In  1530  Bombay  was  obtained  by  the  Portuguese  from  a  Hindoo  chief:  by  them  it 
was  ceded  to  Charles  II.,  in  1661,  as  part  of  queen  Catherine's  dowry;  and  in  1668  it  was 
transferred,  by  the  king,  to  the  East  India  Company,  at  an  annual  rent  of  ten  pounds  sterling. 
Soon  after  it  realized  to  the  company  a  revenue  of  three  thousand  pounds  a  year.    Bombay  is 
the  capital  of  the  presidency  of  the  same  name. 

5.  Calcutta,  the  capital  of  the  British  dominions  in  the  East,  is  situated  on  the  eastern  side 


396  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PABT  II 

the  whole  inhabited  by  inly  a  few  hundred  Europeans,  formed  the 
extent  of  their  East  India  possessions.  Such  was  the  feeble  be- 
ginning, and  slow  progress,  of  an  association  of  merchants  that  "  now 
rules  over  an  empire  containing  a  hundred  millions  of  subjects,  raises 
a  tribute  of  more  than  three  millions  annually,  possesses  an  army 
of  more  than  two  hundred  thousand  men,  has  princes  for  its  servants, 
and  emperors  pensioners  on  its  b6unty." 

21.  The  first  successful  attempt  at  American  colonization  by  the 
English  was  the  settlement  of  Jamestown,  in  Virginia,  in  the  year 
1607.     This  was  followed  by  the  settlement  of  Plymouth  in  New 
England,  in  1620,  by  a  band  of  Puritans,  who  had  resolved  to  seek, 
in  the  wilderness  of  America,  that  freedom  of  worship  which  their 
native  country  denied  them.     During  the  same  century  the  English 
formed  settlements  in  all  the  Atlantic  States  from  Maine  to  Georgia, 
the  latter  only  excepted,  which  was  not  colonized  until  the  year 
1733  ;  the  Dutch,  who  had  settled  New  Amsterdam,  now  New  York; 
were  conquered  by  the  English  in  1644 ;  and  at  the  same  time  the 
Swedes,  who  had  settled  Delaware,  and  had  subsequently  been  re- 
duced by  the  Dutch,  shared  the  fate  of  their  masters.     The  history 
of  the  British  American  colonies,  during  the  seventeenth  century,  is 
marked  no  less  by  the  struggles  of  *the  colonists  against  the  natural 
difficulties  of  their  situation,  and  by  the  Indian  wars  in  which  they 
were  often  involved,  than  by  their  noble  resistance  to  the  arbitrary 
and  oppressive  rule  of  the  mother  country.     The  early  colonists, 
those  of  New  England  especially,  had  left  their  homes  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Atlantic,  to  seek,  in  the  wilds  of  America,  an  asylum 
where  they  might  enjoy  unmolested  their  religious  faith  and  worship ; 
and  they  brought  with  them  to  the  land  of  their  adoption,  that  spirit 
of  independence,  and  those  principles  of  freedom,  which  laid  the 
foundation  of  American  liberty. 

22.  The  early  history  of  these  colonies  is  full  of  instruction  to  all, — 
in  its  lessons  of  patient  endurance,  and  unyielding  perseverance,  ex- 
alted heroism,  individual  piety,  and  public  virtue ;  but  to  American 
citizens  it  possesses  a  peculiar  interest,  as  the  history  of  the  develop- 
ment and  growth  of  those  principles  of  free  government  which  suc- 

of  the  river  Hoogly,  the  most  western  arm  of  the  Ganges,  about  one  hundred  miles  from  its 
entrance  into  the  Bay  of  Bengal.  Resident  population  about  two  hundred  and  thirty  thousand. 
The  English  first  made  a  settlement  here  in  1690,  when  Calcutta  was  but  a  small  village,  in- 
habited chiefly  by  husbandmen.  In  1756  a  Bengal  chief  dispossessed  the  English  of  their  settle- 
ment, but  it  was  retaken  by  Colonel  Clive  in  the  following  year>  since  which  it  has  been  quietly 
retained  by  th»  British,  and  risen  to  its  present  degree  of  importance. 


CHAP.  IV.]  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  397 

ceeding  time  has  perfected  to  the  happiness  and  glory  of  our  country, 
and  the  advancement  of  the  cause  of  freedom  throughout  the  world. 
In  a  work  of  general  history  like  the  present  we  cannot  hope  to  do 
such  a  subject  justice ;  and  instead  of  attempting  here  a  brief  and 
separate  compend  of  our  early  annals,  it  will  be  more  satisfactory 
and  useful  to  refer  the  student  to  some  of  the  numerous  standard 
works  on  Amercan  history  which  are  at  all  times  accessible  to  him, 
and  with  some  one  of  which  it  is  presumable  every  American  youth 
will  early  make  himself  familiar,  before  he  enters  upon  the  study  of 
the  general  history  of  nations. 


398  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAET  IL 

CHAPTER    Y. 

THE    EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY. 

I.  WAR  OF  THE  SPANISH  SUCCESSION,  AND  CLOSE  OF  THE 
REIGN  OF  LOUIS  XIV. 

ANALYSIS.  1.  Pride  and  ambition  of  Louis  XIV.  Events  that  led  to  the  « war  of  the 
Spanish  Succession."  ENGLAND,  GERMANY,  AND  HOLLAND,  DECLARE  WAR  AGAINST  FRANCE, 
1702. — 2.  Causes  that  induced  England  to  engage  in  the  war.  The  opposing  powers.  Death 
of  king  William.  Queen  Anne.— 3.  Opening  of  the  campaign  by  Austria  and  England.  The 
French  generals. — 4.  The  CAMPAIGN  OF  1702.  Naval  events.  [Cadiz.  Vigo  Bay.]  EVENTS 
OF  1703.— 5.  EVENTS  OF  1704.  [Blenheim.  Gibraltar.]— 6.  EVENTS  OF  1705  AND  170li.  French 
losses.  [Ramillies.  Mons.  Barcelona.  Madrid.]— 7.  Overtures  of  peace.  CAMPAIGN  OF 
1707.  [Almanza.  Toulon.]  EVENTS  OF  1708.  [Oudenarde.  Brussels.]— 8.  Sufferings  of  the 
French  in  the  year  1709.  Haughtiness  of  the  monarch.— 9.  Louis  in  vain  seeks  peace  with 
Holland.  Battle  of  Malplaquet.  [Malplaquet.]  Successes  of  Louis  in  Spain.  His  domestic 
misfortunes.— 10.  Death  of  the  Austrian  emperor.  Importance  of  that  event  Decline  of  the 
war.— 11.  TREATY  OF  UTRECHT,  April  llth,  1713.  [Minorca.  Newfoundland.  Hudson's  Bay 
territory.  St.  Christopher.  Radstadt.  Lisle.  Alsace.]— 12.  Death  of  Louis  XIV.  CHARACTER 

OF  THE  RKIGN  OF  LOUIS  XIV. 

II.  PETER  THE  GREAT  OF  RUSSIA,  AND  CHARLES  XII.  OF  SWEDEN. 

1.  THE  NORTH  AND  EAST  OF  EUROPE  during  the  war  of  the  Spanish  succession.  Beginning 
of  the  reign  of  the  Russian  monarch.— 2.  Leading  object  with  the  Czar.  He  is  induced  to  en- 
gage in  a  war  with  Sweden.  His  allies.  [Livonia.  Riga.] — 3.  Sweden.  Reported  character 
of  Charles  XII.  The  Swedish  council,  and  declarations  of  Charles.  Change  in  the  king's 
character. — 4.  BEGINNING  OF  HOSTILITIES  AGAINST  SWEDEN,  in  the  year  1700.  [Sleswick. 
Holstein.  Narva.]  Charles  humbles  Denmark.  [Copenhagen.] — 5.  The  Polish  king.  Charles 
marches  against  Narva.— 6.  Signal  DEFEAT  OF  THE  RUSSIANS  AT  NARVA.  Remark  of  the 
Czar.  Superstition  of  the  Russians. — 7.  The  course  pursued  by  Peter.  Resolution  of  Charles. 
— 8.  VICTORIES  OF  CHARLES  IN  THE  YEAR  1702.  [Courland.  Warsaw.  Cracow.]  The  Polish 
king  deposed.  [Pultusk.]  Charles  declines  the  sovereignty  of  Poland. — 9.  Increase  of  his  power 
and  influence.  [Borysthenes.]  His  views,  and  plans,  for  the  future. — 10.  Policy,  and  gradual 
successes,  of  the  Czar.  [Neva.  Ingria.] — 11.  MARCH  OF  CHARLES  INTO  RUSSIA,  1707-8. 
[Smolensko.]— 12.  Passage  of  the  Desna.  [Desna.]  Misfortunes  of  Charles.— 13.  Situation  of 
the  Swedish  army  in  the  winter  of  J708-9.  Advance  of  Charles  in  the  Spring.  [Pultowa.]— 14. 
Siege  and  BATTLE  OF  PULTOWA.  Escape  of  Charles.  [Bender.  Campbell's  descriplion  of  the 
catastrophe  at  Pultowa.] — 15.  Important  effects  of  the  battle  of  Pultowa. — 16.  Warlike  vie^s 
still  entertained  by  Charles.  He  enlists  THE  TURKS  in  his  favor.  Treaty  between  the  Russians 
and  Turks.  [Pruth.] — 17.  Lengthened  stay  of  Charles  in  Turkey.  RETURN  OF  CHARLES. — 18. 
Situation  of  Sweden  on  his  return.  Warlike  projects  of  Charles.  EVKNTS  OF  1715.  [Stock- 
holm.]  Siege  of  Stralsund.  Irruption  into  Norway.  Project  of  a  union  with  Russia.  DEATH 
OF  CHARLES,  1718.  [Frederickshall.]— 19.  Change  in  Swedish  affairs.  Peace  with  Russia. 
[Nystad.]— 20.  CHARACTER  OF  CHARLES  THE  TWELFTH.  [Dr.  Johnson's  description  of  him.] 
— 21.  DEATH  AND  CHARACTER  OF  PETER  THE  GREAT. 

III.  SPANISH  WARS,  AND  WARS  OF  THE  AUSTRIAN  SUCCESSION. 

1.  Effects  of  the  treaty  of  Utrecht.  EUROPEAN  ALLIANCE  for  guaranteeing  the  fulfilment  of 
the  treaty  Spain  finally  compelled  to  accede  to  it.— 2.  WAR  BETWEEN  ENGLAND  AND  SPAIN 


CHAP.V.]  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  399 

1739.  Its  causes. — 3.  CAUSES  or  THE  WAR  OF  THE  AUSTRIAN  SUCCESSION.  [Pragmatic 
sanction.]— 4.  Claims,  and  designs,  upon  the  Austrian  dominions.  The  position  of  England.— 5. 
Plan  of  THK  COALITION  AGAINST  AUSTRIA.  Invasion  of  Austria,  1741.  The  diet  of  Frank- 
fort. [Frankfort.]  Maria  Theresa  and  the  Hungarians.  EVENTS  or  1742  AND  1743.  [Munich. 
Dettingen.]— 6.  Successes  and  reverses  of  Frederic  of  Prussia,  1741.  The  Austrian  general.— 7. 
Death  of  Charles  Albert,  1745.  Successes  of  Marshal  Saxe.  [Fontenoy.]  Treaty  between 
Prussia  and  Austria.  Francis  I.— 8.  Events  in  Italy  in  1745.  [Piedmont.]  Events  of  the  IN- 
VASION or  ENGLAND,  1745-6.  [Edinburgh.  Preston-pans.  Culloden.]  Cruelties  of  the  Eng- 
lish.—9.  EVENTS  IN  AMERICA,  1745-6.  [Cape  Breton.]— 10.  EVENTS  OF  1746-7.  TREATY  or 
AIX-LA-CHAPELLE,  Oct.  1748.  In  what  respect  the  result  was  favorable  to  all  parties. 

IV.  THE  SEVEN  YEARS'  WAR :— 1756— 63. 

1.  The  EIGHT  YEARS  OF  PEACE  that  followed  the  treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle.  CAUSES  THAT 
THREATENED  ANOTHER  WAR. — 2.  East-India  colonial  difficulties  between  France  and  England. 
—3.  North  American  difficulties.  BEGINNING  OF  HOSTILITIES  IN  1754.  Braddock's  defeat, 
1755. — 4.  The  connected  interests  of  all  the  European  States.  The  relations  between  Prussia 
r.nd  Austria.  EUROPEAN  ALLIANCES  growing  out  of  them.— 5.  The  threatened  danger  to 
Prussia. — 6.  FIRST  CAMPAIGN  OF  FREDERIC,  1756. — 7.  Declarations  of  war  by  France  and 
England,  1756.  The  first  campaign. — 8.  The  opposing  forces,  1757.  Victory  of  Frederic  at 
Prague,  and  defeat  at  Kolin.  [Kolin.]  General  invasion  of  Prussia.  Defeat  of  the  English  in 
Germany. — 9.  Dangerous  situation  of  Frederic.  [Berlin.]  Recall  of  the  Russian  army. 
Frederic  advances  into  Saxony.— 10.  Great  victory  of  Frederic  at  Rossback.  [Rossback.]— 11. 
Results  of  the  battle.  Frederic's  treatment  of  the  wounded  and  prisoners. — 12.  The  English 
and  Hanoverians  resume  their  arms.  Affairs  in  Silesia.  Victory  of  Frederic  at  Lissa.  [Lissa.] 
Anecdote  of  Frederic. — 13.  Results  of  the  campaign  of  1757. — 14.  Successes  of  the  duke  of 
Brunswick,  1758.  Frederic  in  Silesia— escapes  from  the  Austrians  at  Olmutz,  and  marches 
against  the  Russians.  [Olmutz.] — 15.  Battle  of  Zorndorf.  [Zorndorf.J  Anecdotes.  Action 
of  Hochkirchen.  [Hochkirchen.]  Results  of  the  campaign.— 16.  Losses  of  the  French  in  India 
and  America. — 17.  Opening  of  the  campaign  of  175!>.  Defeat  of  Frederic  at  Kunersdorf. 
[Kunersdorf.]  His  loss  in  Bohemia.  Result,  to  the  Austrians. — 18.  The  campaign  of  the  duke 
of  Brunswick.  The  results  on  the  ocean  and  in  the  colonies. — 19.  Losses  of  Frederic  in  the 
campaign  of  1760.  He  defeats  the  enemy  at  LiegnUz  and  Torgau.  [Liegnitz.  Torgau.] — 20. 
The  campaign  in  Germany.— 21.  Alliance  between  France  and  Spain.  Losses  of  Spain  and 
France.  [Cuba.  Manilla.  Belleisle.  Guadaloupe.] — 22.  The  campaign  of  1761.  Coldness 
of  England,  and  change  in  the  Russian  councils.— 23.  General  PEACE  OF  17G3.  The  results,  to 
England— to  France— to  Prussia.  [Honduras.]  The  MILITARY  CHARACTER  or  FREDERIC. 

V.  STATE  OF  EUROPE.    THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION. 

1.  GENERAL  PEACE  IN  EUROPE.  Results  of  the  "Seven  Years' War."  Efforts  of  Frederic 
for  the  good  of  his  people.— 2.  FRANCE  during  the  closing  years  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XV. 
Accession  of  Louis  XVI.— 3.  Condition  of  RUSSIA.  Her  war  with  Turkey  and  Poland.  [Mol- 
davia and  Wallachia.]  DISMEMBERMENT  OF  POLAND,  1773. — 4.  STATE  OF  PARTIES  IN  EM  -LAND. 
Taxation.  Resignation  of  the  earl  of  Bute.— 5.  The  Grenville  ministry.  The  case  of  Mr. 
Wilkes. — 6.  The  subject  of  AMERICAN  TAXATION.  The  Stamp  Act. — 7.  Misfortunes  of  England 
in  her  attempts  to  coerce  the  Americans. — 8.  OPENING  OF  THE  WAR  WITH  THE  COLONIES. — 9. 
EUROPEAN  RELATIONS  OF  ENGLAND.  Aid  extended  to  the  Americans. — 10.  Capture  of  Bur- 
goyne,  1777,  and  ALLIANCE  BETWEEN  FRANCE  AND  THE  AMERICAN  STATES. — 11.  Begin- 
ning of  the  WAR  BETWEEN  FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND. — 12.  War  In  the  West  Indies.  [Do- 
minica. St.  Lucia.] — 13.  Hostilities  in  the  East  Indies,  and  overthrow  of  the  French  power 
there. — 14.  WAR  BETWEEN  SPAIN  AND  ENGLAND.  Events  of  1779.  [St.  Vincents.  Grenada.] 
— 15.  Successes  of  Admiral  Rodney,  1780.  English  merchant  fleet  captured  by  the  Spaniards. 
—16.  The  English  claim  of  the  right  of  search.  ARMED  NEUTRALITY  AGAINST  ENGLAND. 
Principles  of  the  Neutrality.  General  concurrence  in  them. — 17.  RUPTUKE  BETWEEN  ENGLAND 
AND  HOLLAND.— 18.  Capture  of  St.  Eustatia  by  the  English.  [St.  Eustatia.]— 19.  The  Spaniards 
conquer  West  Florida.  The  French  and  English  in  the  West  Indies.  [Tobago.]  Naval  battle 
off  the  coast  of  Holland.  [Dogger  Bank.] — 20.  Results  of  the  war  between  England  and 


400  MODERN    HISTORY.  [PAET  II. 

her  American  colonies.  Continuance  of  the  war  in  Europe.  Siege  of  Gibraltar,  1781,  and  de- 
struction of  the  Spanish  works. — 21.  Minorca  taken  by  Spain,  1782.  Losses  of  the  English  in 
the  West  Indies.  [Bahamas.]  Naval  victory  of  the  English.  [Carribee  islands.]— -21.  Con- 
tinued  siege  of  Gibraltar.  Preparations  for  an  assault. — 23.  The  assault. — 24.  Generous  conduct 
of  the  British  seamen.  Results  of  the  assault. — 25.  The  WAR  IN  THE  EAST  INDIES.  Account 
of  Hyder  AH.  [Mysore.  Seringapatam.]— 26.  Successes  of  Hyder  Ali  and  his  son  Tippoo 
Saib,  in  1780.  Events  of  1781-2.— 27.  Tippoo  concludes  a  treaty  with  the  English,  1783.  Re- 
newal of  the  war,  1790.  Defeat  and  death  of  Tippoo,  1799.— 28.  TREATY  OF  1782.  GENERAL 
TRK.ATY  OF  1783,  between  England,  France,  and  Spain.  Its  terms. — 29.  Remarks  upon  the  war 
of  the  Revolution. 

VI.  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

1.  The  DEMOCRATIC  SPIRIT  of  the  American  Revolution  : — its  influence  upon  French  society. 
-2.  State  of  France  at  the  time  of  the  death  of  Louis  XV.— 3.  Louis  XVI.  His  character.— 4. 
FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES.  Efforts  of  Turgot  and  Neckar,  and  the  opposition  which  they  en- 
countered.— 5.  The  system  of  Calonne,  and  its  results. — 6.  Brieime  calls  THE  STATES-GENERAL 
—7.  Removal  of  Brienne,  and  restoration  of  Neckar.  The  policy  of  the  court.— 8.  The  general 
agitation  throughout  France.  The  evils  to  be  complained  of.  The  clergy  and  the  nobility. 
The  philosophic  party.  The  calling  of  the  States-general— a  revolutionary  measure.  Demands 
of  the  Commons.  Results  of  the  elections. — 9.  New  difficulty  at  the  opening  of  the  States- 
general.  Its  final  settlement.— 10.  Effect  of  the  triumph  of  the  third  estate.  REVOLUTIONARY 
STATE  OF  PARIS.  Attack  upon  the  Bastile,  1789. — 11.  Louis  throws  himself,  for  support,  upon 
the  popular  party.— 12.  The  effect.  Revolutionary  movements  throughout  France.  GREAT 
POLITICAL  CHANGES. — 13.  Two  months  of  quiet.  FAMINE,  AND  MOBS,  in  Paris.  The  mob  at 
Versailles,  and  return  of  the  Assembly  and  royal  family  to  Paris.— 14.  Formation  of  a  NEW- 
CONSTITUTION.  MARSHALLING  OF  PARTIES.  The  Jacobin  club. — 15.  Its  character.  Its 
leaders.  Mirabeau.  His  character,  and  death.— 16.  THE  EMIGRANT  NOBILITY.  [Coblentz.] 
ATTEMPTED  ESCAPE  OF  THE  ROYAL  FAMILY,  1791.  The  king  swears  to  support  the  new  con- 
stitution. Dissolution  of  the  "Constituent  Assembly."— 17.  The  "Legislative  Assembly." 
Chief  parties  in  it.  Growing  influence  of  the  Jacobins.— 18.  First  acts  of  the  legislative  assem- 
bly. Object  of  the  Girondists.  Demands  of  the  Austrian  emperor.  WAR  DECLARED  AGAINST 
AUSTRIA,  1792.  Real  causes  of  the  war.— 19.  Collection  of  forces,  and  invasion  of  France. 
The  effects  produced  in  France. — 20.  MASSACRE  OF  THE  IOTH  OF  AUGUST.  Acts  of  the  As- 
sembly. Flight  of  La  Fayette.  Dumouriez.— 21.  MASSACRES  OF  SEPTEMBER.— 22.  Victories 
of  the  French.  [Jemappes.  Marseilles  Hymn.] — 23.  Decree  of  the  National  Convention. 
TRIAL  AND  EXECUTION  OF  Louis  XVI. 

[1793.]  24.  FALL  OF  THE  GIRONDISTS.— 25.  Rule  of  the  Jacobins.— 26.  THE  REIGN  OF 
TERROR.  Execution  of  the  queen.  TRIUMPH  OF  INFIDELITY.— 27.  Divisions  among  the  Jacobin 
leaders.  FALL  OF  THE  DANTONISTS. — 28.  WAR  AGAINST  EUROPE. — 29.  Defection  of  Du- 
mouriez.— 30.  Fate  of  Custine. — 31.  War  on  the  Spanish  frontier.  In  other  quarters. — 32.  IN- 
SURRECTION OF  LA  VENDEE.  Victory  of  the  Vendeans  at  Saumur,  and  defeat  at  Nantes. 
[Saumur.]  Repeated  defeats  of  the  Republicans.  [Torfou.]— 33.  Cruelties  of  the  Republicans. 
The  Vendeans  cross  into  Brittany.  [Cholet.  Chateau  Gonthier.]— 34.  Closing  scenes  of  the 
Vendean  war.  [Granville.  Mans.  Savenay.  The  Vendean  leaders.]— 35.  INSURRECTIONS  IN 
THE  SOUTH  OF  FRANCE.  Marseilles  and  Lyons. — 36.  Siege  of  Toulon.  Napoleon  Bonaparte. 
—37.  Results  of  the  campaign  of  1793. 

[1794.]  38.  Progress  of  the  Revolution  after  the  fall  of  Danton.— 39.  FALL  OF  ROBESPIERRE, 
AND  END  OF  THE  REIGN  OF  TERROR.— 40.  Military  condition  of  France.— 41.  THE  ENGLISH  VIC- 
TORIOUS AT  SEA,  AND  THE  FRENCH  ON  THE  LAND.  [Biscay.]— 42.  SECOND  PARTITION  OF  Po- 

LAND. — 43.  THIRD  PARTITION  OF  POLAND. 

[1795.]  44.  DISSOLUTION  OF  THK  FIRST  COALITION  AGAINST  FRANCE.  Austria,  England, 
and  Russia.— 45.  Internal  condition  of  France.  THK  NEW  CONSTITUTION.— 46.  INSURRECTION 
IN  PARIS,  suppressed  by  Napoleon. — 47.  Military  events  of  1795. 

[17%.]  48.  INVASION  OF  GERMANY  by  Jordan  and  Moreau.— 49.  THE  ARMY  OF  ITALY.  Victo- 
ries of  Napoleon.  [Montenotte.  Millessimo.  Lodi.  Arcole.  Mantua.]-50.  DISTURBANCES 
IN  ENGLAND.  Spain.  English  supremacy  at  sea.  French  invasion  of  Ireland. 

[1797.]    51.  NAPOLEON'S  AUSTRIAN  CAMPAIGN.    TREATY  OF  CAMPO  FORMIO.    [Campo  For- 


CHAP.V.]  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  401 

mio.]    Losses  of  Italy.  52.  Strife  of  parties,  and  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  MILITARY  DESPOTISM  IN 
FRANCE. 

[1798.]  53.  PREPARATIONS  FOR  THE  INVASION  OF  ENGLAND.  EXPEDITION  TO  EGYPT.— 54. 
Preparations  for  the  expedition — 55.  Surrender  of  Malta.  [Malta.]  Storming  of  Alexandria.— 
56.  Policy  of  Napoleon.  [The  Arab  population.  Cairo.]  BATTLE  OF  THE  PYRAMIDS. — 57. 
BATTLE  OF  THE  NILE. — 58.  Remarkable  energy  of  Napoleon.  Conquest  of  Upper  Egypt. 
[1799.]  SYRIAN  EXPEDITION.— 59.  SIEGE  OF  ACRE.  [Mount  Tabor.]  BATTLE  OF  MOUNT 
TABOR.  [Nazareth.] — 60.  Return  of  Napoleon  to  Egypt.  BATTLE  OF  ABOCKIR. — 61.  State  of 
affairs  in  Europe.— 62.  Napoleon's  return  to  France.  OVERTHROW  OF  THE  DIRECTORY.  [SU 
Cloud.]  NAPOLEON  FIRST  CONSUL.  Changes  of  the  Revolution. 

1.  WAR  OF  THE  SPANISH  SUCCESSION,  AND  CLOSE  OF  THE  REIGN  OF 
Louis  XIV. — 1 .  The  war  which  ended  in  the  treaty  of  Ryswick  had 
not  humbled  the  pride  of  Louis  XIV.,  whose  ambition  soon  involved 
Europe  in  another  war,  known  in  history  as  the  "  War  of  the  Spanish 
succession."     The  immediate  events  that  led  to  the  war  were  the 
following.     On  the  death  of  Charles  the  Second  of  Spain,  in  the 
year  1700,  the  two  claimants  of  the  Spanish  throne  were  the  arch- 
duke Charles  of  Austria,  and  Philip  of  Anjou,  nephew  of  the  French 
monarch.     Both  these  princes  endeavored,  by  their  emissaries,  to 
obtain  from  Charles,  then  on  a  sick  bed,  a  declaration  in  favor  of  their 
respective  pretensions ;  but  although  the  Spanish  monarch  was  strong- 
ly in  favor  of  ihe  claims  of  the  arch-duke  his  kinsman, 

the  gold  and  the  promises  of  Louis  prevailed  with  the 

Spanish  nobles  to  induce  their  sovereign  to  assign  by 

will,  to  the  duke  of  Anjou,  the  undivided  sovereignty  of 

the  Spanislj  dominions.     The  arch-duke  resolved  to  sup- 

port  his  claims  by  the  sword,  while  the  possible  and  not 

improbable  union  of  the  crowns  of  France  and  Spain  in 

the  person  of  Philip,  after  the  death  of  Louis,  was  looked  upon  by 

England,  Germany,  and  Holland,  as  an  event  highly  dangerous  to  the 

safety  of  those  nations;  and  on  the  1 5th  of  May,  1702,  these  three 

powers  declared  war  against  France,  in  support  of  the  claims  of  the 

arch-duke  to  the  Spanish  succession. 

2.  It  was,  doubtless,  of  very  little  importance  to  England,  whether 
an  Austrian  or  a  French  prince  became  monarch  of  Spain;    but 
when,  on  the  death  of  the  exiled  James  II.,  his  son  was  acknowl- 
edged king  of  England  by  the  French  court,  the  act  was  regarded 
as  an  insult  and  a  defiance  to  Great  Britain ;  the  national  animosity 
was  aroused,  and  king  William  engaged  strenuously  in  the  work  of 
forming  a  league  against  the  ambition  of  France.     England,  Holland, 
and  Austria,  were  the  leading  powers  of  the  coalition,  while  France 
was  aided  by  Bavaria  alone.     Already  William  was  preparing  to 

26 


402  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

take  the  field  in  person  at  the  head  of  the  allies,  when  a  fall  from 
his  horse  occasioned  a  fever,  which  terminated  his  life  in  May  1 702. 
Queen  Anne,  who  next  ascended  the  throne  of  Great  Britain,  de- 
clared her  resolution  to  adhere  to  the  policy  of  her  predecessor. 

3.  The  emperor  of  Austria  began  the  war  by  pouring  into  Italy  a 
large  army  under  the  command  of  Prince  Eugene,  a  Frenchman  by 
birth,  who  had  early  entered  the  Austrian  service,  where  he  had 
gained  distinction  in  the  wars  of  the  Turks.     At  the  same  time  the 
English  duke  of  Marlborough,  intrusted  with  the  chief  command  of 
the  Dutch  and  English  forces,  entered  on  the  campaign  in  Flanders. 
To  these  generals  was  at  first  opposed  marshal  Villars;  but  the 
complaints  of  the  elector  of  Bavaria  against  him  induced  that  able 
general  to  resign  his  command.     Marsin,  Tallard,  and  Villeroy,  suc- 
ceeded him  ;  but  the  French  generals,  brought  up  under  the  despotic 
authority  of  Louis,  who  required  in  his  officers  the  quality  of  sub- 
mission as  well  as  the  talent  for  command,  were  unable  to  cope  with 
Marlborough  and  Eugene,  who  had  been  bred  in  a  school  that  en- 
couraged the  development  of  talent,  by  allowing  a  greater  indepen- 
dence of  character. 

4.  The  campaign  of  1 702  passed  without  any  remarkable  results  : 
ii  THE      Marlborough  took  a  few  towns  in  Flanders,  and  Eugene 

CAMPAIGN    in  northern   Italy,  but  on  the  Rhine  the  French  gained 
r  some  successes  :  at  sea  a  combined  Dutch  and  English 

fleet  failed  in  an  attack  on  Cadiz,1  but  succeeded  in  capturing  and 
destroying,  in  Vigo  Bay,8  a  French  and  Spanish  fleet  that  had  taken 
shelter  there,  laden  with  the  treasures  of  Spanish  America. 
OF  1703      -^n  *ne  8Prmg  °f  1703  the  French  succeeded  in  breaking 
through  the  lines  of  the  allies  on  the  Rhine,  thus  trans- 
ferring the  seat  of  the  war  to  the  Danube,  and  making  a  threatening 
demonstration  against  Vienna  itself. 

5.  In   the   spring  of    1704   Marlborough,   abandoning  Flanders, 

marched  to  the  relief  of  the  Austrian  emperor,  and  having 
Jome(^  Prince  Eugene,  on  the  13th  of  August,  near  the 
small  village  of  Blenheim,2  he  won  a  decisive  victory  over 
the  French  and   Bavarians.     Each   army  numbered  about  eighty 

1  Cadiz  is  an  important  city  and  seaport  of  Andalusia,  in  southern  Spain,  sixty  miles  north- 
west from  Gibraltar.  It  is  a  very  ancient  city,  having  been  founded  by  the  Carthaginians. 
(Map  No.  XIII.) 

2.  Vigo  Bay  is  on  the  western  coast  of  Spain,  a  little  north  of  Portugal. 

3.  Blenheim  is  a  small  village  of  western  Bavaria,  on  the  Danube,  thirty-three  miles  north- 
east from  Ulm.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 


CHAP.  V.]  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  403 

thousand  men,  and  the  vanquished  lost  thirty  thousand  in  killed, 
wounded,  and  taken,  while  all  their  camp  equipage,  baggage,  and  ar- 
tillery, became  the  prize  of  the  conquerors.  The  loss  of  the  latter 
was  about  five  thousand  killed  and  eight  thousand  wounded.  The 
results  of  this  battle  obliged  the  French  to  evacuate  Germany  al- 
together, abandon  Bavaria,  and  retire  behind  the  Rhine.  In  the 
meantime  the  war  continued  in  northern  Italy ;  Portugal  joined  the 
coalition ;  the  arch-duke  Charles  of  Austria,  aided  by  an  English 
force,  landed  in  the  Spanish  peninsula ;  and  an  English  and  Dutch 
fleet,  commanded  by  Sir  George  Rooke,  stormed  the  important  fortress 
of  Gibraltar,1  of  which  England  has  ever  since  retained  the  possession. 
6.  The  year  1 705  passed  away  with  varied  success,  the  French 
obtaining  many  advantages  in  Italy,  while  the  allies  were  v  EVKNTS 
generally  victorious  in  Spain  and  on  the  ocean.  In  1706  OF 
a  French  force  again  penetrated  into  Germany ;  but  the  1705~6- 
main  army,  of  about  eighty  thousand  men,  commanded  by  marshal 
Villeroy,  advancing  into  the  Spanish  Netherlands,  was  met  by  an 
inferior  force  under  the  duke  of  Marlborough,  and  utterly  routed  in 
the  decisive  battle  of  Ramillies.2  (May  23d,  1706.)  The  conse- 
quences of  the  battle  were  the  loss,  to  France,  of  all  the  Spanish 
Netherlands,  except  the  fortified  towns  of  Mons8  and  Namur.  In 

1.  Gibraltar,  the  Calpe  of  the  Greeks,  formed,  with  Abyla  on  the  African  coast,  the  "Pillars 
of  Hercules."    The  fortress  stands  on  the  west  side  of  a  mountainous  promontory  or  rock,  pro- 
jecting south  into  the  sea  about  three  miles,  and  being  from  one-half  to  three-quarters  of  a  mile 
in  breadth.    The  southern  extremity  of  the  rock  is  called  Europa  Point.    The  north  side  of  the 
promontory,  fronting  the  long  narrow  isthmus  which  connects  it  with  the  main  land,  is  per- 
pendicular, and  wholly  inaccessible.    The  east  and  south  sides  are  steep  and  rugged,  and  ex- 
tremely difficult  of  access,  so  as  to  render  any  attack  upon  them,  even  if  they  were  not  for- 
tified, next  to  impossible,  so  that  it  is  only  on  the  west  side,  fronting  the  bay,  where  the 
rock  declines  to  the  sea,  and  the  town  is  built,  that  it  can  be  attacked  with  the  faintest  pros- 
pect of  success.    Here  the  fortifications  are  of  extraordinary  extent  and  strength.    The  princi- 
pal batteries  are  so  constructed  as  to  prevent  any  mischief  from  the  explosion  of  shells.    Vast 
galleries  have  been  excavated  in  the  solid  rock,  and  mounted  with  heavy  cannon ;  and  com- 
munications have  been  established  between  the  different  batteries  by  passages  cut  in  the  rock 
to  protect  the  troops  from  the  enemy's  fire. 

At  Gibraltar,  the  Arabians  first  landed  in  Spain,  in  the  year  711.  It  was  taken  from  them  in 
1302:  in  1333  they  retook  it,  but  were  finally  deprived  of  it  in  1462  by  Henry  IV.  of  Spain. 
August  4th  1704  the  British  captured  it,  since  which  time  it  has  been  repeatedly  besieged  and 
assaulted,  but  without  success  In  1729  Spain  offered  two  millions  sterling  for  the  place,  but 
in  vain.  The  last  attempt  made  for  its  recovery  was  by  France  and  Spain  combined,  in  1779, 
during  the  war  with  England  which  grew  out  of  the  An.erican  Revolution.  Eighty  thousand 
barrels  of  gunpowder  were  provided  for  the  occasion,  and  more  than  one  hundred  thousand 
men  were  employed,  by  land  and  sea,  against  the  fortress.  {Map  No.  XIII.) 

2.  Ramillies  is  a  small  village  of  Belgium,  twenty-eight  miles  south-east  from  Brussels.   (Map 
No.  XV.) 

3.  Mons  is  a  fortified  town  of  Belgium,  thirty-two  miles  south-west  from  Brussels.    (Map 
No.  XV.) 


404  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

other  quarters  the  campaign  was  equally  disastrous  to  Louis.  Bar- 
celona1 surrendered  to  the  English ;  even  Madrid2  submitted  to  the 
allies ;  and  prince  Eugene,  breaking  through  the  French  lines  at 
Turin,  drove  the  enemy  from  Italy. 

7.  Louis  now  made  overtures  of  peace ;  but  the  allies,  hoping  to 

reduce  him  lower,  would  not  listen  to  them.     The  cam- 
PAIGNOF     paign  of  1707  in  a  measure  revived  his  sinking  fortunes. 
1707.       Qn  ^  plain  Of  Almanza3  the  French  won  a  victory  over 
the  allies,  as  complete  as  any  that  had  been  obtained  during  the  war. 
(April   1707.)     This  victory  established  Philip   of  Anjou  on  the 
throne  of  Spain.     In  the  same  year  prince  Eugene  was  foiled  in  an 
attempt  on  the  port  of  Toulon.4     In  the  following  year,  however, 
(1708,)  Marlborough  and  Eugene  defeated  a  powerful 
Drench  armJ  near  tne  village  of  Oudenarde,5  in  Flanders, 
and  recovered  Ghent  and  Bruges,6  which,  a  short  time 
before,  had  been  surprised  by  the  French.     Again  the  frontier  of 
France  lay  completely  open. 

8.  The  year   1709   commenced  with  one  of  the   most  rigorous 

winters  ever  known.     Olives  and  vines,  and  many  fruit 
VIH.  1709.  .  ,    ,      ,  .  ,  j        / 

trees  perished  ;  the  sown  gram  was  destroyed,  and  every- 
thing portended  a  general  famine.     The  French  populace  began  to 

1.  Barcelona,  the  capital  of  Catalonia,  is  a  city  and  seaport  of  Spain,  on  the  Mediterranean, 
three  hundred  and  fifteen  miles  north-east  from  Madrid.    It  is  supposed  to  have  been  founded 
by  the  Carthaginians  about  two  hundred  years  before  the  Christian  era,  and  to  have  beea 
named  from  its  founder  Hamilcar  Barcino.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

2.  Madrid,  the  modern  capital  of  Spain,  is  in  the  centre  of  the  kingdom,  and  occupies  the 
site  of  the  ancient  Mantua.  Carpctanorum,  a  fortified  town  belonging  to  the  Carpetani.    It  was  af- 
terwards called  Majoritum,  and  was  taken  and  sacked  by  the  Moors,  who  gave  it  its  present 
name.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

3.  Almanza  is  a  town  of  Spain  in  the  northern  part  of  the  province  of  Murcia,  ninety-threo 
miles  north-west  from  Carthagena.    In  the  battle  fought  in  the  neighborhood  of  this  town 
April  25th,  1707,  the  French  were  commanded  by  the  duke  of  Berwick.    The  allies,  in  the  in- 
terest of  the  arch-duke  Charles,  lost  five  thousand  men  killed  on  the  field,  and  nearly  ten  thou- 
sand taken  prisoners.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

4.  Toulon,  the  first  naval  port  in  France,  is  on  the  Mediterranean  coast,  thirty-two  miles 
south-east  from  Marseilles.    The  town  is  strongly  fortified,  and  has  an  excellent  harbor.    It  Is 
wholly  indebted  for  its  importance  as  a  great  naval  port,  and  strong  military  position,  to  Louis 
XIV.,  who  expended  vast  sums  on  its  fortifications,  and  on  the  arsenal  and  harbor.    (Map  No. 
XIII.) 

5.  Oudenarde  is  a  town  of  Belgium  thirty-three  miles  west  from  Brussels.    In  the  battle  of 
July  nth,  1708,  the  dukes  of  Brunswick  and  Vendome  commanded  the  French  army.    (Map 
No.  XV.) 

6.  Bruges  is  a  town  of  Belgium,  seven  miles  from  the  sea,  and  sixty  miles  north-west  from 
Brussels.    At  a  very  early  period  Bruges  was  a  prosperous  seat  of  manufacturing  and  com« 
mercial  industry.    Throughout  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  it  was  the  central  empori- 
um of  the  whole  commercial  world,  and,  as  the  leading  city  of  the  Hanseatic  confederacy,  had 
resident  consuls  and  ministers  from  every  kingdom  in  Europe.     (Map  No.  XV.) 


CHAP.  V.]  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  405 

clamor  from  present  sufferings,  and  the  dismal  prospect  before  them  ; 
but  when  the  French  parliament  proposed  to  appoint  deputies  to 
visit  the  provinces,  buy  corn,  and  watch  over  the  public  peace,  the 
haughty  monarch  reprimanded  them,  and  told  them  they  had  as 
little  to  do  with  corn  as  with  taxation.  The  magistrates  were  silent, 
and  desisted  from  farther  interference  with  the  claims  of  the  royal 
prerogative. 

9.  With  the  finances  in  disorder,  commerce  ruined,  and  agricul- 
ture at  a  stand,  Louis  sought  peace  with  Holland ;  but  the  States, 
Blighting  his  envoys  and  his  offers,  repaid  him  all  his  past  insults  and 
pride,  and  he  was  compelled  to  resume  the  war,  or  submit  to  conces- 
sions degrading  to  himself  and  the  nation.    Again  the  chief  command 
of  the  French  armies  was  given  to  marshal  Villars,  who  fought  with 
the  allies  the  battle  of  Malplaquet1  (Sept.  1 1th,  1709) ;  but  although 
the  latter  lost  the  greatest  number  of  men,  the   French  lost  the 
honor  of  the  day  by  being  driven  from  the  position  which  they  had 
chosen.     The  situation  of  Louis  became  desperate,  when  again  the 
successes  of  his  arms  in  Spain  restored  him  to  security  and  confi- 
dence ;  but  domestic  misfortune  fell  upon  him,  and  humbled  his 
pride  more  than  all  his  military  reverses  had  done.     Most  of  the 
near  relatives  of  the  king  were  cut  off  by  sudden  death, — since  at- 
tributed to  the  small  pox,  but  then  ascribed  to  the  agency  of  poison. 

10.  While  these  clouds  were  lowering  upon  France  and  her  mon- 
arch, an  unexpected  event  changed  the  situations  and  views  of  all 
parties.     Early  in  1 7 1 1 ,  the  death  of  the  emperor  of  Austria  without 
issue,  and  the  succession  of  the  arch-duke  Charles,  the  claimant  of 
the  Spanish  crown,  to  the  sovereignty  of  Austria,  threatened  a  union 
of  the  crowns  of  Spain  and  Austria  in  the  person  of  one  individual, — 
an  event  looked  upon  with  as  much  dread  as  the  union  of  France  and 
Spain  in  the  person  of  Philip  of  Anjou.     From  this  period  the  war 
languished  ;  and  when,  by  a  change  in  English  politics,  Marlborough, 
who  had  supported,  so  nobly,  the  glory  of  England,  was  disgraced, 
and  deprived  of  his  command,  the  influence  and  support  which  Eng- 
land had  given  to  the  war  were  taken  away. 

11.  Conferences  opened  at  Utrecht  in  the  early  part  of  1712,  and 
on  the  1 1th  of  April,  1713,  the  terms  of  a  general  peace  were  assented 

1.  Malplaquet  (raal-plah'-ka)  is  a  small  town  of  France,  near  the  border  of  Belgium,  forty- 
three  miles  south-west  from  Brussels.  In  the  battle  fought  here  Sept.  llth,  1709— the  bloodiest 
in  the  "  War  of  the  Spanish  succession"— the  allies  were  commanded  by  Marlborough  and 
Eugene.  The  French  army  numbered  seventy  thousand ;  the  allies  eighty  thousand.  The 
allies  lost  twenty  thousand  in  tilled,  and  the  French  about  ten  thousand.  (Map  No.  XV.) 


DC.   TREATY 


406  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PABT  IL 

to  by  all  the  belligerents  except  Austria.  England  was  gratified 
by  the  demolition  of  the  port  of  Dunkirk,  in  the  cession 
OF""*  of  Gibraltar  and  Minorca,1  together  with  Newfoundland,* 
UTRECHT,  Hudson's  Bay  Territory,3  and  the  island  of  St.  Christo- 
pher.4 Spain  remained  to  Philip  V.  of  Anjou,  on  his 
renouncing  forever  all  right  of  succession  to  the  crown  of  France. 
The  treaty  of  Radstadt,6  concluded  in  1714  between  France  and 
Austria,  completed  that  of  Utrecht,  and  terminated  the  war,  the 
Austrian  emperor  receiving  Naples,  Milan,  and  Sardinia,  together 
with  Spanish  Flanders,  in  lieu  of  Spain, — the  Spanish  monarchy 
thus  losing  its  possessions  in  Italy  and  the  Netherlands.  Louis  re- 
tained the  fortress  of  Lisle6  and  French  Flanders,  while  the  Rhine  was 
acknowledged  the  frontier  on  the  side  of  Alsace.7 

12.  The  treaties  of  Utrecht  and  Radstadt  were  the  closing  politi- 
cal acts  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XI Y.,  who  breathed  his  last 
x.  CHAEAC-   .     ^  .         J~  . 

TEE  OF  THE  m  September  1715,  alter  a  reign  or  seventy-seven  years, 

KEIGN  OF  or  fifty-four  from  the  expiration  of  the  regency.  Louis 
was  the  most  despotic  monarch  that  ever  reigned  over  a 
civilized  people.  In  the  condition  of  France  at  the  time  of  his  ac- 
cession, despotism  was  perhaps  the  only  remedy  against  anarchy, 
and  it  marks  an  overmastering  spirit  that  the  will  of  the  monarch 
alone  was  able  to  bend  all  minds  to  his  purposes.  The  nobility 
stood  submissive  before  the  throne, — the  people,  in  silence  and  suf- 
fering, far  beneath  it.  But  the  reign  of  Louis  has  shown  that  des- 
potism is  not  compatible  with  modern  civilization,  for  everything 
was  frozen  under  its  chilling  touch  ;  and  although  letters  nourished 

1.  Minorca.    See  Balearic  Isles,  p.  152. 

2.  Newfoundland,  a  large  island  of  North  America,  off  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  is  celebrated 
tor  its  fisheries.    Since  the  peace  of  Utrecht,  in  1713,  it  has  remained  in  the  possession  of 
England. 

3.  Hudson's  Bay  Territory  embraced  a  large  but  indefinite  extent  of  country,  mostly  on  the 
west  side  of  Hudson's  Bay.    The  Hudson's  Bay  Company  has  long  monopolized  nearly  all  the 
fur  trade  of  British  North  America. 

4.  St.  Christopher's  is  an  island  of  the  West  Indies,  nearly  two  hundred  miles  south-east  from 
Porto  Rico.    It  was  discovered  and  named  by  Columbus,  but  was  first  settled  by  the  English 
in  1623. 

5.  Radstadt  is  a  small  Austrian  town  one  hundred  and  forty-five  miles  south-west  from 
Vienna.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

6.  Lisle  is  a  strongly-fortified  city  of  France,  near  the  Belgian  frontier,  one  hundred  and 
twenty-four  miles  north-east  from  Paris.    Lisle  is  supposed  to  have  been  founded  in  640.    It 
successively  belonged  to  the  counts  of  Flanders,  the  kings  of  France,  and  the  dukes  of  Bur 
gundy.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

7.  JHsace  was  an  eastern  province  of  France,  on  the  Rhine.    In  ancient  times  it  was  a  Gei»- 
man  duchy,  and  the  inhabitants  still  speak  German.    Strasburg  is  the  chief  city.    (Map  No, 
XIIU 


CHAP.V.]  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  407 

among  the  favored  few,  there  was  no  prosperity,  no  learning,  no  life, 
among  the  people ;  and  had  the  progress  of  science,  and  the  devel- 
opment of  intellect,  been  checked  by  the  strong  arm  of  authority, 
France  would  have  needed  nothing  more  to  reduce  her  to  a  state  of 
oriental  simplicity  and  degradation. 

II.  PETER  THE  GREAT  OF  RUSSIA,  AND  CHARLES  XII.  OP  SWEDEN. — 
1.  While  the  "war  of  the  Spanish  succession"  engaged 

.  I.  THE  NORTH 

the  attention  of  the  south  and  west  of  Europe,  casting  a  AND  EAST 
shadow  of  gloom  on  the  declining  years  of  Louis  XIV.,  OF  KUttoW!- 
the  northern  and  eastern  divisions  of  Christendom  were  occupied 
with  the  rivalry  of  two  of  the  most  extraordinary  men  that  the 
world  has  ever  known — Peter  the  Great  of  Russia,  and  Charles  XII. 
of  Sweden.  In  the  preceding  chapter  we  noticed  the  auspicious 
events  which  marked  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  the  Russian 
monarch,  just  at  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  which 
promised  to  his  kingdom  a  rapid  augmentation  of  power,  and  the 
opening  of  a  new  era  in  civilization.  The  results  remain  to  be  de- 
veloped in  the  present  chapter. 

2.  It  was  a  leading  object  of  the  Czar,a  to  make  Russia  a  great 
commercial  nation ;  and  for  the  success  of  his  plans  a  free  and  unin- 
terrupted communication  with  the  ocean,  by  way  of  the  Baltic  Sea, 
was  deemed  of  the  greatest  importance ;  but  Sweden  possessed  the 
entire  eastern  coast  of  the  Baltic,  together  with  the  gulfs  of  Finland 
and  Livonia,1  thus  hemming  in  the  Czar  in  the  only  quarter  where 
his  ardent  wishes  might,  otherwise,  be  accomplished.     During  his 
travels  he  had  been  rudely  refused  admission  into  the  citadel  of 
Riga,2  which  had  once  belonged  to  Russia ;  and  this  circumstance 
afforded  him  a  sufficient  pretext  for  engaging  in  a  war  with  Sweden 
for  the  recovery  of  that  valuable  seaport.     The  kings  of  Denmark 
and  Poland,  both  of  whom  had  suffered  from  the  Swedish  arms,  were 
easily  induced  to  form  an  alliance  with  the  Czar  for  dividing  between 
themselves  the  possessions  wrested  from  their  predecessors. 

3.  Sweden  was  at  this  time  (1700)  governed  by  Charles  XII.,  a 
prince  only  eighteen  years  of  age  who  was  reported  by  the  ministers 

L  Finland  and  Livonia  are  the  two  eastern  gulfs  of  the  Baltic.  St.  Petersburg,  at  the  eastern 
extremity  of  the  former,  and  Riga,  near  the  head  of  the  latter,  are  now  the  two  most  important 
cities  and  ports  in  the  Russian  dominions. 

2.  Riga  is  a  strongly-fortified  city  of  Russia,  situated  on  the  river  Dwina,  nine  miles  from  its 
entrance  into  the  Gulf  of  Livonia.  Population,  seventy  thousand. 

a.  The  title  given  by  the  Russians  to  their  king,  and  pronounced  Tzar. 


408  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

of  foreign  courts  to  be  of  a  haughty  and  indolent  disposition,  and 
who  had  thus  far  shown  DO  inclination  for  public  business,  nor  evinced 
any  ardor  for  military  pursuits.  But  Charles  was  neither  known  to 
others  nor  did  he  know  himself  until  the  storm  that  suddenly  arose 
in  the  north  gave  him  an  opportunity  of  displaying  his  concealed 
talents.  While  the  Swedish  council,  alarmed  by  the  dangers  which 
threatened  the  country,  were  debating  in  his  presence  the  terms  ot 
an  accommodation  with  their  enemies,  the  young  prince  suddenly 
arose,  and  with  a  grave  and  determined  air  declared  that  his  resolu- 
tion was  fixed ; — "  that  he  would  never  enter  upon  an  unjust  war,  but 
that  he. would  attack  any  power  that  evinced  hostile  intentions,  and 
that,  in  the  present  instance,  he  hoped  to  conquer  the  first  enemy  and 
to  strike  terror  into  the  rest."  From  that  moment  Charles  renounced 
his  former  indolent  habits  and  frivolous  amusements,  and,  placing 
before  himself  the  characters  of  Alexander  and  Caesar,  resolved  to 
imitate  those  heroes  in  everything  but  their  vices.  The  vain  and 
trifling  boy  suddenly  became  the  stern,  vigilant,  and  ambitious  soldier 
of  fortune. 

4.  Almost  simultaneously,  early  in  the  year  1700,  the  Czar  and 

ii.  BEGIN-    his  allies  began  hostilities  by  invading  the  Swedish  terri- 

NING  OF     tories.     The  Danes  fell  upon  Sleswick,1  a  city  of  Hol- 

AGAINST     stein,  friendly  to  Sweden  ;  the  king  of  Poland  invested 

SWEDEN.     Riga ;  while  the  Czar,  with  eighty  thousand  men,  laid 

siege  to  Narva.2     Attacked  by  so  many  foes  at  once,  Charles  placed 

himself  at  the  head  of  his  armies,  and  directed  his  first  efforts  against 

the  Danes,  whom  he  compelled  to  purchase  the  safety  of  Copenhagen,8 

their  capital,  by  the  payment  of  four  hundred  thousand  dollars,  and 

soon  after  to  sign  a  peace,  by  which  Charles  was  indemnified  for  all 

the  expenses  of  the  war.     Thus  the  youthful  Swede,  by  his  vigorous 

conduct,  humbled  a  powerful  adversary  in  a  campaign  of  six  weeks, 

1.  Sleswick,  now  included  in  the  duchy  of  the  same  name,  is  a  city  and  seaport  town  of  Den 
mark,  seventy  miles  north-west  from  Hamburg.    Holstein  is  the  southern  duchy  or  province 
of  Denmark,  extending  to  the  Elbe,  and  having  the  duchy  of  Sleswick  on  the  north.    At  the 
period  above-mentioned  the  city  of  Sleswick  was  included  in  the  territories  of  the  duke  of 
Holstein,  who,  having  married  a  sister  of  Charles  XII.,  and  being  oppressed  by  the  king  of 
Denmark  his  master,  had  fled  to  Stockholm  to  implore  assistance.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

2.  JVarea  is  a  small  town  of  Russia  on  the  river  Narova,  eight  miles  from  its  entrance  into 
the  Gulf  of  Livonia,  and  eighty-one  miles  south-west  from  St.  Petersburg. 

3.  Copenhagen,  the  capital  of  Denmark,  is  a  well-fortified  city,  built  principally  on  the  eastern 
coast  of  the  island  of  Zealand,  and  partly  also  on  the  contiguous  small  island  of  Amak,  the 
channel  between  them  forming  the  port.    It  was  founded  in  1168.    Its  environs  are  celebrated 
for  their  beauty.    (Map  No.  XIV.) 


CHAP.  V.]  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  409 

and  rendered  his  own  name,  at  the  age  of  eighteen,  the  terror  of  the 
North,  and  the  admiration  of  Europe. 

5.  In  the  meantime  the  king  of  Poland,  who  had  laid  siege  to 
Riga,  being  thwarted  by  the  activity  of  its  veteran  commander,  the 
same  who  had  refused  the   Czar  permission  to  enter  the  citadel, 
availed  himself  of  a  plausible  pretext  for  withdrawing  his  forces. 
Charles  was  now  left  at  liberty  to  turn  his  attention  to  the  most  pow- 
erful of  the  confederates,  the  Russian  monarch,  who,  at  the  head  of 
eighty  thousand  men  and  one  hundred  and  fifty  pieces  of  cannon,  had 
been  engaged  ten  weeks  in  besieging  the  town  of  Narva,  which  was 
defended  by  a  garrison  of  scarcely  one  thousand  soldiers. 

6.  In  the  month  of  November  Charles  landed  on  the  coast  with 
only  twenty  thousand  men,  and  proceeded  rapidly  towards 

the  town,  at  the  head  of  less  than  one-half  of  his  actual  OF  THE 
force,  driving  before  him  more  than  thirty  thousand  RUSSIANS 
Russians  who  had  been  sent  out  to  impede  his  march. 
Scarcely  allowing  his  weary  troops  a  moment's  repose,  and  without 
waiting  for  the  remainder  of  his  little  army,  Charles  resolved  to 
attack  the  enemy  in  their  intrenchments  :  in  three  hours  the  camp 
was  forced  on  all  sides  :  eighteen  thousand  Russians  were  killed,  be- 
sides a  great  number  drowned  in  attempting  to  cross  the  river ;  and 
on  the  next  day  thirty  thousand  who  had  surrendered  were  dismissed 
to  their  homes.  (Nov.  30th.  Dec.  1st,  1700.)  This  extraordinary 
victory  did  not  cost  the  Swedes  over  six  hundred  men.  When  the 
Czar,  who  was  absent  from  Narva  at  the  time,  heard  of  this  disaster^ 
he  was  not  disheartened,  but  attributing  the  result  to  the  right  cause, 
the  ignorance  and  barbarism  of  his  subjects,  he  said : — "  I  know  very 
well  that  the  Swedes  will  have  the  advantage  of  us  for  a  considerable 
time  ;  but  they  will  at  length  teach  us  to  become  conquerors."'  The 
ignorant  Russians,  unable  to  account  for  a  victory  gained  by  human 
means,  over  such  disparity  of  numbers,  imagined  the  Swedes  to  be 
magicians  and  sorcerers  ;  and  a  form  of  prayer,  composed  by  a  Rus- 
sian bishop,  was  read  in  their  churches,  imploring  St.  Nicholas,  the 
patron  of  Muscovy,  to  be  their  champion  in  future,  and  to  drive  the 
troop  of  Northern  wizards  away  from  their  frontiers. 

7.  But  Peter,  disregarding  both  St.  Nicholas  and  the  priests,  pur- 
sued steadily  the  course  which  he  had  marked  out,  and,  withdrawing 
to  his  own  dominions,  occupied  hits  time  in  equipping  a  fleet,  in  re- 
cruiting and  disciplining  a  new  army,  in  carrying  out  his  project  of 
uniting  the  Baltic,  Caspian,  and  Euxine  seas,  and  in  introducing  nu- 


410  MODERN   HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

merous  improvements  for  civilizing  his  barbarous  subjects.  Charles, 
on  the  contrary,  neglectful  of  the  welfare  of  his  own  country,  and  of 
the  proceedings  of  the  Czar,  had  resolved  never  to  return  home  until 
he  had  driven  from  the  throne  of  Poland  the  newly-elected  sovereign, 
and  ally  of  Peter,  Augustus  of  Saxony. 

8.  Having  wintered  at  Narva,  Charles  next  drove  the  Poles  and 
Saxons  from  Riga,  defeated  his  enemies  on  the  western  bank  of  the 

Dwina,  overran  Courland1  and  Lithuania,  entered  War- 
op  CHARLES  saw2  without  opposition,  and  at  length,  in  July  1 70'2, 
IN  THE  YEAR  defeated  Augustus  in  a  bloody  battle  fought  on  a  vast 

plain  between  Warsaw  and  Cracow.3  A  second  victory 
gained  by  Charles  at  Pultusk*  in  the  following  year  (May  1st,  1703) 
completed  the  humiliation  of  Augustus,  who  was  formally  deposed 
by  the  Polish  diet,  while  the  crown  was  soon  after  given  to  Stanislaus 
Leczinski,  who  had  been  nominated  by  the  king  of  Sweden.  (January 
1704.)  Charles,  at  the  head  of  a  victorious  army,  might  easily  have 
assumed  the  sovereignty  of  Poland,  to  which  he  was  advised  by  his 
ministers,  but  he  declared  that  he  felt  more  pleasure  in  bestowing 
thrones  upon  others  than  in  winning  them  for  himself. 

9.  Charles  soon  reduced  the  Saxon  States,  the  hereditary  domin- 
ions of  the  unfortunate  Augustus ;  his  ships  were  masters  of  the 
Baltic ;  Denmark,  restrained  by  the  late  treaty,  was  prevented  from 
offering  any  active  interference  with  his  plans  ;  the  German  emperor, 
engaged  in  the  War  of  the  Spanish  succession,  was  afraid  of  offend- 
ing him ;  and  a  detachment  of  thirty  thousand  Swedes  kept  the 
Russians  in  check  towards  the  east :  so  that  the  whole  region  from 

1.  Courland  is  a  province  of  Russia,  on  the  Baltic  coast,  north  of  the  ancient  Lithuania. 
(See  Lithuania,  p.  312.) 

2.  Warsaw,  the  capital  of  Poland,  is  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Vistula,  six  hundred  and  fifty 
miles  southwest  from  St.  Petersburg,  and  three  hundred  and  thirty-three  miles  east  from  Berlin 
the  Prussian  capital.    Population,  about  one  hundred  and  forty  thousand.    In  1795,  in  the  third 
partition  of  Poland,  Warsaw  was  assigned  to  Prussia :  in  1806  it  was  made  the  capital  of  the 
grand-duchy  of  Poland ;  and  in  1815  it  became  the  capital  of  the  new  kingdom  of  Poland,  that 
was  uniled  to  the  crown  of  Russia,  but  with  a  separate  constitution  and  administration. 
Warsaw  was  the  principal  seat  of  the  ill-fated  Polish  revolution  of  1831.    See  p.  527.    (Map 
No.  XVII.) 

3.  Cracow  is  on  the  north  bank  of  the  Vistula,  one  hundred  and  sixty  miles  south-west  from 
Warsaw,  and  two  hundred  north-east  from  Vienna.    Previously  to  the  seventeenth  century 
Cracow  was  the  metropolis  of  the  kingdom  of  Poland.    Most  of  the  Polish  kings,  and  many 
other  illustrious  men,  have  been  buried  in  the  cathedral  of  Cracow.    Among  others  it  con-tains 
the  tombs  of  Casimir  the  Great,  of  John  Sobieski  the  deliverer  of  Poland,  and  of  the  "  last  of 
the  Poles,"  Kosciusko  and  Poniatowski.    About  a  mile  west  of  the  city  is  an  artificial  mound 
of  earth,  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  in  height,  erected  to  the  memory  of  Kosciusko.    (Map  No. 
XVII.) 

4.  Pultusk  is  forty  miles  north  of  Warsaw,  on  the  western  bank  of  a  small  tributary  of  the 
Vistula.    (Map  No  XVII.) 


OHAP.V.]  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  411 

the  German  Ocean  almost  to  the  mouth  of  the  Borysthenes,1  and 
even  to  the  gates  of  Moscow,  was  held  in  awe  by  the  sword  of  the 
conqueror.  All  Europe  was  filled  with  astonishment  at  the  arbitrary 
manner  in  which  he  had  deposed  the  king  of  Poland ;  while  in  the 
meantime  Charles  himself  was  indulging  in  the  most  extravagant 
views  of  future  conquests  and  glory.  One  year  he  thought  sufficient 
for  the  conquest  of  Russia  :  the  pope  of  Rome  was  next  to  feel  his 
vengeance,  for  having  dared  to  oppose  the  concession  of  religious  lib- 
erty to  the  German  Protestants,  in  whose  behalf  Charles  had  inter 
ested  himself;  and  the  youthful  hero  had  even  despatched  officers 
privately  into  Egypt  and  Asia,  to  take  plans  of  the  towns,  and  ex- 
amine into  the  resources,  of  those  countries. 

1 0.  The  Czar,  in  the  meantime,  had  not  been  an  idle  spectator  of 
the  progress  of  the  Swedish  conqueror.     By  keeping  large  bodies  of 
his  troops  actively  engaged  on  the  Swedish  frontiers,  he  gradually 
accustomed  them  to  the  presence  of  the  enemy,  over  whom  he  gained 
several  little  advantages ;  and  having  driven  the  Swedes  from  both 
banks  of  the  Neva,5  in  the  year  1701  he  laid  the  foundations  of  St. 
Petersburg,  in  the  heart  of  his  new  conquests,  and  by  his  judicious 
measures  protected  the  rising  city  from  the  attacks  of  the  Swedish 
generals.     During  the  year  1 704  he  gained  possession  of  all  Ingria  ;* 
the  next  year  he  entered  Poland  at  the  head  of  sixty  thousand  men ; 
but  the  advance  of  Charles  from  Saxony  soon  obliged  him  to,  retire 
again  towards  the  Russian  territories. 

11.  In  the  autumn  of  1707,  Charles  began  his  march  eastward, 
with  the  avowed  object  of  the  conquest  of  Russia,  driving 

the  Russians  back  to  the  eastern  banks  of  the  Dnieper,     CHARLES 
then  the  dividing  line  between  Russia  and  Poland.    The        INTO 
Czar,  seeing  his  own  dominions  threatened  with  war, 
which  must  put  a  stop  to  the  vast  plans  which  he  had  formed  for  the 
improvement  of  his  people,  now  offered  terms  of  peace,  but  Charles, 
intoxicated  with  success,  only  replied,  "  I  will  treat  at  Moscow." 
Peter,  resolving  not  to  act  the  part  of  another  Darius,  wisely  deter- 
mined to  check  the  career  of  the  invaders  by  breaking  up  the  roads 

1.  Borysthenes^  see  Dnieper,  p.  309. 

2.  The  Neva  is  the  stream  by  which  Lake  Ladoga  discharges  its  surplus  waters  into  the  Gulf 
of  Finland.    St.  Petersburg  is  built  at  its  entrance  into  the  Gulf. 

3.  Ingria  was  a  province  extending  about  one  hundred  and  thirty  miles  along  the  southern 
bank  of  the  Neva  and  the  southern  shore  of  the  Gulf  of  Finland.    In  1617  the  Swedes  took  it 
from  the  Russians,  but  in  1700  the  latter  reconquered  a  part  of  it,  and  in  1703  built  St.  Peter*- 
burg  within  its  limits. 


412  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PABT  II. 

and  desolating  the  country;  and  Charles,  after  crossing  the  Dnieper, 
and  penetrating  almost  to  Smolensko,1  found  it  impracticable  to  con- 
tinue his  march  in  the  direction  of  the  Russian  capital.  (1708.)  His 
army,  exposed  to  the  risk  of  famine,  and  the  incessant  attacks  of  the 
enemy,  was  slowly  wasting  away ;  yet,  instead  of  falling  back  upon 
Poland,  he  adopted  the  extraordinary  resolution  of  passing  into  the 
Ukraine,  whither  he  had  been  invited  by  Mazeppa,  a  Pole  by  birth, 
ax>d  chief  of  the  Cossacks,  but  who  had  resolved  to  throw  off  his  al- 
legiance to  the  Czar,  his  master. 

12  A  march  of  twelve  days,  amid  almost  incredible  and  unpar- 
alleled hardships,  brought  the  Swedes  to  the  river  Desna,2  where 
Charles  expected  to  meet  his  new  ally  with  a  body  of  thirty  thousand 
men ;  but,  instead  of  this,  he  was  compelled  to  force  the  passage  of 
the  stream  against  a  Russian  army.  The  Czar,  having  been  in- 
formed of  the  treason  of  Mazeppa,  had  disconcerted  his  schemes  by 
the  punishment  of  his  associates  ;  and  the  unfortunate  chief  appeared 
in  the  Swedish  army  rather  as  a  fugitive  than  as  a  powerful  prince 
bringing  succors  to  his  ally.  Charles  soon  after  learned  of  a  still 
greater  misfortune  that  had  befallen  him,  the  loss  of  a  large  convoy 
and  reinforcement  expected  from  Poland. 

13.  In  the  midst  of  one  of  the  severest  winters  ever  known  in 
Europe,  (1708-9)  the  small  Swedish  army,  now  reduced  to  less  than 
twenty  thousand  men,  found  itself  in  the  midst  of  a  hostile  and  al- 
most desolate  country,  cut  off  from  all  resources,  and.  threatened 
with  an  attack  from  nearly  a  hundred  thousand  Russians,  who  were 
gradually  concentrating  upon  their  victims.     Yet  the  iron  heart  of 
the  Swede  did  not  a  moment  relent  at  the  sufferings  of  his  soldiers, 
although  in  one  day  he  beheld  two  thousand  of  them  drop  dead  be- 
fore him,  from  the  effects  of  cold  and  hunger  ;  nor  had  he  relinquished 
the  design  of  penetrating  to  Moscow.     On  the  opening  of  spring  he 
advanced  to  the  town  and  fortress  of  Pultowa,3  in  the  hope  of  seiz- 
ing the  magazines  of  the  Czar,  and  opening  a  passage  into  the  heart 
of  the  Russian  territory. 

1 4.  Toward  the  end  of  May  Charles  invested  Pultowa,  but  while 

1.  Smolensko  is  a  Russian  town  on  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Dnieper,  two  hundred  and  thirty 
miles  south-west  from  Moscow.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

2.  The  Desna  is  an  eastern  tributary  of  the  Dnieper,  which  enters  that  river  a  little  above 
Kiev.    ( Map  No.  XVII.) 

3.  Pultowa  is  a  fortified  town  of  Russia,  on  the  river  Worskla,  an  eastern  tributary  of  the 
Dnieper,  two  hundred  miles  south-east  from  Kiev,  and  four  hundred  and  fifty  south-west  from 
Moscow.    In  commemoration  of  the  victory  of  Pultowa  the  Russians  have  erected  a  column  in 
the  city,  and  an  obelisk  on  the  field  of  battle. 


CHAP.  V.]  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  413 

he  was  pressing  the  siege  with  great  vigor,  on  the  15th  of  June  the 
Czar  appeared  before  the  place  with  an  army  seventy 
thousand  strong,  and,  in  spite  of  the  exertions  of  the 
Swedes,  succeeded  in  throwing  a  strong  reinforcement 
into  the  place.  When  Charles  discovered  the  manoeuvre  by  which 
this  had  been  effected,  he  could  not  forbear  saying,  "  I  sec  well  that 
we  have  taught  the  Muscovites  the  art  of  war."  On  the  eighth  of 
July  a  general  action  was  brought  on  between  the  two  armies,  the 
Czar  commanding  his  troops  in  person,  while  Charles,  unable  to  walk, 
owing  to  a  severe  wound  he  had  some  days  before  received  in  the 
heel,  was  carried  about  the  field  in  a  litter,  with  a  pistol  in  one  hand 
and  his  drawn  sword  in  the  other.  The  desperate  charge  of  the 
Swedes  broke  the  Russian  cavalry,  but  the  Russian  infantry  acted 
with  great  steadiness,  and  restored  the  honor  of  the  day.  The  Czar 
received  a  musket  ball  through  his  hat ;  his  favorite  general.  Menzi- 
koff,  had  three  horses  killed  %nder  him ;  and  the  litter  in  which 
Charles  was  carried  was  shattered  in  pieces  by  a  cannon  ball.  But 
neither  the  courage  nor  the  discipline  of  the  Swedes  could  avail  against 
the  overwhelming  numbers  of  their  antagonists;  and  after  a  dread- 
ful battle  of  two  hours'  duration  the  Swedish  army  was  irretrievably 
ruined.  Charles  escaped  with  about  three  hundred  horsemen  to  the 
Turkish  town  of  Bender,1  abandoning  all  his  treasures  to  his  rival, 
including  the  rich  spoils  of  Poland  and  Saxony. a 

15.  Thus  in  one  day  the  king  of  Sweden  lost  the  fruits  of  nearly 
a  hundred  victories,  and  nine  years  of  successful  warfare.     Nearly 

1.  Bender  is  now  a  Russian  town,  on  the  Dniester,  in  the  province  of  Bessarabia,  about  fifty- 
eight  miles  from  the  Black  Sea.  In  1770  the  Russians  took  this  town  by  storm,  and  reduced  it 
to  ashes.  Four  years  later  it  was  restored  to  Turkey,  but  was  reconquered  by  the  Russians  in 
1809,  and  was  finally  ceded  to  them,  with  the  province  of  Bessarabia,  by  the  treaty  of  Bucha- 
rest, in  1812.  (Map  No.  XVII.) 

a.  The  catastrophe  of  Pultowa  is  thus  powerfully  described  by  Campbell : 
"  Oh  !  learn  the  fate  that  bleeding  thousands  bore, 
Led  by  their  Charles  to  Dnieper's  sandy  shore. 
Faint  from  his  wounds,  and  shivering  in  the  blast, 
The  Swedish  soldier  sank  and  groaned  his  last ; 
File  after  file  the  stormy  showers  benumb, 
Freeze  every  standard  sheet,  and  hush  the  drum ; 
Horseman  and  horse  confessed  the  bitter  pang, 
And  arms  and  warrior  fell  with  hollow  clang  : 
Yet,  ere  he  sank  in  Nature's  last  repose, 
Ere  life's  warm  current  to  the  fountain  froze, 
The  dying  man  to  Sweden  turned  his  eye, 
Thought  of  his  home,  and  closed  it  with  a  sigh. 
Imperial  pride  looked  sullen  on  his  plight, 
And  Charles  beheld,  nor  shuddered  at  the  sight. 


414  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAKT  IL 

all  Europe  felt  the  effects  of  the  battle  of  Pultowa :  the  Saxons 
called  for  revenge  on  a  prince  who  had  pillaged  and  plundered  their 
country  :  Augustus  returned  to  Poland  at  the  head  of  a  Saxon  army, 
while  Stanislaus,  knowing  it  was  vain  to  resist,  was  unwilling  to  shed 
blood  in  a  useless  struggle  :  Denmark,  Russia,  and  Poland,  entered 
into  a  league  against  Sweden,  and  but  for  the  interference  of  the  Ger- 
man emperor  and  the  maritime  powers,  the  Swedish  monarchy  would 
have  been  rent  in  pieces. 

16.  Although  Charles  was  now  an  exile  from  his  country,  relying, 
for  his  support,  upon  the  generosity  of  the  Turkish  sultan,  yet  he  still  en- 
tertained the  romantic  project  of  dethroning  the  Czar,  and  marching 
back  to  Sweden  at  the  head  of  a  victorious  army.  He  endeavored  to  raise 

the  Turks  against  his  enemies ;  and  his  prospects  grew 
^TUE™  bright  or  dark  according  as  the  wavering  policy  of  the 
Turkish  divan  was  swayed  by  his  intrigues,  or  by  the 
gold  of  Russia.  At  one  time  the  viz»r  promised  to  conduct  him  to 
Moscow  at  the  head  of  two  hundred  thousand  men  :  war  was  declared 
against  Russia ;  and  the  forces  of  the  two  nations  were  assembled  on 
the  banks  of  the  Pruth.1  (July  1711.)  Here  the  Russian  army, 
surrounded  by  a  greatly  superior  Turkish  force,  lost,  in  four  days' 
fighting,  more  than  sixteen  thousand  men,  when  by  the  resolute  sa- 
gacity of  the  empress  Catherine,  who  accompanied  her  husband 
during  the  campaign,  a  secret  treaty  was  concluded  with  the  Turkish 
commander,  and  Peter  was  rescued  from  the  same  fate  that  had  be- 
fallen his  antagonist  at  Pultowa. 

17.  The  Swedish  monarch  continued  to  linger  in  Turkey  until 
1714,  still  flattering  himself  that  he  should  yet  lead  an  Ottoman 
army  into  Russia.     Being  at  length  dismissed  by  the  sultan,  and 
ordered  to  depart,  he  still  resolved  to  remain ;  and  arming  his  secre- 
taries, valets,  cooks,  and  grooms,  in  addition  to  his  three  hundred 
guards,  he  bade  defiance  to  a  Turkish  army  of  twenty-six  thousand 
men.     After  a  fierce  resistance,  in  which  many  of  his  attendants 
were  slain,  he  was  captured,  the  Turks  being  careful  not  to  endanger 
his  life.     Another  revolution  in  the  Turkish  divan  revived  the  hopes 
of  Charles,  and  prolonged  his  stay ;  but  when  he  learned  that  the 
Swedish  senate  intended   to  create  a  regent  in  his  absence,  and 

1.  The  Pruth^  rising  in  Gallicia,  forma  the  boundary  between  Bessarabia  and  Moldavia,  and 
enters  the  Danube  about  fifty  miles  from  the  Black  Sea.  By  the  treaty  of  Adrianople  in  1829, 
it  was  stipulated  that  the  Pruth  should  continue  to  form  the  boundary  between  the  Russian 
and  Turkish  territories.  (Map  No.  XVII.) 


CHAI  V.]  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  415 

make  peace  with  Denmark  and  Russia,  his  indignation  at  such  pro- 
ceedings induced  him  to  return  home.    He  was  honorably 
escorted  to  the  Turkish  frontiers ;  but  although  orders 
had  been  given  that  he  should  be  treated  in  the  Austrian 
and  German  dominions  with  all  due  honor,  he  chose  to  travel  in  the 
disguise  of  a  courier,  and  toward  the  close  of  November  1714  reached 
Stralsund,  the  capital  of  Swedish  Pomerania. 

18.  At  the  time  of  the  return  of  Charles,  Sweden  was  in  a  truly 
deplorable  condition, — surrounded  by  enemies — without  money,  trade, 
or  credit — her  foreign  provinces  lost,  and  one  hundred  and  fifty  thou- 
sand of  her  best  soldiers  slaves  in  Turkey  and  Siberia,  or  locked  up  in  the 
fortresses  of  Denmark  and  Poland.  Yet  Charles,  instead  of  seeking 
that  peace  which  his  kingdom  so  much  needed,  immediately  issued 
orders  for  renewing  the  war  with  redoubled  vigor.  During 
the  year  1715,  the  Danish  and  Russian  fleets  swept  the 
Baltic,  and  threatened  Stockholm  ;'  and  Stralsund, 
though  defended  by  Charles  with  his  accustomed  bravery,  was  com- 
pelled to  surrender  after  a  siege  of  two  months.  On  the  night  be- 
fore the  surrender  Charles  made  his  escape  in  a  small  boat,  safely 
passing  the  batteries  and  fleets  of  the  allies.  In  the  following  year 
he  made  an  irruption  into  Norway,  but  his  army  was  driven  back 
greatly  diminished  in  numbers.  His  attention  was  next  occupied 
with  the  scheme  of  his  favorite  minister,  Baron  Gortz,  for  uniting 
the  kings  of  Sweden  and  Russia  in  strict  amity,  and  then  dictating 
the  law  to  Europe.  The  plot  embraced  the  restoration  of  Stanislaus 
to  the  throne  of  Poland,  and  Charles  was  to  have  the  command  of  a 
combined  Swedish  and  Russian  army  of  invasion,  for  establishing  the 
Pretender  (son  of  James  II.)  on  the  throne  of  England.  The  Czar 
seemed  not  averse  to  the  project,  and  a  conference  of  the  ministers 
of  the  two  nations  had  already  been  appointed  for  making  the  final 
arrangements,  when  the  death  of  the  king  of  Sweden  rendered  abor- 
tive a  revolution  that  might  have  thrown  all  Europe  into  a  state  of 
political  combustion.  In  the  autumn  of  1718  Charles 
had  invaded  Norway  a  second  time,  and  laid  siege  to 
Frederickshall  ;'J  but  while  engaged  in  viewing  the  works 

1.  Stockholm,  the  capital  city,  and  principal  commercial  emporium  of  Sweden,  is  built  partly 
on  a  number  of  islands  and  partly  on  the  main  laud,  at  the  junction  of  the  Lake  Mzelar  with 
the  Baltic,  four  hundred  and  forty  miles  a  little  south  of  west  from  St.  Petersburg.    It  was 
founded  in  the  thirteenth  century,  but  was  not  recognized  as  the  capital  till  the  seventeenth, 
previously  to  which  Upsala  had  been  the  seat  of  the  court.    (Map  No.  XIV.) 

2.  Frederickshall  is  a  maritime  town  of  Norway,  near  the  north-east  angle  of  the  Skagger- 
rack,  fifty-seven  miles  south-east  from  Christiana.    The  town  spreads  irregularly  around  a  per- 


416  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAKT  EL 

in  the  midst  of  a  tremendous  fire  from  the  enemy,  he  was  struck 
dead  by  a  ball  from  the  Danish  batteries.  (Dec.  1718.) 

19.  The  death  of  Charles  produced  an  entire  change  in  the  affairs 
of  Sweden.  The  late  king's  sister  was  declared  queen  by  the  volun- 
tary choice  of  the  States  of  the  kingdom ;  but  the  last  reign  had 
taught  them  a  severe  lesson,  and  they  compelled  their  new  sovereign 
to  take  a  solemn  oath  that  she  would  never  attempt  the  establish- 
ment of  arbitrary  power.  The  project  of  a  union  with  Russia  was 
at  once  abandoned,  and  the  new  government  united  its  forces  to  those 
of  England  against  the  Czar.  For  a  while  the  Russian  fleet  desolat- 
ed the  coasts  of  Sweden,  but  in  1721  peace  was  established  between 
the  two  powers  by  the  treaty  of  Nystad.1  Russia  gained  thereby  a 
large  accession  of  territory  on  the  shores  of  the  Baltic,  and  dominion 
over  the  Gulf  of  Finland,  which  Peter  had  purchased  as  a  highway 
of  commerce  to  the  ocean,  with  the  toils  and  perils  of  twenty  years  of 
warfare. 

20.  Charles  the  Twelfth,  at  the  time  of  his  death,  was  little  more 

than  thirty-six  years  of  age,  one-half  of  which  had  been 
CHARACTER    sPen*  amid  *ne  turmoil  of  arms,  or  wasted  in  foreign 

exile.  War  was  his  ruling  passion ;  but  the  only  ob- 
ject of  his  conquests  seemed  to  be  the  satisfaction  of  bestowing  their 
fruits  upon  others,  without  any  apparent  wish  to  enlarge  his  own  do- 
minions. After  all  his  achievements,  nought  but  the  memory  of  his 
renown  survives  him ;  for  all  the  acts  of  his  reign  sprung  from  a 
misdirected  ambition,  and  not  one  of  them  was  conducive  to  the  per- 
manent welfare  of  his  country.  "  He  was  rather  an  extraordinary 
than  a  great  man,"  says  Voltaire,  "  and  more  worthy  to  be  admired 
than  imitated.  His  life  ought  to  be  a  lesson  to  kings,  how  much  a 
pacific  and  happy  government  is  preferable  to  so  much  glory.  "a 

pendicular  rock  four  hundred  feet  in  height,  on  which  is  the  strong  fortress  of  Frederickstein, 
at  the  siege  of  which  Charles  XII.  was  killed. 

It  was  doubted  for  awhile  whether  the  king  met  his  death  by  a  ball  from  the  fortress,  or  from 
an  assassin  in  the  rear ;  but  there  seem  to  be  no  good  grounds  for  supposing  that  treachery  had 
anything  to  do  with  the  matter.  Dr.  Johnson  has  availed  himself  of  the  suspicion  in  his  ad- 
mirable  description  of  the  character  of  the  Swedish  warrior.  The  hat,  clothes,  buff-belt,  boots^ 
&c.,  which  Charles  wore  when  he  was  shot,  are  still  preserved  in  the  arsenal  of  Stockholm. 

1.  Nystad  is  a  town  of  Finland,  on  the  eastern  coast  of  the  Baltic,  one  hundred  and  fifty 
miles  north-east  from  Stockholm. 

a.  The  following  is  Dr.  Johnson's  description  of  the  character  of  Charles  XII. 
"On  what  foundation  stands  the  warrior's  pride, 
How  just  his  hopes,  let  Swedish  Charles  decide. 
A  frame  of  adamant,  a  soul  of  fire, 
No  dangers  fright  him,  and  no  labors  tire ; 


CHAP.  V.]  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  417 

21.  The  Czar  Peter,  or,  as  he  is  usually  called  in  history,  Peter 
the  Great,  died  in  1725,  seven  years  after  the  death  of   xii.  DEATH 
his  great  rival  the  king  of  Sweden.     Through  a  life  of 
restless  activity  he  labored  for  the  improvement  and    OF  PETKR 
prosperity  of  his  country  ;  and  while  Charles  left  behind   THE  GRKAT. 
him  nothing  but  ruins,  Peter  the  Great  may  truly  be  regarded  as  the 
founder  of  an  empire.     The  ruler  of  a  barbarous  people,  he  early 
saw  the  advantages  of  civilization,  and  by  the  measures  he  adopt- 
ed for  reforming  his  empire  he  truly  merited  the  epithet  of  GREAT. 
Yet  it  has  been  truly  said  of  him  that  although  he  civilized  his  sub- 
jects, he  himself  remained  a  barbarian ;  for  the  sternness,  or  rather 
the  ferocity,  of  his  disposition,  spared  neither  age  nor  sex,  nor  his  dear- 
est connexions.     So  conscious  was  he  of  his  frailties  that  he  was  accus- 
tomed to  say,  "  I  can  reform  my  people,  but  I  cannot  reform  myself." 
He  never  learned  the  lessons  of  humanity  ;  and  his  sublime  but  un- 
cultivated genius  continually  wandered  without  a  guide.     It  is  a  high 
and  just  eulogium  of  his  character  to  say  that  "  his  virtues  were  his 
own,  and  his  defects  those  of  education  and  country." 


O'er  love,  o'er  fear,  extends  his  wide  domain, 

Unconquered  lord  of  pleasure  and  of  pain ; 

No  joys  to  him  pacific  sceptres  yield, 

War  sounds  the  trump,  he  rushes  to  the  field ; 

Behold  surrounded  kings  their  powers  combine, 

And  one  capitulate,  and  one  resign ; 

Peace  courts  his  hand,  but  spreads  her  charms  in  vain ; 

'Think  nothing  gained,'  he  cries  '  till  naught  remain ; 

On  Moscow's  walls,  till  Gothic  standards  fly, 

And  all  be  mine  beneath  the  polar  sky.' 

The  march  begins  in  military  state, 

And  nations  on  his  eye  suspended  wait ; 

Stern  famine  guards  the  solitary  coast, 

And  winter  barricades  the  realms  of  frost : 

lie  comes  ;  nor  want,  nor  cold,  his  course  delay ; 

Hide,  blushing  Glory,  hide  Pultowa's  day. 

The  vanquished  hero  leaves  his  broken  bands, 

And  shows  his  miseries  in  distant  lands ; 

Condemned  a  needy  supplicant  to  wait 

While  ladies  interpose,  and  slaves  debate. 

But  did  not  chance  at  length  her  error  mend  ? 

Did  no  subverted  empire  mark  his  end  ? 

Did  rival  monarchs  give  the  fatal  wound  ? 

Or  hostile  millions  press  him  to  the  ground? 

His  fall  was  destined  to  a  barren  strand, 

A  petty  fortress,  and  a  dubious  hand : 

He  left  the  name,  at  which  the  world  grew  paie, 

To  paint  a  moral,  or  adorn  a  tale." 


27 


418  MODERN  HISTORY  [PART  II 

III.  SPANISH  WARS,  AND  WARS  OF  THE  AUSTRIAN  SUCCESSION. — 
1,  The  treaty  of  Utrecht  in  1713,  which  closed  the  war  of  the  Spanish 
succession,  had  given  pacification  to  southern  and  west- 
^ALUAKOE*  ern  Eur°Pe>  ky  defining  the  territorial  limits  of  the 
belligerents  in  such  a  manner  as  to  preserve  that  bal- 
ance of  power  on  which  the  peace  of  Europe  depended.  The  in- 
triguing efforts  of  Spain  in  contravention  of  that  portion  of  the 
treaty  by  which  Philip  V.  renounced  forever  all  right  of  succession 
to  the  crown  of  France,  induced  England  and  Holland,  in  1717,  to 
unite  with  France  in  forming  a  Triple  Alliance  guaranteeing  the  ful- 
filment of  the  treaty;  but  during  the  same  year  a  Spanish  fleet, 
entering  the  Mediterranean,  quickly  reduced  the  island  of  Sardinia, 
which  had  been  assigned  to  Austria ;  and  in  the  following  year  an- 
other fleet  and  army  captured  Sicily,  which  had  been  adjudged  to 
the  duke  of  Savoy.  These  acts  of  aggression  roused  the  resentment 
of  Austria ;  and  by  her  accession  to  the  terms  of  the  Triple  Alliance, 
the  Quadruple  Alliance  was  formed,  for  the  purpose  of  putting  a 
check  to  the  ambition  of  Spain.  A  British  squadron,  under  admiral 
Byng,  sailed  into  the  Mediterranean  and  destroyed  the  Spanish  fleet, 
whilst  an  Austrian  force  passed  into  Sicily  to  contest  with  the  Spanish 
army  the  sovereignty  of  that  island.  The  successes  of  the  allies  soon 
compelled  even  Spain  to  accede  to  the  terms  of  the  Alliance  for  pre- 
serving the  peace  of.  Europe. 

2.  In  1 739,  however,  the  general  peace  was  interrupted  by  a  war 

between  England  and  Spain,  growing  out  of  the  com- 
BETWEEN     niercial  and  colonial  difficulties  of  the  two  nations.     For 
ENGLAND     a  long  time  Spain,  claiming  the  right  of  sovereignty  over 
the  seas  adjacent  to  her  American  possessions,  which  had 
been  confirmed  by  successive  treaties,  had  distressed  and  insulted 
the  commerce  of  Great  Britain  by  illegal  seizures  made  under  the 
pretext  of  the  right  of  search  for  contraband  goods ;  while  Britain, 
on  the  other  hand,  secretly  encouraged  a  contraband  traffic,  little  to 
her  honor,  and  deeply  injurious  to  Spain.     War  was  first  declared 
by  England :  the  vessels  of  each  nation  in  the  ports  of  the  other 
were  confiscated  ;  and  powerful  armaments  were  fitted  out  by  the  one 
to  seize,  and  by  the  other  to  defend,  the  Spanish  American  possess- 
ions, while  pirates  from  Biscay  harassed  the  home  trade  of  England. 

3.  While  this  war  continued  with  various  success,  a  general  Euro- 
pean war  broke  out,  called  the  "  war  of  the  Austrian  succession,'' 
presenting  a  scene  of  the  greatest  confusion,  and  eclipsing,  by  its  im- 


OHAP.V.]  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  419 

1  '  mi    t      *          •'*[»•»     ••••  'i 

portance,  the  petty  conflicts  on  the  American  seas.     Charles  VI.,  em- 
peror of  Austria,  the  famous  competitor  of  Philip  for  the  throne  of 
Spain,  died  in  the  autumn  of  1 740 ;  and  as  he  had  no  male 
issue  he  left  his  dominions  to  his  eldest  daughter,  Maria  ^^HE^AR 
Theresa,  queen  of  Hungary,  in  accordance  with  a  solemn      OF  THE 
ordinance  called  the  Pragmatic   Sanction,1  which   had  AM 

been  confirmed  by  all  the  leading  States  of  Europe.   This 
sanction,  however,  did  not  secure  his  daughter,  after  his  death,  from 
the  attacks  of  a  host  of  enemies,  who  hoped  to  make  good  their 
pretensions,  by  force  of  arms,  to  different  portions  of  her  estates. 

4.  The  elector  of  Bavaria  declared  himself,  by  virtue  of  his  descent 
from  the  eldest  daughter  of  Ferdinand  I.,  the  proper  heir  of  the 
hereditary  Austrian  provinces :  the  elector  of  Saxony,  who  was  also 
Augustus  III.,  king  of  Poland,  made  the  same  claims  by  virtue  of  a 
preceding  marriage  with  the  house  of  Saxony :  Spain  was  anxious 
to  appropriate  to  herself  some  of  the  Italian  principalities,  and  vir- 
tually laid  claim  to  the  whole  Austrian  succession,  while  Frederick 
II.,  the  young  king  of  Prussia,  marched  suddenly  into  Silesia,  and  took 
possession  of  that  country.     France,  swayed  by  hereditary  hatred  of 
Austria,  sought  a  dismemberment  of  that  empire;  while  England 
offered  her  aid  to  Maria  Theresa,  the  daughter  of  her  ancient  ally, 
to  preserve  the  integrity  of  the  Austrian  dominions. 

5.  The  plan  of  the  coalition  against  the  Austrian  queen  embraced 
the  elevation  of  Charles  Albert,  the  electoral  prince  of 
Bavaria,  to  the  sovereignty  of  all  the  German  States ;     COALITION 
and  accordingly,  in  the  summer  of  1741,  two  French      AGAINST 
armies  crossed  the  Rhine,  and  being  joined  by  the  Ba- 
varian forces,  seized  Prague,  made  several  other  important  conquests, 
threatened  Vienna,  and  compelled  Maria  Theresa  to  flee  from  her 
capital.     In  a  diet  held  at  Frankfort,8  in  Frebruary  1742,  the  impe- 
rial crown,  through  the  influence  of  France  and  Prussia,  was  given 
to  Charles  Albert.     In  the  meantime  Maria   Theresa,  crushed  in 

1.  Pragmatic  Sanction     There  are  four  ordinances  with  this  title  mentioned  in  history:  1st, 
tl  at  of  Clnrles  VII.  of  France,  iu  1436,  on  which  rest  the  liberties  of  the  Galilean  church  :  2d, 
th«  decree  of  the  German  diet  in  1439,  sanctioning  the  former :  3d,  the  ordinance  of  the  German 
emperor  Charles  VI.  in  1740,  by  which  he  endeavored  to  secure  the  succession  to  his  female 
descendants,  and  which  led  to  the  war  of  the  Austrian  succession  :  and  4th,  the  ordinance  by 
which  Charles  III.  of  Spain,  in  1759,  ceded  the  throne  of  Naples  to  his  third  son  and  his  posterity. 

2.  Frankfort,  or  Frankfortron-the-Afayn,  is  a  celebrated  commercial  city  of  Germany,  on'  the 
north  bank  of  the  Mayn,  eighteen  miles  north-east  from  its  confluence  with  the  Rhine  at 
Mayence.    There  is  also  a  Frankfort-on-the-Oder,  ninety-five  miles  north-east  from  Dresden. 
(Map  No.  XVII.) 


420  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IJ, 

everything  but  energy  of  spirit  by  the  vast  array  against  her,  pre- 
sented herself,  with  her  infant  son,  in  the  diet  of  the  Hungarian 
nobles,  and  having  first  sworn  to  protect  their  independence,  de- 
manded their  aid  in  tones  that  her  beauty  and  her  tears  rendered 
more  persuasive.  The  swords  of  the  Hungarians  flashed  in  the  air 
as  their  acclamations  replied,  "  We  will  die  for  our  sovereign  Maria 
Theresa, !"  On  the  very  day  that  Charles,  Albert  was  crowned  at 
Frankfort,  Munich,1  his  own  capital,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Aus- 
trian general ;  and  while  Bavaria  was  plundered,  the  new  emperor 
was  compelled  to  live  in  retirement  far  from  his  own  dominions.  In 

another  quarter  fortune  was  not  equally  favorable  to 
V  1^4^3  Austria;  and  Maria  Theresa  was  compelled  to  purchase 

peace  of  the  Prussians  by  the  surrender  of  Silesia. 
(June  1741.)  This  loss  was  compensated,  Ixowever,  by  a  successful 
blockade  of  Prague,  then  in  the  hands  of  the  French,  who  were  at 
length  forced  to  a  disastrous  retreat,  while  England  began  to  take  a 
more  active  part  in  the  war  against  France.  The  losses  of  France  were 
great  on  the  ocean ;  and  in  1 743  Greorge  II.  of  England,  advancing  into 
Germany  at  the  head  of  a  powerful  army,  defeated  the  French  at  Dettin- 
gen,2  and  compelled  them  to  retreat  across  the  Rhine.  (June  1743.) 

6.  The  year  1 744  is  distinguished  by  the  renewal  of  hostilities  on 

the  part  of  Frederick,  who,  having  formed  an  alliance 
with  the  king  of  France,  entered  Bohemia  at  the  head 
of  seventy  thousand  soldiers,  and  in  the  beginning  of  September  sat 
down  before  Prague,  which  soon  surrendered,  and  with  it  a  garrison 
of  eighteen  thousand  men.  But  misfortunes  rapidly  succeeded  this 
brilliant  beginning  of  the  campaign ;  the  illness  of  Louis  XV.,  king 
of  France,  prevented  the  promised  diversion  on  the  side  of  the  Rhine  ; 
and  Frederick  was  eventually  compelled  to  retreat  to  his  own  do- 
minions, with  the  loss  of  twenty  thousand  men.  The  king  of  Prussia 
acknowledged,  in  his  own  memoirs,  that  no  general  committed  greater 
faults  during  the  campaign  than  he  did  himself :  and  that  the  conduct 
of  his  opponent,  the  Austrian  general,  marshal  Traun,  was  a  model 
of  perfection,  which  every  military  man  would  do  well  to  study. 

7.  The  death  of  Charles  Albert,  early  in  January  1745,  removed 

all  reasonable  grounds  for  continuing  the  war ;  but  the 
national  animosity  between  England  and  France  prevent- 

1.  Munich  is  a  large  German  city,  the  capital  of  Bavaria,  on  the  Isar,  a  southern  branch  of 
the  Danube,  two  hundred  and  twenty  miles  west  from  Vienna.  It  is  called  the  "  Athens  of 
south  Germany."  (Map  No.  XVII.) 

v    .  2.  Dettinffen  is  a  small  village  of  Bavaria,  on  the  Mayn,  sixteen  miles  south-east  of  Frankfort, 

V 


CHAP.  V.I  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  421 

,        jjjjkfo..,,    i  .          .    •'_••'£ 

ed  the  restoration  of  peace.  During  the  same  year,  the  celebrated 
French  general,  marshal  Saxe,  obtained  the  victory  of  Fontenoy1  over 
the  Austrians,  and  their  Dutch  and  English  allies  commanded  by  the 
duke  of  Cumberland,  and  conquered  the  Austrian  Netherlands  and 
Dutch  Flanders.  The  king  of  Prussia  conducted  a  successful  cam- 
paign in  Silesia  and  Saxony,  and  in  December  concluded  with  Austria 
the  treaty  of  Dresden,  which  confirmed  him  in  the  possession  of  Si- 
lesia. In  the  meantime  the  German  States  had  elected  for  their 
emperor  Francis  I.,  the  husband  of  Maria  Theresa,  and  in  the  treaty 
of  Dresden  he  was  formally  acknowledged  by  Frederick. 

8.  In  Italy  the  combined  armies  of  France,  Spain,  and  Naples, 
obtained  important  advantages  over  the  Austrians  and  Sardinians ; 
and  at  the  close  of  the  campaign  they  held  possession  of  all  Lorn- 
bardy  and  Piedmont.3     During  the  same  year,  while  the  king  of 
England  was  warring  with  the  French  in  the  Netherlands,  his  own 
dominions  were  invaded.    The  loss  of  the  English  at  Fon- 
tenoy seemed  to  present  to  Charles  Edward,  grandson      SION  OF 
of  James  II.,  commonly  called  the  Young  Pretender,     ENGLAND, 
a  fit  opportunity  for  attempting  the  restoration  of  his 
family  to  the  throne  of  England.     Being  furnished  by  the  French 
monarch  with  a  supply  of  money  and  arms,  at  the  head  of  a  small 
force  he  landed,  in  July,  on  the  coast  of  Scotland,  and  being  joined 
by  many  of  the  Highland  clans,  on  the  16th  of  September  he  was 
enabled  to  take  possession  of  Edinburgh,3  and  a  few  days  later  de- 
feated the  royal  forces  at  Preston  Pans.*     In  November  he  entered 

1.  Fontenoy  is  a  village  of  Belgium,  In  the  province  of  Hainault  (a-n&),  forty-three  miles 
Bouth-west  from  Brussels.    The  battle  was  fought  April  30th,  1745.    Voltaire's  account  of  it,  in 
his  "  Age  of  Louis  XV.,"  is  extremely  interesting.    (Map  No.  XV.) 

2.  Piedmont,  (pied-de-monte,  "foot  of  the  mountain,")  the  principal  province  of  the  Sardinian 
monarchy,  has  the  Swiss  canton  of  Valais  and  the  Sardinian  province  of  Savoy,  on  the  north, 
and  Savoy  and  France  on  the  west.    Capital,  Turin.    In  J802  Napoleon  incorporated  it  with 
France,  but  it  was  restored  in  1814. 

3.  Edinburgh,  the  metropolis  of  Scotland,  county  of  Mid  Lothian,  is  two  miles  south  of  the 
Frith  of  Forth,  and  three  hundred  and  thirty-seven  miles  north-west  from  the  city  of  London. 
It  is  principally  built  on  three  parallel  ridges  running  east  and  west.    At  the  western  extremity 
of  the  central  ridge,  which  is  terminated  by  a  precipitous  rock  four  hundred  and  thirty-four 
feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  is  the  castle  ;  and  a  mile  distant,  at  the  eastern  extremity  of  the 
ridge,  is  the  palace  of  Holyrood,  one  hundred  and  eight  feet  above  the  same  level.    The  palace 
has  a  peculiar  interest  from  the  circumstance  that  the  apartments  occupied  by  the  unfortunate 
Queen  Mary  have  been  carefully  preserved  in  the  state  in  which  she  left  them.    Connected 
with  the  palace,  on  the  north,  are  the  ruins  of  the  abbey  of  Holyrood.    Edinburgh  Is  highly 
celebrated  for  its  literary  and  educational  institutions.    (Map  No.  XVI.) 

4.  Preston  Pans  is  a  small  seaport  town  of  Scotland,  on  the  south  shore  of  the  Frith  of  Forth, 
•even  and  a-half  miles  east  of  Edinburgh.    It  derives  its  name  from  its  having,  for  a  length- 
ened period,  had  a  number  of  salt  works  or  pans  for  the  production  of  salt  by  the  evaporation 
«f  sea-water.    (Map  No.  XVI.) 


422  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PABT  IL 

England,  and  advanced  to  within  a  hundred  miles  of  London,  but 
was  then  compelled  to  retreat  into  Scotland,  where,  after  having  de- 
feated the  royal  forces  a  second  time,  his  cause  was  utterly  ruined  by 
the  decisive  battle  of  Culloden.1  (April  1746.)  To  the  disgrace  of 
the  English,  the  surrounding  country  was  given  up  to  pillage  and  de- 
vastation. After  a  variety  of  adventures  Charles  reached  France  in 
(Safety;  but  numbers  of  his  unfortunate  adherents  perished  on  the 
scaffold,  or  by  military  execution,  while  multitudes  were  transported 
to  the  American  plantations. 

9.  During  the  year  1745  the  important  French  fortress  of  Louis- 

burg,  on  the  island  of  Cape  Breton,2  was  captured  by 
i^AMEBici  *ke  British  and  their  colonial  allies,  an  event  which  re- 
vived the  spirits  of  the  English,  and  roused  France  to  a 
great  vindictive  effort  for  the  recovery  of  Louisburg,  and  the  devas- 
tation of  the  whole  American  coast  from  Nova  Scotia  to  Georgia. 
Accordingly  a  powerful  naval  armament  was  sent  out  to  America  in 
1 746  ;  but  it  was  so  enfeebled  by  storms  and  shipwrecks,  and  dispirit- 
ed by  the  loss  of  its  commander,  that  nothing  was  accomplished  by  it. 

10.  During  the  years  1746  and  1747  hostilities  were  carried  on 

with  various  success  by  the  French  and  the  Spaniards  on 
one  side,  and  the  English,  Dutch,  and  Austrians,  on  the 
other.     By  sea  the  French  lost  almost  their  last  ship ;  but  no  im- 
portant naval  battles  were  fought,  as  the  English  navy  had  scarcely 
a  rival.     On  the  continent,  northern  Italy  and  the  Netherlands  were 
the  chief  seats  of  the  war.     The  French  were  driven  from  the  former, 
and   the   Austrians   and   their   allies   from   the   latter. 

XI.    TREATY 

OF  AIX-LA-    France  made  frequent  overtures  of  peace,  and  in  Octo- 
OHAPELLE,    ker  1748  the  treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  was  concluded 
between  all  the  belligerents,  on  the  basis  of  a  restitution 
of  all  conquests  made  during  the  war,  and  a  mutual  release  of  prison- 
ers without  ransom.     The  treaty  left  unsettled  the  conflicting  claims 

1.  Culloden,  or  Culloden  Moor,  is  a  heath  in  Scotland,  four  miles  east  of  Inverness,  and  one 
hundred  and  fifteen  miles  north-west  from  Edinburgh.    The  battle  of  Culloden,  fought  April 
27th,  1746,  terminated  the  attempts  of  the  Stuart  family  to  recover  the  throne  of  England. 
(Map  No.  XVI.) 

2.  The  island  of  Cape  Breton,  called  by  the  French  Isle  Royals,  is  on  the  south-eastern 
border  of  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence.    Louisburg;  once  called  the  "  Gibraltar  of  America,"  waa 
a  strongly-fortified  town,  having  one  of  the  best  harbors  in  the  world.    After  its  capture  by 
general  Wolfe  in  1758,  (see  p.  430,)  its  walls  were  demolished,  and  the  materials  of  its  buildings 
were  carried  away  for  the  construction  of  Halifax,  and  other  towns  on  the  coast.    Only  a  tew 
fishermen's  huts  are  now  found  within  the  environs  of  the  city,  and  so  complete  is  the  ruin 
that  it  ia  with  difficulty  the  outlines  of  the  fortifications,  and  of  the  principal  buildings,  can  be 
traced. 


CHAP.  V.]  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  423 

of  the  English  and  Spaniards  to  the  trade  of  the  American  seas ; 
but  France  recognized  the  Hanoverian  succession  to  the  English 
throne,  and  henceforth  abandoned  the  cause  of  the  Pretender.  Neither 
France  nor  England  obtained  any  recompense  for  the  enormous  ex- 
penditure of  blood  and  treasure  which  the  war  occasioned ;  but  in 
one  aspect  the  result  was  favorable  to  all  parties,  as,  by  preserving 
the  unity  of  the  Austrian  dominion,  it  maintained  the  due  balance 
of  power  in  continental  Europe. 

IV.  THE  SEVEN  YEARS'  WAR  :—  1756-63."— 1.  The  treaty  of 
Aix-la-Chapelle  proved  to  be  little  better  than  a  sus-     1  EIGHT 
pension  of  arms.     A  period  of  eight  years  of  nominal     YEARS  OK 
peace  that  followed  did  not  produce,  in  the  different      FEACK. 
States  of  Europe,  the  desired  feeling  of  united  firmness  and  security; 
but  all  seemed  unsettled,  and  in  dread  of  new  commotions.     Two 
causes,  of  a  nature  entirely  distinct,  united  to  involve  all    n  CAU8E8 
Christendom  in  a  general  war.     The  first  was  the  long  OF  ANOTHER 
standing  colonial  rivalry  between  France  and  England  ;        WAEt 
and  the  second,  the  ambition  of  the  Great  Frederick  of  Prussia,  and 
the  jealousy  with  which  the  court  of  Austria  regarded  the  increase 
of  the  Prussian  monarchy. 

2.  Immediately  after   the   peace  of   Aix-la-Chapelle,  difficulties 
arose  between  France  and  England  respecting  their  colonial  possess- 
ions in  India.     Several  years  previous  to  the  breaking  out  of  the 
European  war,  the  forces  of  the  English  and  French  East  India 
companies,  having  taken  part,  as  auxiliaries,  in  the  wars  between  the 
native  princes  of  the  country,  had  been  engaged  in  a  course  of  hos- 
tilities at  a  time  when  no  war  existed  between  the  two  nations. 

3.  More  serious  causes  of  quarrel  arose  in  North  America.     The 
French  possessed  Canada  and  Louisiana,  one  commanding  the  mouth 
of  the  St.  Lawrence,  the  other  that  of  the  Mississippi ;  while  the  in- 
tervening territory  was  occupied  by  the  English  colonists.      The 
limits  of  the  American  colonial  possessions  of  the  two  nations  had 
been  left  undefined  at  the  treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  and  hence  dis- 
putes arose  among  the  colonists,  who  did  not  always  arrange  their 
controversies  by  peaceful  discussion.     The  French  made  settlements 
at  the  head  of  the  Bay  of  Fundy  in  Nova  Scotia,  claiming  the  ter- 

a  That  part  of  the  war  waged  in  America  between  France  and  England  is  better  known  in 
American  history  as  the  "  French  and  Indian  war."  Although  hostilities  began,  in  the  colonies, 
in  1754,  no  formal  declaration  of  war  was  made  by  either  France  or  England  until  the  breaking 
oat  of  til*  general  European  war  in  1758. 


424  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAUT  II. 

ritory  as  a  part  of  New  Brunswick ;  while,  by  extending  a  frontier 
line  of  posts  along  the  Ohio  river,  they  aimed  at  confining  the 

British   colonies   to    the   Atlantic    coast,    and    cutting 

KING  OK     them  off"  from  the  rest  of  the  continent.     In  1754  the 

HOSTILITIES  English   Colonial   authorities   began  hostilities  on   the 

Ohio,  without  waiting  for  the  formality  of  a  declaration 
of  war :  in  the  following  year  the  French  forts  at  the  head  of  the 
Bay  of  Fundy  were  reduced  by  colonel  Monckton ;  but  the  English 
general,  Braddock,  who  was  sent  against  Fort  Du  Quesne,  on  the 
Ohio,  was  defeated  with  a  heavy  loss,  and  his  army  was  saved  from 
total  destruction  only  by  the  courage  and  conduct  of  major  Wash- 
ington, who  commanded  the  provincial  troops. 

4.  These  colonial  difficulties  were  the  prominent  causes  of  enmity 
between  France  and  England ;  but  such  were  now  the  bonds  of  in- 
terest and  alliance  that  united  the  different  European  States,  that 
the  quarrel  betwixt  any  two  led  almost  inevitably  to  a  general  war. 
A  cause  of  war  entirely  distinct  from  the  foregoing  was  found  in  the 
relations  existing  between  Prussia  and  Austria.     Maria  Theresa  was 
still  dissatisfied  with  the  loss  of  Silesia,  and  Frederick,  too  clear- 
sighted not  to  see  that  a  third  struggle  with  her  was  inevitable, 
abandoned  the  lukewarm  aid  of  France,  and  formed  an  alliance  with 
England,  (Jan.  1756,)  an  event  which  altogether  changed  the  exist- 
ing relations  between  the  different  States  of  Europe.     Prussia  was 

IV  thus  separated  from  her  old  ally  France,  and  England 
EUROPEAN  from  Austria,  while  France  and  Austria,  nations  that 
'CE'  had  been  enemies  for  three  hundred  years,  found  them- 
selves placed  in  so  close  political  proximity  that  an  alliance  between 
them  became  indispensable  to  the  safety  of  each.  Augustus  III., 
king  of  Poland  and  also  elector  of  Saxony,  allied  himself  with  Aus- 
tria for  the  purpose  of  ruining  Prussia ;  the  empress  Elizabeth  of 
Russia,  entertaining  a  personal  hatred  of  Frederick,  who  had  made 
her  the  object  of  his  political  satires,  joined  the  coalition  against 
him,  while  the  latter  could  regard  Sweden  in  no  other  light  than 
that  of  an  enemy  in  the  event  of  a  general  war. 

5.  Thus  Austria,  Russia,  France,  Sweden,  and  Poland,  had  all 
united  against  one  of  the  smaller  kingdoms,  which  was  deprived  of 
all  foreign  resources,  with  the  exception  of  England ;  and  the  latter, 
in  a  continental  war,  could  give  her  ally  but  little  effective  aid. 
Austria  looked  with  confidence  upon  the  recovery  of  Silesia ;   the 
partition  of  Prussia  was  already  planned,  and  the  days  of  the  Prus- 


CHAP.  V.]  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  425 

sian  monarchy  appeared  to  be  already  numbered ;  but  in  this  most 
unequal  contest  the  superiority  of  Frederick  as  a  general,  and  the 
discipline  of  his  troops,  enabled  Prussia  to  come  out  of  the  war  with 
increased  power  and  glory. 

6.  Frederick,  without  waiting  for  the  storm  that  was  about  to 

burst  upon  him,  marched  forth  to  meet  it,  to  the  surprise 

v.  FIRST 
of  his  enemies,  who  were  scarcely  aware  that  he  was  CAMPAIGN  OF 

arming.      In  the  month  of  August,  1756,  he  entered  FREDERICK, 
Saxony  at  the  head  of  seventy  thousand  men,  blockaded 
the  Saxon  army,  and  cut  off  its  supplies,  defeated  an  army  of  Aus- 
trians  that  advanced  to  the  relief  of  their  allies,  and  finally  com- 
pelled the  Saxon  forces,  now  reduced  to  fourteen  thousand  men,  to 
surrender  themselves  prisoners,  (Oct.  1756,)  many  of  whom  he  forced 
to  enter  the  Prussian  service.     Thus  the  result  of  the  first  campaign 
of  Frederick  was  the  conquest  of  all  Saxony. 

7.  It  was  not  till  the  month  of  May  and  June  1756,  that  England 
and  France  issued  their  declarations  of  war  against  each  other,  al- 
though hostilities  had  for  some  time  previously  been  carried  on  be- 
tween their  colonies.     France  commenced  the  war  by  an  expedition 
against  the  island  of  Minorca,  then  in  possession  of  the  English ; 
and  that  important  fortress  surrendered,  although  admiral  Byng  had 
been  sent  out  with  a  squadron  for  the   relief  of  the  place.     In 
America  the  English  had  planned,  early  in  the  season,  the  reduction 
of  Crown  Point,  Niagara,  and  Fort  Du  Quesne,  but  not  a  single  ob- 
ject of  the  campaign  was  either  accomplished  or  attempted. 

8.  At  the  beginning  of  the  campaign  of  1757  it  was  estimated 
that  the  armies  of  the  enemies  of  Frederick,  on  foot,  and 
preparing  to  march  against  him,  exceeded  seven  hundred 
thousand  men,  while  the  force  which  he  and  his  English  allies  could 
bring  into  the  field  amounted  to  but  little  more  than  one  third  of 
that  number.     Frederick,  having  succeeded  in  deceiving  the  Aus- 
trians  as  to  his  real  intentions,  began  the  campaign  by  invading  Bo- 
hemia, where,  at  the  head  of  sixty-eight  thousand  men,  he  fought  and 
won   the  celebrated   and   sanguinary  battle  of  Prague,   (May  6,) 
against  an  army  of  seventy-five  thousand  Austrians.     Dearly,  how- 
ever, was  the  victory  purchased,  as  twelve  thousand  five  hundred 
Prussians  lay  dead  or  wounded  on  the  field  of  battle.     Seeking  to 
follow  up  his  advantage,  in  the  following  month  Frederick  experi- 
enced a  severe  check,  being  defeated  by  the  greatly  superior  force 


426  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  II. 

of  marshal  Daun  at  Kolin,1  in  consequence  of  which  the  Prussians 
were  forced  to  raise  the  siege  of  Prague,  and  evacuate  Bohemia. 
The  Austrians  and  their  allies,  after  this  unexpected  victory,  resumed 
operations  with  increased  activity  :  a  Russian  army  of  one  hundred 
and  twenty  thousand  men  invaded  Prussia  on  the  east ;  seventeen 
thousand  Swedes  entered  Pomerania ;  and  two  powerful  French  armies 
crossed  the  Rhine  to  attack  the  English  and  Hanoverian  allies  of 
Prussia  commanded  by  the  duke  of  Cumberland.  The  latter,  being 
defeated,  was  compelled  to  sign  a  disgraceful  convention  by  which 
his  army  of  thirty-eight  thousand  men  was  reduced  to  a  state  of  in- 
activity. 

9.  The  loss  of  his  English  allies  at  this  juncture  was  a  most  griev- 
ous blow  to  the  king  of  Prussia.     While  he  held  the  Austrians  at 
bay  in  Lusatia,  Saxony,  whence  the  Prussians  drew  their  supplies, 
was  opened  to  the  French ;  the  Russians  were  advancing  from  the 
east,  and  already  the  Swedes  were  near  the  gates  of  Berlin,2  when 
the  sudden  recall  of  the  Russian  army,  owing  to  the  serious  illness 
of  the  Russian  empress,  illumined  the  troubled  path  of  Frederick 
with  a  glimmering  of  hope,  which  promised  to  lead  him  on  to  better 
fortune.     After  having  in  vain  tried  to  give  battle  to  the  Austrians, 
he  suddenly  broke  up  his  camp,  and  by  rapid  marches  advanced  into 
Saxony,  to  drive  the  French  out  of  that  country. 

10.  Early  in  November,  Frederick,  at  the  head  of  only  twenty 
thousand  men,  came  up  with  the  enemy,  whose  united  forces  amount- 
ed to  seventy  thousand.     After  some  manoeuvring  he  threw  his  little 
army  into  the  low  village  of  Rossback,8  the  heights  around  which, 
covered  with  batteries,  served  at  once  to  defend  his  position,  and 
conceal  his  movements.     Here  the  French  and  their  allies,  antici- 
pating a  certain  victory,  determined  to  surround  him,  and  thus,  by 
making  him  prisoner,  at  once  put  an  end  to  the  war.     To  accomplish 
this  object  they  advanced  by  forced  marches,  with  sound  of  trumpet ; 
anxious  to  see  if  Frederick  would  have  the  courage  to  make  a  stand 

1.  Kolin  is  a  small  town  of  Bohemia,  thirty-seven  miles  a  little  south  of  east  from  Prague, 
The  battle  of  Kolin,  fought  June  18th,  1757,  was  the  first  which  Frederick  lost  in  the  Seven 
Years'  War.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

2.  Berlin,  the  capital  of  the  Prussian  States,  and  the  ordinary  residence  of  the  monarch,  is 
on  the  river  Spree,  a  branch  of  the  Elbe,  in  the  province  of  Brandenburg,  one  hundred  and 
sixty  miles  south-east  from  Hamburg.    Berlin  is  one  of  the  finest  cities  in  Europe,  and  is  called 
the  Athens  of  the  north  of  Germany.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

3.  Rossback  is  near  the  western  bank  of  the  river  Saale,  in  Prussian  Saxony,  about  twenty 
miles  south-west  from  Leipsic,  and  consequently  near  the  battle-fields  of  Leipsic,  Jena,  and 
Lutzen.    The  banks  of  the  Saale  are  fully  immortalized  by  carnage.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 


CHAP.  V.]  EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY.  427 

against  them.  The  morning  of  the  5th  of  November  Frederick 
spent  in  reconnoitering  the  enemy,  and  learned  their  plans  for  envel- 
oping him  ;  but  he  kept  his  forces  perfectly  quiet  until  the  afternoon, 
without  allowing  a  single  gun  to  be  fired,  when,  giving  his  orders, 
and  suddenly  concentrating  the  greater  part  of  his  troops  to  one 
point,  he  hurled  them,  column  after  column,  in  one  irresistible  tor- 
rent upon  the  foe.  Never  before  had  the  French  encountered  such 
rapidity  of  action  :  they  were  completely  overwhelmed  and  routed 
before  they  could  even  form  into  line ;  and  in  less  than  half  an  hour 
the  action  was  decided.  "  It  was  the  most  inconceivable  and  com- 
plete route  and  discomfiture,"  says  Voltaire,  "  of  which  history  makes 
any  mention.  The  defeats  of  Agincourt,  Cressy,  and  Poitiers,  were 
not  so  humiliating." 

1 1 .  The  French  fled  precipitately  from  the  field  of  battle,  and 
never  stopped  until  they  had  reached  the  middle  States  of  Germany, 
while  many  only  paused  when  they  had  placed  the  Rhine  between 
themselves  and  the  victors.     Seven  thousand  prisoners,  and  three 
hundred  and  twenty  officers  of  every  rank,  including  eleven  generals, 
fell  into  the  hands  of  the  king,  while  the  loss  of  the  Prussians 
amounted  to  only  five  hundred  in  killed  and  wounded.     Frederick 
caused  the  wounded  among  the  prisoners  to  be  treated  with  the 
greatest  humanity  and  attention.     The  officers  of  distinction,  who 
were  taken  prisoners,  he  invited  to  sup  with  him.     He  told  them  he 
regretted  he  could  not  offer  them  a  more  splendid  entertainment, 
"  but  gentlemen,"  said  he,  "  I  did  not  expect  you  so  soon,  nor  in  so 
large  numbers." 

12.  The  victory  of  Rossback  had  recovered  Saxony,  and,  what 
was  equally  important,  it  gave  an  opportunity  to  the  English  and 
Hanoverian  troops  to  resume  their  arms,  which  they  did  on  the 
ground  of  the  alleged  infraction  of  the  convention  by  the  French 
general.     Still  the  affairs  of  Prussia  were  gloomy  in  the  extreme, 
for  during  the  absence  of  Frederick  from  Silesia,  that  province  had 
been  overrun  by  the  Austrians,  and  the  Prussians  had  been  defeated 
in  several  battles.     Frederick  returned  thither  in  December  with 
thirty  thousand  men,  and  on  the  5th  of  that  month  was  met,  on  the 
vast  plain  of  Lissa,1  by  the  Austrian  force  of  ninety  thousand  men, 

1.  The  Lissa  here  mentioned  is  a  small  town  of  Silesia,  fourteen  miles  west  of  Breslau  too 
capital  of  the  province,  and  about  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  miles  south-east  from  Berlin. 
The  battle  was  fought  in  the  plain  between  Lissa  and  Breslau.  There  is  another  and  larger 
town  of  Lissa  in  Posen,  fifty-five  miles  north-west  from  Breslau.  (Map  No.  XVII.) 


428  MODERN  HISTORY.  PAR*  & 

exactly  One  month  after  the  battle  of  Rossback.  Here  Frederick 
bad  recourse  to  those  means  by  which  he  had  often  been  enabled  to 
double  his  power  by  the  celerity  of  his  manoeuvres.  Having  succeed- 
ed in  masking  the  movements  of  his  troops,  by  taking  possession  of 
some  heights  near  the  field  of  battle,  and  causing  a  false  attack  to 
be  made  on  the  Austrian  right,  he  fell  suddenly  upon  their  left  and 
routed  it  before  the  right  could  be  brought  to  its  support.  The  con- 
sequent disorder  was  communicated  to  the  whole  Austrian  army,  and 
in  the  course  of  three  hours  Frederick  gained  a  most  complete  vic- 
tory. The  Austrians  lost  seven  thousand  four  hundred  men  in  killed 
and  wounded,  twenty-one  thousand  prisoners,  and  one  hundred  and 
seventeen  cannon,  while  the  total  Prussian  loss  was  less  than  five 
thousand  men.  In  this  extraordinary  battle  superior  genius  tri- 
umphed over  superior  numbers.  When  Frederick  was  told  of  the 
many  insulting  things  that  the  Austrians  had  said  of  him  and  his 
little  army,  "  I  pardon  them  readily,"  said  he,  "  the  follies  they  may 
have  uttered,  in  consideration  of  those  they  have  just  committed." 

13.  The  campaign  of  1757  Was  the  most  eventful  of  all  those 
waged  by  Frederick ;  but  although  he  had  been  forced  to  risk  his 
fate  in  eight  battles,  and  more  than  a  hundred  partial  actions,  his 
numerous  enemies  failed  in  their  object.     The  battles  of  Rossback 
and  Lissa  inspired  the  English  people  with  the  greatest  enthusiasm 
for  the  Prussian  army,  and  the  result  was  a  fresh  subsidiary  treaty 
entered  into  with  Frederick,  by  which  England  agreed  to  furnish  him 
an  annual  subsidy  of  six  hundred  and  seventy  thousand  pounds,  and 
to  send  an  army  into  Germany.     Mr.  Pitt,  recently  appointed  prime 
minister,  entered  fully  into  the  views  of  supporting  Frederick,  de- 
claring that  "  the  American  colonies  of  the  French  were  to  be  con- 
quered through  Germany." 

14.  The  campaign  of  1758  was  opened  by  Ferdinand,  duke  of 

Brunswick,  who,  by  the  influence  of  the  king  of  Prussia, 
had  been  appointed  commander  of  the  English  and 
Hanoverian  troops  in  Germany.  At  the  head  of  thirty  thousand 
men  he  drove  a  French  army  of  eighty  thousand  beyond  the  Rhine, 
and  in  a  brief  campaign  of  three  months,  from  January  to  April, 
took  eleven  thousand  prisoners.  Frederick  commenced  the  campaign 
in  March,  by  reducing  the  last  remaining  fortress  in  Silesia :  then 
he  penetrated  to  Olmutz,1  in  Moravia,  but  failed  in  the  siege  of  that 

1.  Olmutz,  the  former  capital  of  Moravia,  and  one  of  the  strongest  fortresses  of  the  Austrian 
empire,  is  on  the  small  river  March  or  Morava,  one  hundred  and  five  miles  north-east  from 


OHAP.  V.]  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  429 

place.  Here  the  Austrians  completely  surrounded  him  in  the  very 
heart  of  their  country,  but  he  effected  a  retreat  as  honorable  as  a 
victory,  and  suddenly  directed  his  march  against  the  Russians,  who 
were  committing  the  most  shocking  ravages  in  the  province  of  Bran- 
denburg, sparing  neither  age  nor  sex. 

15.  At  the  head  of  thirty  thousand  men  Frederick  met  the  enemy, 
numbering  fifty  thousand,  on  the  24th  of  August,  near  the  small 
village  of  Zorndorf,1  where  one  of  the  most  sanguinary  battles  of  the 
Seven  Years'  War  was  fought,  continuing  from  nine  o'clock  in  the 
morning  until  ten  at  night.     On  the  evening  of  this  sanguinary  day 
nineteen  thousand  Russians  and  eleven  thousand  Prussians  lay  dead  and 
wounded  on  the  field  of  battle ;  but  the  victory  was  claimed  for  the  latter. 
The  Prussian  king  in  person  led  the  last  attacks,  and  so  much  was 
he  exposed  to  the  fire  of  the  Russians  that  all  his  aids,  and  the  pages 
who  attended  him,  were  either  killed,  wounded,  or  taken  prisoners. 
The  able  Austrian  general,  count  Daun,  who  had  often  fought  Fred- 
erick, and  sometimes  with  success,  had  written  to  the  general  of  the 
Russians,  "  not  to  risk  a  battle  with  a  wily  enemy,  whose  cunning 
and  resources  he  was  not  yet  acquainted  with ;"  but  as  the  courier 
who  carried  this  dispatch  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Prussians,  Fred- 
erick himself  answered  the  letter  in  the  following  words  : — "  You 
had  reason  to  advise  the  Russian  general  to  be  on  his  guard  against 
a  crafty  and  designing  enemy,  whom  you  were  better  acquainted  with 
than  he  was  ;  for  he  has  given  battle,  and  has  been  beaten."     At  a 
later  period  in  this  campaign  count  Daun  surprised  and  routed  the 
right  wing  of  Frederick's  troops  at  Hochkirchen,2  in  Saxony,  when 
nothing  but  the  admirable  perfection  of  the  Prussian  discipline  saved 
the  army  from  utter  destruction.     But  this  reverse  could  not  damp 
the  spirits  of  Frederick :  he  drove  the  Austrians  a  second  time  from 
Silesia ;  and  then  compelled  Daun  to  abandon  the  sieges  of  Dresden 
and  Leipsic,  and  retreat  into  Bohemia.     At  the  end  of  the  campaign 
Frederick  found  himself  in  possession  of  the  same  countries  as  in  the 
preceding  year,  while,  in  addition,  northern  and  central  Germany 
had  been  recovered  from  the  French. 

16.  In  the  meantime  the  war  had  been  carried  on  in  other  quarters 

Vienna.  It  was  taken  by  the  Swedes  in  the  thirty  years'  war,  was  besieged  unsuccessfully  by 
Frederick  the  Great  in  175?,  and  Lafayette  was  confined  there  in  1794.  (Map  No.  XVII.) 

1.  Zorndorf  is  a  small  village  of  Brandenburg,  about  twenty  miles  north-east  from  Frank- 
fort on  the  Oder,  and  abcut  the  same  distance  south-east  from  Custrim.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

2.  Hochkirchen  is  a  small  village  in  the  present  kingdom  of  Saxony,  (formerly  in  Luaatia,) 
thirty-seven  miles  east  from  Dresden.    It  is  a  short  distance  south-east  from  Bautzen  which 
was  the  chief  town  of  Upper  Lusatia.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 


430  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

between  the  French  and  the  English.  In  India  the  French  were 
generally  successful,  as  they  not  only  preserved  their  possessions,  but 
wrested  several  fortresses  from  their  rivals,  but  they  were  deprived 
of  all  their  settlements  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  while  in  North 
America  they  abandoned  Fort  du  Quesne  to  the  English,  and  were 
obliged  to  surrender  the  important  fortress  of  Louisburg,  after  a  vig- 
orous siege  conducted  by  generals  Amherst  and  Wolfe. 

17.  The  campaign  of  1759  commenced  under  favorable  auspices 

for  the  Prussians,  as  they  succeeded  early  in  the  season 
vm.  1759.    .      ,  .         i-r,.  .         •      «k'-i«  j 

in  destroying  the  Russian  magazines  m   Foland,  and 

broke  up  the  Austrian  armies  in  Bohemia ;  but  in  August  Frederick 
himself  suffered  a  greater  loss,  in  the  battle  of  Kunersdorf,1  than 
any  he  had  yet  experienced.  At  the  head  of  only  forty-eight  thou- 
sand men  he  attacked  the  combined  Russian  and  Austrian  force  of 
ninety-six  thousand,  defended  by  strong  intrenchments,  but  he  was 
defeated  with  the  loss  of  more  than  eighteen  thousand  men  in  killed 
and  wounded.  The  Russian  and  Austrian  loss  was  nearly  sixteen 
thousand ;  in  allusion  to  which,  the  Russian  general,  writing  to  the 
empress  an  account  of  the  battle,  said  :  "  Your  majesty  must  not  be 
surprised  at  the  greatness  of  our  loss.  It  is  the  custom  of  the  king 
of  Prussia  to  sell  his  defeats  very  dear."  At  a  later  period  of  the 
campaign  Frederick  rashly  exposed  fourteen  thousand  of  his  troops 
in  the  defiles  of  Bohemia,  where  they  were  surrounded  by  the  Aus- 
trians,  and,  after  a  valiant  resistance,  compelled  to  surrender,  when 
only  three  thousand  of  the  number  remained  unwounded.  Yet,  after 
all  the  reverses  which  the  Prussians  sustained,  the  only  permanent 
acquisition  made  by  the  Austrians  was  Dresden,  for  Frederick's  vigor 
and  rapidity  of  movement  rendered  even  their  victories  fruitless. 

18.  The  campaign  of  Ferdinand  of  Brunswick  against  the  French, 
during  this  year,  was  more  successful  than  that  of  the  king  of  Prussia. 
On  the  1st  of  August  he  attacked  the  French  army  of  seventy  thou- 
sand men  near   Minden,2  and  obtained  a  complete  victory,  which 
alone  prevented  the  French  from  gaining  possession  of  the  king  of 
England's  Hanoverian  dominions.     On  the  o,pean  and  in  the  colonies 
the  results  of  the  year  1759  were  highly  favorable  to  the  English. 
The  French  fleets  were  destroyed ;  the  English  gained  a  decided 

J.  Kunersdorf  in  a  small  village  of  the  province  of  Brandenburg,  a  short  distance  south  of 
Frankfort-on-the-Oder,  and  on  the  eastern  bank  of  the  river,  fifty-five  miles  south-east  from 
Berlin.  The  battle  fought  near  this  town  is  sometimes  called  the  battle  of  Frankfort. 

2.  Minden  is  a  Prussian  town  in  Westphalia,  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Weser,  near  the  Han 
overian  frontier,  thirty-five  miles  south-west  from  Hanover.  (Map  No.  XVII.) 


CHAP.  V.]  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  431 

preponderance  in  India ;  while  the  conquest  of  Canada  was  achieved 
by  the  gallant  Wolfe,  who  fell  in  the  moment  of  victory  before  the 
walls  of  Quebec. 

19.  After  a  winter  spent  in  futile   attempts  at  negotiation,  the 
most  vigorous  preparations  were  made  by  all  parties  for 

the  campaign  of  1760.  It  opened  with  a  continuation 
of  misfortunes  to  Prussia, — with  the  loss  of  nearly  nine  thousand  men 
surrounded  and  taken  prisoners  by  the  Austrians, — with  an  unsuc- 
cessful attempt  on  Dresden  by  Frederick  himself,  and  the  surrender 
of  an  important  fortress  in  Silesia.  For  the  space  of  a  year  Fred- 
erick had  met  with  almost  continual  reverses,  but,  still  undaunted 
and  undismayed,  his  transcendent  talents  never  shone  to  greater  ad- 
vantage than  when  brought  into  action  by  the  rigors  of  fortune.  At 
the  very  moment  when  he  was  surrounded  with  overwhelming  forces 
of  Russians  and  Austrians,  to  the  number  of  one  hundred  and  seventy- 
five  thousand  men,  and  his  ruin  seemed  inevitable,  his  genius  saved 
him,  and  converted  what  appeared  the  certainty  of  defeat  into  a  series 
of  brilliant  victories.  While  his  enemies  were  preparing  to  attack 
him  in  his  camp,  he  suddenly  fell  upon  one  of  their  divisions  at 
Liegnitz1  and  almost  annihilated  it  before  the  others  were  aware  that 
he  had  changed  his  position.  (Aug.  16th.)  In  November  he  at- 
tacked the  intrenched  camp  of  marshal  Daun  at  Torgou,2  having 
previously  declared  to  his  generals  his  determination  to  finish  the 
war  by  a  decided  victory,  or  perish,  with  his  whole  army,  in  the  at- 
tempt. The  battle  was  perhaps  the  bloodiest  fought  during  the  whole 
war,  but  the  impetuosity  of  the  Prussians  was  irresistible,  and  the  result 
recovered  to  Frederick  all  Saxony,  except  Dresden,  and  compelled  the 
Austrians,  Russians,  and  Swedes,  to  evacuate  the  Prussian  dominions. 

20.  The  campaign  of  Ferdinand  of  Brunswick  against  the  French 
in  northern  and  western  Germany  was  marked  by  a  great  number 
of  skirmishes  which  fatigued  both  parties,  and  in  which  towns  and 
villages  were  taken  and  retaken  ;  but  when  it  is  considered  that  the 
hostile  armies  numbered  nearly  two  hundred  thousand  men,  we  are 
surprised  to  find  that  no  memorable  events  occurred. 

21.  During  the  year  1760  France  and  Spain  formed  an  intimate 
alliance,  known  by  the  name  of  the  Family  Compact,  by  which  the 
enemy  of  either  was  to  be  considered  the  enemy  of  both,  and  neither  was 

1.  Licgnitz  is  a  town  of  Silesia,  on  the  Katsbach,  forty-six  miles  a  little  north  of  west  from 
Breslau.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

2.  Torgou  is  a  town  of  Prussian  Saxony,  on  the  w«st  bank  of  the  Elbe,  sixty-six  miles  south' 
west  from  Berlin.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 


432  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

to  make  peace  without  consent  of  the  other.  This  was  an  unfortunate 
act  for  Spain,  whose  colonies  of  Cuba1  and  Manilla,2  with  her  ships 
of  war  and  commerce,  soon  fell  into  the  hands  of  England.  The 
English  were  also  successful  against  the  French ;  and  the  latter,  be- 
fore the  close  of  the  war,  were  divested  of  all  their  possessions  of 
importance  in  the  East  Indies,  while  Belleisle,3  on  the  very  coast  of 
France,  was  captured,  and  in  the  West  Indies,  Martinico,  Guada- 
loupe,4  and  other  islands,  were  added  to  the  list  of  British  conquests. 

22.  The  campaign  of  1761  was  carried  on  languidly  by  all  parties. 
The  king  of  Prussia,  exhausted  even  by  his  victories,  was  forced  to 

act  on  the  defensive,  while  the  English  government,  after 
the  accession  of  George  III.  to  the  throne,  (Oct.  1760,) 
had  shown,  under  the  counsels  of  Lord  Bute,  an  ardent  desire  for 
peace,  even  if  it  were  to  be  obtained  by  the  sacrifice  of  the  Prussian 
monarch.  An  event  which  happened  early  in  1 762  greatly  improved 
the  aspect  of  Prussian  affairs,  and  more  than  compensated  Frederick 
for  the  growing  coldness  of  England  towards  him.  This  was  the 
death  of  Frederick's  implacable  enemy,  Elizabeth,  empress  of  Russia, 
and  the  accession  of  her  nephew,  the  unfortunate  Peter  the  Third, 
who  was  a  warm  admirer  and  most  sedulous  imitator  of  the  king  of 
Prussia.  The  Russian  armies  withdrew  from  their  former  Austrian 
allies,  and  ranged  themselves  under  the  Prussian  standards  :  Sweden 
concluded  a  peace  with  Prussia ;  and  even  Austria  consented  to  a 
cessation  of  hostilities  in  Silesia  and  Saxony. 

23.  In  November   1763  the  preliminary  articles  of  peace  were 

signed  at  Paris  between  England,  France,  and  Spain, 
*OF  ?763E  wkile  Prussia  and  Austria,  deserted  by  their  allies,  were 

left  to  continue  the  war ;  but  they  also  soon  agreed  to 
suspend  hostilities,  and  in  the  month  of  February  1763  peace  was 
concluded  between  all  the  belligerents.  France  ceded  to  England, 
Canada  and  Cape  Breton,  while  Spain  purchased  the  restoration  of 
the  conquests  which  had  been  made  from  her,  by  the  cession  of 
Florida  to  England,  by  givkg  the  latter  permission  to  cut  logwood 

1.  Cuba,  the  largest  of  the  West  India  islands,  and  the  mistress  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  still 
belongs  to  Spain. 

2.  Manilla,  a  fortified  seaport  city  of  Luzon,  one  of  the  Philippine  islands,  is  the  capital  of 
the  Spanish  settlements  in  the  East. 

3.  Bellisle  is  an  island  west  of  France,  on  the  coast  of  Brittany,  thirty  miles  south-west  from 
Vaimes.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

4.  Martinique  and  Ouadaloupe  belong  to  the  Windward  group  of  the  West  Indies.    Both 
have  frequently  changed  hands  between  the  French  and  the  English,  but  both  were  restored 
to  France  in  1815.    Martinique  was  the  birth-place  of  the  empress  Josephine. 


CHAP.  V.]  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  433 

in  the  bay  of  Honduras,1  and  by  a  renunciation  of  all  claim  to  the 
Newfoundland  fisheries.  But  important  as  these  results  were  to 
England,  they  were  so  much  less  advantageous  than  her  position 
might  have  commanded,  that  it  was  said  of  her,  "  she  made  war  like 
a  lion,  and  peace  like  a  lamb."  Of  France  it  was  said  by  Voltaire, 
that  u  by  her  alliance  with  Austria  she  had  lost  in  six  years  more 
men  and  money  than  all  the  wars  she  had  ever  sustained  against  that 
power  had  cost  her."  By  the  terms  of  the  treaty  between  Prussia 
and  Austria,  prisoners  were  exchanged,  and  a  restitution  of  all  con- 
quests was  made ;  but  Frederick  still  held  the  much-contested  Silesia, 
a  small  territory,  which  had  cost  the  contending  parties  more  than  a 
/nillion  of  men.  The  glory  of  the  war  remained  chiefly 

-    i      -n        i        •    i  i  11  «.     •  *•  11  XII.   MILITARY 

with  Frederick,  who,  at  the  head  of  his  veteran  phalanx,   CHARACTER 
moving  among  the  masses  of  Austria,  France,  and  Russia,          OF 
and  confronting  all.  still  preserved,  through  an  unex- 
ampled series  of  victories  and  reverses,  the  character  of  Great     No 
general  ever  surpassed  him  in  regularity  and  rapidity  of  manoeuvres, 
in  well  ordered  marches,  and  in  the  facility  of  concentrating  masses 
on  the  weak  side  of  an  enemy.     "  Bonaparte  effected  wonders  with 
ample  means;  but  when  reduced  to  play  the  forlorn  game  of  Fred- 
erick against  united  Europe,  the  great  French  captain  fell, — the 
Prussian  lived  and  died  a  king." 

V.  STATE  OF  EUROPE.     THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION. — 1.    The 
peace  of  1763  gave  general  tranquillity  to  Europe,  which   x  QKNEEAL 
continued  until  the  breaking  out  of  the  war  between     PEACE  m 
England  and  her  American  colonies,  called  the  "  War  of     EUROPK. 
Uie  American  Revolution."     The  result  of  the  "  Seven  Years'  War" 
fas,    that    Prussia   and  Austria  became  the  principal   continental 
powers ;  France,  by  her  subserviency  to  Austria,  her  ancient  enemy, 
iosi  the  political  ascendency  which  she  had  previously  sustained ; 
and  Britain,   although  abandoning  her  influence  in  the   European 
system,  and  maintaining  intimate  relations  with  Portugal  and  Hol- 
land only,  had  obtained  complete  maritime  supremacy.     Frederick 
of  Prussia  exerted  himself  successfully  to  repair  the  desolation  made 
in  his  dominions  by  the  ravages  of  war ;  he  gave  corn,  for  planting, 
to  the  destitute,  procured  laborers  from  other  countries,  remitted 
the  taxes  for  a  season,  and  during  the  four  and  twenty  years  of  his 

1.  Honduras  is  a  settlement  adjoining  the  bay  of  the  same  name,  on  the  eastern  coast  of 
Tucatan.    In  1798  it  was  transferred  to  England,  in  accordance  with  a  previous  treaty. 

28 


434  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAST  IL 

reign  after  the  peace,  he  appropriated  for  the  encouragement  of  agri- 
culture, commerce,  and  manufactures,  no  less  than  twenty-four  millions 
of  dollars  ;  and  this  sum  he  had  saved,  by  his  simple  and  frugal  life, 
from  the  amount  set  apart  for  the  maintenance  of  his  court. 

2.  In  the  meantime  France,  during  the  last  years  of  the  reign  of 

the  dissolute  Louis  XV.,  was  declining  in  power,  and 
sinking  into  disgrace.  While  the  finances  were  in  a  state 
of  utter  confusion,  and  universal  misery  pervaded  the  land,  there 
was  the  same  splendor  in  the  court,  and  the  same  profusion  in  ex- 
penditure, that  marked  the  conclusion  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV. 
Both  monarchs  were  doomed  to  see  their  children  perish  by  an  un- 
accountable decay;  and  on  the  death  of  Louis  XV.  in  1774,  it  was 
his  youthful  grandson,  already  married  to  an  Austrian  princess,  who 
was  elevated  to  the  throne.  As  evidence  of  the  heartlessness  that 
often  surrounds  a  court,  it  is  related  that  no  sooner  had  Louis  XV. 
breathed  his  last,  than  the  array  of  sedulous  courtiers  deserted  the 
apartments  of  the  deceased  monarch,  and  rushed  forth  in  a  tumult- 
uous crowd  to  do  homage  to  the  rising  power  of  Louis  XVI.  The 
first  act  of  this  pious  prince  and  of  his  queen  was  to  fall  on  their 
knees  and  exclaim,  "  Our  God  !  guide  and  protect  us :  we  are  too 
young  to  reign." 

3.  While  the   power   and  greatness   of   France  were  declining, 

Russia  was  gradually  acquiring  a  preponderating  influ- 
ence in  Eastern  Europe.     In  1768  a  war  broke  out  be- 
tween her  and  Turkey,  which  resulted  in  a  series  of  defeats  and 
losses  to  the  latter.     During  this  war  Russia  had  taken  possession 
of  Moldavia  and  Wallachia,1  which  she  was  extremely  desirous  of 
retaining ;  but  Austria  opposed  it,  lest  Russia  should  become  too 
powerful ;  and  as  the  latter  was  at  the  same  time  engaged  in  a  con- 
test with  a  confederacy  of  Polish  patriots  under  the  pretence  of  at- 
tempting to  restore  tranquillity  to  Poland,  it  was  thought  best  that 
she  should  retain  a  portion  of  the  Polish  territory  instead  of  the 
conquered  Turkish  provinces.     But  even  this  would  destroy  the  bal- 
DISMEM    ance  Between  the  three  great  eastern  powers  of  Christen- 
BERMEXT  OF  dom ;  and,  to  restore  the  equilibrium,  Prussia  and  Aus- 
POLAND.     ^r'a  must  have  a  share  also  ;  and  thus  was  accomplished 

1.  Moldavia  and  Wallachia  are  two  contiguous  provinces  of  Turkey,  embracing  the  ancient 
Dacia.  (Map  No.  IX.)  They  are  in  reality  under  the  protection  of  Russia.  Wallachia  lies 
along  the  northern  bank  of  the  Danube,  and  Moldavia  immediately  west  of  the  river  Pruth. 


CHAP.  V.]  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  435 

the  iniquitous  measure  of  a  dismemberment  of  Poland,  and  the  di- 
vision of  a  large  portion  of  her  territory  between  Russia,  Prussia, 
and  Austria.  (1773.) 

4.  At  the  time  of  the  conclusion  of  the  peace  of  1 763  a  strong  feel- 
ing of  animosity  existed  between  the  two  great  parties  in   y  STATE  op 
England, — the  whigs  and  the  tories, — the  latter  of  whom    PARTIES  IN 
had  been  taken  into  favor  and  rewarded  with  the  chief    ENGLAND- 
offices  of  government  soon  after  the  accession  of  George  the  Third. 
A  long  and  expensive  war  had  increased  the  national  debt,  and  ren- 
dered additional  taxes  necessary,  while  the  bulk  of  the  nation  very 
naturally  thinking  that  conquests  and  riches  ought  to  go  hand  in 
hand,  were  induced  to  believe  that  administration  arbitrary  and  op- 
pressive which  loaded  them  with  new  taxes  immediately  after  the 
great  successes  which  had  attended  the  British  arms.     The  indiscre- 
tion of  the  ministry,  in  levying  the  taxes  upon  certain  important  ar- 
ticles of  domestic  manufacture,  threw  the  kingdom  into  an  almost 
universal  ferment,  and  compelled  the  resignation  of  the  earl  of  Bute, 
who  was  at  the  head  of  the  tory  administration. 

5.  The  earl  of  Bute  was  succeeded  by  Mr.  G-renville,  and  as  he  also 
was  a  tory,  and  was  considered  but  the  passive  instrument  of  the  late 
minister,  he  inherited  all  the  unpopularity  of  his  predecessor.     One 
of  his  first  acts  was  the  arrest  and  prosecution  of  Mr.  Wilkes,  a 
member  of  parliament,  who,  in  a  paper  called  the  North  Briton,  had 
asserted  that  the  king's  speech  at  the  opening  of  parliament,  which 
he  affected  to  consider  as  the  minister's,  contained  a  falsehood.     On 
a  hearing  before  the  judges  of  the  common  pleas,  it  was  decided 
that  the  commitment  of  Mr.  Wilkes  was  illegal,  and  that  his  privi 
leges,  as  member  of  parliament,  had  been  infringed  by  the  ministry. 
Mr.  Wilkes  was  subsequently  outlawed  by  the  Commons,  on  his  fail- 
ing to  appear  to  answer  the  charges  against  him ;  but  this  extreme 
severity  only  increased  the  agitation,  and  imbittered  the  feelings  of 
the  opposing  parties.     At  a  later  period,  on  a  legal  trial,  the  out- 
lawry of  Mr.  Wilkes  was  reversed,  and  he  was  repeatedly  chosen  a 
member  of  the  Commons,  although  the  house  as  often  rejected  him. 

6.  The  augmentation  of  the  revenue  being  at  this  time  the  chief 
object  of  the  administration,  in  1764  Mr.  Grenville  in- 
troduced into  parliament  a  project  for  taxing  the  Ameri- 

can  colonies;  and  early  in  1675  the  "  Stamp  Act"  was 
passed — an  act  ordering  that  all  legal  writings,  together  with  pam- 
phlets,  newspapers,  &c.,   in  the  colonies,  should   be  executed  on 


436  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

stamped  paper,  for  which  a  duty  should  be  paid  to  the  crown.  The 
colonies  resisted  every  project  for  taxing  them,  on  the  ground  that 
they  were  not  represented  in  the  British  parliament,  and  that 
taxation  and  representation  were  inseparable;  and  a  large  party  in 
England,  consisting  mostly  of  whigs,  united  with  them  in  maintain- 
ing this  doctrine.  The  stamp  act  was  soon  repealed,  but  the  minis- 
try still  avowed  the  right  of  the  mother  country  to  tax  her  colonial 
possessions,  and  this  doctrine,  still  persisted  in,  laid  the  foundation 
for  that  contest  which  at  length  terminated  in  the  independence  of 
the  American  colonies. 

7.  Misfortunes  seemed  to  attend  almost  every  scheme  undertaken 
by  England  for  coercing  the  Americans  into  obedience.     A  bill  was 
passed  for  depriving  the  people  of  New  England  of  the  benefits  of 
the  Newfoundland  fisheries  ;  and  it  was  thought  that  this  act  would 
throw  into  the  hands  of  British  merchants  the  profits  which  were 
formerly  divided  with  the  colonies ;  but  the  Americans  refused  to 
supply  the  British  fishermen  with  provisions,  and  many  of  the  ships 
were  obliged  to  abandon,  for  a  time,  the  business  on  which  they 
came,  and  return  in  quest  of  supplies.     Added  to  this,  a  most  vio- 
lent and  unprecedented  storm  swept  over  the  fishing  banks ;  the  sea 
arose  thirty  feet  above  its  ordinary  level,  and  upwards  of  seven  hun- 
dred English  fishing  boats  were  lost,  with  all  the  people  in  them, 
and  many  ships  foundered  with  their  whole  crews.     When,  at  the 
commencement  of  the  war,  an  immense  quantity  of  provisions  was 
prepared  in  England  for  the  use  of  the  British  army  in  America,  the 
transports  remained  for  a  long  time  wind-bound ;  then  contrary  winds 
detained  them  so  long  near  the  English  coasts  that  nearly  twenty 
thousand  head  of  live  stock  perished ;   a  storm   afterwards   drove 
many  of  the  ships  to  the  West  Indies,  and  others  were  captured  by 
American  privateers,  so  that  only  a  few  reached  the  harbor  of  Boston, 
with  their  cargoes  greatly  damaged.     The  universal  distress  produced 
throughout  the  British  nation  by  the  refusal  of  the  Americans  to 
purchase  British  goods,  completed  the  catalogue  of  evils  which  fol- 
lowed in  the  train  of  ministerial  measures,  and,  by  exciting  the  most 
violent  altercations  between  opposing  parties,  seemed  to   threaten 
England  herself  with  the  horrors  of  civil  war. 

8.  Passing  by  the  arguments  that  were  used  for  and  against  tax- 
ation— the  acts  exhibiting  the  rash  confidence  and  perseverance  of 
the  ministers  and  the  crown — the  determined  opposition  of  the  colo- 
nies— the  changes  in  the  English  ministry,  and  the  dissensions  be> 


CHAP.  V.]  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY  437 

tween  opposing  parties  in  England — we  come  to  the  decisive  open- 
ing of  the  war  with  the  British  American  colonies  by  the 

VII    OPENING 

gkirmish  at  Lexington,  on  the  19th  of  April,  1775,     A  OF  THE  WA& 
revolutionary   war  of  seven   years'    duration  followed,     WITH  THK 

.1  •  •!  f    ^1  i  ,t  COLONIES. 

on  the  American  soil, — a  war  of  the  weak  against  the 
strong — of  the  few  in  numbers  against  the  many — but  a  war  successful, 
in  its  results,  to  the  cause  of  freedom.  Fortunately  for  the  colonies 
the  war  was  not  confined  to  them  alone  ;  and  as  the  history  of  the 
American  portion  of  it  is  doubtless  already  familiar  to  most  of  our 
readers,  we  proceed  to  consider  the  new  relations,  between  England 
and  the  other  powers  of  Europe,  arising  out  of  the  war  of  the  Ameri- 
can Revolution. 

9    The  continental  powers,  jealous  of  the  maritime  and  commercial 
prosperity  of  England,  and  ardently  desiring  her  humili- 
ation in  the  contest  which  she  had  unwisely  provoked  PKAN  KELA 
with  her  colonies,  rejoiced  at  every  misfortune  that  befel     TIOX8  OF 
her.     The  French  and  Spanish  courts,  from  the  first, 
gave  the  Americans  the  aid  of  their  sympathy,  and  opened  their 
ports  freely  to  American  cruisers,  who  found  there  ready  purchasers 
for  their  prizes ;  and  although,  when  England  complained  of  the  aid 
thus  given  to  her  enemies,  it  was  publicly  disavowed,  yet  it  was  evi- 
dent that  both  France  and  Spain  secretly  favored  the  cause  of  the 
Americans. 

10.  The  capture  of  the  entire  British  army  of  general  Burgoyne 
at  Saratoga,  in  October  1777,  induced  France  to  throw 

aside  the  mask  with  which  she  had  hitherto  endeavored  K-  ALLIANCB 

BETWEEN 

to  conceal  her  intentions ;  and  in  the  month  of  March  FEANCE  AND 
1778,  she  gave  a  formal  notification  to  the  British  gov-   THE  AMKtt1' 

CAN  STATES. 

eminent  that  she  had  concluded  a  treaty  of  alliance, 
friendship,  and  commerce,  with  the  American  States.  France  and 
England  now  made  the  most  vigorous  preparations  for  the  anticipated 
contest  between  them ;  the  English  marine  force  was  increased,  but 
the  French  navy  now  equalled,  if  it  did  not  exceed,  that  of  England, 
nor  was  France  disposed  to  keep  it  idle  in  her  ports. 

11.  Although  war  had  not  yet  been  declared  between  the  two  na- 
tions, in  the  month  of  April,  1778,  a  French  fleet,  com- 

X.   WAE 

manded  by  Count  D'Estaing,  sailed  from   Toulon  for     BETWEEN 
America ;  and  soon  after  a  much  larger  naval  force  was  FRANCE  AND 
assembled  at  Brest,  with  .the  avowed  object  of  invading 
England.     In  June,  the  English  admiral  Keppel  fell  in  with  'and  at- 


438  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  D. 

tacked  three  French  frigates  on  the  western  coast  of  France,  two  of 
which  he  captured.  The  French  government  then  ordered  reprisals 
against  the  ships  of  Great  Britain,  and  the  English  went  through  the 
same  formalities,  so  that  both  nations  were  now  in  a  state  of  actual  war. 

12.  During  the  autumn  and  winter  of  1778  the  West  Indies  were 
the  principal  theatre  of  the  naval  operations  of  France  and  England. 
In  September,  the  governor  of  the  French  island  of  Martinique  at- 
tacked, and  easily  reduced,  the  English  island  of  Dominica,1  where 
he  obtained  a  large  quantity  of  military  stores  ;  but  in  the  December 
following  the  French  island  of  St.  Lucia2  was  compelled  to  submit 
to  the  English  admiral  Barrington,  after  an  ineffectual  attempt  to 
relieve  it  by  the  fleet  of  D'Estaing. 

13.  While  these  naval  events  were  occurring  on  the  American 
coasts,  the  French  and  English  settlements  in  the  East  Indies  had 
also  become  involved  in  hostilities.     Soon  after  the  acknowledgment 
of  American  independence  by  the  court  of  France,  the  British  East 
India  company,  convinced  that  a  quarrel  would  now  ensue  between 
the  two  kingdoms,  despatched  orders  to  its  officers  at  Madras  to 
attack  "the  neighboring  post  of  Pondicherry,  the  capital  of  the  French 
East  India  possessions.     That  place  was  accordingly  besieged  in 
August,  by  a  force  of  ten  thousand  men,  natives  and  Englishmen, 
and  after  a  vigorous  resistance  was  compelled  to  surrender  in  Octo- 
ber following.     Other  losses  in  that  quarter  of  the  globe  followed, 
and  during  one  campaign  the  French  power  in  India  was  nearly  anni- 
hilated. 

14.  In  the  year  1779  another  power  was  added  to  the  enemies  of 
England.     Spain,  under  the  pretext  that  her  mediation, — (which  she 

had  proposed  merely  as  the  forerunner  of  a  rupture) — 
BETWEEN  had  been  slighted  by  England,  declared  war,  and  with 
SPAIN  AND  the  cooperation  of  a  French  fleet  laid  siege  to  Gib- 

ENGLAND.  1,1,11  111-^11  c 

raltar,  both  by  sea  and  land,  in  the  hope  of  recovering 
that  important  fortress.  Early  in  this  year  a  French  fleet  attacked 
and  captured  the  British  forts  and  settlements  on  the  rivers  Senegal 
and  Gambia,  on  the  western  coast  of  Africa ;  and  later  in  the  season 
the  French  conquered  the  English  islands  of  St.  Vincents3  and 

1.  Dominica  is  one  of  the  Windward  islands,  in  the  West  Indies,  between  Martinique  and 
the  Guadaloupe.    It  was  restored  to  England  at  the  peace  of  1783. 

2.  St.  Lucia  is  also  one  of  the  Windward  group.    At  the  peace  of  Paris  it  was  deflnitivelj 
assigned  to  England. 

3.  -St.  Vincents  is  the  central  island  of  the  Windward  group.    By  the  peace  of  1783  it  reverted 
to  Great  Britain. 


CHAP.  V.]  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  439 

Grenada1  in  the  West  Indies ;  but  the  count  D'Estaing,  acting  in 
concert  with  an  American  force,  was  repulsed  in  the  siege  of  Savannah. 

15.  Early  in  January  1780,  the  British  admiral  Rodney  being 
despatched  with  a  powerful  fleet  to  the  relief  of  Gibraltar,  fell  in 
with  and  captured  a  Spanish  squadron  of  seven  ships  of  war  and  a 
number  of  transports ;  and  a  few  days  later  he  engaged  a  larger 
squadron  off  Cape  St.  Vincent,  and  captured  six  of  the  heaviest  ves- 
sels and  dispersed  the  remainder.     These  victories  enabled  him  to 
afford  complete  relief  to  the  garrisons  of  Gibraltar  and  Minorca, 
after  which  he  proceeded  to  America,  and  thrice  encountered  the 
French  fleet,  but  without  obtaining  any  decisive  success.     In  August 
the  English  suffered  a  very  heavy  loss  in  the  capture  of  the  outward 
bourd  East  and  West  India  fleets  of  merchant  vessels,  by  the  Span- 
iards, off  the  western  coast  of  France. 

16.  The  position  which  England  had  taken  in  claiming  the  right 
of  searching  neutral  ships  for  contraband  goods,  together  with  her 

occasional  seizure  of  vessels  not  laden  with  exceptionable 

.  .  xn-  ARMED 

cargoes,  were  the  cause  of  a  formidable  opposition  to  her  NEUTRALITY 

at  this  time,  by  most  of  the  European  powers,  who  united  AGAINST 
in  forming  what  was  called  the  "  Armed  Neutrality" 
for  the  protection  of  the  commerce  of  neutral  nations.  In  these  pro- 
ceedings, Catherine,  Empress  of  Russia,  took  the  lead,  asserting,  in  her 
manifesto  to  the  courts  of  London,  Versailles,  and  Madrid,  that  she 
had  adopted  the  following  principles,  which  she  would  defend  and 
maintain  with  all  her  naval  power: — 1st,  that  neutral  ships  should 
enjoy  a  free  navigation  from  one  port  to  another,  even  upon  the 
coasts  of  belligerent  powers,  except  to  ports  actually  blockaded  :  2d, 
that  all  effects  conveyed  by  such  ships,  excepting  only  warlike  stores, 
should  be  free  :  3d,  that  whenever  any  vessel  should  have  shown,  by 
its  papers,  that  it  was  not  the  carrier  of  any  contraband  article,  it 
should  not  be  liable  to  seizure  or  detention ;  and  4th — it  was  de- 
clared that  such  ports  only  should  be  deemed  blockaded,  before  which 
there  should  be  stationed  a  sufficient  force  to  render  the  entrance 
perilous.  Denmark,  Sweden,  Holland,  Prussia,  Portugal,  and  Ger- 
many, readily  acceded  to  the  terms  of  the  "armed  neutrality;" 
France  and  Spain  expressed  their  approval  of  them,  while  nothing 
but  fear  of  the  consequences  which  must  have  resulted  from  the  re- 

1.  Grenada  is  one  of  the  most  southerly  of  the  Windward  group.  About  the  year  1650  it 
was  first  colonized  by  the  French,  from  whom  it  was  taken  by  the  British  in  1762.  In  1779  it 
was  retaken  by  the  French,  but  was  restored  to  Great  Britain  at  the  peace  of  1783. 


440  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

fusal,  induced  England  to  submit  to  this  exposition  of  the  laws  of 
nations,  and  the  rights  of  neutral  powers. 

17.  Since  the  alliance  between  France  and  the  United  States; 

mutual  recriminations  had  been  almost  constantly  pass- 

MIIETR^™RE  ing  between  the  English  and  the  Dutch  government,  the 

ENGLAND     former  accusing  the  latter  of  supplying  the  enemies  of 

AND        England  with  naval  and  military  stores,   contrary  to 

HOLLAND.  '  ...  J 

treaty  stipulations,  and  the  latter  complaining  that  great 
numbers  of  Dutch  vessels,  not  laden  with  contraband  goods,  had  been 
seized  and  carried  into  the  ports  of  England.  A  partial  collision 
between  a  Dutch  and  an  English  fleet,  early  in  the  year  1780,  had 
increased  the  hostile  feelings  of  the  two  nations ;  and  in  December 
of  the  same  year  Great  Britain  declared,  and  immediately  com- 
menced, war  against  Holland,  induced  by  the  discovery  that  a  com- 
mercial treaty  was  already  in  process  of  negotiation  between  that 
country  and  the  United  States.  The  Dutch  shipping  was  detained 
in  the  ports  of  Great  Britain,  and  instructions  were  despatched  to 
the  commanders  of  the  British  forces  in  the  West  Indies,  to  pro- 
ceed to  immediate  hostilities  against  the  Dutch  settlements  in  that 
quarter. 

18.  The  most  important  of  these  was  the  island  of  St.  Eustatia,1 
a  free  port,  abounding  with  riches,  owing  to  the  vast  conflux  of  trade 
from  every  other  island  in  those  seas.     The  inhabitants  of  the  island 
were  wholly  unaware  of  the  danger  to  which  they  were  exposed, 
when,  on  the  3d  of  February,  1781,  Admiral  Rodney  suddenly  ap- 
peared, and  sent  a  peremptory  order  to  the  governor  to  surrender 
the  island  and  its  dependencies  within  an  hour.     Utterly  incapable 
of  making  any  defence,  the  island  was  surrendered  without  any  stipu- 
lations.    The  amount  of  property  that  thereby  fell  into  the  hands 
of  the  captors  was  estimated  at  four  millions  sterling.     The  settle- 
ments of  the  l)utch  situated  on  the  north-eastern  coast  of  South 
America  soon  after  shared  the  same  fate  as  Eustatia. 

19.  In  the  month  of  May  the   Spanish  governor  of  Louisiana 
completed  the  conquest  of  West  Florida  from  the  English,  by  the 
capture  of  Pensacola.     In  the  West  Indies  the  fleets  of  France  and 
England  had  several  partial  engagements  during  the  month  of  April, 
May,  and  June,  but  without  any  decisive  results.     In  the  latter  part 

1.  St.  Eustatia  is  one  of  the  group  of  the  Leeward  islands,  a  range  extending  north-west  of 
the  Windward  isles.  This  island  was  taken  possession  of  by  the  Dutch  early  in  the  seventeenth 
century.  It  has,  since  then,  several  times  changed  hands  between  them,  the  French,  and  the 
English,  but  was  finally  given  up  to  Holland  in  1814. 


CUAP  V.]  •        EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  441 

of  May  a  large  body  of  French  troops  landed  on  the  island  of  To- 
bago,1 which  surrendered  to  them  on  the  3d  of  June.  In  the  month 
of  August  a  severe  engagement  took  place  on  the  Dogger  Bank,* 
north  of  Holland,  between  a  British  fleet,  commanded  by  Admiral 
Parker,  and  a  Dutch  squadron,  commanded  by  Admiral  Zoutman. 
Both  fleets  were  rendered  nearly  unmanageable,  and  with  difficulty 
regained  their  respective  coasts. 

20.  In  the  meantime  the  war  had  been  carried  on,  during  a  period 
of  more  than  six  years,  between  England  and  her  rebellious  Ameri- 
can colonies ;  but  the  latter,  guided  by  the  counsels  of  the  immortal 
Washington,  had  nobly  withstood  all  the  efforts  of  the  most  powerful 
nation  in  the  world  to  reduce  them  to  submission,  and  had  finally 
compelled  the  surrender,  at  Yorktown,  of  the  finest  army  England 
had  ever  sent  to  America.     After  the  defeat  and  surrender  of  Corn- 
wallis,  at  Yorktown,  in  October,  1781,  the  war  with  the  United  States 
was  considered,  virtually,  at  an  end ;  but  between  England  and  her  Eu- 
ropean enemies  hostilities  were  carried  on  more  vigorously  than  ever. 
The  siege  of  Gibraltar  was  ardently  prosecuted  by  the  Spaniards ; 
and  the  soldiers  of  the  garrison,  commanded  by  governor  Elliot,  were 
greatly  incommoded  by  the  want  of  fuel  and  provisions.     They  were 
also  exposed  to  an  almost  incessant  cannonade  from  the  Spanish  bat- 
teries, situated  on  the  peninsula  which  connects  the  fortress  with  the 
main  land.     During  three  weeks,  in  the  month  of  May,  1781,  nearly 
one  hundred  thousand  shot  or  shells  were  thrown  into  the  town.    But 
while  the  eyes  of  Europe  were  turned,  in  suspense,  upon  this  im- 
portant fortress,  and  all  regarded  a  much  longer  defence  impossible, 
suddenly,  on  the  night  of  the  27th  of  November,  a  chosen  body  of 
two  thousand  men  from  the  garrison  sallied  forth,  and,  in  less  than 
an  hour,  stormed  and  utterly  demolished  the  enemy's  works.     The 
damage  done  on  this  occasion  was  estimated  at  two  millions  sterling. 

21.  In  the  month  of  February  following,  the  island  of  Minorca, 
after  a  long  siege,  almost  as  memorable  as  that  of  Gibraltar,  sur- 
rendered to  the  Spanish  forces,  after  having  been  in  the  possession 
of  England  since  the  year  1708.     During  the  same  month  the  former 
Dutch  settlements  on  the  north-eastern  coast  of  South  America  were 

1.  Tobago  is  a  short  distance  north-east  of  Trinidad,  near  the  northern  coast  of  South 
America.    It  was  ceded  to  Great  Britain  by  France  in  1703,  but  in  1781  was  retaken  by  the 
French,  who  retained  possession  of  it  till  1793,  since  which  it  has  belonged  to  England. 

2.  The  Dogger  Bank  is  a  long  narrow  sand  bank  in  the  North  Sea  or  German  Ocean,  extend- 
ing from  Jutland,  on  the  west  coast  of  Denmark,  nearly  to  the  mouth  of  the  Huraber,  on  th» 
eastern  coast  of  England. 


442  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

recaptured  by  the  French.  St.  Eustatia  had  been  recaptured  in  the 
preceding  November.  Other  islands  in  the  West  Indies  surrendered 
to  the  French,  and  the  loss  of  the  Bahamas1  soon  followed.  For  these 
losses,  however,  the  British  were  fully  compensated  by  an  important 
naval  victory  gained  by  Admiral  Rodney  over  the  fleet  of  the  Count 
de  Grasse,  on  the  12th  of  April,  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Carribee 
islands.2  In  this  obstinate  engagement  most  of  the  ships  of  the 
French  fleet  were  captured,  that  of  Count  de  Grrasse  among  the 
number,  and  the  loss  of  the  French,  in  killed,  wounded,  and  prisoners, 
was  estimated  at  eleven  thousand  men.  The  loss  of  the  English,  in- 
cluding both  killed  and  wounded,  amounted  to  about  eleven  hundred. 

22.  During  the  year  1 782  the  fortress  of  Gibraltar,  which  had  so 
long  bid  defiance  to  the  power  of  Spain,  withstood  one  of  the  most 
memorable  sieges  ever  known.     The  Spaniards  had  constructed  a 
number  of  immense  floating  batteries  in  the  bay  of  Gibraltar ;  and 
one  thousand  two  hundred  pieces  of  heavy  ordnance  had  been  brought 
to  the  spot,  to  be  employed  in  the  various  modes  of  assault.    Besides 
these  floating  batteries,  there  were  eighty  large  boats,  mounted  with 
heavy  guns  and  mortars,  together  with  a  vast  multitude  of  frigates, 
sloops,  and  schooners,  while  the  combined  fleets  of  France  and  Spain, 
numbering  fifty  sail  of  the  line,  were  to  cover  and  support  the  attack. 
Eighty  thousand  barrels  of  gunpowder  were  provided  for  the  occasion, 
and  more  than  one  hundred  thousand  men  were  employed,  by  land 
and  sea,  against  the  fortress. 

23.  Early  in  the  morning  of  the  13th  of  September  the  floating 
batteries  came  forward,  and  at  ten  o'clock  took  their  stations  about 
a  thousand  yards  distant  from  the  rock  of  Gibraltar,  and  began  a 
heavy  cannonade,  which  was  seconded  by  all  the  cannon  and  mor- 
tars in  the  Spanish  lines  and  approaches.     At  the  same  time  the 
garrison  opened  all  their  batteries,  both  with  hot  and  cold  shot,  and 
during  several  hours  a  tremendous  cannonade  and  bombardment  was 
kept  up  on  both  sides,  without  the  least  intermission.     About  two 
o'clock  the  largest  Spanish  floating  battery  was  discovered  to  emit 
smoke,  and  towards  midnight  it  was  plainly  seen  to  be  on  fire.    Other 
batteries  began  to  kindle ;  signals  of  distress  were  made ;  and  boats 

1.  The  Bahamas  are  an  extensive  group  of  islands  lying  east  and  south-east  from  Florida. 
They  have  been  estimated  at  about  six  hundred  in  number,  most  of  them  were  cliffs  and 
rocks,  only  fourteen  of  them  being  of  any  considerable  size. 

2.  What  are  sometimes  called  the  Carribee  Islands  comprise  the  whole  of  the  Windward 
and  the  southern  portion  of  the  Leeward  islands,  from  Anguila  on  the  north  to  Trinidad  OB 
the  south. 


CHAP.V.]  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  443 

were  sent  to  take  the  men  from  the  burning  vessels,  but  they  were 
interrupted  by  the  English  gun  boats,  which  now  advanced  to  the 
attack,  and,  raking  the  whole  line  of  batteries  with  their  fire,  com- 
pleted the  confusion.  The  batteries  were  soon  abandoned  to  the 
flames,  or  to  the  mercy  of  the  English. 

24.  At  the  awful  spectacle  of   several  hundred  of  their  fellow 
soldiers  exposed  to  almost  inevitable  destruction,  the  Spaniards  ceased 
firing,  when  the  British  seamen,  with  characteristic  humanity,  rushed 
forward,  and  exerted  themselves  to  the  utmost  to  save  those  who  were 
perishing  in  the  flames  and  the  waters.     About  four  hundred  Span- 
iards were  thus  saved, — but  all  the  floating  batteries  were  consumed, 
and  the  combined  French  and  Spanish  forces  were  left  incapable  of 
making  any  farther  effectual  attack.     Soon  after,  Gibraltar  was  re- 
lieved with  supplies  of  provisions,  military  stores,  and  additional 
troops,  by  a  squadron  sent  from  England,  when  the  farther  siege  of 
the  place  was  abandoned. 

25.  The  siege  of  Gibraltar  was  the  last  act  of  importance  during 
the  continuance  of  the  war  in  Europe.     In  the  East 

Indies  the  British  settlements  had  been  engaged,  during  THE  EAST 
several  years,  in  hostilities  with  the  native  inhabitants,  INDIEs. 
who  were  conducted  by  the  famous  Hyder  Ali,  and  his  son  Tippoo 
Saib,  often  assisted  by  the  fleets  and  land  forces  of  France  and  Hol- 
land. Hyder  Ali,  from  the  rank  of  a  common  sepoy,  had  raised 
himself,  by  his  abilities,  to  the  throne  of  Mysore,1  one  of  the  most 
important  of  the  kingdoms  of  Hindostan.  His  territories,  of  which 
Seringapatam3  was  the  capital,  bordered  on  those  of  the  English,  which 
lined  the  eastern  coast  of  the  peninsula ;  and  as  he  saw  ^..possess- 
ions of  the  Europeans  gradually  encroaching  upon  the  domains  of 
the  native  princes,  he  resolved  to  unite  the  latter  in  a  powerful  con- 
federacy for  the  expulsion  of  the  intruders.  After  detaching  one  of 
the  powerful  northern  princes  from  an  alliance  with  the  English,  and 

1.  Mysore,  a  town  of  southern  Hindostan,  and  capital  of  the  State  of  the  same  name,  is  three 
hundred  miles  north  of  Cape  Comorin,  and  nine  miles  south-west  from  Seringapatam.    The 
State  of  Mysore,  comprising  a  territory  of  about  thirty  thousand  square  miles,  is  almost  entirely 
surrounded  by  the  territory  of  the  Madras  presidency ;  and  although  the  government  is  nomi- 
nally in  the  hands  of  a  native  prince,  it  is  subsidiary  to  the  government  of  Madras.    From 
1700  to  1799  Mysore  was  governed  by  Hyder  Ali  and  Tippoo  Saib. 

2,  Seringapatam  is  a  decayed  town  and  fortress  of  Hindostan,  in  the  State  of  Mysore,  two 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  south  of  Madras.    It  was  besieged  by  the  English  on  three  different 
occasions :  the  first  two  sieges  took  place  in  1791  and  1792,  and  the  third  in  1799,  on  the  4th  of 
May  of  which  year  it  was  stormed  by  the  British  and  their  allies,  on  which  occasion  Tippoo 
was  killed,  with  the  greater  part  of  his  garrison,  amounting  to  eight  thousand  men.    On  an 
eminence  in  the  suburbs  of  Seringapatam  is  the  mausoleum  of  Hyder  Ali  and  Tippoo  Saib. 


444  MODERN   HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

having  introduced  the  European  discipline  among  his  numerous  troopg, 
as  early  as  1 767  he  began  the  war,  which  was  continued  with  scarcely 
any  intermission,  but  with  little  permanent  success  on  the  part  of  the 
natives,  down  to  the  period  of  the  American  war,  when  the  French 
united  with  him,  and  the  war  was  carried  on  with  increased  vigor. 

26.  In  the  year  1780  Hyder  Ali  and  his  son  Tippoo  Saib,  at  the 
head  of  an  army  of  one  hundred  thousand  natives,  and  aided  by  a 
body  of  French  troops,  fell  upon  the  English  forces  in  the  presidency 
of  Madras,  and  killed  or  captured  the  whole  of  them, — Madras,  the 
capital,  alone  being  saved  from  falling  into  their  hands.     In  the 
following  year  the  English  were  strongly  reenforced,  and  Hyder  Ali, 
at  the  head  of  two  hundred  thousand  men,  was  defeated  in  three 
obstinate  battles ;  but  these  successes  were  interrupted  by  the  loss 
of  an  English  force  of  three  thousand  men,  which  was  entirely  cut 
to  pieces  by  Tippoo  Saib  in  the  year  1782. 

27.  On  the  death  of  Hyder  Ali,  in  the  same  year,  Tippoo  Saib 
succeeded  to  the  throne,  and  in  the  following  year,  after  the  restora- 
tion of  peace  between  France  and  England,  he  concluded  a  treaty 
with  the  English,  in  which  the  latter  made  concessions  that  greatly 
detracted  from  the  respect  hitherto  paid  to  their  name  in  Asia.    But 
this  native  prince  never  ceased,  for  a  moment,  to  cherish  the  hope  of 
expelling  the  British  from  Hindostan.     In  1790  he  began  the  war 
again,  but  was  eventually  compelled  to  purchase  peace  at  the  price 
of  one  half  of  his  dominions.     His  last  war  with  the  English  ter- 
minated in  1799,  by  the  storming  of  Seringapatam,  his  capital,  and 
the  death  of  Tippoo,  who  fell  in  the  assault. 

28.  On  the  30th  of  November  1782,  preliminary  articles  of  peace 

were  signed  between  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States, 
XOF  1*782™  which  were  to  be  definitive  as  soon  as  a  treaty  between 
France  and  Great  Britain  should  be  concluded.     When 
the  session  of  parliament  opened,  on  the  5th  of  December,  consid- 
erable altercation  took  place  in  respect  to  the  terms  of  the  provis- 
ional treaty,  but  a  large  majority  was  found  to  be  in  favor  of  the 
peace  thus  obtained.     The  independence  of  the  United  States  being 
now  recognized  by  England,  the  original  purpose  of  France  was  ac- 
complished ;  and  all  the  powers  at  war  being  exceedingly  desirous  of 
xvi  GENE-   PeaceJ  preliminary  articles  were  signed  by  Great  Britain, 
KAL  TREATY  France,  and  Spain,  on  the  20th  of  January,  1783.     By 
OK  1783.     thig  treaty  France  restored  to  Great  Britain  all  French 
acquisitions  in  the  West  Indies  during  the  war,  excepting  Tobago, 


CHAP.  V.]  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  445 

while  England  surrendered  to  France  the  important  station  of  St. 
Lucia.  On  the  coast  of  Africa  the  settlements  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
river  Senegal  were  ceded  to  France, — those  on  the  Gambia  to  Eng- 
land. In  the  East  Indies  France  recovered  all  the  places  she  had 
lost  during  the  war,  to  which  were  added  others  of  considerable  im- 
portance. Spain  retained  Minorca  and  West  Florida,  while  East 
Florida  was  ceded  to  her  in  return  for  the  Bahamas.  It  was  not  till 
September,  1783,  that  Holland  came  to  a  preliminary  settlement 
with  Great  Britain,  although  a  suspension  of  arms  had  taken  place 
between  the  two  powers  in  the  January  preceding. 

29.  Thus  closed  the  most  important  war  in  which  England  had 
ever  been  engaged, — a  war  which  originated  in  her  ungenerous  treat- 
ment of  the  American  colonies.  The  expense  of  blood  and  treasure 
which  this  war  cost  England  was  enormous ;  nor  did  her  European 
antagonists  suffer  much  less  severely.  The  United  States  was  the 
only  country  that  could  claim  any  beneficial  results  from  the  war, 
and  these  were  obtained  by  a  strange  union  of  opposing  motives  and 
principles  on  the  part  of  European  powers.  France  and  Spain,  ar- 
bitrary despots  of  the  Old  World,  had  stood  forth  as  the  protectors 
of  an  infant  republic,  and  had  combined,  contrary  to  all  the  princi- 
ples of  their  political  faith,  to  establish  the  rising  liberties  of  America. 
They  seemed  but  as  blind  instruments  in  the  hands  of  Providence, 
employed  to  aid  in  the  dissemination  of  those  republican  virtues  that 
are  destined  to  overthrow  every  system  of  political  oppression  through- 
out the  world. 

VI.  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. — 1.  The  democratic  spirit  which 
had  called  forth  the  war  between  England  and  her  American  colonies, 
and  which  the  princes  of  continental  Europe  had  en- 
couraged and  fostered,  through  jealousy  of  the  power  of  DEMOCRATIC 
England,  to  the  final  result  of  American  independence, 
was  destined  to  exert  a  much  wider  influence  than  the  royal  allies  of 
the  infant  Republic  had  ever  dreamed  of.     Borne  back  to  France  by 
those  of  her  chivalrous  sons  who,  in  aiding  an  oppressed  people,  had 
imbibed  their  principles,  it  entered  into  the  causes  which  were  al- 
ready at  work  there  in  breaking  up  the  foundations  of  the  rotten 
frame-work  of  French  society,  and  contributed  greatly  to  hurry  for- 
ward the  tremendous  crisis  of  the  French  Revolution. 

2.  At  the  time  of  the  death  of  Louis  XV.,  in  1774,  the  lower 
orders  of  the  French  people  had  been  brought  to  a  state  of  extreme 


446  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAET  II. 

indigence  and  suffering,  by  the  luxuries  of  a  dissolute  and  despotic 
court,  during  a  long  period  of  misrule,  in  which  agriculture  was  sadly 
neglected,  and  trade,  commerce,  and  manufactures,  existed  but  in  an 
infant  and  undeveloped  state.  The  nobility  had  been,  for  a  long 
period,  losing  their  power  and  their  wealth,  by  the  gradual  elevation 
of  the  middling  classes  ;  and  the  clergy  had  lost  much  of  their  influ- 
ence by  the  rise  of  philosophical  investigation,  which  was  not  only 
attended  by  an  extraordinary  degree  of  freedom  of  thought,  but  was 
strongly  tinctured  also  with  infidelity. 

3.  Louis  XVI.,  who  came  to  the  throne  at  the  age  of  twenty  years, 

was  poorly  calculated  to  administer  the  government  at  a 
LOUISXVI  CI>itical  period,  when  resolute  and  energetic  measures 

were  requisite.  He  was  a  pious  prince,  and  sincerely 
loved  the  welfare  of  his  subjects  ;  but  the  exclusively  religious  educa- 
tion which  he  had  received  had  made  him  little  acquainted  with  the 
world,  and  he  was  exceedingly  ignorant  of  all  polite  learning — even  of 
history  and  the  science  of  government.  Ignorance  of  politics,  weak- 
ness, vacillation,  and  irresolution,  were  the  fatal  defects  in  the  king's 
character. 

4.  To  find  a  remedy  for  the  disordered  state  of  the  French  finances, 

and  the  decline  of  public  credit,  was  the  first  difficulty 

III.  FINAN-  » 

CIAL  DIFFI-  which  Louis  had  to  encounter;  nor  did  he  surmount  it 
CULTIES.  unt,il  ne  found  himself  involved  in  the  vortex  of  a  Revo- 
lution. Minister  after  minister  attempted  it,  sometimes  with  partial 
success,  but  oftener  with  an  increase  of  evil.  Turgot  would  have 
introduced  radical  and  wise  reforms  by  an  equality  of  taxation,  and 
by  the  suppression  of  every  species  of  exclusive  privilege ;  but  the 
nobility,  the  courtiers,  and  the  clergy,  who  were  interested  in  main- 
taining all  kinds  of  abuses,  protested  against  any  sacrifices  on  their 
part ;  and  the  able  minister  fell  before  their  combined  opposition. 
Turgot  was  succeeded  by  Neckar,  a  native  of  Geneva,  an  economical 
financier,  who  had  amassed  immense  wealth  as  a  banker ;  but  his 
projects  of  economy  and  reform  alarmed  the  privileged  orders,  and 
their  opposition  soon  compelled  him  to  retire  also. 

5.  The  brilliant,  vain,  and  plausible  Calonne,  the  next  minister  of 
finance,  promulgated  the  theory  that  profusion  forms  the  wealth  of 
a  State ;  a  paradox  that  was  highly  applauded  by  the  courtiers. 
His  system  was  to  encourage  industry  by  expenditure,  and  to  stifle 
discontent  by  prodigality ;  he  liquidated  old  debts  by  contracting 
new  ones, — paid  exorbitant  pensions,  and  gave  splendid  entertain- 


CHAP.  V.]  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  447 

mcnts ;  and  while  the  credit  of  the  minister  lasted,  his  resources 
appeared  inexhaustible.  Calonne  continued  the  system  of  loans  after 
the  conclusion  of  the  American  war,  and  until  the  credit  of  the  gov- 
ernment was  utterly  exhausted,  when  it  was  found  that  the  annual 
deficit  of  the  revenue,  below  the  expenditure,  was  nearly  thirty  mil- 
lions of  dollars  !  General  taxation  of  the  nobility  and  clergy,  as 
well  as  the  commons,  was  now  proposed,  and  in  order  to  obtain  a 
sanction  to  the  measure,  an  assembly  of  the  Notables, — the  chiefs 
of  the  privileged  orders, — was  called  ;  but  although  the  assembly  at 
first  assented  to  a  general  tax,  the  national  parliament  defeated  the 
project. 

6.  Brienne,  who  succeeded  Calonne,  becoming  involved  in  a  contest 
with  the  parliament,  which  was  anxious  to  maintain  the      jy  THB 
immunities  of  the  privileged  orders,  and  being  unable  to      STATES- 
obtain  a  loan  to  meet  the  exigencies  of  government,  was     GENERAL- 
reduced  to  the  necessity  of  a  convocation  of  the  States-General,  a 
great  National  Legislature,  composed  of  representatives  chosen  from 
the  three  orders,  the  nobility,  the  clergy,  and  the  people,  but  which 
had  not  been  assembled  during  a  period  of  nearly  two  hundred  years. 

7.  When  the  day  came  for  the  payment  of  the  dividends  to  the 
public  creditors,  the  treasury  was  destitute  of  funds ;  much  distress 
was  occasioned,  and  an  insurrection  was  feared ;  but  the  removal  of 
Brienne,  and  the  restoration  of  Neckar  to  office,  created  confidence, 
while  the  most  urgent  difficulties  were  removed  by  temporary  expe- 
dients, in  anticipation  of  some  great  change  that  was  to  follow  the 
meeting  of  the  States-General, — the  remedy  that  was  now  universally 
called  for.     The  court  had  at  first  dreaded  the  convocation  of  the 
States-General,  but  finding  itself  involved  in  a  contest  with  the  priv- 
ileged classes,  who  assumed  all  legal  and  judicial  authority,  it  took 
the  bold  resolution  of  throwing  itself  upon  the  representatives  of  the 
whole  people,  in  the  hope  that  the  commons  would  defend  the  throne 
against  the  nobility  and  clergy,  as  they  had  done,  in  former  times, 
against  the  feudal  aristocracy. 

8.  When  it  was  known  that  the  great  assembly  of  the  nation  was 
to  be  convened,  a  universal  ferment  seized  the  public  mind.     Social 
reforms,  extending  to  a  complete  reorganization  of  society,  became 
the  order  of  the  day ;  political  pamphlets  inundated  the  country ; 
politics  were  discussed  in  every  society ;  theories  accumulated  upon 
theories ;  and,  in  the  ardor  with  which  they  were  combated  and  de- 
fended, were  already  to  be  seen  the  seeds  of  those  dissensions  which 


448  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  II. 

afterwards  deluged  the  country  with  blood.  There  was  abundance 
of  evil  to  be  complained  of,  and  it  was  evident  that  exclusive  privi- 
leges, and  the  marked  division  of  classes,  must  be  broken  down.  The 
clergy  held  one-third  of  the  lands  of  the  kingdom,  the  nobility  an- 
other third ;  yet  the  remaining  third  was  burdened  with  all  the  ex- 
penses of  government.  This  was  more  than  could  be  borne  ;  yet  the 
clergy,  the  nobility,  and  the  magistracy,  obstinately  refused  the  sur- 
render of  their  exclusive  privileges,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
philosophic  party,  considering  the  federal  republic  of  America  as  a 
model  of  government,  desired  to  break  up  the  entire  frame-work  of 
French  society,  and  construct  the  edifice  anew.  Such  was  the  state 
of  France  when  the  assembly  of  the  States- General  was  called,  a 
measure  that  was,  in  itself,  a  revolution,  as  it  virtually  gave  back  the 
powers  of  government  to  the  people.  The  Third-Estate — the  Com- 
mons, comprising  nearly  the  whole  nation,  demanded  that  its  represent- 
atives should  equal  those  of  the  other  two  classes — the  clergy  and  the 
nobility.  Public  opinion  called  for  the  concession,  and  obtained  it.  The 
result  of  the  elections  conformed  to  the  sentiments  of  the  three  classes 
in  the  kingdom  :  the  nobility  chose  those  who  were  firmly  attached  to 
the  interests  and  privileges  of  their  order ;  the  bishops,  or  clergy, 
chose  those  who  would  uphold  the  Roman  Catholic  hierarchy,  and 
who  were  more  inclined  to  political  freedom  than  the  former ;  while 
the  commons,  or  Third-Estate,  chose  a  numerous  body  of  represent- 
atives, firm  in  their  attachment  to  liberty,  and  ardently  desirous  of 
extending  the  power  and  influence  of  the  people. 

9.  At  the  opening  of  the  States-General,  on  the  4th  of  May,  1789, 
a  difficulty  arose  as  to  the  manner  in  which  the  three  orders  should 
vote ;  the  clergy  and  nobility  insisting  that  there  should  be  three 
assemblies,  each  possessing  a  veto  on  the  acts  of  the  others,  while  the 
commons  insisted  that  all  should  be  united  in  one  general  assembly, 
without  any  distinction  of  orders.  The  commons  managed  with 
great  tact  and  adroitness,  waiting  patiently,  day  after  day,  for  the 
clergy  and  nobility  to  join  them,  but  after  more  than  a  month  had 
thus  passed  away,  they  declared  themselves  the  "  National  Assembly," 
being,  as  they  asserted,  the  representatives  of  ninety-six  hundredths, 
at  least,  of  the  nation,  and  therefore  the  true  interpreters  of  the 
national  will.  The  nobles,  alarmed  by  this  sudden  boldness  of  the 
Assembly,  implored  the  monarch  to  support  their  rights ;  a  coalition 
was  formed  between  them  and  the  court,  but  the  public  mind  was 
against  them,  and  towards  the  last  of  June,  the  clergy  and  the  no- 


CHAP.  V.]  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  449 

bility,  constrained  by  an  order  of  the  sovereign  himself,  took  their 
seats  in  the  hall  of  the  Assembly,  where  they  were  soon  lost  in  an 
overwhelming  majority.  "  The  family  was  united,  but  it  gave  few 
hopes  of  domestic  union  or  tranquillity." 

10.  The  triumph  of  the  third-estate  had  destroyed  the  moral  power 
and  influence  of  the  government :  a  spirit  of  insubordination,  began 
to  appear  in  Paris,  caused,  in  some  degree,  by  the  pressure  of  fam- 
ine ;  journals  and  clubs  multiplied ;  declaimers  harangued  in  every 
street,  and  directed  the  popular  indignation  against  the 

king  and  his  family ;  and  the  very  rabble  imbibed  the     TIONARY 
intoxicating  spirit  of  politics.     When  a  regiment  of    STATE  OF 
French  troops  mutinied,  and  their  leaders  were  thrown 
into  prison,  a  mob  of  six  thousand  men  liberated  them ;  collisions 
took  place  between  the  populace  and  the  royal  guards ;    and  the 
former,  obtaining  a  supply  of  muskets  and  artillery,  attacked  the  Bas- 
tile,  or  state  prison  of  Paris,  tore  the  governor  in  pieces,  and  inhu- 
manly massacred  the  guards  who  had  attempted  to  defend  the  place. 
(July  14th,  1789.) 

11.  Louis,  greatly  alarmed,  now  abandoned  the  counsels  of  the 
party  of  the  nobles,  who  had  advised  him  to  suppress  the  threatened 
revolution  at  the  head  of  his  army,  and  hurrying  to  the  National 
Assembly,  craved  its  support  and  interference  to  restore  order  to  the 
capital.     At  the  same  time  he  caused  the  regular  troops  to  be  with- 
drawn from  Paris,  while  the  defence  of  the  place  was  intrusted  to  a 
body  of  civic  militia,  called  the  National  Guards,  and  placed  under 
the  command  of  La  Fayette,  whose  liberal  sentiments,  and  generous 
devotion  to  the  cause  of  American  liberty,  had  made  him  the  idol  of 
the  populace. 

12.  The  union  between  the  king  and  the  National  Assembly  was 
hailed  with  transports  of  joy  by  the  Parisians,  and  for  a  few  days  it 
seemed  that  the  revolution  had  closed  its  list  of  horrors ;  but  there 
were  agents  at  work  who  excited  and  bribed  the  people  to  fresh  sedi- 
tion.    The  consequences  of  the  insurrection  of  the  14th  July  extend- 
ed throughout  France  ;  the  peasantry  of  the  provinces,  imitating  the 
lower  orders  of  the  capital  in  a  crusade  against  the  privileged  classes, 
everywhere  possessed  themselves  of  arms ;  the  regiments  of  the  line 
declared  for  the  popular  side ;  many  of  the  chateaux  of  the  nobles 
were  burned,  and  their  possessors  massacred  or  expelled,  and  in  a 
fortnight  there  was  no  authority  in  France  but  what  emanated  from 
the  people.     These  things  produced  their  effect  upon  the  National 

29 


450  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAST  IL 

Assembly.     The  deputies  of  the  privileged  classes,  seeing  no  escape 
from  ruin  but  in  the  abandonment  of  those  immunities 

VI.    GKEAT 

POLITICAL    which  had  rendered  them  odious,  consented  to  sacrifice 

CHANGES.     ^ne  Wh0ie  .  the  clergy  followed  the  example,  and  in  one 

evening's  session  the  aristocracy  and  the  church  descended  to  the 

level  of  the  peasantry  ;  the  privileged  classes  were  swept  away,  and 

the  political  condition  of  France  was  changed.     (Aug.  4th,  1789.) 

13.  An  interval  of  two  months  now  passed  over  without  any 
flagrant  scene  of  popular  violence,  the  Assembly  being  engaged  at 
Versailles  in  fixing  the  basis  of  a  national  constitution,  and  the  mu- 
nicipality of  Paris  in  procuring  bread  for  the  lower  orders  of  the 
Parisians,  while  the  latter,  imagining  that  the  Revolution  was  to 
liberate  them  from  almost  every  species  of  restraint,  were  rioting  in 

the  exercise  of  their  newly-acquired  freedom.  Towards 
the  latter  Part  of  August  tlie  famine  had  become  so 
severe  in  Paris,  (a  natural  consequence  of  the  public 
convulsions,  and  the  suspension  of  credit,)  that  mobs  were  frequent 
in  the  streets,  and  the  baker's  shops  were  surrounded  by  multitudes 
clamoring  for  food,  while  the  most  extravagant  reports  were  circu- 
lated, charging  the  scarcity  upon  the  court  and  the  aristocrats.  The 
leaders  of  the  populace,  artfully  fomenting  the  discontent,  instigated 
the  mob  to  demand  that  the  king  and  the  Assembly  should  be  re- 
moved from  Versailles  to  the  capital ;  and  on  the  5th  of  October  a 
crowd  of  the  lowest  rabble,  armed  with  pikes,  forks,  and  clubs,  and 
accompanied  by  some  of  the  national  guards,  marched  to  Versailles. 
They  penetrated  into  the  Assembly,  vociferously  demanding  bread, — 
a  slight  collision  occurred  between  them  and  some  of  the  king's  body 
guards,  and  during  the  ensuing  night  they  broke  into  the  palace, 
massacred  the  guards  who  opposed  them,  and  had  it  not  been  for  the 
opportune  arrival  of  La  Fayette  and  his  grenadiers,  the  king  him- 
self and  the  whole  royal  family  would  have  fallen  victims.  After 
tranquillity  had  been  partially  restored,  the  king  was  compelled  to 
set  out  for  Paris,  accompanied  by  the  tumultuous  rabble  which  had 
sought  his  life.  The  National  Assembly  voted  to  transfer  its  sittings 
to  the  capital.  The  royal  family,  on  reaching  Paris,  repaired  to  the 
Tuilleries,  which  henceforth  became  their  palace  and  their  prison. 

14.  Several  months  of  comparative  tranquillity  followed  this  out- 
rage, during  which  time  the  formation  of  the  constitution  was  prose- 
cuted with  activity  by   the   Assembly.     The  feudal  system,  feudal 
services,  and  all  titles  of  honor,  had  been  abolished.     One  general 


CHAP.  V.]  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  451 

legislative  Assembly  had  been  decreed :    the  absolute  veto  of  the 
king  had  been  taken  away ;  and  now  the  immense  prop-     ^u  NEW 
erty  of  the  church  was  appropriated  to  the  State,  a  meas-     CONSTITU- 
ure  that  secured  the  great  financial  resources  which  so 
long  upheld  the  Revolution.     In  the  meantime  the  training,  dividing, 
forming,  and  marshalling  of  parties  went  on.    At  first,  La  ^  MAESHAL. 
Fayette,  and  those  who  aided  him — the  moderate  friends      LING  OF 
of  liberty — prevailed   in   the  Assembly,  satisfied  with      FAKTTES. 
constitutional  reforms,  without  desiring  to  overthrow  the  monarchy. 
But  there  was  another  class — the  ultra  revolutionists — composed 
of  the  factious  spirits  of  the  Assembly,  who  afterwards  obtained  the 
control  of  that  body.     Having  organized  themselves  into  a  club,  called 
the  club  of  the  Jacobins,  from  the  name  of  the  convent  in  which 
they  assembled,  and  gathering  members  from  all  classes  of  society, 
they  held  nightly  sittings,  where,  surrounded  by  a  crowd  of  the  popu- 
lace, they  canvassed  the  acts  of  the  Assembly  and  formed  public  opinion. 

15.  At  one  time  this  club  contained  more  than  two  thousand  five 
hundred  members,  and  corresponded  with  more  than  four  hundred 
affiliated  societies  throughout  France.     It  was  the  hot-bed  of  sedition, 
and  the  centralization  of  anarchy,  and  it  eventually  overturned  the 
government,  and  sent  forth  the  sanguinary  despots  who  established 
the  Reign  of  Terror.     Barnave,  the  Lameths,  Danton,  Marat,  and 
Robespierre,  were  the  leaders  of  the  Jacobin  faction.     Mirabeau, 
the  first  master-spirit  which  arose  amid  the  troubles  of  the  times, — a 
man  of  extraordinary  eloquence  and  talent,  but  of  loose  principles — 
who  had  at  first  united  with  the  Jacobins,  foreseeing  the  sanguinary 
excess  that  already  began  to  tinge  the  career  of  the  Revolution,  at 
length  entered  into  a  treaty  with  the  court  to  use  his  great  influence 
in  aiding  to  establish  monarchy  on  a  constitutional  basis ;  but  his 
death,  early  in   1791,  up  to  which  period  he  had  maintained  his 
ascendancy  in  the  Assembly,  deprived  the  king  of  his  only  hope  of 
being  able  to  withstand  the  Jacobin  influence  in  the  National  Legis- 
lature.    Mirabeau  had  a  clear  presentiment  of  the  coming  disasters. 
"  Soon,"  said  he,  "  neither  the  king  nor  the  Assembly  will  rule  the 
country,  but  a  vile  faction  will  overspread  it  with  horrors." 

16.  While   the   machinations   of   the  Jacobins  were   convulsing 
France,  the  repose  of  Europe  was  threatened  by  the  in-      x  THE 
judicious   movements   of  the   emigrant   nobility,  large    EMIGRANT 
numbers  of  whom,  estimated  at  seventy  thousand,  dis-     NOBILITy- 
gusted  with  the  Revolution,  had  abandoned  their  country,  resolved  to 


452  MODERN  HISTORY.  {PAST  H. 

seek  the  restoration  of  the  old  government  by  the  intervention  of 
foreign  powers.  Collecting  first  at  Turin,  and  afterwards  at  Co- 
blentz,1  they  endeavored  to  stir  up  rebellion  in  the  provinces,  and 
solicited  Louis  to  sanction  their  plans,  and  join  their 
meditated  armaments.  Louis,  accompanied  by  his  queen 
OF  THE  and  children,  attempted  to  escape  secretly  to  the  frontiers, 
ROYAL  j^.  wag  gt0ppec[  an(j  brought  back  a  prisoner  to  his 
capital.  (June  1791.)  The  Jacobins  now  argued  that 
the  king's  flight  was  abdication ;  and  the  National  Assembly,  to  ap- 
pease the  popular  outcry,  provisionally  suspended  him  from  his 
functions,  until  the  constitution,  now  nearly  completed,  was  presented 
to  him  for  acceptance.  On  the  14th  of  September,  1791,  he  took 
the  oath  to  maintain  it  against  civil  discord  and  foreign  aggression, 
and  to  enforce  its  execution  to  the  utmost  of  his  power.  The  Con- 
stituent Assembly,  as  that  which  framed  the  constitution  is  often 
called,  after  having  passed  a  self-denying  ordinance  that  none  of  its 
members  should  be  elected  to  the  next  Assembly,  declared  itself  dis 
solved  on  the  30th  of  September,  1791. 

17.  But  the  constitution,  thus  established,  could  not  be  permanent, 
for  the  minds  of  the  French  people  were  still  agitated  by  the  passion 
for  change,  and  the  members  of  the  new  Legislative  Assembly  soon 
displayed  opinions  more  radical,  and  divisions  more  numerous,  than 
their  predecessors.  The  court  and  the  nobility  had  exercised  no  in- 
fluence in  the  late  elections  ;  the  upholders  of  even  a  mitigated  aris- 
tocracy had  disappeared  ;  the  assembly  was  thoroughly  democratic  ; 
and  the  only  question  that  seemed  to  remain  for  it  was  the  main- 
tenance or  the  overthrow  of  the  constitutional  throne.  The  chief 
parties  in  the  assembly,  at  its  opening,  were  the  constitutionalists  and 
the  republicans, — the  latter  were  more  usually  called  Girondists,  as 
their  most  celebrated  leaders,  Brissot,  Petion,  and  Condoroet,  were 
members  from  the  department  of  the  Gironde.  The  constitutional- 
ists would  have  preserved  the  throne,  while  they  stripped  it  of  its 
power ;  but  the  Girondists,  enthusiastic  admirers  of  the  Americans, 
despising  the  vain  shadow  of  royalty,  longed  for  republican  institu- 
tions on  the  model  of  antiquity.  The  Jacobins,  who  were  anarchists, 
men  without  principles,  and  attached  to  no  particular  form  of  gov- 

1.  CoWentz,  (the  Co-nfluenles  of  the  Romans,)  is  a  Prussian  town  in  the  province  of  the  Rhine, 
at  the  confluence  of  the  Rhine  and  Moselle.  Since  the  wars  of  Napoleon  it  has  been  strongly 
fortified,  and  is  now  deemed  one  of  the  principal  bu  warks  of  Germany  on  the  side  of  France. 
(Map  No.  XVII.; 


CHAP.  V.]  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  453 

eminent,  possessed  at  first  little  influence  in  the  assembly,  but  direct- 
ing the  passions  of  the  populace,  and  possessing  the  means  of  rousing 
at  pleasure  the  strength  of  the  capital,  they  soon  acquired  a  prepon- 
derating influence  that  bore  down  all  opposition,  and  crushed  the  more 
moderate  revolutionary  party  of  the  Girondists. 

1 8.  The  legislative  assembly  commenced  its  sittings  by  confiscating 
the  property  of  the  emigrants,  and  denouncing  the  penalties  of  treason 
against  those  refractory  priests  who  refused  to  take  the  oath  to  sup- 
port the  constitution ;  but  the  king  refused  to  sanction  the  decrees. 
It  was  the  great  object  of  the  Girondists  to  involve  the  kingdom  in 
foreign  war  ;  and  the  warlike  preparations  of  the  Austrian  emperor 
and  the  German  princes,  evidently  designed  to  support  the  emigrants, 
rendered  it  an  easy  matter  to  carry  out  their  designs.     When  an 
open  declaration  of  his  objects  was  demanded  of  the  Austrian  em- 
peror, he  required  as  a  condition  on  which  he  would  discontinue  his 
preparations,  that  France  should  return  to  the  form  and  principles 
of  government  which  existed  at  the  time  of  the  commencement  of 
the  constituent  assembly.     Against  his  own  judgment  the  king  yield 

ed  to  the  force  of  public  opinion,  and  on  the  20th  of 

xii   \STAIL 
April,    1792,  war   was  declared   against   the   court  of    DECLARKD 

Vienna.     It  must  be  admitted  that  the  war  which  arose     AGAINST 
from  so  feeble  beginnings,  but  which  at  length  involved 
the  world  in  its  conflagration,  was  not  provoked  by  France,  but  by 
the  foreign  powers  which  unjustly  interposed  to  regulate  the  laws 
and  government  of  the  French  people. 

19.  While  the  strife  of  parties  continued  in  Paris,  producing  con 
fusion  in  the  councils  of  the  assembly,  and  increasing  anxiety  and 
alarm  in  the  mind  of  the  king,  a  formidable  force  was  assembling  on 
the  German  frontier  with  the  avowed  object  of  putting  down  the 
Revolution,  and  restoring  to  the  king  the  rights  of  which  he  had 
been  deprived.     The  king  of  Prussia  and  the  emperor  of  Austria 
engaged  to  cooperate  for  this  purpose  ;  and  their  united  forces  were 
placed  under  the  command  of  the  Duke  of  Brunswick,  who,  towards 
the  end  of  July,  entered  the  French  territories  at  the  head  of  a  hun- 
dred and  forty  thousand  men.     The  threatening  manifesto  which  he 
issued  roused  at  once  the  spirit  of  resistance  throughout  every  part 
of  France ;  the  demagogues  seized  the  occasion  to  direct  the  popular 
fury  against  the  court,  which  was  accused  of  leaguing  with  the  enemy ; 
and  the  two  prominent  factions,  the  Girondists  and  Jacobins,  com- 


454  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAET  IL 

bined  to  overturn  the  monarchy,  each  with  the  view  of  advancing  its 

own  separate  ambitious  designs. 

20.  The  dethronement  of  the  king  was  now  vehemently  discussed 

in  all  the  popular  assemblies ;  preparations  were  made  in  Paris  for 

a  general  revolt ;  and  soon  after  midnight  on  the  morning  of  the  10th 

of  August,  an  infuriate  mob  attacked  and  pillaged  the 

MASSACRE     PalaceJ   massacred   the    Swiss   guards,   and  forced   the 

OF  THE      king  and   royal  family  to   seek  shelter  in  the  hall  of 


TENTH  OF 


the  National  Assembly.  The  assembly  protected  the 
person  of  the  king,  but,  yielding  to  the  demands  of  the 
conquering  populace,  passed  a  decree  suspending  the  royal  functions, 
dismissed  the  ministers,  and  directed  the  immediate  convocation  of  a 
National  Convention.  La  Fayette,  then  in  command  of  the  army 
on  the  eastern  frontier,  having  in  vain  endeavored  to  keep  his  troops 
firm  in  their  allegiance,  and  being  outlawed  by  the  assembly,  fled 
into  the  Netherlands,  but  was  seized  and  imprisoned  by  the  Aus- 
trians.  Dumouriez,  who  had  adhered  to  the  assembly,  succeeded  to 
the  command,  and  made  energetic  preparations  to  resist  the  coming 
invasion. 

21.  The  massacre  of  the   10th  of  August  was  soon  followed  by 
xiv  MASSA-  ano^er  °f  S*i^  more  frightful  atrocity.     The  prisons  of 

ORE  OF  Paris  had  become  filled  with  suspected  persons ;  and  the 
SEPTEMBER.  |ea(jerg  Of  the  Jacobins,  now  occupying  the  chief  places 
in  the  magistracy,  in  order  to  diminish  the  number  of  their  internal 
enemies  planned  the  massacre  of  the  prisoners.  Accordingly,  at 
three  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  2d  of  September,  a  band  of 
three  hundred  hired  assassins,  accompanied  by  a  frantic  mob,  entered 
the  prisons,  and  began  the  work  of  death.  In  the  court  yard  of  the 
first  prison  four  and  twenty  priests  were  hewn  in  pieces  because  they 
refused  to  take  the  revolutionary  oath.  In  some  instances  the 
assassins,  stained  with  gore,  established  tribunals  to  try  their  victims, 
and  a  few  minutes,  often  a  few  seconds,  disposed  of  the  fate  of  each 
individual.  The  massacres  continued  from  the  2d  to  the  6th  of 
September,  and  during  this  period  more  than  five  thousand  persons 
perished  in  the  different  prisons  of  Paris.  A  committe  of  the  mu- 
nicipality of  Paris,  declaring  that  a  plot  had  been  formed  by  the  pris- 
oners throughout  France  to  murder  all  the  patriots  of  the  empire,  in- 
vited the  other  cities  to  imitate  the  massacres  of  the  capital,  but, 
fortunately,  none  obeyed  the  summons. 

22.  While  these  shocking  excesses  were  perpetrated  in  the  capital, 


CHAP.  V.]  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  455 

the  armies  of  Prussia  and  Austria,  which  had  invaded  the  French 
territories,  met  with  a  signal  repulse.  Dumouriez,  pursuing  his  suc- 
cesses, crossed  the  Belgian  frontier,  and  on  the  6th  of  November 
gained  the  battle  of  Jemappes,1  which  gave  him  possession  of  all  the 
Austrian  Netherlands.  With  so  much  rapidity  and  decision  did 
Dumouriez  execute  the  skilful  movements  of  the  army,  that  the  allies 
poon  found  there  was  no  want  of  able  generals  among  the  French. 
At  the  battle  of  Jemappes,  the  enthusiasm  and  martial  spirit  of  the 
French,  displaying  themselves  in  all  their  brilliancy,  bore  down  all 
obstacles,  and  redoubt  after  redoubt  was  stormed  and  taken,  to  the 
chant  of  the  Marseilles  Hymn.a 

23.  The  National  Convention,  which  had  succeeded  the  Legislative 
Assembly,  inflamed  by  this  first  great  victory  of  the  Revolution,  pub- 
lished a  decree  offering  the  alliance  of  the  French  to  every  nation 
that  desired  to  recover  its  liberties, — a  decree  which  was  equivalent 
to  a  declaration  of  war  against  all  the  monarchies  of  Europe.    One  step 
further  was  necessary  to  complete  the  Revolution,  and 
that  was  the  death  of  the  kind-hearted  and  unfortunate  AND  EXEOU- 
monarch.     On  the  ridiculous  charge  of  having  engaged     TI°N  OF 
in  a  conspiracy  for  the  subversion  of  freedom,  on  the 
26th  of  December  Louis  XVI.  was  brought  before  the  Convention, 
and,  after  a  trial  which  lasted  twenty  days,  was  declared  guilty,  and 
condemned  to  death  by  a  majority  of  twenty-six  votes  out  of  seven 
hundred  and  twenty-one.     Nearly  all  of  those  who  had  voted  for  his 
death  subsequently  perished  on  the  scaffold,  during  the  sanguinary 
"  reign  of  Terror,"  which  soon  followed.     On  the  21st  of  January, 
1793,  Louis  was  led  out  to  execution.     He  met  death  with  magna- 
nimity and  firmness,  amid  the  insults  of  his  cruel  executioners.    His 
fate  will  be  commiserated,  and  his  murderers  execrated,  so  long  as 
justice  or  mercy  shall  prevail  on  the  earth. 


1.  Jemappes  (zhem-map)  is  a  small  village  of  Belgium,  near  Mons,  forty-four  miles  south, 
west  from  Brussels.  The  Duke  de  Chartres,  afterwards  Louis  Philippe  king  of  the  French, 
acted  as  the  lieutenant  of  Dumouriez  during  the  battle  of  Jemappes,  and  by  his  intrepidity  at 
the  head  of  a  column  aided  essentially  in  winning  the  day. 

a.  The  famous  Marseilles  Hymn^  the  national  song  of  the  French  patriots  and  warriors,  was 
composed  by  Joseph  Rouget  de  1'Isle,  (roozhS  de  leel,)  a  young  engineer  officer,  early  in  the 
French  Revolution.  It  was  at  first  called  the  "  Offering  to  Liberty,"  but  received  its  present 
name  because  it  was  first  publicly  sung  by  the  Marseilles  confederates  in  1192.  Both  the  words 
and  the  music  are  peculiarly  inspiriting.  So  great  was  the  influence  of  this  song  over  the  ex- 
citable French,  that  it  was  suppressed  under  the  empire  and  the  Bourbons ;  but  the  Revolution 
of  1830  called  it  up  anew,  and  it  has  since  become  again  the  national  song  of  the  French 
people. 


456  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAET  IL 

24.  The  Girondists,  who  had  been  the  first  to  fan  the  flame  of 

revolution,  were  the  first  to  suffer  by  its  violence.    Ardent 

xvi  FALL     republicans  in  principle,  but  humane  and  benevolent  in 

OF  THE      their  sentiments,  they  had  not  desired  the  death  of  the 

king,  but  they  could  not  restrain  the  mad  fury  of  the 
Jacobins.  The  latter,  a  base  faction  in  the  convention,  taunted  the 
former  with  having  endeavored  to  save  the  tyrant :  their  partisans, 
throughout  Paris,  roused  the  feelings  of  the  populace  against  the 
Girondists :  a  powerful  insurrection  a  deprived  the  convention  of  its 
liberty  :  thirty  of  the  leading  members  of  the  Girondist  party  were 
given  up  and  imprisoned ;  and  those  who  had  not  the  fortune  to  es- 
cape from  Paris  were  brought  to  trial,  condemned,  without  being 
heard  in  their  defence,  and  speedily  executed,b  and  all  for  no  other 
crime  than  having  tried  to  prevent  the  execution  of  the  king,  to 
avenge  the  massacres  of  September,  and  to  allay  the  desolating  storm 
of  violence  and  crime  that  was  spreading  terror  and  dismay  over 
their  country. 

25.  After  the  fall  of  the  Girondists,  the  victorious  Jacobins,  at 
the  head  of  whom  were  Danton,  Marat,  Robespierre,  and  their  asso- 
ciates, obtained  control  of  the  "  Committee  of  Public  Safety,"  a  for- 
midable Revolutionary  tribunal,  in  which  was  vested  the  whole  power 
of  the  convention  and  of  the  government.     Some  opposition  was 
indeed  made,  by  the  magistracies  of  the  cities  and  towns  throughout 
a  great  part  of  France,  to  this  central  power,  and  at  one  time  seventy 
departments  were  in  a  state  of  insurrection  against  the  convention ; 
but  the  vigorous  measures  of  the  Parisian  Revolutionists  soon  broke 
this  formidable  league.     Revolutionary  committees,  radiating  from 
the  central  Jacobin  power  in  Paris,  extended  their  network  over  the 
whole  kingdom ;  and  these  committees,  having  the  power  of  arrest- 
ing the  obnoxious  and  the  suspected,  and  numbering  more  than  five 
hundred  thousand  individuals,  often  drawn  from  the  very  dregs  of 
society,  held  the  fortunes  and  lives  of  every  man  in  France  at  their 


26.  The  prisons  throughout  France  were  speedily  filled  with  vic- 
xvn  THE  ^ms '  f°rced  loans  were  exacted  with  rigor  ;  TERROR  was 
OF  made  the  order  of  the  day  ;  and  the  guillotine*  was  put 
^n  requisition  to  do  its  work  of  death.  The  queen  was 

*  Guillotine — so  called  from  the  name  of  the  inventor — is  an  engine  or  machine  for  be- 
heading persons  at  a  stroke. 
a.  May  31st.  b.  Oct.  31st. 


CHAP.V.]  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  457 

brought  to  the  scaffold,*1  and  the  dauphin,  thrown  into  prison,  ere 
long  fell  a  victim  to  the  barbarous  neglect  of  his  keepers.     Irreligion 
and  impiety  raised  their  heads  above  the  mass  of  pollution  and  crime : 
the  Sabbath  was  abolished  by  law :  the  sepulchres  of  the    xvm  TEI. 
kings  of  France  were  ordered  to  be  destroyed,  that  every     UMPH  OF 
memorial  of  royalty  might  be  blotted  out;    and  the   1NFIDELITY- 
leaders  of  the  municipality  of  Paris,  in  the  madness  of  atheism,  pub- 
licly expressed  their  determination  "  to  dethrone  the  king  of  Heaven 
as  well  as  the  monarchs  of  the  earth."     As  the  crowning  act  of  this 
drama  of  wickedness,  the  Goddess  of  Reason,  personified  by  a  beauti- 
ful female,  was  introduced  into  the  convention,  and  declared  to  be 
the  only  divinity  worthy  of  adoration : — the  churches  were  closed — 
religion  everywhere  abandoned — and  on  all  the  public  cemeteries  was 
placed  the  inscription,  "  Death  is  an  Eternal  Sleep." 

27.  After  the  downfall  of  the  Girondists  and  the  party  attached  to 
a  constitutional  monarchy,  divisions  arose  among  the  Jacobin  leaders. 
The  sanguinary  Marat  had  already  fallen  by  the  dagger  of  the  devoted 
heroine,  Charlotte  Corday,  who  voluntarily  sacrificed  her    xlx  FALL 
own  life  in  the  hope  of  saving  her  country.     The  more      OF  THE 
moderate  portion  of  the  Revolutionary  leaders,  Danton,  DANTOKKT8- 
Camille  Desmoulins,  and  their  supporters,  who  had  so  recently  roused 
the  populace  against  the  Gironde,  were  ere  long  charged  with  show- 
ing too  much  clemency,  and  brought  to  the  scaffold.b     The  Repub- 
lican Girondists  had  sought  to  prevent  the  Reign  of  Terror — the 
Dantonists  to  arrest  it ;  and  both  perished  in  the  attempt.     There- 
after there  seemed  not  a  hope  left  for  France.     The  revolutionary 
excesses  everywhere  increased :  those  who  kept  aloof  from  them  were 
suspected,  and  condemned  ;  and  the  power  of  DEATH  was  relentlessly 
wielded  by  such  a  combination  of  monsters  of  wickedness  as  the 
world  had  never  before  seen. 

28.  Having  pursued  the  internal  history  of  the  Revolution  down 
to  the  fall  of  the  Dantonists  in  March  1794,  we  resume  the  narra- 
tive of  affairs  at  the  beginning  of  1793.     The  death  of     ^  WAft 
Louis  XVI.,  which  derives  its  chief  importance  from     AGAINST 
the  principle  which  the  revolutionists  thereby  proclaimed, 

excited  profound  terror  in  France,  and  feelings  of  astonishment  and 
indignation  throughout  Europe.  France  thereby  placed  herself  in 
avowed  and  unrelenting  hostility  to  the  established  governments  of  the 
neighboring  States;  and  it  was  universally  felt  that  the  period  had 

a.  Oct.  16th,  1793.  b.  March  5th,  1794. 


458  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

now  arrived  when  she  must  conquer  the  coalition  of  thrones,  or  perish 
under  its  blows.  The  convention  did  not  wait  to  be  attacked,  but 
forthwith,  on  various  pretexts,  declared  war  against  England,  Spain, 
and  Holland,  and  ordered  the  increase  of  the  armies  of  the  republic 
to  more  than  five  hundred  thousand  men. 

29.  Early  in  1793  the  English  and  Prussians  combined  to  check 
the  progress  of  the  French  in  Holland,  and  on  the  18th  of  March 
Dumouriez  was  defeated  in  the  battle  of  Neerwinde.     Soon  after 
this  repulse,  the  French  general,  disgusted  with  the  excesses  of  the 
revolutionists  in  Paris,  and  finding  himself  suspected  by  both  Giron- 
dists and  Jacobins,  entered  into  a  negotiation  with  the  allied  generals 
for  a  coalition  of  forces  to  aid  in  the  establishment  of  a  constitutional 
monarchy  in  France ;  but  his  army  did  not  share  his  feelings,  and 
being  denounced  by  the  convention,  and  a  price  set  upon  his  head, 
he  was  obliged  to  take  refuge  in  the  Austrian  lines. 

30.  After  the  defection  of  Dumouriez,  Custine  was  appointed  to 
the  command  of  the  north,  then  severely  pressed  by  the  allies  near 
Valenciennes  ;  but  being  unable  to  check  the  progress  of  the  enemy, 
he  was  deprived  of  his  command,  ordered  to  Paris-,  and,  soon  after, 
condemned  and  executed  on  the  charge  of  misconduct.     The  revolu- 
tionary government,  seeing  no  merit  but  in  success,  placed  its  gen- 
erals in  the  alternative  of  victory  or  death,  and  employed  the  terrors 
of  the  guillotine  as  an  incentive  to  patriotism.     The  fall  of  Valen- 
ciennes seemed  to  open  to  the  allies  a  way  to  Paris,  but,  pursuing  in- 
dependent plans  of  aggrandizement,  they  injudiciously  divided  their 
forces,  and  before  the  close  of  the  year,  were  driven  back  across  the 
frontier. 

31.  Early  in  the  same  year  Spain  had  despatched  an  army  of  fifty- 
five  thousand  men  for  the  invasion  of  France  by  the  way  of  the 
Pyrenees ;  but  although  the  French,  who  advanced  to  meet  them, 
were  driven  back,  the  campaign  in  that  quarter  was  characterized  by 
no  event  of  importance.     In  the  meantime,  in  the  west  of  France, 
the  insurrectionary  war  of  La  Vendee  was  occupying  the  troops  of 
the  convention ;  and  on  the  side  of  Italy  the  allies  were  aided  by 
the  revolt  of  Marseilles,  Lyons,  and  Toulon. 

32.  In  La  Vendee,  a  large  district  bordered  on  the  north  by  the 
xxi  IKSUR-   ^°^re»  an(^  on  tne  wes*  by  *ne  °cean,  containing  eight 
RECTION  OF  hundred  thousand  souls,  the  Royalists,  embracing  nearly 

>EE<   the  entire  population,  had  early  taken  up  arms  in  the 
cause  of  their  church  and  their  king.     This  district  soon  became  the 


CHAP.  V.]  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  459 

theatre  of  innumerable  conflicts,  in  which  the  undisciplined  peasantry 
of  La  Vendee  at  first  had  the  advantage,  from  their  peculiar  mode 
of  fighting,  and  the  nature  of  their  country.  On  the  10th  of  June, 
1793,  they  obtained  a  great  victory  at  Saumur,1  where  their  trophies 
amounted  to  eighty  pieces  of  cannon,  ten  thousand  muskets,  and 
eleven  thousand  prisoners ;  but  on  the  29th  of  the  same  month  they 
were  defeated  in  their  attempt  on  Nantes,  where  their  brave  leader 
Cathelineau  was  mortally  wounded.  During  the  summer  two  inva- 
sions of  the  country  of  the  Ven deans  was  made  by  large  bodies  of 
the  republican  troops  under  skilful  generals,  who  were  defeated  and 
driven  back  with  severe  loss.  The  convention,  at  length  aroused  to  a 
full  sense  of  the  danger  of  this  war,  surrounded  La  Vendee  with  an  army 
of  two  hundred  thousand  men,  who,  by  a  simultaneous  advance,  threat- 
ened a  speedy  extinction  of  the  revolt.  But  the  republican  troops 
who  had  penetrated  the  country  were  cut  off  in  detail — the  veterans 
of  Kleber  were  defeated  near  Torfou,2  and  before  the  close  of  Sep- 
tember the  Vendean  territory  was  freed  from  its  invaders. 

33.  Again  the  convention  made  the  most  vigorous  efforts  to  sup- 
press the  insurrection.  Their  forces  penetrated  the  country  in  every 
direction,  and,  with  unrelenting  and  uncalled-for  cruelty,  burned  the 
towns  and  villages  that  fell  into  their  hands,  and  put  the  inhabitants, 
of  every  age  and  sex,  to  the  sword.  Defeated a  in  the  battle  of 
Cholet,3  and  their  country  in  the  possession  of  their  enemies,  a 
large  portion  of  the  surviving  Vendeans,  with  their  wives  and  chil- 
dren, crossed  the  Loire  into  Brittany,  with  the  hope  of  obtaining 
assistance  from  their  countrymen  in  that  quarter.  In  the  battle  of 
Chateau  Gonthier,4  fighting  with  the  courage  of  despair,  they  gained 
a  decisive  victory  over  the  Republican  forces,  whose  loss  amounted  to 
twelve  thousand  men  and  nineteen  pieces  of  cannon.  This  victory 
was  gained  on  the  very  day  when  the  orator  Barrere  announced  in 
the  convention,  "  the  war  is  ended,  and  La  Vendee  is  no  more." 
Great  then  was  the  consternation  in  Paris  when  it  was  known  that 
the  Republican  array  was  dispersed,  and  that  nothing  remained  to 
prevent  the  advance  of  the  Royalists  to  the  capital. 

1.  Saumur  is  on  the  southern  bank  of  the  Loire,  in  the  former  province  of  Anjou,  one  hundred 
and  fifty-seven  miles  south-west  from  Paris.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

2.  Torfou  was  a  small  village  in  the  northern  part  of  La  Vendee,  a  short  distance  south-east 
from  Nantes.    (Mcp  No.  XIII.) 

3.  Cholet  (sho-la)  is  nearly  forty  miles  south-east  from  Nantes.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

4.  Chateau  Gonthier  is  sixty  miles  north-east  from  Nantes.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

a  Oct.  17th,  1793. 


460  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAKT  II. 

34.  But  the  Vendeans  were  divided  in  their  councils.     Induced  by 
the  hope  of  succors  from  England,  they  directed  their  march  to  the 
coast,  and,  after  laying  siege  to  Granville,1  where  they  expected  the 
cooperation  of  the  English,  were  at  length  compelled  to  retreat,  with 
heavy  loss.     Defeated a  at  Mans,"  and  having  experienced  a  final 
overthrowb  at  Savenay,3  they  slowly  melted  away  in  the  midst  of  their 
enemies,  fighting  with  unyielding  courage  to  the  last.     Out  of  nearly 
a  hundred  thousand  who  had  crossed  the  Loire,  scarcely  three  thou- 
sand returned  to  La  Vendee,  and  most  of  these  fell  by  the  hands  of 
their  pursuers,  or,  brought  to  a  hasty  trial,  perished  on  the  scaffold.0 

35.  The  discontents  in  the  south  of  France  against  the  measures 

of  the  convention  first  broke  out  in  open  insurrection  at 
RECTION  IN  Marseilles,  which  was  soon  reduced  to  submission,  while 
THE  SOUTH  a  large  proportion  of  the  inhabitants  fled  to  Toulon.  In 

the  meantime  Lyons  had  revolted.  During  four  montlis 
it  was  in  a  state  of  vigorous  siege  ;  and  sixty  thousand  men  were 
employed  before  the  place  at  the  time  of  its  surrender  in  October, 
1793.  All  the  houses  of  the  wealthy  were  demolished,  and  nearly 
the  entire  city  destroyed.  In  the  course  of  five  months  after  the 
surrender  of  the  place,  more  than  six  thousand  of  the  citizens  suffered 
death  by  the  hands  of  the  executioners,  and  more  than  twelve  thou- 
sand were  driven  into  exile. 

36.  On  the  fall  of  Lyons  the  Republican   troops   immediately 
marched  to  the  investment  of  Toulon,  whose  defence  was  assisted  by 
an  English  and  Spanish  squadron.     The  artillery  of  the  besiegers 
was  commanded  by  a  young  Corsican,  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  who  re- 
mained faithful  to  France,  in  which  he  had  been  educated.     By  his 

1.  Granville  is  a  fortified  seaport  town  of  France,  on  the  western  coast  of  Normandy,  one 
hundred  and  eighty  miles  west  from  Paris.    Granville  was  bombarded  and  burned  by  the  Eng- 
lish in  1695,  and  was  partly  destroyed  by  the  Vendean  troops  in  1793.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

2.  Mans  is  situated  on  the  left  bank  of  the  river  Sarlhe,  a  northern  tributary  of  the  Loire, 
one  hundred  and  twenty  miles  south-west  from  Paris.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

3.  Savenay  is  a  town  on  the  northern  bank  of  the  Loire,  twenty-two  miles  north-west  from 
Nantes.    Here  the  Vendeans  fought  with  the  courage  of  despair,  and  their  guard,  protecting  a 
crowd  of  hapless  fugitives — the  aged,  the  wounded,  women  and  children — continued  to  resist, 
with  their  swords  and  bayonets,  long  after  all  their  ammunition  had  been  expended,  and  until 
they  all  fell  under  the  fire  of  the  Republicans.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

a.  Dec.  10th,  1793.  b.  Dec.  22d,  1793. 

c.  The  most  prominent  of  the  Vendean  leaders  were  Larochejacquelin,  Bonchamps,  Cathe- 
lineau,  Lescure,  D'Elbe,  Stofflet,  and  Charette.  Nearly  all  of  these,  and  most  of  their  families, 
perished  in  this  sanguinary  strife,  or  on  the  scaffold.  Among  those  who  were  saved  by  the 
courageous  hospitality  of  the  peasantry  were  the  wives  of  Larochejacquelin  and  Bonchamps. 
who,  after  escaping  unparalleled  dangers,  lived  to  fascinate  the  world  by  the  splendid  story  of 
their  husbands'  virtues  and  their  own  misfortunes. 


CHAP.  V.]  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  461 

exertions  a  fort  commanding  the  harbor  was  taken,  and  the  place, 
being  thus  rendered  untenable,  was  speedily  evacuated  a  by  the  allies, 
who  carried  away  with  them  more  than  fourteen  thousand  of  the 
wretched  inhabitants — being  so  many  saved  from  the  vengeance  of 
the  Revolutionary  tribunals. 

37.  Thus  terminated  the  memorable  campaign  of  1793.  In  the 
midst  of  internal  dissensions  and  civil  war,  while  France  was  drenched 
with  the  blood  of  her  own  citizens,  and  the  world  stood  aghast  at  the 
atrocities  of  her  "  Reign  of  Terror,"  the  national  councils  had  shown 
uncommon  military  talent  and  unbounded  energy.  The  invasion,  on 
the  north,  had  been  defeated ;  the  Prussians  had  been  driven  back 
from  the  Rhine ;  the  Spaniards  had  recrossed  the  Pyrenees ;  the 
English  had  retired  from  Toulon  ;  and  the  revolt  of  La  Vendee  had 
been  extinguished ;  wliilt  an  enthusiastic  army,  of  more  than  a  mil- 
lion of  men,  stood  ready  to  enforce  and  defend  the  principles  of  the 
Revolution  against  all  the  crowned  heads  of  Europe. 

[1794.]  38.  The  fall  of  Danton  and  his  associates,  which  occurred 
in  the  early  part  of  1 794,b  was  followed  by  unqualified  submission 
to  the  central  power  of  Paris,  from  every  part  of  France.  For  a 
time  the  work  of  proscription  had  been  confined  to  the  higher  orders; 
but  when  it  had  descended  to  the  middling  classes,  and  when,  even 
after  all  the  enemies  of  the  Revolution  had  been  cut  off,  there  seemed 
no  limit  to  its  onward  course,  humanity  began  to  revolt  at  the  cease- 
less effusion  of  human  blood,  and  courage  arose  out  of  despair. 

39.  In  the  convention  itself,  which,  long  stupefied  by  terror,  had 
become  the  passive  instrument  of  Robespierre  and  his  xxni  FALL 
associates,  a  conspiracy  against  the  tyrant  was  at  length    OF  KOBES- 
formed  among  those  whose  destruction  he  had  already  PIEREE>  AND 

J      END  OF  THE 

planned, — not  of  the  good  against  the  bad,  but  a  con-  REIGN  OF 
spiracy  of  one  set  of  assassins  against  another  :  his  ar-  TERROR. 
rest  was  ordered  :  he  was  declared  out  of  the  pale  of  the  law ;  and, 
after  a  brief  struggle,  he  was  condemned,  with  twenty  of  his  associates, 
by  the  same  Revolutionary  Tribunal  which  he  himself  had  estab- 
lished, and  sent  to  the  scaffold,  where  he  perished  amid  the  exulting 
shouts  of  the  populace.  On  the  following  day  sixty  of  the  most  ob- 
noxious members  of  the  municipality  of  Paris  met  the  same  fate. 
Thus  terminated  that  Reign  of  Terror,  which,  under  the  cloak  of 
Republican  virtue,  had  not  only  overturned  the  throne  and  the  alter, 
and  driven  the  nobles  of  France  into  exile,  and  her  priests  into  Cap- 
11.  Dec.  20th,  1793.  b.  March  5th.  See  p. 


462  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAET  II 

tivity,  but  which  had  also  shed  the  blood  of  more  than  a  million  of 
her  best  citizens.* 

40.  The  fall  of  Kobespierre  placed  the  direction  of  public  affairs 
in  the  hands  of  more  moderate  men  ;  but  the  genius  of  Carnot  still 
controlled  the  military  operations,  which  were  conducted  with  remark- 
able energy  and  success.     In  consequence  of  the  extinction  of  civil 
employments,  and  the  forced  requisition  on  the  people,  the  whole 
talent  of  France  was  centered  in  the  army,  whose  numbers,  by  the  be- 
ginning of  October,  1794,  amounted  to  twelve  hundred  thousand  men. 
After  deducting  the  garrisons,  the  sick,  and  those  destined  for  the 
service  of  the  interior,  there  remained  upwards  of  seven  hundred 
thousand  ready  to  act  on  the  offensive  ; — a  greater  force  than  could 
then  be  raised  by  all  the  monarchies  of  Europe.     The  French  territory 
resembled  an  immense  military  camp,  and  all  the  young  men  of  the 
country  seemed  pressing  to  the  frontier  to  join  the  armies. 

41.  England,  at  the  head  of  the  allies  in  the  war  against  France, 
XXIV  THE    made  preparations  that  were  considered  "  unparalleled;" 

ENGLISH      and  it  was  soon  easy  to  see  that  the  latter  was  destined 
AT^SEA^AND  ^°  become  irresistible  on  land,  and  the  former  to  acquire 
THE  FRENCH  the  dominion  of  the  seas.     In  the  early  part  of  the  season 
ON  LAND.     fae  ]7renCQ  were  dispossessed  of  all  their  West  India 
possessions ;   the  island  of  Corsica,  in  the  Mediterranean,  was  cap- 
tured ;  and  on  the  1st  of  June,  a  French  fleet  of  twenty-six  ships  of 
the  line  was  defeated,  and  six  vessels  taken  by  the  English  admiral 
Howe,  off  the  western  coast  of  France.     But  numerous  victories  on 
the  land  far  more  than  compensated  for  these  losses ;  and  the  cam- 
paign was  one  of  the  most  glorious  in  the  annals  of  France.     At  the 
beginning  of  the  year  the  allies  were  pressing  heavily  on  all  the 
frontiers :  at  its  close,  the  Spaniards,  defeated  in  Biscay1  and  Cata- 
lonia, were  suing  for  peace  :  the  Italians,  driven  over  the  Alps,  were 
trembling  for  the  fate  of  their  own  country :  the  allied  forces  had 
everywhere  recrossed  the  Rhine  :  Holland  had  been  revolutionized 


1.  Biscay  is  a  district  of  northern  Spain,  on  the  Bay  of  Biscay,  and  adjoining  France.  It 
comprises  Biscay  Proper,  Alava,  and  Guipuzcoa, — the  three  Basque  provinces.  The  Basques 
have  a  peculiar  language,  which  is  undoubtedly  of  great  antiquity.  Some  have  attempted  to 
trace  it,  as  a  dialect  of  the  Phoenician,  to  the  Hebrew.  It  has  some  similarity  to  the  Hungarian 
and  Turkish.  ( Map  No.  XIII.) 

*  The  Republican  writer,  Prudhomme,  gives  a  list  of  one  million,  twenty-two  thousand 
thre«  hundred  and  fifty-one  persons,  who  suffered  a  violent  death  during  this  period,  of  whom 
more  than  eighteen  thousand  perished  by  the  guillotine.  In  his  enumeration  are  not  included 
the  massacres  at  Versailles— in  the  prisons,  &c.— nor  those  shot  at  Toulon  and  Marseilles. 


CHAP.V.]  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  463 

and  subdued ;  and  the  English  troops  had  returned  home,  or  had  fled 
for  refuge  into  the  States  of  Hanover. 

42.  The  failure  of  the  allies  in  the  campaigns  of  1793  and  1794 
was  in  great  part  owing  to  a  want  of  cordial  cooperation  xxy  8ECOND 
among  them,  occasioned  by  the  prospect   held  out  to    PARTITION 
Russia,  Prussia,  and  Austria,  of  obtaining  a  further  share   OF  POLAm 
in  the  partition  of  ill-fated  Poland.     While  Poland  was  a  prey  to 
civil  dissensions,  it  was  invaded  in  1792  by  Russia,  and  early  in  the 
following  year  by  Prussia ;  and  the  result  was  a  second  partition  of 
the  Polish  territory  among  the  invading  powers,  with  the  concurrence 
and  sanction  of  Austria, — the  king  of  Prussia  assigning  as  reasons 
for  his  treachery  and  disregard  of  former  treaties,  that  the  "  danger- 
ous principles  of  French  Jacobinism  were  fast  gaining  ground  in  that 
country." 

43.  Scarcely  had  this  iniquitous  scheme  been  consummated,  when 
the  patriots  of  Poland,  with  Kosciusko  at  their  head,  arose  against 
their  invaders,  whom  they  drove  from  the  country.    But  XXVJ  THIRD 
Poland  was  too  feeble  to  contend  successfully  against    PARTITION 
the  fearful  odds  that  were  brought  against  her.    Kosciusko    OF  POLAND- 
was  defeated,  wounded,  and  taken  prisoner  by  the  Russians ;  and 
the  result  of   the  brief  struggle  was  the  third  and  last  partition 
of  Poland,  among  Russia,  Prussia,  and  Austria.     To  effect  this  un- 
hallowed object,  Austria  and  Prussia  had  withdrawn  a  portion  of 
their  troops  from  the  French  frontiers,  and  thus  the  time  was  allowed 
to  pass  by,  when  a  check  might  have  been  given  to  French  ambition. 

[1795.]     44.  The  first  coalition   against  the  French   Republic, 
formed   in   March   1793,  embraced    England,    Austria,   XXVII  mg. 
Prussia,  Holland,  Spain,  Portugal,  the  two  Sicilies,  the  SOLUTION  OF 
Roman  States,  Sardinia,  and  Piedmont :  but  the  successes    THE  FIRST 

COALITION 

of  France  in  the  campaign  of  1 794  led  to  the  dissolution  AGAINST 
of  this  confederacy  early  in  1 795.  The  conquest  of  Hoi-  FBANCE- 
land  decided  the  wavering  policy  of  Prussia,  which  now,  by  a  treaty 
of  peace,  agreed  to  live  on  friendly  terms  with  the  Republic,  and 
not  to  furnish  succor  to  its  enemies ;  and  before  the  first  of  August, 
Spain  also,  completely  humbled,  withdrew  from  the  coalition ;  and 
thus  the  whole  weight  of  the  war  fell  on  Austria  and  England. 
Russia  had  indeed  already  become  a  party  to  the  war  against  France, 
but  her  alliance  was  as  yet  productive  of  no  results,  as  the  attention 
of  the  Empress  Catherine  was  wholly  engrossed  in  securing  the  im- 
mense territories  which  had  fallen  to  her  by  the  partition  of  Poland. 


464  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

45.  During  the  year  1 795  the  reaction  against  the  Reign  of  Terror 
was  general  throughout  France  :  the  Jacobin  clubs  were  broken  up, 
the  Parisian  populace  disarmed,  and  many  of  the  prominent  mem- 
bers of  the  Revolutionary  tribunals  justly  expiated  their  crimes  on 

XXVIIL  *ke  scaff°ld-  As  J6^  a^  *^e  powers  of  government  were 
NEW  CON-  centered  in  the  National  Convention  ;  but  the  people  now 
STITUTION.  began  t0  demand  of  it  a  constitution,  and  the  surrender 
of  the  dictatorship  which  it  had  so  long  exercised.  A  constitution 
was  formed,  by  which  the  legislative  power  was  divided  between  two 
Councils,  appointed  by  delegates  chosen  by  the  people,  that  of  the  Five- 
Hundred,  and  that  of  the  Ancients,  the  former  having  the  power  of 
originating  laws,  and  the  latter  that  of  passing  or  rejecting  them.  The 
executive  power  was  lodged  in  the  hands  of  a  Directory  of  five  mem- 
bers, nominated  by  the  council  of  Five-Hundred,  and  approved  by 
that  of  the  Ancients. 

46.  This  constitution  was  to  be  submitted  to  the  armies  of  the 
people  for  ratification :  but  the  convention,  composed  of  the  very 

ix  INSUR-  men  w^°  ^a(^  a^  ^rs*  (^rec*iecl  *ne  Revolution,  who  had 
SECTION  IN  voted  for  the  death  of  the  king,  and  the  execution  of  the 
PARIS.  Girondists,  and  who  had  finally  overthrown  the  tyrant 
Robespierre,  still  unwilling  abruptly  to  relinquish  its  power,  decreed 
that  two -thirds  of  their  number  should  have  a  seat  in  the  new  legis- 
lative councils.  This  measure  met  with  great  opposition,  and  caused 
intense  excitement.  Although  the  armies,  and  a  large  majority  of 
the  people,  accepted  the  constitution,  a  formidable  insurrection  against 
the  convention  broke  out  in  Paris,  headed  by  the  Royalists,  compris- 
ing many  of  the  best  citizens,  and  supported  by  the  Parisian  National 
Guard  numbering  thirty  thousand  men,  but  destitute  of  artillery. 
The  convention,  hastily  collecting  to  its  support  a  body  of  five  thou- 
sand regular  troops  assembled  in  the  neighborhood  of  Paris,  placed 
them  under  the  command  of  General  Barras,  who  intrusted  all  his 
military  arrangements  to  his  second  in  command,  the  young  artillery 
officer  who  had  distinguished  himself  in  the  reduction  of  Toulon — 
Napoleon  Bonaparte.  The  latter  was  indefatigable  in  making  pre- 
parations for  the  defence  of  the  convention,  and  when  his  little  band 
was  surrounded  and  attacked  by  the  Parisians,  he  replied  at  once  by 
a  discharge  of  cannon  loaded  with  grape  shot,  firing  with  as  much 
spirit  as  though  he  were  directing  his  guns  upon  Austrian  battalions. 
In  a  few  hours  tranquillity  was  restored ;  and  this  was  the  last  in- 
surrection of  the  people  in  the  French  Revolution.  The  new  gov- 


CHAPV.]  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  465 

eminent  being  established,  the  convention,  which  had  passed  through 
so  many  stormy  scenes,  and  had  experienced  so  great  changes  in 
sentiment,  determined  to  finish  its  career  by  a  signal  act  of  clemency, 
and  after  having  abolished  the  punishment  of  death,  and  published  a 
general  amnesty,  it  declared  its  mission  of  consolidating  the  Repub- 
lic accomplished,  and  its  session  closed.  (Oct.  26th,  1795.) 

47.  The  military  events  of  1795  were  of  much  less  importance 
than  those  of  the  two  former  years.  England  indeed  maintained  her 
supremacy  at  sea ;  but  the  Austrians  barely  sustained  themselves  in 
Italy ;  and  success  was  evenly  balanced  on  the  side  of  Germany ; 
while  a  general  lassitude,  and  uncommon  financial  embarrassments, 
the  result  of  the  recent  extraordinary  revolutionary  exertions,  pre- 
vailed throughout  IJranee. 

[1796.]  48.  In  the  spring  of  1796  the  French  Directory  sent 
three  armies  into  the  field :  that  of  the  Sambre  and  x 

XXX.    INVA" 

Meuse,1   under    Jourdan,   numbering   seventy  thousand      SION  OF 
men;  that  of  the  Rhine  and  Moselle,  under  Moreau,     GERMANY- 
numbering  seventy-five  thousand  ;  and  the  army  of  Italy  under  Bona- 
parte, numbering  forty-two  thousand.     Jourdan  and  Moreau  made 
successful  irruptions  into  Germany,  but  they  were  stopped  in  their 
mid-career  of  victory  by  the  Arch-duke  Charles  of  Austria,  one  of 
the  ablest  generals  of  his  time,  and  eventually  compelled  to  retreat 
across  the  Rhine. 

49.  The  operations   of  the   army  of  Bonaparte   in   Italy   were 
more    eventful.     Although    opposed   by   greatly   supe- 
rior forces,  the  indefatigable  energy  and  extraordinary     ARMY  ox 
military  talents  of   the  youthful  general  crowned  the       ITALY. 
campaign  with  a  series  of  brilliant  victories,  almost  unparalleled  in 
the  annals  of  war.     Napoleon,  on  assuming  the  command,  found  his 
army  in  an  almost  destitute  condition,  maintaining  a  doubtful  contest 
on  the  mountain  ridges  of  the  Italian  frontier.     Rapidly  forcing  his 
way  into  the  fertile  plains  of  the  interior,  he  soon  compelled  the 
king  of  Sardinia  to  purchase  a  dishonorable  peace,  subdued  Piedmont, 
conquered  Lombardy,  humbled  all  the  Italian  States,  and  defeated, 
and  almost  destroyed,  four  powerful  armies  which  Austria  sent  against 
him.     The  battles  of  Montenotte2  and  Millessimo,3  the  terrible  pas- 

1.  Sambre  and  Meuse.    The  Sambre  unites  with  the  Meuse  at  Namur.    (Map  No.  XV.) 

2.  April  11-12,  1796.    Montenotte  is  a  mountain  ridge  near  the  Mediterranean,  a  short  dis- 
tance west  from  Genoa. 

3.  April  13-14.    Milleasimo  is  a  small  village  twenty-eight  miles  west  from  Genoa. 


466  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  II. 

sage  of  the  bridge  of  Lodi,1  the  victory  of  Arcole,2  and  fall  of  Man- 
tua*— in  fine,  the  brilliant  results  of  the  campaign,  excited  the  utmost 
enthusiasm  throughout  France,  and  Napoleon  at  once  became  the 
favorite  of  the  people.  The  councils  of  government  repeatedly  de- 
creed that  the  army  of  Italy  had  deserved  well  of  their  country ; 
and  the  standard  which  Napoleon  had  borne  on  the  bridge  of  Arcole 
was  given  to  him  to  be  preserved  as  a  precious  trophy  in  his  family. 
50.  England  had  for  some  time  been  greatly  agitated  by  a  division 
xxxn  DIS-  °^  °pini°n  respecting  the  policy  of  continuing  the  war 
TDRBANCES  against  France ;  important  parliamentary  reforms  were 
IN  ENGLAND.  Demanded  ;a  party  spirit  became  extremely  violent ;  and 
on  several  occasions  the  country  seemed  on  the  brink  of  revolution.13 
Added  to  these  internal  difficulties,  in  the  month  of  August,  1796, 
Spain  concluded  a  treaty0  of  alliance,  offensive  and  defensive,  with 
France,  and  this  was  followed,  in  the  month  of  October/1  by  a  formal 
declaration  of  war  against  Great  Britain.  Still,  England  maintained 
her  supremacy  at  sea,  and  greatly  extended  her  conquests  in  the 
East  and  West  Indies,6  while  a  powerful  expeditionf  which  France 
had  prepared  for  the  invasion  of  Ireland  was  dispersed  by  tempests, 
and  obliged  to  return  without  even  effecting  a  landing. 

1.  May  10th.    The  bridge  of  Lodi  crosses  the  Adda,  twenty  miles  south-west  from  Milan. 
;M ap  No.  XVII.) 

2.  Nov.  15-17.    Creole  is  a  small  village  a  short  distance  east  of  the  Adige,  thirteen  miles 
eouth-west  from  Verona,  and  one  hundred  miles  east  from  Milan.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

3.  Mantua  is  a  fortified  town  of  Austrian  Italy,  on  both  sides  of  the  Mincio,  twenty-one  miles 
south-west  from  Verona.    It  derives  its  principal  celebrity  from  its  being  the  native  country  of 
Virgil.    After  the  conquest  of  northern  Italy  by  Charlemagne,  Mantua  became  a  republic,  and 
continued  under  that  form  of  government  till  the  twelfth  century,  when  the  Gonzaga  family 
acquired  the  chief  direction  of  its  affairs.    They  were  subsequently  raised  to  the  tille  of  dukes, 
and  held  possession  of  Mantua  till  1707,  when  it  was  taken  by  the  Austrians.    Mantua  sur- 
rendered to  Napoleon,  Feb.  2d,  1797,  after  a  siege  of  nearly  six  months.    In  July,  1799,  it  sur- 
rendered to  the  Austrians,  after  a  siege  of  nearly  four  months.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

a.  For  increasing  democratic  power  &c.,  for  which  purpose  there  were  numerous  associations 
throughout  the  kingdom,  and  the  reformers  were  charged  with  a  desire  of  subverting  the  mon 
archy,  and  establishing  a  republican  constitution,  similar  to  that  of  France. 

b.  Kings'  carriage  surrounded — pelted  with  stones,  &c.,  Oct.  29th,  1795,  and  the  monarch  nar- 
rowly escaped  the  fury  of  the  populace.    A  crisis  in  money  matters  compels  the  Bank  of  Eng- 
land to  suspend  cash  payments,  Feb.  1797.    Discontents  in  the  navy,  and  mutiny  of  the  channel 
fleet,  April,  1797.    Second  mutiny,  May  and  June,  and  blockade  of  the  Thames. 

c.  Of  San  Ildefonso. 

d.  Oct.  2d. 

e.  St.  Lucia,  Essequibo,  and  Demarara,  in  the  West  Indies,  were  reduced  in  May,  1796,  and 
early  in  the  same  year  Ceylon,  the  Malaccas,  Cochin,  Trincomalee,  &c.,  in  the  East  Indies.   The 
Cape  of  Good  Hope  had  been  previously  taken  by  the  English. 

f.  The  French  fleet  under  Hoche,  carrying  twenty-five  thousand  land  forces,  sailed  Dec.  15th, 
1796.    A  formidable  conspiracy  existed  in  Ireland  to  throw  off  the  English  yoke  and  establish 
a  republican  government,  and  alliance  with  France. 


CHAP.  V.]  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  467 

[1797.]     51.  Early  in  the  spring  of  1797,  Napoleon,  after  stimu- 
lating the  ardor  of  his  soldiers  by  a  spirited  address,*  in 
which  he  recounted  to  them  the  splendid  victories  which  NAPOLEON'S 
they  had  already  won,  set  out  from  Northern  Italyb  at     AUSTRIAN 

,i        i          T       /.      .     ,       Ai  j  •  i    j-     •    .  CAMPAIGN. 

the  head  of  sixty  thousand  men,  m  several  divisions,  to 
carry  the  war  into  the  hereditary  States  of  Austria.     Opposed  to 
him  was  the  Arch-duke  Charles  at  the  head  of  superior  forces,  only 
a  part  of  which,  however,  could  be  brought  into  the  field  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  campaign.     Rapidly  passing  over  the  mountains,  Na- 
poleon drove  his  enemies  before  him,  and  was  ready  to  descend  into 
the  plains  which  spread  out  before  the  Austrian  capital,  when  pro- 
posals of  peace  were  made  and  accepted ;  and  in  less  than  a  month 
after  the  first  movement  of  the  army  from  winter  quarters,  the  pre- 
liminaries of  a  treaty  between  France  and  Austria  were 
signed.0      Tke   final   treaty  was   concluded   at   Campo    TREATY  OF 
Formio1  on  the  17th  of  October  following.     Spain  and       CAMPO 
Holland  suffered  severely  in  this  war :  Austria  was  re- 
munerated for  the  loss  of  Mantua  by  the  cession  of  Venice ;  while 
France  obtained  a  preponderating  control  over  Italy,  and  her  frontiers 
were  extended  to  the  Rhine.     Thus  terminated  the  brilliant  Italian 
campaigns  of  Napoleon.     Italy  was  the  greatest  sufferer  in  these 
contests.     "  Her  territory  was  partitioned ;  her  independence  ruined, 
her  galleries  pillaged ; — the  trophies  of  art  had  followed  the  car  of 
victory ;  and  the  works  of  immortal  genius,  which  no  wealth  could 
purchase,  had  been  torn  from  their  native  seats,  and  violently  trans- 
planted into  a  foreign  soil."** 

52.  During  these  events  of  foreign  war,  the  strife  of  parties  was 
raging  in  France.  In  the  elections  of  May,  1797,  the  Royalists  pre- 
vailed by  large  majorities,  and  royalist  principles  were  boldly  advo- 
cated in  the  legislative  councils, — so  great  a  change  had  been  pro- 


1.  Campo  Formio  is  a  small  town  and  castle  of  northern  Italy,  near  the  head  of  the  Adriatic. 
The  negotiations  for  this  peace  were  carried  on  by  the  Austrians  at  Udine,  a  short  distance 
north-east  of  Campo  Formio,  and  by  Bonaparte  at  the  castle  of  Passeriano.  The  treaty  was 
dated  at  Campo  Formio,  because  this  place  lay  between  Udine  and  Passeriano,  although  the 
ambassadors  had  never  held  any  conferences  there.  (Map  No.  XVII.) 

a  u  You  have  been  victorious,"  said  he,  "  in  fourteen  pitched  battles  and  seventy  combats ; 
you  have  made  one  hundred  thousand  prisoners,  taken  five  hundred  pieces  of  field  artillery, 
two  thousand  of  heavy  calibre,  and  four  sets  of  pontoons.  The  contributions  you  have  levied 
on  the  vanquished  countries  have  clothed,  fed,  and  paid  the  army ;  you  have,  besides,  added 
thirty  millions  of  francs  to  the  public  treasury,  and  you  have  enriched  the  museum  of  Paris 
with  three  hundred  masterpieces  of  the  works  of  art,  the  produce  of  thirty  centuries." 

b.  March  10th.  c.  April  9th,  at  Judemberg.  d.  Alison. 


468  MODERN   HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

duced  in  public  opinion  by  the  sanguinary  excesses  of  the  Revolution. 
But  the  vigilance  of  the  Revolutionary  party  was  again  aroused, 
and  the  Directory,  who  were  the  Republican  leaders,  becoming 
alarmed  for  their  own  existence,  but  being  assured  of  the  support 

of  the  army,  determined  upon  decisive  measures.     On  the 

ni&nt  of  the  3d  of  September,  twelve  thousand  troops, 
OF  MILITARY  under  the  command  of  Augereau,  and  with  the  concurring 

suPPort  °f  Napoleon,  were  introduced  into  the  capital ; 

the  Royalist  leaders,  and  the  obnoxious  members  of  the 
two  councils,  were  seized  and  imprisoned ;  and  when  the  Parisians 
awoke  from  their  sleep,  they  found  the  streets  filled  with  troops,  the 
walk  covered  with  proclamations,  and  military  despotism  established.51 
The  Directory  now  took  upon  themselves  the  supreme  power,  while 
their  opponents  were  banished  to  the  pestilential  marshes  of  G-uiana.1 

53.  The  year  1798  opened  with  immense  military  preparations 
[1198]      f°r    the    invasion   of  England,    the    only   power    then 

xxxvr.  PRE-  at  war  with  France.     Unusual  activity  prevailed,  not 
FOR  THB  IN-  on^J  'lu  tne  harbors  of  France  and  Holland,  but  also  of 
VASION  OF    Spain  and  Italy  :  all  the  naval  resources  of  France  were 
..LAND.     pu£  jn  reqUisjtion,  and  an  army  of  nearly  one  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  men  was  collected  along  the  English  Channel, 
under  the  name  of  the  Army  of  England,  the  command  of  which  was 
given  to  Napoleon.     But  the  hazards  of  the  expedition  induced  Na- 
poleon to  direct  his  ambitious  views  to  another  quarter,  and,  after 
xxxvn       considerable  difficulty,  he  persuaded  the  "Directory  to 
EXPEDITION  give  him  the  command  of  an  expedition  to   Egypt,  a 
TO  EGYPT.    provmce  Of  t}ie  Turkish  empire.     The  ultimate  objects 
of  Napoleon  appear  to  have  been,  not  only  to  conquer  Egypt  and 
Syria,  but  to  strike  at  the  Indian  possessions  of  England  by  the 
overland  route  through  Asia,  and  after  a  series  of  conquests  that 
should  render  his  name  as  terrible  as  that  of  Ghenghis  Khan  or  Tam- 
erlane, establish  an  Oriental  empire  that  should  vie  with  that  of  Al- 
exander 

54.  Filled  with  these  visions  of  military  glory,  Napoleon  sailed 
from  Toulon  on  the  19th  of  May  with  a  fleet  of  five  hundred  sail, 
carrying  about  forty  thousand  soldiers,  and  ten  thousand  seamen. 
He  topk  with  him  artisans  of  all  kinds  ;  he  formed  a  complete  col- 
lection of  philosophical  and  mathematical  instruments ;  and  about 

1.  French  Guiana.    See  Surinam,  p.  393. 

a.  Called  the  Revolution  of  the  eighteenth  Fructidor. 


CHAP.  V.]  EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY.  469 

a  hundred  of  the  most  illustrious  scientific  men  of  France,  reposing 
implicit  confidence  in  the  youthful  general,  hastened  to  join  the  ex- 
pedition, whose  destination  was  still  unknown  to  them. 

55.  The  fleet  first  sailed  to  Malta,1  which  quickly  surrendered a 
its  almost  impregnable  fortresses  to  the  sovereignty  of  France, — the 
way  having  been  previously  prepared  by  a  conspiracy  fomented  by 
the  secret  agents  of  Napoleon.     Fortunate  in  avoiding  the  fleet  of 
the  English  admiral  Nelson,  then  cruising  in  the  Mediterranean,  the  ar- 
mament arrived  before  Alexandria  on  the  first  of  July,  and  Napo- 
leon, hastily  landing  a  part  of  his  forces,  marched  against  the  city, 
which  he  took  by  storm  before  the  dismayed  Turks  had  time  to 
make  preparations  for  defence. 

56.  With  consummate  policy  Napoleon  proclaimed  to  the  Arab 
population11  that  he  had  come  to  protect  their  religion,  restore  their 
rights,  and  punish  their  usurpers,   the   Mamelukes ;    and  thus  he 
sought,  by  arming  one  part  of  the  people  against  the  other,  to 

1.  Malta.  (See  also  p.  152.)  On  the  decline  of  the  Roman  empire  Malta  fell  under  the  do- 
minion of  the  Goths,  and  afterwards  of  the  Saracens.  It  was  subject  to  the  crown  of  Sicily 
from  1190  to  1525,  when  the  emperor  Charles  V.  conferred  it  on  the  Knights  Hospitallers  of 
St.  John,  who  had  been  expelled  from  Rhodes  by  the  Turks.  In  1565  it  was  unsuccessfully  be- 
sieged by  the  Turks;  the  knights,  under  their  heroic  master  Valette,  founder  of  the  city  called 
by  his  name,  finally  compelling  the  enemy  to  retreat  with  great  loss.  In  1798  it  fell  into  the 
hajids  of  Napoleon ;  but  the  French  garrisons  surrendered  to  the  English,  Sept.  5th,  1800.  The 
treaty  of  Paris,  in  1814,  annexed  the  island  to  Great  Britain. 

a.  June  12th,  1798. 

b.  The  population  of  Egypt  at  this  time,  consisting  of  the  wrecks  of  several  nations,  was 
composed  of  three  classes  ;  Copts,  Arabs,  and  Turks.    The  Copts,  the  ancient  inhabitants  of 
Egypt,  a  poor,  despised,  and  brutalized  race,  amounted  at  most  to  two  hundred  thousand. 
The  Arabs,  subdivided  into  several  classes,  formed  the  great  mass  of  the  population :  1st,  there 
were  the  Sheiks  or  chiefs,  great  landed  proprietors,  who  were  at  the  head  of  the  priesthood, 
the  magistracy,  religion,  and  learning :  3d,  there  was  a  large  class  of  smaller  landholders ;  and, 
3d,  the  great  mass  of  the  Arab  population,  who,  as  hired  peasants,  by  the  name  of  fellahs,  in  a 
condition  little  better  than  that  of  slaves,  cultivated  the  soil  for  their  masters;  and  4th,  the 
Bedouin  tribes,  or  wandering  Arabs,  children  of  the  desert,  who  would  never  attach  them- 
selves to  the  soil,  but  who  wandered  about,  seeking  pasturage  for  their  numerous  herds  of 
cattle  in  the  Oases,  or  fertile  spots  of  the  desert  on  both  sides  of  the  Nile.    They  could  bring 
into  the  field  twenty  thousand  horsemen,  matchless  in  bravery,  and  in  the  skill  with  which 
their  horses  were  managed,  but  destitute  of  discipline,  and  fit  only  to  harass  an  enemy,  not  to 
fight  him.    The  third  race  was  that  of  the  Turks,  who  were  introduced  at  the  time  of  the  con- 
[uest  of  Egypt  by  the  Sultans  of  Constantinople.  They  numbered  about  two  hundred  thousand, 

and  were  divided  into*  Turks  and  Mamelukes.  Most  of  the  former  were  engaged  in  trades  and 
handicrafts  in  the  towns.  The  latter,  who  were  Circassian  slaves  purchased  from  among  the 
handsomest  boys  of  the  Circassians,  and  carried  to  Egypt  when  young,  and  there  trained  to 
the  practice  of  arms,  were,  with  their  chiefs  and  owners,  the  beys,  the  real  masters  and  tyrants 
of  the  country.  The  entire  body  consisted  of  about  twelve  thousand  horsemen,  and  each 
Mameluke  had  two  fellahs  to  wait  upon  him.  "  They  are  all  splendidly  armed :  in  their  girdles 
are  always  to  be  seen  a  pair  of  pistols  and  a  poniard  ;  from  the  saddle  are  suspended  another 
pair  of  pistols  and  a  hatchet ;  on  one  side  is  a  sabre,  on  the  other  a  blunderbuss,  and  the 
•ervant  on  foot  carries  a  carbine." 


470  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  H 

neutralize  their  means  of  resistance.     Leaving  three  thousand  sol- 
diers in  garrison  at  Alexandria,  he  set  out  on  the  6th  of  July  for 
Cairo1  at  the  head  of  thirty  thousand  men.     After  some 
BATTLE  OF    skirmishing  on  the  route  with  the  Mamelukes,  on  the 

THE         21st  of  the  month  he  arrived  opposite  Cairo,  on  the  west 
PYRAMIDS.    gide  of  the  Nile>  where  Mourad  Bev  had  formed  an  in_ 

trenched  camp,  defended  by  twenty  thousand  men,  while  on  the 
plain,  between  the  camp  and  the  pyramids,  were  drawn  up  nearly 
ten  thousand  Mameluke  horsemen.  Napoleon  arranged  his  army 
in  five  divisions,  each  in  the  form  of  a  square,  with  the  artillery 
at  the  angles,  and  the  baggage  in  the  centre ;  but  scarcely  had  he 
made  his  dispositions,  when  eight  thousand  of  the  Mameluke  horse- 
men, in  one  body,  admirably  mounted  and  magnificently  dressed, 
and  rending  the  air  with  their  cries,  advanced  at  full  gallop  upon  the 
squares  of  infantry.  Falling  upon  the  foremost  division,  they  were 
met  by  a  terrible  fire  of  grape  and  musketry,  which  drove  them  from 
the  front  round  the  sides  of  the  column.  Furious  at  the  unexpected 
resistance,  they  dashed  their  horses  against  the  rampart  of  bayonets, 
and  threw  their  pistols  at  the  heads  of  the  grenadiers,  but  all  in 
vain, — the  tide  was  rolled  back  in  confusion,  and  the  survivors  fled 
towards  the  camp,  which  was  quickly  stormed,  its  artillery,  stores, 
and  baggage  were  taken,  and  the  "  Battle  of  the  Pyramids"  was  soon 
at  an  end.  The  victors  lost  scarcely  a  hundred  a  men  in  the  action, 
while  a  great  portion  of  the  defenders  of  the  camp  perished  in  the 
Nile  ;  and,  of  the  splendid  array  of  Mameluke  horsemen  that  had  so 
gallantly  borne  down  upon  the  French  columns,  not  more  than  two 
thousand  five  hundred  escaped  with  Mourad  Bey  into  Upper  Egypt. 
57.  A  few  days  after  the  battle  of  the  Pyramids,  Napoleon  expe- 
xxxix  rienced  a  severe  reverse  by  the  destruction  of  his  fleet 
BATTLE  OF  which  he  had  left  moored  in  the  Bay  of  Aboukir  near 
THE  NILE.  Alexandria.  On  the  morning  of  the  1st  of  August  the 
British  fleet,  under  the  command  of  Admiral  Nelson,  appeared  off 

1.  Cairo  (ki'-ro)  the  modern  capital  of  Egypt,  and  the  second  city  of  the  Mohammedan 
world,  is  near  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Nile,  about  twelve  miles  above  Uie  apex  of  its  delta, 
and  one  hundred  and  twelve  miles  south-east  from  Alexandria.  Population  variously  estimated 
at  from  two  hundred  and  fifty  to  three  hundred  thousand.  Cairo  is  supposed  to  have  been 
founded  about  the  year  970,  by  an  Arab  general  of  the  first  Fatimate  caliph.  The  neighbor- 
hood of  Cairo  abounds  with  places  and  objects  possessing  great  interest,  among  which  are 
the  pyramids,  and  the  remains  of  the  city  of  Heliopolis,  the  On  of  the  scriptures.  (Map 
No.  XII.) 

a.  "  Scarcely  a  hundred  killed  and  wounded."— Thiere.  "  The  victors  hardly  lost  two  hun- 
dred men  in  the  action." — Alison. 


CHAP.  V.]  EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY.  471 

the  harbor,  and  on  the  afternoon  of  the  same  day  the  attack  was 
commenced,  several  of  the  British  ships  penetrating  between  the 
French  fleet  and  the  shore,  so  as  to  place  their  enemies  between  two 
fires.  The  action  that  followed  was  terrific.  The  darkness  of  night 
was  illumined  by  the  incessant  discharge  of  more  than  two  thousand 
cannon;  and  during  the 'height  of  the  contest  the  French  ship 
L'Orient,  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  guns,  having  been  for  some 
time  on  fire,  blew  up  with  a  tremendous  explosion,  by  which  every 
ship  in  both  fleets  was  shaken  to  its  centre.  The  result  of  this  fa- 
mous "  Battle  of  the  Nile"  was  the  destruction  of  the  French  naval 
power  in  the  Mediterranean,  the  shutting  up  of  the  French  army  in 
Egypt,  cut  off  from  its  resources,  with  scarcely  the  hope  of  return, 
the  dispelling  of  Napoleon's  dreams  of  Oriental  conquest,  and  the 
revival  of  the  coalition  in  Europe  against  the  French  republic. 
Turkey  declared  war ;  Russia  sent  a  fleet  into  the  Mediterranean ; 
the  king  of  Naples  took  up  arms  ;  and  the  emperor  of  Austria,  yield- 
ing to  the  solicitations  of  England,  recommenced  hostilities.  4 

5§.  Notwithstanding  the  loss  of  his  fleet,  and  the  storm  that  was 
arising  in  Europe,  Napoleon  showed  no  design  of  abandoning  his 
conquests.     With  remarkable  energy  he  established  mills,  foundries, 
and  manufactories  of  gunpowder  throughout  Egypt,  and  soon  put  the 
country  in  an  admirable   state  of  defence.     Upper  Egypt  was  con- 
quered by  a  division  under  Desaix,  who  penetrated  beyond  the  ruins 
of  Thebes ;  and  finally,  in  the  early  part  of  February,      [17991 
1799,  Napoleon,  leaving  sixteen  thousand  men  as  a  re-   XL.  SYRIAN 
serve  in  Egypt,  set  out  at  the  head  of  only  fourteen  thou-  EXPEDITI0*- 
sand  men  for  the  conquest  of  Syria,  where  the  principal  army  of  the? 
Sultan  was  assembling.     On  the  6th  of  March,  Jaffa,  the  Joppa  of 
antiquity,  the  first  considerable  town  of  Palestine,  was  carried  by 
storm,  and  four  thousand  of  the  garrison  who  had  capitulated  were 
mercilessly  put  to  death — an  eternal  and  ineffaceable  blot  on  the 
memory  of  Napoleon. 

59.   On  the  16th  of  March  the  French  army  made  its  appearance  be- 
fore Acre,  where  the  Pacha  of  Syria  had  shut  himself  up 
with  all  his  treasures,  determined  to  make  the  most  des-   x"'  ®"^K 

OF  ALLvL. 

perate  resistance.     He  was  aided  in  the  defence  of  the 
place  by  an  English  officer,  Sir  Sidney  Smith,  who  commanded  a 
small  squadron  on  the  coast.     Foiled  in  every  attempt  to  take  the 
place  by  storm,  Napoleon  was  finally  compelled  to  order  a  retreat, 
after  a  siege  of  more  than  two  months,  having  in  the  meantime,  with 


472  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

only  six  thousand  of  his  veterans,  defeated  an  army  of  thirty  thou- 
sand Oriental  militia  in  the  battle  of  Mount  Tabor.1  On  the  morn- 
ing of  that  battle  Kleber  had  left  Nazareth8  to  make  an  attack  on 
the  Turkish  camp  near  the  Jordan,  but  he  met  the  advancing  hosts 
in  the  plain  in  the  vicinity  of  Mount  Tabor.  Throwing  his  little 
army  into  squares,  with  the  artillery  at  the  angles,  he  bravely  main- 
tained the  unequal  combat  for  six  hours,  when  Napoleon, 

XL1T.  BATTLE  *  7  r  ' 

OF  MOUNT  arriving  on  the  heights  which  overlooked  the  field  of  bat- 
TABOR.  tje^  an<j  distinguishing  his  men  by  the  steady  flaming 
spots  amid  the  moving  throng  by  which  they  were  surrounded,  an- 
nounced, by  the  discharge  of  a  twelve  pounder,  that  succor  was  at 
hand.  The  arrival  of  fresh  troops  soon  converted  the  battle  into  a 
complete  rout ;  the  Turkish  camp,  with  all  its  baggage  and  ammuni- 
tion, fell  into  the  hands  of  the  conquerors,  and  the  army  which  the 
country  people  called  "  innumerable  as  the  sands  of  the  sea  or  the 
stars  of  heaven"  was  driven  beyond  the  Jordan  and  dispersed,  never 
again  to  return. 

60.  Napoleon  reached  Egypt  on  the  1st  of  June,  having  lost  more 
than  three  thousand  men  in  his  Syrian  expedition  ;  but  scarcely  had 
he  restored  quiet  to  that  country,  when,  on  the  llth  of  July,  a  body 
of  nine  thousand  Turks,  admirably  equipped,  and  having  a  numerous 
pack  of  artillery,  landed  at  Aboukir  Bay,  having  been  transported 

XLm        thither  by  the  squadron  of  Sir  Sidney  Smith.     Napoleon 

BATTLE  OF    immediately  left  Cairo  with  all  the  forces  which  he  could 

ABOUKIR.     gonnna,^  anci  although  he  found  the  Turks  at  Aboukir 

strongly  intrenched,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  attack  them  with  inferior 

forces.     The  result  was  the  total  annihilation  of  the  Turkish  army, — 

five  thousand  being  drowned  in  the  Bay  of  Aboukir,  two  thousand 

killed  in  battle,  and  two  thousand  taken  prisoners. 

61.  By  some  papers  which  fell  into  his  hands,  Napoleon  was  now, 
for  the  first  time,  informed  of  the  state  of  affairs  in  Europe.     Early 
in  the  season  the  allies  had  collected  a  force  of  two  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  men  between  the  German  ocean  and  the  Adriatic,  as  a  bar- 
rier against  French  ambition ;  and  fifty  thousand  Russians,  under  the 
veteran  Suwarrow,  were  on  the  inarch  to  swell  their  numbers.     To 
this  vast  force  the  French  could  oppose,  along  their  eastern  frontiers, 

1.  Mount  Tabor  is  twenty-five  miles  south-east  from  Acre,  and  fifty-three  north-east  from  Je- 
rusalem.   It  is  the  mountain  on  which  occurred  the  transfiguration  of  Christ.— Matthew,  xvii. 
2,  and  Mark,  ix.  2.    (Map  No.  VI.) 

2.  JVazareiA,  a  small  town  of  Palestine,  celebrated  as  having  been  the  early  residence  of  the 
founder  of  Christianity,  is  seventy  miles  north-east  from  Jerusalem.    (Jtfap  No.  VI.) 


CHAP.  V.]  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  473 

and  scattered  over  Italy,  an  army  of  only  one  hundred  and  seventy 
thousand.  In  Italy  the  united  Russians  and  Austrians  gradually 
gained  ground  until  the  French  lost  all  their  posts  in  that  country 
except  Genoa  :  many  desperate  battles  were  fought  in  Switzerland, 
but  victory  generally  followed  the  allied  powers,  while,  in  Germany, 
the  French  were  forced  back  upon  the  Rhine  :  Corfu  had  been  con- 
quered by  the  Russians  and  English,  and  Malta  was  closely  block- 
aded. 

62.  When  Napoleon  was  informed  of  these  reverses  of  the  French 
arms,  his  decision  was  immediately  made,  and  leaving  Kleber  in  com- 
mand of  the  army  of  Egypt,  he  secretly  embarked  for  France.     After 
a  protracted  voyage,  in  which  he  was  in  constant  fear  of  being  cap- 
tured by  British  cruisers,  he  landed  at  Frejus1  on  the  9th  of  Octo- 
ber, and  on  the  18th  found  himself  once  more  in  Paris.     The  most 
enthusiastic  joy  pervaded  the  whole  country  on  account  of  his  return. 
The  eyes,  the  wishes,  and  the  hopes  of  the  people,  who  were  dissatis- 
fied with  the  existing  state  of  things,  were  all  turned  on  him  :  men 
of  all  professions  paid  their  court  to  him,  as  one  in  whose  hands 
were,  already,  the  destinies  of  their  country :  the  Directory  alone 
distrusted  and  feared  him. 

63.  Napoleon,  perceiving  that  the  French  people  had  grown  weary 
of  the  Directory,  and  relying  on  the  support  of  the  army, 
concerted,  with  a  few  leading  spirits,  the  overthrow  of  OVERTHROW 
the  government.     As  preliminary  measures,  the  Council       OF  THE 

of  the  Ancients  was  induced  to  appoint  him  commander 
of  the  National  Guard  and  of  all  the  military  in  Paris,  and  to  de- 
cree the  removal  of  the  entire  Legislative  body  to  St.  Cloud,"  under 
his  protection ;  but  the  Council  of  Five  Hundred,  alarmed  by  ru- 
mors of  the  approaching  dictatorship,  raised  so  furious  an  opposition 
against  him,  that  Napoleon  was  in  imminent  danger.  As  the  only 
resource  left  him,  he  appealed  to  his  comrades  in  arras,  and  on  the 
9th  of  November,  1 799,  a  body  of  grenadiers  entering  the  Legisla- 
tive hall  by  his  orders,  cleared  it  of  its  members;  and  thus  military 

1.  Frejus  is  a  town  of  south-eastern  France,  in  a  spacious  plain,  one  mile  from  the  Mediter- 
ranean, and  forty-live  miles  north-east  from  Toulon.    Napoleon  landed  at  St.  Raphael,  a  small 
fishing  village  about  a  mile  and  a-half  from  Frejus.    Frejus  was  a  place  of  importance  in  the 
lime  of  Julius  Caesar,  who  gave  it  his  own  name.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

2.  St.  Cloud  is  a  delightful  village  six  miles  west  from  Paris,  containing  a  royal  castle  and 
magnificent  garden,  which  were  much  embellished  by  Napoleon.    Napoleon  chose  St.  Cloud 
for  his  residence ;  hence  the  expression  cabinet  of  St.  Cloud.    Under  the  former  government 
the  phrase  was,  cabinet  of  Versailles,  or  cabinet  of  the  Tuileries. 


474  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  II. 

force  was  left  triumphant  in  the  place  of  the  constitution  and  the 
XLV  NAPO-   ^aws-     A  new  constitution  was  soon  formed,  by  which 
LEON  FIRST  the  executive  power  was  intrusted  to  three  consuls,  of 
CONSUL.      wnom  Napoleon  was  the  chief.     The  "  First  consul,"  as 
Napoleon  was  styled,  was  in  everything  but  in  name  a  monarch.    Not 
only  in  Paris,  but  throughout  all  France,  the  feeling  was  in  favor  of 
the  new  government ;  for  the  people,  weary  of  anarchy,  rejoiced  at 
the  prospect  of  repose  under  the  strong  arm  of  power,  and  were  as 
unanimous  to  terminate  the  Revolution  as,  in  1789,  they  had  been 
to  commence  it.     The  Revolution  had  passed  through  all  its  changes ; 
— monarchical,  republican,  and  democratic ;  it  closed  with  the  mili- 
tary character  ;  while  the  liberty  which  it  strove  to  establish  was  im- 
molated by  one  of  its  own  favorite  heroes,  on  the  altar  of  personal 
ambition 


CHAP.  VL]  NINETEENTH  CENTURY.  475 


CHAPTER    VI. 

THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY. 
SECTION  I. 

THE  WARS  OF  NAPOLEON. 

ANALYSIS.  [EVENTS  OF  THE  YEAR  1800.]  1.  Napoleon's  proposals  for  peace.  Rejected 
by  the  British  government.— 2.  Military  force  of  Great  Britain  and  Austria.  Situation  of  France. 
Effect  of  Napoleon's  government— 3.  Disposition  of  the  French  forces. — 4.  Successes  of  Moreau. 
[Engen.  Moeskirch.]  Massena  is  shut  up  in  Genoa.  Napoleon  passes  over  the  Great  St. 
Bernard.  [Great  St.  Bernard.]— 5.  Surprise  of  the  Austrians.  Napoleon's  progress.  Victory 
of  Marengo.  [Marengo.] — 6.  Efforts  at  negotiation.  Malta  surrenders  to  the  British. — 7.  Oper- 
ations of  the  French  and  Austrians  in  Bavaria.  [Hohenlinden.]  Passage  of  the  Splugen  by 
Macdonald.  [Splugen.]  Armistice.  Peace  of  Luneville.  [Luneville.]— 8.  Maritime  confed- 
eracy against  England.  Its  effect.  Previous  orders  of  the  Danish  and  Russian  governments. 

9.  [EVENTS  or  1801.]  England  sends  a  powerful  fleet  to  the  Baltic.  Battle  of  Copenhagen. 
— 10.  The  Russian  emperor  Paul  is  strangled,  and  succeeded  by  Alexander.  Dissolution  of  the 
League  of  the  North.— 1 1.  The  French  army  in  Egypt.  Capitulation.  General  peace.  [Amiens.] 

12.  [EVENTS  or  1802,  THE  YKAR  OF  PEACE.]  Internal  Affairs  of  France.  Napoleon  made 
consul  for  life. — 13.  Conduct  of  Napoleon  in  his  relations  with  foreign  States.  Holland — the 
Italian  republics— the  Swiss  cantons.  Attempt  to  recover  St.  Domingo.  [Historical  account 
of  St.  Domingo.]— 14.  Circumstances  leading  to  a  RENEWAL  or  THE  WAR  IN  1803.  Hostile 
acts  of  England  and  France. 

15.  First  military  operations  of  the  French,  in  the  year  1803.  [Hanover.]  Preparations  for 
the  invasion  of  England. — 16.  Rebellion  in  Ireland.  Conspiracy  against  Napoleon  early  in 
1804.  The  affair  of  the  Duke  D'Enghien.  [Baden.]— 17.  Hostile  acts  of  England  against  Spain- 
The  latter  joins  France. — 18.  Napoleon,  emperor,  May,  1804 — crowned  by  the  pope — anointed 
sovereign  of  Italy,  May,  1805. 

19.  New  coalition  against  France.  Prussia  remains  neutral.  Beginning  of  the  war  by  Aus- 
tria.—20.  The  French  forces.  Napoleon  victorious  at  Ulm.  [Ulna.]  English  naval  victory  of 
Trafalgar.  [Trafalgar.]  Additional  victories  of  Napoleon,  and  treaty  of  Presburg,  Dec.  3805. 
[Austerlitz.] 

[1806.]  21.  Conquests  of  the  English.  [Mahrattas.  Buenos  Ayres.]  Napoleon  rapidly  ex- 
tends his  supremacy  over  the  continent.  The  affairs  of  Naples,  Holland,  and  Germany.— 22. 
Circumstances  which  led  Prussia  to  join  the  coalition  against  Napoleon. — 23.  Napoleon's  victo- 
ries over  the  Prussians.  He  enters  Berlin.  [Jena.  Auerstadt.]— 24.  The  Berlin  decrees.  Na- 
poleon in  Poland.  Battle  of  Pultusk.  Battle  of  Eylau,  Feb.  1807.  Fall  of  Dantzic.  [Eylau. 
Dantzic.]— 25.  Battle  of  Friedland.  [Friedland.  Niemen.]  The  treaty  of  Tilsit.  Losses  suf- 
fered by  Prussia.  [Tilsit.  Westphalia.]— 26.  Circumstances  that  led  to  the  bombardment  of 
Copenhagen,  by  the  English  fleet.  Denmark  joins  France.  Portuguese  affairs.  The  French 
in  Lisbon.  [Rio  Janeiro.  Brazil.]— 27.  The  designs  of  Napoleon  against  the  Peninsular  mon- 
archs.  Affairs  of  Spain,  1808.  Godoy— abdication  of  the  Spanish  monarch,  and  his  son  Ferdi- 
nand. Joseph  Bonaparte  becomes  king  of  Spain,  and  Mural  king  of  Naples. — 28.  Resistance 
of  the  Spaniards  and  beginning  of  the  Peninsular  war. — 29.  Successes  of  the  Spaniards  at 
Cadiz,  Valencia,  Saragossa,  and  Baylen.  [Baylen.  Ebro.]— 30.  War  in  Portugal,  and 
evacuation  of  that  country  by  the  French  forces.  [Oporto.  Vimiera.  Cintra.]— 31.  Napoleon 
takes  the  field  in  person,  and  the  British  are  rapidly  driven  from  Spain.  [Reynosa.  Burgos. 
Tudela.  Corunna.] 


476  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAET  U. 

[1609.]  32.  Austria  suddenly  renews  the  war.  Victories  of  Napoleon,  who  enters  Vienna  in 
May ;  arid  peace  with  Austria  in  October.  [Eckmuhl.  Aspern.  Wagram.]— 33.  War  with 
the  Tyrolese.  British  expedition  to  Holland.  Continuance  of  the  war  in  the  Spanish  penin- 
sula. Difficulties  between  Napoleon  and  the  pope.— 34.  Napoleon's  divorce  from  Josephine 
and  marriage  with  Maria  Louisa  of  Austria,  1810.  Effects  of  this  marriage  upon  Napoleon's 
future  prospects.  His  conduct  towards  Holland.  Sweden.  His  power  in  the  central  parts  of 
Europe.  Jealousy  of  the  Russian  emperor. — 35.  Continuance  of  the  war  in  the  Spanish  penin- 
sula. Wellington  and  Massena.  [Ciudad  Rodrigo.  Busaco.  Torres  Vedras.]— 36.  The  pe- 
iiinsula  war  during  the  year  1811.  [Badajoz.  Albuera.] 

37.  Events  of  the  peninsular  war  from  the  beginning  of  1812  to  the  retreat  of  the  French 
across  the  Pyrenees.    [Salamanca.    Vittoria.]          ^ , . 

38.  NAPOLKON'S  RUSSIAN  CAMPAIGN,  1812.    Events  that  led  to  the  opening  of  a  war  with 
Russia.    The  opposing  nations  in  this  war.— 39.  The  "  Grand  Army"  of  Napoleon.    The  op- 
posing Russian  force. — 40.  Napoleon  crosses  the  Niemen,  June  1812.    Retreat  of  the  Russians. 
Early  disasters  of  the  French  army.    [Wilna.]— 41.  Onward  march  of  the  army.    Battle  of 
Smolensko.    Entrance  of  the  deserted  city. — 42.  Napoleon  pursues  the  retreating  Russians, 
who  make  a  stand  at  Borodino.    [Borodino.]    The  evening  before  the  battle.— 43.  Battle  of 
Borodino,  Sept.  7th. — 44.  Continued  retreat  of  the  Russians,  who  abandon  Moscow.    The  city, 
on  the  entrance  of  the  French.    The  burning  of  Moscow.    Napoleon  begins  a  retreat  Oct.  19th. 
— 45.  The  horrors  of  the  retreat. — 46.  Napoleon  at  Smoleusko.    He  renews  the  retreat  Nov. 
14th.    Battles  of  Krasnoi,  and  passage  of  the  Beresina.    [Krasnoi.    Beresina.]    Marshal  Ney. 
Napoleon  abandons  the  army,  and  reaches  Paris,  Dec.  18th.    His  losses  in  the  Russian  campaign. 

47.  War  between  England  and  the  United  States  of  America.  Mexico.  The  war  in  the 
Indian  seas. 

[1813.]  48.  Napoleon's  preparations  for  renewing  the  war.  Prussia,  Sweden,  and  Austria. 
Battles  of  Lutzen  and  Bautzen.  Armistice,  and  congress  of  Prague.  [Bautzen.]— 49.  War  re- 
newed Aug.  16th.  Austria  joins  the  allies.  Battles.  [Culm.  Gross-Beren.  Katsbach.  Den- 
newitz.]  Battles  of  Leipsic,  and  retreat  of  the  French.  Losses  of  the  French.  Revolts.  Wellington. 

[1814.]  50.  General  invasion  of  France.  Bernadotte  and  Murat.  Energy  and  talents  of  Na- 
poleon. The  allies  march  upon  Paris,  which  capitulates.  Deposition,  and  abdication,  of  Napo- 
leon. Treaty  between  him  and  the  allies.  [Elba.]  Louis  XVIII.  Restricted  limits  of  France. 

[1815.]  51.  Congress  of  Vienna,  and  Napoleon's  return  from  Elba.  Marshal  Ney.  All  France 
submits  to  Napoleon. — 52.  Napoleon  in  vain  attempts  negotiations.  Forces  of  the  allies ;  of 
Napoleon. — 53.  Napoleon's  policy,  and  movements.  Battles  of  Ligny,  Quatre  Bras,  Wavre, 
and  Waterloo.  Second  capitulation  of  Paris.  Napoleon's  abdication — attempted  escape 
to  America — exile — and  death.  54.  First  objects  of  the  allies.  Return  of  Louis  XVIII. 
Execution  of  Ney,  and  Labedoyere.  Fate  of  Murat.— 55.  Second  treaty  of  Paris.  Its  terms. 
Restoration  of  the  pillaged  treasures  of  art. 

1.  As  soon  as   Napoleon  was  seated  on  the  consular  throne  of 
r  France  he  addressed  to  the  British  government  an  able 

i.  EVENTS  OF  communication,  making  general  proposals  of  peace.     To 
THE  YEAR    this  a  firm  and  dignified  reply  was  given,  ascribing  the 
evils  which  afflicted  Europe  to  French  aggression  and 
French  ambition,  and  declining  to  enter  into  a  general  pacification 
until  France  should  present,  in  her  internal  condition  and  foreign 
policy,  firmer  pledges  than  she  had  yet  given,  of  stability  in  her  own 
government,  and  security  to  others.     The  answer  of  the  British  gov- 
ernment forms  the  beginning  of  the  second  period  of  the  war — that 
in  which  it  was  waged  with  Napoleon  himself,  the  skilful  director  of 
all  the  energies  of  the  French  nation. 

2.  War  being  resolved  on,  the  most  active  measures  were  taken 


CHAP.  VI]  NINETEENTH  CENTURY.  477 

JL 

on  both  sides  to  prosecute  it  with  vigor.  The  land  forces,  equipped 
militia,  and  seamen  of  Great  Britain,  amounted  to  three  hundred 
and  seventy  thousand  men,  and  Austria  furnished  two  hundred  thou- 
sand. France  seemed  poorly  prepared  to  meet  the  coming  storm. 
Her  armies  had  just  been  defeated  in  Germany  and  Italy ;  her 
treasury  was  empty,  and  her  government  had  lost  all  credit ;  the  af- 
filiated Swiss  and  Dutch  republics  were  discontented  ;  and  the  French 
people  were  dissatisfied  and  disunited.  But  the  establishment  of  a 
firm  and  powerful  government  soon  arrested  these  disorders ;  the 
finances  were  established  on  a  solid  basis ;  the  Vendean  war  was 
amicably  terminated ;  Russia  was  detached  from  the  British  alli- 
ance ;  many  of  the  banished  nobility  were  recalled ;  confidence,  en- 
ergy, and  hope,  revived  ;  and  the  prospects  of  France  rapidly  bright- 
ened under  the  auspices  of  Napoleon. 

3.  At  the  opening  of  the  campaign  the  French  forces  were  dis- 
posed in  the  following  manner.     The  army  of  Germany,  one  hundred 
and  twenty-eight  thousand  strong,  under  the  command  of  Moreau, 
was  posted  on  the  northern  confines  of  Switzerland  and  north  along 
the  west  bank  of  the  Rhine  :  the  army  of  Italy,  thirty-six  thousand- 
strong,  under  the  command  of  Massena,  occupied  the  crest  of  the 
Alps  in  the  neighborhood  of  Genoa ;  while  an  army  of  reserve,  of 
fifty  thousand  men,  of  whom  twenty  thousand  were  veteran  troops, 
awaited  the  orders  of  the  first  consul,  ready  to  fly  to  the  aid  of  either 
Moreau  or  Massena. 

4.  Moreau,  victorious  at  Engen  and  Moeskirch,1  drove  the  Aus- 
trians  back  from  the  Rhine,  and,  penetrating  to  Munich,  laid  Bavaria 
under  contribution.     Massena,  after  the  most  vigorous  efforts  against 
a  greatly  superior  force,  was  shut  up  in  Genoa  with  a  part  of  his 
army,  and  finally  compelled  to  capitulate.     Napoleon,  on  hearing  the 
reverses  of  Massena,  resolved  to  cross  the  Swiss  Alps  and  fall  upon 
Piedmont.     Taking  the  route  by  the  Great  St.  Bernard,2  on  the  1 7th 

1.  Engen  and  Moeskirch  are  in  the  south-eastern  part  of  Baden,  near  the  northern  boundary 
of  Switzerland.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

2.  Great  St.  Bernard  is  the  name  given  to  a  famous  pass  of  the  Alps,  leading  over  the 
mountains  from  the  Swiss  town  of  Martigny  to  the  Italian  town  of  Aosta.    In  its  highest  part 
it  rises  to  an  elevation  of  more  than  eight  thousand  feet,  being  almost  impassable  in  winter, 
and  very  dangerous  in  spring,  from  the  avalanches.     Near  the  summit  of  the  pass  is  the 
famous  hospital  founded  in  96-2  by  Bernard  de  Menthon,  and  occupied  by  brethren  of  the  order 
of  St.  Augustine,  whose  especial  duty  it  is  to  assist  and  relieve  travellers  crossing  the  mountains. 
In  the  midst  of  the  tempests  and  snow  storms,  the  monks,  accompanied  by  dogs  of  extraordi- 
nary size  and  sagacity,  set  out  for  the  purpose  of  tracking  those  who  have  lost  their  way.    If, 
they  find  the  body  of  a  traveller  who  has  perished,  they  carry  it  into  the  vault  of  the  dead, 
where  it  remains  lying  on  a  table  until  another  victim  is  brought  to  occupy  the  place.    It  is 


478  MODERN   HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

of  May  his  larmy  began  the  ascent  of  the  mountain.  The  artillery 
wagons  were  taken  to  pieces,  and  put  on  the  backs  of  mules,  while 
a  hundred  large  pines,  each  hollowed  out  to  receive  a  piece  of  artil- 
lery, were  drawn  up  the  mountain  by  the  soldiers.  To  encourage  the 
men,  the  music  of  each  regiment  played  at  its  head  ;  and  where  the 
ascent  was  most  difficult  the  charge  was  sounded. 

5.  Great  was  the  surprise  of  ,the  Austrians  at  beholding  this  large 
army  descending  into  the  Italian  plains.     Before  the   end  of  the 
month  Napoleon  was  at  Turin,  and  on  the  2d  of  June,  after  little 
opposition,  he  made  his  triumphant  entry  into  Milan.     On  the  14th 
he  was  attacked  by  the  Austrian  general  Melas,  at  the  head  of  greatly 
superior  forces,  on  the  plains  of  Marengo.1     Here,  after  twelve  hours 
of  incessant  fighting,  victory  was  decided  in  favor  of  the  French  by 
the  stubborn  resistance  of  Desaix,  and  the  happy  charge  of  the  gal- 
lant Kellerman.     General  Desaix,  who  had  just  arrived  from  Egypt, 
fell  on  the  field  of  battle.     The  result  of  the  victory  gave  Napoleon 
the  entire  command  of  Italy,   and  induced  the  Austrians  to  pro- 
pose a  suspension  of  arms,  which,  in  anticipation  of  a  treaty,  was 
.agreed  to. 

6.  The  efforts  at  negotiation  were  unsuccessful,  as  no  satisfactory 
arrangements  could  be  made  between  England  and  France,  and  in  the 
latter  part  of  November  the  armistice  was  terminated,  and  hostili- 
ties recommenced.     In  the  meantime  Malta,  which,  during  more 
than  two  years,  had  been  closely  blockaded  by  the  British  forces,  was 
compelled  to  surrender,  and  was  permanently  annexed  to  the  British 
dominions. 

7.  On  the  renewal  of  the  war,  the  Austrian  army,  eighty  thousand 
strong,  under  the  Archduke  John,  and  the  French  army,  somewhat 
less  in  number,  under  Moreau,  were  facing  each  other  on  the  eastern 
confines  of  Bavaria.     The  Austrians  advanced,  and  on  the  3d  of  De- 
then  set  up  against  the  wall,  among  the  other  dead  bodies,  which,  on  account  of  the  cold,  decay 
so  slowly  that  they  are  often  recognized  by  their  friends  after  the  lapse  of  years.    It  is  impos- 
sible to  bury  the  dead,  as  there  is  nothing  about  the  hospital  but  naked  rocks.    Not  a  tree  or 
bush  is  to  be  seen,  but  everlasting  winter  reigns  in  this  dreary  abode,  the  highest  inhabited 
place  ir.  Europe. 

When  the  army  of  Napoleon  crossed  the  St.  Bernard,  every  soldier  received  from  the  monks 
a  large  ration  of  bread  and  cheese,  and  a  draught  of  wine  at  the  gate  of  the  hospital :  a  season- 
able supply  which  exhausted  the  stores  of  the  establishment,  but  was  fully  repaid  by  the  First 
Consul  before  the  close  of  the  campaign. 

The  Little  St.  Bernard,  over  which  Hannibal  crossed,  is  farther  west,  separating  Piedmont 
from  Savoy.  The  undertaking  of  the  Carthaginian  was  far  more  difficult  than  that  of  Napoleon. 
(Map  No.  XIV.) 

1.  Marengo  is  a  small  village  of  Northern  Italy,  in  an  extensive  plain,  forty-three  miles  south- 
west from  Milan.  (Map  No.  XII.) 


CHAP.  VI.]  NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  479 

cember  brought  on  the  famous  battle  of  Hohenlinden,1  in  which  they 
were  completely  overthrown,  and  driven  back  with  great  slaughter. 
Moreau  rapidly  pursued  the  retreating  enemy,  and  penetrated  within 
sixty  miles  of  Vienna,  when,  at  the  solicitation  of  the  Austrian  gen- 
eral, an  armistice  was  agreed  to  on  the  25th.  In  the  meantime,  in 
the  very  heart  of  winter,  the  French  general  Macdonald,  at  the  head 
of  fifteen  thousand  men,  had  crossed  from  Switzerland  into  the  Italian 
Tyrol,  by  the  famous  pass  of  the  Splugen,3  more  difficult  than  that 
of  St.  Bernard.  The  French  forces  in  Italy  now  numbered  more 
than  a  hundred  thousand  men,  and  the  speedy  expulsion  of  the  Aus- 
trians  was  anticipated,  when  an  armistice,  soon  followed  by  the  peace 
of  Luneville,3  put  an  end  to  the  contest  with  Austria.* 

8.  In  the  meantime  Napoleon,  with  consummate  policy,  was  suc- 
cessfully planning  a  union  of  the  Northern  powers  against  England ; 
and  on  the   16th  of  December,  1800,  a  maritime  confederacy  was 
signed  by  Russia,  Sweden,  and  Denmark,  and  soon  after  by  Prussia, 
as  an  acceding  party.     This  league,  aimed  principally  against  Eng- 
land, was  designed  to  protect  the  commerce  of  the  Northern  powers, 
on  principles  similar  to  the  armed  neutrality  of  1780;  but  itjs  effect 
would  have  been,  if  fully  carried  out,  to  deprive  England,  in  great 
part,  of  her  naval  superiority.     The  Danish  government  had  previ- 
ously ordered  her  armed  vessels  to  resist  the  search  of  British  cruis- 
ers ;  and  the  Russian  emperor  had  issued  an  embargo  on  all  the 
British  ships  in  his  harbors. 

9.  England,  determined  to  anticipate  her  enemies,  despatched,  as 
soon  as  possible,  a  powerful  fleet  to  the  Baltic,  under  the  command  of 
Nelson   and   Sir   Hyde   Parker.     Passing  through  the  Sound  under 
the  fire  of  the  Danish  batteries,  on  the  30th  of  March  the  fleet  came 

1.  Hohenlinden  is  a  village  of  Bavaria,  nineteen  milea  east  from  Munich.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 
Campbell's  noble  ode,  beginning, 

"  On  Linden,  when  the  sun  was  low, 

All  bloodless  lay  the  untrodden  snow," 
has  rendered  the  name,  at  least,  of  this  battle,  familiar  to  almost  every  school-boy. 

2.  The  Pass  of  the  Splugen  leads  over  the  Alps  from  the  Grisons  to  the  Italian  Tyrol,  into 
the  valley  of  the  Lake  of  Como.    It  was  only  after  the  most  incredible  efforts  that  Macdonald 
succeeded  in  passing  his  army  over  the  mountain  ;  and  more  than  a  hundred  soldiers,  and  as 
many  horses  and  mules,  were  swallowed  up  in  its  abysses,  and  never  more  heard  of.    Since 
1823  there  has  been  a  road  over  the  Splugen  passable  for  wheel  carriages.    It  was  built  by 
Austria,  at  great  expense.    (Map  No.  XIV.) 

3.  Luncvilte,  in  the  former  province  of  Lorraine,  is  on  the  road  from  Paris  to  Strasbourg, 
sixteen  miles  south-east  from  Nancy.    By  the  treaty  concluded  here  in  1801,  and  which  Francis 
was  obliged  to  give  his  assent  to,  "not  only  as  emperor  of  Austria,  but  in  the  name  of  the 
German  empire,"  Belgium  and  all  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine  were  again  formally  ceded  to 
France,  and  Loinbardy  was  erected  into  an  independent  State.    (Maps  No.  XIII.  and  XVII.) 

a.  Feb.  9th,  1801. 


480  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

to  anchor  opposite  the  harbor  of  Copenhagen,  which  was  protected 
by  an  imposing  array  of  forts,  men-of-war,  fire-ships,  and 
floating  batteries.  On  the  2d  of  April  Nelson  brought 
his  ships  into  the  harbor,  where,  in  a  space  not  exceeding 
a  mile  and  a  half  in  extent,  they  were  received  by  a  tremendous  fire 
from  more  than  two  thousand  cannon.  The  English  replied  with 
equal  spirit,  and  after  four  hours  of  incessant  cannonade  the  whole 
front  line  of  Danish  vessels  and  floating  batteries  was  silenced,  with 
a  loss  to  the  Danes,  of  more  than  six  thousand  men.  The  English 
loss  was  twelve  hundred.  Of  this  battle,  Nelson  said,  "  I  have  been 
in  one  hundred  and  five  engagements,  but  that  of  Copenhagen  was 
the  most  terrible  of  them  all." 

10.  While  Nelson  was  preparing  to  follow  up  his  success  by  at- 
tacking the  Russian  fleet  in  the  Baltic,  news  reached  him  of  an  event 
at  St.  Petersburgh  which  changed  the  whole  current  of  Northern 
policy.     A  conspiracy  of  Russian  noblemen  was  formed  against  the 
Emperor  Paul,  who  was  strangled  in  his  chamber  on  the  night  of  the 
24th  of  March.     His  son  and  successor  Alexander  at  once  resolved 
to  abandon  the  confederacy,  and  to  cultivate  the  friendship  of  Great 
Britain.     Sweden,  Denmark,  and  Prussia  followed  his  example ;  and 
thus  was  dissolved,  in  less  than  six  months  after  it  had  been  formed, 
the  League  of  the  North, — the  most  formidable  confederacy  ever 
arrayed  against  the  maritime  power  of  England. 

11.  While  these  events  were  transpiring  in  Europe,  the  army 
which  Napoleon  had  left  in  Egypt,  under  the  command  of  Kleber, 
after  losing  its  leader  by  the  hands  of  an  obscure  assassin,  was 
doomed  to  yield  to  an  English  force  sent  out  under  Sir  Ralph  Aber- 
crombie,  who  fell  at  the  head  of  his  victorious  columns  on  the  plains 
of  Alexandria.*     By  the  terms  of  capitulation,  the  French  troops, 
to  the  number  of  twenty-four  thousand,  were  conveyed  to  France 
with  their  arms,  baggage,  and  artillery.     As  Malta  had  previously 
surrendered  to  the  British,  there  was  now  little  left  to  contend  for 
between  France  and   England.     To  the  great  joy  of  both  nations 
preliminaries  of  peace  were  signed  at  London  on  the  1st  of  October, 
and  on  the  27th  of  March,  1802,  tranquillity  was  restored  through- 
out Europe  by  the  definitive  treaty  of  Amiens.1 

12.  Napoleon  now  directed  all  his  energies  to  the  reconstruction 

1.  Amiens.    (See  p.  279.)    The  definitive  treaty  of  Amiens  was  concluded  March  27th,  1802, 
between  Great  Britain,  France,  Spain,  and  the  Batavian  Republic,  (Republic  of  Holland.) 
a.  March  21st,  1801. 


CHAP  VI.]  NINETEENTH    CENTURY.  481 

of  society  in  France,  the  general  improvement  of  the  country,  and 
the  consolidation  of  the  power  he  had  acquired.     By  a 
general  amnesty  one  hundred  thousand  emigrants  were     OF  1802, 
enabled  to  return  :  the  Roman  Catholic  religion  was  re-    THE  YKAR 
stored,  to  the  discontent  of  the  Parisians,  but  to  the  great 
joy  of  the  rural  population  :  a  system  of  public  instruction  was  es- 
tablished under  the  auspices  of  the  government :  to  bring  back  that 
gradation  of  ranks  in  society  that  the  Revolution  had  overthrown, 
the  Legion  of  Honor  was  instituted,  an  order  of  nobility  founded  on 
personal  merit :    great  public  works  were  set  on  foot  throughout 
France  :  the  collection  of  the  heterogeneous  laws  of  the  Monarchy 
and  the  Republic  into  one  consistent  whole,  under  the  title  of  the 
Code  Napoleon,  was  commenced  ;  an  undertaking  which  has  deserved- 
ly covered  the  name  of  Napoleon  with  glory,  and  survived  all  the 
other  achievements  of  his  genius  ;  and  finally,  the  French  nation,  as 
a  permanent  pledge  of  their  confidence,  by  an  almost  unanimous  vote, 
conferred  upon  their  favorite  and  idol  the  title  and  authority  of  con- 
sul for  life. 

13.  In  his  relations  with  foreign  States  the  conduct  of  Napoleon 
was  less  honorable.  He  arbitrarily  established  a  government  in 
Holland,  entirely  subservient  to  his  will ;  and  he  moulded  the 
northern  Italian  republics  at  his  pleasure  :  he  interfered  in  the  dis- 
sensions of  the  Swiss  cantons  to  establish  a  government  in  harmony 
with  the  monarchical  institutions  which  he  was  introducing  in  Paris ; 
and  when  the  Swiss  resisted,  he  sent  Ney  at  the  head  of  twenty  thou- 
sand men  to  enforce  obedience.  England  remonstrated  in  vain,  and 
the  Swiss,  in  despair,  submitted  to  the  yoke  imposed  upon  them. 
Napoleon  was  less  successful  in  an  attempt  to  recover  the  island  of 
St.  Domingo,1  which  had  revolted  from  French  authority.  Forces 

1.  St,  Domingo,  or  Hayti,  called  by  Columbus  Hispaniola,  (Little  Spain,)  is  a  large  island 
of  the  West  Indies,  about  fifty  miles  east  of  Cuba.  It  was  first  colonized  by  the  Spaniards, 
by  whose  cruelties  the  aboriginal  inhabitants  were  soon  almost  wholly  destroyed.  Their  place 
was  at  first  supplied  by  Indians  forcibly  carried  off  from  the  Bahamas,  and,  at  a  later  period 
by  the  importation  of  vast  numbers  of  negroes  from  Africa.  About  the  middle  of  the  six- 
teenth century  the  French  obtained  footing  on  its  western  coasts,  and  in  1691  Spain  ceded  to 
France  half  the  island,  and  at  subsequent  periods  the  possessions  of  the  latter  were  still  farther 
augmented.  From  1776  to  1789  the  French  colony  was  at  the  height  of  its  prosperity,  but  in 
J791  the  negroes,  excited  by  news  of  the  opening  revolution  in  France,  broke  out  in  insurrec- 
tion, and  in  two  months  upwards  of  two  thousand  whites  perished,  and  large  districts  of  fertile 
plantations  were  devastated.  While  the  war  was  raging,  commissioners,  sent  from  France, 
taking  part  with  the  negroes  against  the  planters,  proclaimed  the  freedom  of  all  the  blacks  who 
should  enrol  themselves  under  the  republican  standard  :  a  measure  equivalent  to  the  instant 
abolition  of  slavery  throughout  the  island.  The  English  government,  apprehensive  of  danger 
to  its  West  India  possessions  from  the  establishment  of  so  great  a  revolutionary  outpost  a^' 

81 


482  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  II. 

to  the  number  of  thirty-five  thousand  men  were  sent  out  to  reduce 
the  island,  but  nearly  all  perished,  victims  of  fatigue,  disease,  and  the 
perfidy  of  their  own  government. 

14.  It  soon  became  evident  that  the  peace  of  Amiens  could  not 
be  permanent.     The  encroachments  of  France  upon  the  feebler  Eu- 
ropean powers,  the  armed  occupation  of  Holland,  the  great  accumu- 
lation of  troops  on  the  shores  of  the  British  Channel,  and  the  evident 
designs  of  Napoleon  upon  Egypt,  excited  the  jealousy  of  England ; 
and  the  latter  refused  to  evacuate  Malta,  Alexandria,  and  the  Cape 
of  Grood  Hope,  in  accordance  with  the  late  treaty  stipulations,  until  sat- 

iv  RENEWAL  ^s^ac^°ry  explanations  should  be  given  by  the  French  gov- 

OF  THE      ernment.     Bitter  recriminations  followed  on  both  sides, 

WAR,  1803.   and  -m  the  month  of  Mayj  Ig03j  tte  cabinet  of  London 

issued  letters  of  marque,  and  an  embargo  on  all  French  vessels  in 
British  ports.  Napoleon  retaliated  by  ordering  the  arrest  of  all  the 
English  then  in  France  between  the  ages  of  eighteen  and  sixty  years. 

15.  The  first  military  operations  of  the  French  were  rapid  and 
successful.     The  electorate  of  Hanover,1  a  dependency  of  England, 


the  entrance  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  hoping  to  take  advantage  of  the  confusion  prevailing 
in  the  island,  attempted  its  reduction,  but  after  an  enormous  loss  of  men  finally  evacuated  it  ia 
1798.  No  sooner  was  the  island  delivered  from  external  enemies  than  a  frightful  civil  war  en- 
sued between  the  mulattoes  and  negroes,  but  the  former  were  overcome,  and  in  December 
1800  Toussaint  Louverture,  the  able  leader  of  the  blacks,  was  sole  master  of  the  French  part 
of  the  island.  Napoleon  at  first  confirmed  him  in  his  command  as  general-in-chief,  but  finding 
that  he  aimed  at  independent  authority,  in  the  winter  of  1801  he  sent  out  a  large  force  to  reduce 
the  island  to  submission.  During  a  truce  Toussaint  was  surprised  and  carried  to  France,  where 
he  died  in  April  1803.  Hostilities  were  renewed :  in  November,  1803,  the  French,  driven  into 
a  corner  of  the  island,  capitulated  to  an  English  squadron ;  and  in  January,  1804,  the  Haytien 
chiefs,  in  the  name  of  the  people,  renounced  all  dependence  on  France.  Numerous  civil  wars 
and  revolutions  long  continued  to  distract  the  island.  In  1821  that  part  of  the  island  originally 
settled  by  the  Spaniards  voluntarily  placed  itself  under  the  Haytien  government,  which  still 
maintains  its  independence. 

In  1791  St.  Domingo  was  in  a  most  flourishing  condition,  but  its  commerce  and  industry  were 
seriously  interrupted  by  the  bloody  wars  and  revolutions  which  succeeded.  Moreover,  it  was 
not  to  be  expected  that  half-civilized  negroes,  suddenly  loosed  from  bondage,  under  a  burning 
sun,  and  without  the  wants  or  desires  of  Europeans,  should  exhibit  the  vigor  and  industry  of 
the  latter.  The  Haytien  government  has  found  it  necessary  to  adopt  a  "  Rural  Code,"  which 
makes  labor  compulsory  on  the  poorer  classes,  who  in  return  share  a  portion  of  the  produce  of 
the  lands  of  their  masters.  Nominally  free,  the  blacks  remain  really  enslaved.  But  the  island 
IB  beginning  to  assume  a  more  thriving  appearance ;  the  manners  and  morals  of  the  people, 
although  still  bad,  are  improving ;  and  something  has  been  done  for  public  instruction.  What 
are  to  be  the  final  results  of  this  experiment  of  negro  emancipation,  time  only  can  determine. 
1.  Hanover  is  a  large  kingdom  of  north-western  Germany,  bounded  north  by  the  German 
Ocean  and  the  Elbe,  east  by  Prussia  aud  Brunswick,  south  by  Hesse  Cassel  and  the  Prussian 
department  of  the  Lower  Rhine,  and  west  by  Holland.  A  portion  of  western  Hanover  is 
almost  divided  from  the  rest  by  the  grand-duchy  of  Oldenburg.  (See  Map  No.  XVII.)  This 
kingdom  is  formed  out  of  the  duchies  formerly  possessed  by  several  families  of  the  junior 
.  branch  of  the  house  of  Brunwsick.  Ernest  Augustus,  Duke  of  Brunswick,  married  Sophia,  * 


CHAP.  VI.]  NINETEENTH  CENTURY.  483 

was  quickly  conquered,  and  in  utter  disregard  of  neutral  rights  the 
whole  of  the  North  of  Germany  was  at  once  occupied  by  French 
troops,  while,  simultaneously,  an  army  was  sent  into  southern  Italy, 
to  take  possession  of  the  Neapolitan  territories.  But  these  move- 
ments were  insignificant  when  compared  with  Napoleon's  gigantic 
preparations  ostensibly  for  the  invasion  of  England.  Forts  and  bat- 
teries were  constructed  on  every  headland  and  accessible  point  of  the 
Channel :  the  number  of  vessels  and  small  craft  assembled  along  the 
coast  was  immense ;  and  the  fleets  of  France,  Holland,  and  Spain, 
were  to  aid  in  the  enterprise.  England  made  the  most  vigorous 
preparations  for  repelling  the  anticipated  invasion,  which,  however, 
was  not  attempted,  and  perhaps  never  seriously  intended. 

16.  The  year  of  the  renewal  of  the  war  was  farther  distinguished 
by   an    unhappy  attempt    at   rebellion   in   Ireland,   in 

which  the  leaders,  Russell  and  Emmett,  were  seized, 
brought  to  trial,  and  executed.  Early  in  the  following  year,  1804,  a 
conspiracy  against  the  power  of  Napoleon  was  detected,  in  which  the 
generals  Moreau  and  Pichegru,  and  the  royalist  leader  Georges,  were 
implicated.  Moreau  was  allowed  to  leave  the  country,  Pichegru 
was  found  strangled  in  prison,  and  Georges  was  executed.  Napoleon, 
either  believing,  or  affecting  to  believe,  that  the  young  Duke  D'Enghien, 
a  Bourbon  prince  then  living  in  the  neutral  territory  of  Baden,1  was 
concerned  in  this  plot,  caused  him  to  be  seized  and  hurried  to  Vin- 
ccnnes,  where,  after  a  mock  trial,  he  was  shot  by  the  sentence  of  a 
court  martial: — an  act  which  has  fixed  an  indelible  stain  on  the 

memory  of  Napoleon,  as  not  the  slightest  evidence  of  criminality  was 

,         ,  ,,         , 

brought  against  the  unhappy  prince. 

1 7.  Owing  to  the  intimate  connection  that  had  been  formed  between 
the  courts  of  Paris  and  Madrid,  England  sent  out  a  fleet  in  the 
autumn  of  1804,  before  any  declaration  of  war  had  been  made,  to 
interrupt  the  homeward  bound  treasure  frigates  of  Spain  ;  and  theso 
were  captured,11  with  valuable  treasure  amounting  to  more  tlian  two 

grand-daughter  of  James  I.  of  England ;  and  George  Louis,  the  issue  of  this  marriage,  became 
king  of  England,  with  the  title  of  George  I.,  in  1714 ;  from  which  time  till  1837,  at  the  death 
of  William  IV.,  both  England  and  Hanover  had  the  same  sovereign.  On  the  accession  of  a 
female  to  the  throne  of  Great  Britain,  the  Salic  law  conferred  the  crown  of  Hanover  on  anothet 
branch  of  the  Hanoverian  family.  During  the  supremacy  of  Napoleon,  Hanover  constituted  a 
part  of  the  kingdom  of  Westphalia,  but  was  restored  to  its  lawful  sovereign  in  1813.  (Map 
No.  XVIU 

1.  The  grand-duchy  of  Baden  occupies  the  south-western  angle  of  Germany,  having  Switzer- 
land OB  the  south,  and  France  and  Rhenish  Bavaria  (the  Palatinate)  on  the  west.  (Map  No. 
XVII.) 

a.  Oct.  4th,  1604. 


484  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAET  IL 

million  pounds  sterling.  The  British  government  was  severely  cen- 
sured for  this  hasty  act.  Spain  now  openly  joined  France,  and  de- 
clared war  against  England.4 

18.  On  the  18th  of  May  of  this  year  Napoleon  was  created,  by 
decree  of  the  senate,  "Emperor  of  the  French;"  and  on  the  2d  x)f 
December,  1804,  was  solemnly  crowned  by  the  pope,  who  had  been 
induced  to  come  to  Paris  for  that  purpose.     The  principal  powers 

of  Europe,  with  the  exception  of  Great  Britain,  recog- 
nized the  new  sovereign.  On  the  26th  of  May  of  the 
following  year  he  was  formally  anointed  sovereign  of  Northern  Italy. 
The  iron  crown  of  Charlemagne,  which  had  quietly  reposed  a  thou- 
sand years,  was  brought  forward  to  give  interest  to  the  ceremony, 
and  Napoleon  placed  it  on  his  own  head,  at  the  same  time  pronouncing 
the  words,  "  G-od  has  given  it  me  :  beware  of  touching  it." 

19.  The  continued  usurpations  charged  upon  Napoleon  at  length 
induced  the  Northern  Powers  to  listen  to  the  solicitations  of  England ; 
and  in  the  summer  of  1 805  a  new  coalition,  embracing  Russia,  Aus- 
tria, and  Sweden,  was  formed  against  France.     Prussia,  tempted  by 
the  glittering  prize  of  Hanover,  which  Napoleon  held  out  to  her,  per- 
sisted in  her  neutrality,  with  an  evident  leaning  towards  the  French 
interest.     The  Austrian  emperor  precipitately  commenced  the  war 
by  invading1*  the  neutral  territory  of  Bavaria ;  an  act  as  unjustifiable 
as  any  of  which  he  accused  Napoleon.     The  latter  seized  the  oppor- 
tunity of  branding  his  enemies  as  aggressors  in  the  contest,  and  de- 
clared himself  the  protector  of  the  liberties  of  Europe. 

20.  In  the  latter  part  of  September,  1805,  the  French  forces,  m 
eight  divisions,  and  numbering  one  hundred  and  eighty  thousand  men, 
were  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhine,  preparing  to  carry  the  war  into 
Austria.     The  advance  of  Napoleon  was  rapid,  and  everywhere  the 
en^my  were  driven  before  him.     On  the  20th  of  October,  Napoleon, 
having  surrounded  the  Austrian  general  Mack  at  Ulm,1  compelled 
him  to  surrender  his  whole  force  of  twenty  thousand  men.     On  the 
very  next  day,  however,  the  English  fleet,  commanded  by  Admiral 
Nelson,  gained  a  great  naval  victory  off  Cape  Trafalgar,2  over  the 

1  Ulm  is  an  eastern  frontier  town  of  Wirtemberg,  on  the  western  bank  of  the  Danube,  sev- 
enty-six miles  north-west  from  Munich.  Formerly  a  free  city,  it  was  attached  to  Bavaria  ia 
1803,  and  in  1810  to  Wirtemberg.  (Map  No.  XVII.  ) 

2.  Cape  Trafalgar  is  a  promontory  of  the  south-western  coast  of  Spain,  twenty-five  miles 
north-west  of  the  fortress  of  Gibraltar.  In  the  great  naval  battle  of  Oct.  2Jst,  1805,  the  Eng- 
lish, under  Nelson,  having  twenty-seven  sail  of  the  line  and  three  frigates,  were  opposed  by  the 

a.  Dec.  12th,  1804.  b.  Sept.  9th,  1805. 


CHAP.  VI]  NINETEENTH    CENTURY.  485 

^         '•'-•  vi  bAiiAk*  I»aJ  flooloui*/  J*d)  ^^JJWflflflJW^61*0*1*,  "r>7/ 
combined  fleets  of  France  and  Spain ;  but  it  was  dearly  purchased 

by  the  death  of  the  hero.  On  the  13th  of  November  Napoleon  en- 
tered Vienna,  and  on  the  2d  of  December  he  gained  the  great  battle 
of  Austerlitz,1  the  most  glorious  of  all  his  victories,1  which  resulted 
in  the  total  overthrow  of  the  combined  Russian  and  Austrian  armies, 
and  enabled  the  victor  to  dictate  peace  on  his  own  terms.b  The  em 
peror  of  Russia,  who  was  not  a  party  to  the  treaty,  withdrew  his 
troops  into  his  own  territories :  the  king  of  Prussia  received  Hanover 
as  a  reward  of  his  neutrality ;  and  Great  Britain  alone  remained  at 
open  war  with  France. 

21.  While  the  English  now  prosecuted  the  war  with  vigor  on  the 
ocean,  humbled  the  Mahratta5  powers  in  India,  subdued  the  Dutch 
colony  of  the  Cape,  and  took  Buenos  Ayres*  from  the  Spaniards,  Na- 
poleon rapidly  extended  his  supremacy  over  the  continent 

of  Europe.  In  February,  1806,  he  sent  an  army  to  take 
possession  of  Naples,  because  the  king,  instigated  by  his  queen,  an  Aus- 
trian princess,  had  received  an  army  of  Russians  and  English  into  his 
capital.  The  king  of  Naples  fled  to  Sicily,  and  Napoleon  conferred 
the  vacant  crown  upon  his  brother  Joseph.  Napoleon  next  placed 
his  brother  Louis  on  the  throne  of  Holland  :  he  erected  various  dis- 
tricts in  Germany  and  Italy  into  dukedoms,  which  he  bestowed  on 
his  principal  marshals  :  while  fourteen  princes  in  the  south  and  west 
of  Germany  were  induced  to  form  the  Confederation0  of  the  Rhine, 
and  place  themselves  under  the  protection  of  France.  By  this  latter 
stroke  of  policy  on  the  part  of  Napoleon,  a  population  of  sixteen 
millions  was  cut  off  from  the  Germanic  dominion  of  Austria. 

22.  In  the  negotiations  which  Napoleon  was  at  this  time  carrying 
on  with  England,  propositions  were  made  for  the  restoration  of  Han- 
over to  that  power,  although  it  had  recently  been  given  to  Prussia.    It 

French  and  Spanish  fleet  of  thirty-three  sail  of  the  line  and  seven  frigates.  Nelson,  who  was 
mortally  wounded  in  the  action,  lived  only  to  be  made  aware  of  the  de«tmction  of  the  enemy's 
fleet.  (Map  No.  XIII.) 

1.  Austerlitz  (ows'-ter-litz)  is  a  small  town  of  Moravia,  thirteen  miles  southwest  of  Brunn 
the  capital.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

2.  The  Mahrattas  were  an  extena'  <>e  Hindoo  nation  in  the  western  part  of  southern  Hindostan. 
The  various  tribes  of  which  the  nation  consisted  were  first  united  into  a  monarchy  about  the 
middle  of  the  seventeenth  century. 

3.  Buenos  Ayres  (in  Spanish  bwa-noce-i-res,)  is  a  large  city  of  South  America,  capital  of  the 
republic  of  La  Plata.    In  1810  began  the  revolutionary  movements  that  ended  in  the  emanci- 
pation of  Buenos  Ayres  and  the  States  of  La  Plata  from  Spain.    The  declaration  of  indepen- 
dence was  made  on  the  9th  of  July,  1816. 

a.  Loss  of  the  allies  thirty  thousand,  in  killed,  wounded,  and  taken  prisoners.    Loss  of  the 
French  twelve  thousand. 

b.  Treaty  of  Presburg,  Dec.  27tn,  1805.  c.  July  12th. 


486  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  II 

7HOT/IH 

was  moreover  suspected  that  Napoleon  bad  offered  to  win  the  favor 
of  Russia  at  the  expense  of  his  Prussian  ally.  These,  and  other 
causes,  aroused  the  indignation  of  the  Prussians ;  and  the  Prussian 
monarch  openly  joined  the  coalition  against  Napoleon  before  his  own 
arrangements  were  completed,  or  his  allies  could  yield  him  any  assist- 
ance. Both  England  and  Russia  had  promised  him  their  coopera- 
tion. 

23.  With  his  usual  promptitude  Napoleon  put  his  troops  in  motion, 
and  on  the  8th  of  October  reached  the  advanced  Prussian  outposts* 
On  the  14th  he  routed  the  Prussians  with  terrible  slaughter  in  the 
battle  of  Jena,1  and  on  the  same  day  Marshal  Davoust  gained  the 
battle  of  Auerstadt,*  in  which  the  Duke  of  Brunswick  was  mortally 
wounded.     On  these  two  fields  the  loss  of  the  Prussians  was  nearly 
twenty  thousand  in  killed  and  wounded,  besides  nearly  as  many 
prisoners.     The  total  loss  of  the  French  was  fourteen  thousand.    In 
a  single  day  the  strength  of  the  Prussian  monarchy  was  prostrated. 
Napoleon  rapidly  followed  up  his  victories,  and  on  the  25th  his 
vanguard,  under  Marshal  Davoust,  entered  Berlin,  only  a  fortnight 
after  the  commencement  of  hostilities. 

24.  Encouraged  by  his  successes  Napoleon  issued  a  series  of  edicts 
from  Berlin,  declaring  the  British  islands  in  a  state  of  blockade,  and 
excluding  British  manufactures  from  all  the  continental  ports.     He 
then  pursued  the  Russians  into  Poland  :  on  the  30th  of  November  his 

troops  entered  Warsaw  without  resistance ;  but  on  the 
26th  of  December  his  advanced  forces  received  a  check 
in  the  severe  battle  of  Pultusk.  On  the  8th  of  'February,  1 307,  a 
sanguinary  battle  was  fought  at  Eylau,3  in  which  each  side  lost 
twenty  thousand  men,  and  both  claimed  the  victory.  In  some  minor 
engagements  the  allies  had  the  advantage,  but  these  were  more  than 
counterbalanced  by  the  siege  and  fall  of  the  important  fortress  of 
Dantzic,4  which  had  a  garrison  of  seventeen  thousand  men,  and  was 
defended  by  nine  nundred  cannon. 

1.  Jena  is  a  town  of  central  Germany,  in  the  grand-duchy  of  Saxe  Weimar,  on  the  west  bank 
of  the  river  Salle,  forty-three  miles  south-west  from  Leipsic.    The  battle  was  fought  between 
the  towns  of  Jena  and  Weimar.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

2.  rfuerstudt  (ow'-€r-stadt)  is  a  small  village  of  Prussian  Saxony,  six  miles  west  of  Naumberg, 
and  about  twenty  miles  north  of  the  battle-ground  of  Jena.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

3.  Eylau  (i-low)  is  a  village  in  Prussia  proper,  or  East  Prussia,  twenty-eight  miles  south 
from  Konigaberg.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

4.  Dantzic  is  an  important  commercial  city,  seaport,  and  fortress,  of  the  province  of  West 
Prussia,  on  the  western  bank  of  the  Vistula,  about  three  miles  from  its  mouth.    Dantzic  sur- 
rendered to  the  French  May  27th  1807.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

:;  .rf 


CHAP.  VI]  NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  487 

25.  'At  length,  on  the  1 4th  of  June,  Napoleon  fought  the  great 
and  decisive  battle  of  Friedland,1  and  the  broken  remains  of  the 
Russian  army  fell  back  upon  the  Niemen.8     An  armistice  was  now 
agreed  to  :  on  the  25th  of  June  the  emperors  of  France  and  Russia 
met  for  the  first  time,  with  great  pomp  and  ceremony,  on  a  raft  in 
the  middle  of  the  Niemen,  and  on  the  7th  of  July  signed  the  treaty 
of  Tilsit.8     All  sacrifices  were  made  at  the  expense  of  the  Prussian 
monarch,  who  received  back  only  about  one-half  of  his  dominions. 
The  elector  of  Saxony,  the  ally  of  France,  was  rewarded  with  that 
portion  of  the  Prussian  territory,  which,  prior  to  the  first  partition 
in  1772,  formed  part  of  the  kingdom  of  Poland :  this  portion  was 
now  erected  into  the  grand-duchy  of  Warsaw.     Out  of  another  por- 
tion was  formed  the  kingdom  of  Westphalia,4  which  was  bestowed 
upon  Jerome  Bonaparte,  brother  of  Napoleon ;  and  Russia  agreed 
to  aid  the  French  emperor  in  his  designs  against  British  commerce. 

26.  Soon  after  the  treaty  of  Tilsit  it  became  evident  to  England 
that  Napoleon  would  leave  no  means  untried  to  humble  that  power 
on  the  ocean,  and  it  was  believed  that,  with  the  connivance  of  Russia, 
he  was  making  arrangements  with  Denmark  and  Portugal  for  the 
conversion  of  their  fleets  to  his  purposes.     England,  menaced  with 
an  attack  from  the  combined  navies  of  Europe,  but  resolving  to  an- 
ticipate the  blow,  sent  a  powerful  squadron  against  Denmark,  with 
an  imperious  demand  for  the  instant  surrender  of  the  Danish  fleet 
and  naval  stores,  to  be  held  as  pledges  until  the  conclusion  of  the 
war.     A  refusal  to  comply  with  this  summons  was  followed  by  a  four 
days'  bombardment  of  Copenhagen,  and  the  final  surrender  of  the 
fleet.     Denmark,  though  deprived  of  her  navy,  resented  the  hostility 
of  England  by  throwing  herself,  without  reserve,  into  the  arms  of 
France.     The  navy  of  Portugal  was  saved  from  falling  into  the 
power  of  France,  by  sailing,  at  the  instigation  of  the  British,  to  Rio 

1.  Friedland  (freed'  land)  is  a  town  of  East  Prussia,  on  the  western  bank  of  the  river  Alle 
(al'-leh)  twenty-eight  miles  south-east  from  Konigsberg,  and  eighteen  north-east  of  Eylau. 
(Map  No.  XVIL) 

8.  The  river  Niemen  (Polish  nyem'  en)  rises  in  the  Prussian  province  of  Grodno,  and,  passing 
through  the  north-eastern  extremity  of  Prussia,  enters  a  gulf  of  the  Baltic  by  two  channels 
twenty-two  miles  apart,  and  each  about  thirty  miles  below  Tilsit.  (Map  No.  XVII.) 

3.  Tilsit  is  a  town  of  East  Prussia,  on  the  southern  bank  of  the  Niemen,  sixty  miles  north- 
east of  Konigsberg.    ( Map  No.  XVIL) 

4.  Westphalia  is  a  name,  1st,  originally  given,  in  the  Middle  Ages,  to  a  large  part  of  Germany : 
2d,  to  a  duchy  forming  a  part  of  the  great  duchy  of  Saxony :  3d,  to  one  of  the  circles  of  the 
German  empire:  4lh,  to  the  kingdom  of  Westphalia,  created  by  Napoleon:  5th,  to  the  present 
Prussian  province  of  Westphalia,  created  in  1815.    Most  of  the  present  province  was  embraced 
in  each  of  these  divisions.    See  also  Note,  p.  360.    (Map  No.  XVIL) 


488  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

Janeiro,1  the  capital  of  the  Portuguese  colony  of  Brazil.*  Napoleon 
had  already  announced,8-  in  one  of  his  imperial  edicts,  that  "  the 
House  of  Braganza  had  ceased  to  reign,"  and  had  sent  an  army  under 
Junot  to  occupy  Portugal.  On  the  27th  of  November,  the  Portu- 
guese fleet,  bearing  the  prince  regent,  the  queen,  and  court,  sailed 
for  Brazil ;  and  on  the  30th  the  French  took  possession  of  Lisbon. 

27.  The  designs  of  Napoleon  for  the  dethronement  of  the  Penin- 
sular monarchs  had  been  approved  by  Alexander  in  the  conferences 
of  Tilsit ;  and  when  Napoleon  returned  to  Paris  he  set  on  foot  a 
series  of  intrigues  at  Madrid,  which  soon  gave  him  an  opportunity 
of  interfering  in  the  domestic  affairs  of  the  Spanish  nation,  his  recent 
ally.     Charles  IV.  of  Spain,  a  weak  monarch,  was  the  dupe  of  his 
faithless  wife,  and  of  his  unprincipled  minister  Godoy.     The  latter, 

secured  in  the  French  interest  by  the  pretended  gift  of  a 
principality  formed  out  of  dismembered  Portugal,  al- 
lowed the  French  troops  under  Murat  to  enter  Spain ;  and  by  fraud 
and  false  pretences  the  frontier  fortresses  were  soon  in  the  hands  of 
the  invaders.  Too  late  Godoy  found  himself  the  dupe  of  his  own 
treachery.  Charles,  intimidated  by  the  difficulties  of  his  situation, 
resigned  b  the  crown  to  his  son  Ferdinand,  but,  by  French  intrigues, 
was  soon  after  induced  to  disavow  his  abdication,  while  at  the  same 
time  Ferdinand  was  led  to  expect  a  recognition  of  his  royal  title  from 
the  emperor  Napoleon.  The  deluded  prince  and  his  father  were  both 
enticed  to  Bayonne,  where  they  met  Napoleon,  who  soon  compelled 
both  to  abdicate,  and  gave  the  crown  to  his  brother  Joseph,  who  had 
been  summoned  from  the  kingdom  of  Naples  to  become  king  of  Spain. 
The  Neapolitan  kingdom  was  bestowed  upon  Murat  as  a  reward  for 
his  military  services. 

28.  Although  many  of  the  Spanish  nobility  tamely  acquiesced  in 
this  foreign  usurpation  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  kingdom,  yet  the 
great  bulk  of  the  nation  rose  in  arms  :  Ferdinand,  although  a  prisoner 
in  France,  was  proclaimed  king :  a  national  junta,  or  council,  was 

1.  Rio  Janeiro,  the  capital  of  Brazil,  is  the  most  important  commercial  city  and  seaport  of 
South  America.    Population  about  two  hundred  thousand,  of  whom  about  half  are  whites,  and 
the  rest  mostly  negro  slaves. 

2.  Prior  to  1808  Brazil  was  merely  a  Portuguese  colony,  but  on  the  arrival  of  the  prince 
regent  and  his  court,  accompanied  by  a  large  body  of  emigrants,  January  '25th,  1808,  it  was 
raised  to  $  kingdom.    In  1822  Brazil  was  declared  a  kingdom  independent  of  the  crown  of 
Portugal.    The  empire  of  Brazil,  second  only  in  extent  to  the  giant  empires  of  China  and 
Russia,  embraces  nearly  the  half  of  the  South  American  continent;  but  its  population— whites, 
negroes,  aiid  Indians— is  less  than  six  millions,  of  whom  only  about  one  million  are  whites. 

a.  Nov.  13th,  18Q7.  b.  March  20th,  1808. 


CHAP.  VI]  NINETEENTH  CENTURY.  489 

chosen  to  direct  the  affairs  of  the  government ;  and  the  English  at 
once  sent  large  supplies  of  arms  and  ammunition  to  their  new  allies, 
while  Napoleon  was  preparing  an  overwhelming  force  to  sustain  his 
usurpation.  A  new  direction  was  thus  given  to  affairs,  and  for  a 
time  the  European  war  centered  in  the  Spanish  Peninsula. 

29.  In  the  first  contests  with  the  invaders  the  Spaniards  were 
generally  successful.     A  French  squadron  in  the  Bay  of  Cadiz,  pre- 
vented from  escaping  by  the  presence  of  an  English  fleet,  was  forced 
to  surrender  : a  Marshal  Moncey,  at  the  head  of  eight  thousand  men, 
was  repulsed  in  an  attack  b  on  the  city  of  Valencia  :  Saragossa,  de- 
fended  by   the   heroic   Palafox,   sustained   a   siege   of    sixty-three 
days  ;c  and,  although  reduced  to  a  heap  of  ruins,  drove  the  French 
troops  from  its  walls  :  Cor'  dova  was  indeed  takend  and  plundered 
by  the  French  marshal  Dupont,  yet  that  officer  himself  was  soon  after 
compelled  to  surrender  at  Baylen,1  with  eight  thousand  men,  to  the 
patriot  general  Castanos.     This  latter  event  occurred  on  the  20th 
of  July,  the  very  day  on  which  Joseph  Bonaparte  made  his  tri- 
umphal entry  into  Madrid.     But  the  new  king  himself  was  soon 
obliged  to  flee,  and  the  French  forces  were  driven  beyond  the  Ebro.a 

30.  In  the  meantime  the  spirit  of  resistance  had  extended  to  Por- 
tugal :  a  junta  had  been  established  at  Oporto3  to  conduct  the  gov- 
ernment :  British  troops  were  sent  to  aid  the  insurgents,  and  on  the 
21st  of  August  Marshal  Junot  was  defeated  at  Virniera,4  by  Sir 
Arthur  "Wellesley.     This  battle  was  followed  by  the  convention  of 
Cintra,6  which  led  to  the  evacuation  of  Portugal  by  the   French 
forces. 

31.  Great  was  the  mortification  of  Napoleon  at  this  inauspicious 
beginning  of  the  Peninsular  war,  and  he  deemed  it  necessary  to  take 

1.  Baylen  is  a  town  of  Spain,  in  the  province  of  Jaen,  twenty-two  miles  north  from  the  city 
of  Jaen.    It  commands  the  road  leading  from  Castile  into  Andalusia.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

2.  The  Ebro  (anciently  Iberus)  flows  through  the  north-eastern  part  of  Spain,  and  is  the  only 
great  river  of  the  peninsula  that  falls  into  the  Mediterranean.    Before  the  second  Punic  war 
it  formed  the  boundary  between  the  Roman  and  Carthaginian  territories,  and  in  the  tune  of 
Charlemagne,  between  the  Moorish  and  Christian  dominions.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

3.  Oporto,  an  important  commercial  city  and  seaport  of  Portugal,  is  on  the  north  bank  of  the 
Douro,  two  miles  fro  m  its  mouth,  and  one  hundred  and  seventy-four  miles  north-east  from 
Lisbon.    (Jlfap  No.  XIII.) 

4.  Vimiera  is  a  small  town  of  the  Portuguese  province  of  Estremadura,  about  thirty  miles 
north-west  from  Lisbon.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

5.  Cintra  is  a  small  town  of  Portugal,  twelve  miles  north-west  from  Lisbon.    By  the  con- 
vention signed  here  Aug.  22d,  180H,  the  French  forces  were  to  be  conveyed  to  France  with  their 
arms,  artillery,  and  property.    This  convention  was  exceedingly  unpopular  in  England.    (Map 
No.  XIH.) 

au  June  14th.  b.  June  28th.  c.  June  14th,  to  Aug.  17th.  d.  June  8th. 


490  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  II 

the  field  in  person.  Collecting  his  troops  with  the  greatest  rapidity, 
in  the  early  part  of  November  he  was  in  the  north  of  Spain  at  the 
head  of  one  hundred  and  eighty  thousand  men.  He  at  once  com- 
municated his  own  energy  to  the  operations  of  the  army  :  the  Span- 
iards were  severely  defeated  at  Reynosa,a  Burgos,b  and  Tudela  ;cl  and, 
on  the  4th  of  December,  Napoleon  forced  an  entrance  into  the  capital. 
The  British  troops,  who  were  marching  to  the  assistance  of  the  Span- 
iards, were  driven  back  upon  Corunna,2  and  being  there  attacked d 
while  making  preparations  to  embark,  they  compelled 
the  enemy  to  retire,  but  their  brave  commander,  Sir 
John  Moore,  was  mortally  wounded.  On  the  following  day  the 
British  abandoned  the  shores  of  Spain,  and  the  possession  of  the 
country  seemed  assured  to  the  French  emperor. 

32.  A  short  time  before  the  battle  of  Corunna  Napoleon  received 
despatches6  which  induced  him  to  return  immediately  to  Paris.  The 
Austrian  emperor,  humbled,  but  not  subdued,  and  stimulated  by  the 
warlike  spirit  of  his  subjects,  once  more  resolved  to  try  the  hazards 
of  war,  while  the  best  troops  of  Napoleon  were  occupied  in  the 
Spanish  Peninsula.  On  the  8th  of  April  large  bodies  of  Austrian 
troops  crossed  the  frontiers  of  Bohemia,  of  the  Tyrol,  and  of  Italy, 
and  soon  involved  in  great  danger  the  dispersed  divisions  of  Napo- 
leon's army.  On  the  1 7th  of  the  same  month  Napoleon  arrived  and 
took  the  command  in  person.  Baffling  the  Austrian  generals  by  the 
rapidity  of  his  movements,  he  speedily  concentrated  his  divisions, 
and  in  four  days  of  combats  and  manoeuvres,  from  the  19th  to  the 

t.  Reynosa,  Burgos,  and  Tudela.  (See  Map  No.  XIII.)  Reynosa  is  forty-seven  miles  north- 
west from  Burgos.  Tudela  is  on  the  Ebro,  one  hundred  and  ten  miles  east  from  Burgos. 
Burgos  is  one  Hundred  and  thirty-four  miles  north  of  Madrid.  At  Reynosa  Blake  was  defeated 
by  the  French  under  Marshal  Victor :  at  Burgos  the  Spanish  count  de  Belvidere  was  over- 
thrown by  Marshal  Soult :  and  at  Tudela  Palafox  and  Castanos  were  beaten  by  Marshal  Lannes. 
2.  Corunna  is  a  city  and  seaport  of  Spain,  at  the  north-western  extremity  of  the  kingdom. 
Sir  John  Moore  was  struck  down  by  a  cannon  ball  as  he  was  animating  a  regiment  to  the 
charge.  "  Wrapped  by  his  attendants  in  his  military  cloak,  he  was  laid  in  a  grave  hastily 
formed  on  the  ramparts  of  Corunna,  where  a  monument  was  soon  after  constructed  over  hi 
uncoffined  remains  by  the  generosity  of  the  French  marshal  Ney.  Not  a  word  was  spoken  as 
the  melancholy  interment  by  torch  light  took  place :  silently  they  laid  him  in  his  grave,  while 
the  distant  cannon  of  the  battle  fired  the  funeral  honors  to  his  memory." — Jllison. 

This  touching  scene  has  been  vividly  described  in  one  of  the  most  beautiful  pieces  of 
poetry  in  the  English  language,  beginning— 

"  Not  a  drum  was  heard,  nor  a  funeral  note, 
As  his  corpse  to  the  ramparts  we  hurried ; 
Not  a  soldier  discharged  his  farewell  shot 
O'er  the  grave  where  our  hero  we  buried," 

a.  Nov.  10th  and  llth.  b.  Nov.  10th.  c,  Nov.  21st. 

d.  Jan.  16th,  1809.  e.  Jan.  1st,  1809. 


CHAP.  VL]  NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  491 

22d  inclusive,  he  completed  the  ruin  of  the  Austrian  army.  On 
the  last  of  these  diys  he  defeated  the  Archduke  Charles  at  Eckmuhl,1 
and  compelled  him  to  recross  the  Danube.  Rapidly  following  up  his 
victories,  he  entered  Vienna  on  the  13th  of  May,  and  although  worsted 
in  the  battle  of  Aspern2  on  the  21st  and  22d,  on  the  5th  of  July  he 
gained  a  triumph  at  "VVagram,3  and  soon  after  dictated  a  peacea  by 
which  Austria  was  compelled  to  surrender  territory  containing  three 
and  a-half  millions  of  inhabitants. 

33.  During  the  war  with  Austria,  the  brave  Tyrolese  had  seized 
the  opportunity  to  raise  the  standard  of  revolt ;  and  it  was  not  until 
two  powerful  French  armies  had  been  sent  into  their  country  that 
they  were  subdued.     The  British  government  also  sent  a  fleet,  and 
an  army  of  forty  thousand  men,  to  make  a  diversion  against  Napo- 
leon on  the  coast  of  Holland ;  but  the  expedition  proved  a  failure. 
The  war  still  continued  in  the  Spanish  Peninsula,  and  Sir  Arthur 
Wellesley  was  sent  out  by  the  British  government  with  a  large  force 
to  cooperate  with  the  Spaniards.     In  the  meantime  difficulties  had 
arisen  between  the  French  emperor  and  the  Pope  Pius  VII. :  French 
troops  entered  Rome;    and  by  a  decreeb  of  Napoleon  the  Papal 
States0  were  annexed  to  the  French  empire.     This  was  followed  by 
a  bull  of  excommunicationd  against  Napoleon,  whereupon  the  pope 
was  seized  and  conveyed  a  prisoner  into  France,  where  he  was  de- 
tained until  the  spring  of  1814. 

34.  Near  the  close  of  1809  the  announcement  was  made  that  Na- 
poleon was  about  to  obtain  a  divorce  from  the  Empress  Josephine, 

1.  Eckmuhl  is  a  small  village  of  Bavaria,  thirteen  miles  south  of  Ratisbon,  and  fifty-two 
miles  north-east  from  Munich.    Marshal  Davoust,  having  particularly  distinguished  himself 
in  the  battle  of  the  23d,  was  raised  by  Napoleon  to  the  dignity  of  prince  of  Eckmuhl.    (Map 
No.  XVII.) 

2.  Aspem  is  a  small  Austrian  village  on  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Danube,  opposite  the  island 
of  Loban,  about  two  miles  below  Vienna.    (Map  No.  XVII.)    After  two  days'  continuous 
fighting,  with  vast  loss  on  both  sides,  Napoleon  was  obliged  to  withdraw  his  troops  from  the 
field,  and  take  refuge  in  the  island  of  Loban.    Marshal  Lannes,  one  of  Napoleon's  ablest  gen- 
erals, was  mortally  wounded  on  the  field  of  Aspern,  having  both  his  legs  carried  away  by  a 
cannon  ball.    Napoleon  was  deeply  affected  on  beholding  the  dying  Marshal  brought  off  the 
field  on  a  litter,  and  extended  in  the  agonies  of  death.    Kneeling  beside  the  rude  couch,  he 
wept  freely. 

3.  Wagram  is  a  small  Austrian  village  eleven  miles  north-east  of  Vienna.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 
In  the  battle  of  Wagram  each  party  lost  about  twenty-five  thousand  men :  few  prisoners  were 
taken  on  either  sid«,  and  the  Austrians  retired  from  the  field  in  good  order.    The  French 
bulletin,  copied  by  Sir  Walter  Scott,  says  the  French  took  twenty  thousand  prisoners, — now 
admitted  to  be  a  grossly  erroneous  statement.    The  retreat  of  the  Austrians,  however,  gave  to 
Napoleon  all  the  moral  advantages  of  a  victory. 

a.  Treaty  of  Vienna,  Oct.  14th.  b.  May  17th,  1809. 

c.  See  Note,  p.  d.  June  llth. 


fVf  •  "      ^iMJtei 

492  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAET  IL 

for  the  purpose  of  allying  himself  with  one  of  the  royal  families  of 
Europe.  To  Josephine  Napoleon  was  warmly  attached  ;  but  reasons 
of  state  policy  were,  in  his  breast,  superior  to  the  dearest  affections. 
His  first  marriage  having  been  annulled  a  by  the  French 
senate,  early  in  1810  he  received  the  hand  of  Maria 
Louisa  of  Austria,  daughter  of  the  emperor  Francis.  This  mar- 
riage, which  seemed  permanently  to  establish  Napoleon's  power,  by 
uniting  the  lustre  of  descent  with  the  grandeur  of  his  throne,  was 
one  of  the  principal  causes  of  his  final  ruin,  as  it  was  justly  feared 
by  the  other  European  powers  that,  secured  by  the  Austrian  alliance, 
he  would  strive  to  make  himself  master  of  Europe.  His  conduct 
towards  Holland  justified  this  suspicion.  Dissatisfied  with  his  broth- 
er's government  of  that  country,  he,  soon  after,  by  an  imperial  de- 
cree,11 incorporated  Holland  with  the  French  empire.  In  the  same 
year  Bernadotte,  one  of  his  generals,  was  advanced  to  the  throne  of 
Sweden.  Napoleon  continued  his  career  of  aggrandizement  in  the 
central  parts  of  Europe,  and  extended  the  French  limits  almost  to 
the  frontiers  of  Russia,  thereby  exciting  the  strongest  jealousy  of 
the  Kussian  emperor,  who  renewed  his  intercourse  with  the  court  of 
London,  and  began  to  prepare  for  that  tremendous  conflict  with 
France  which  he  saw  approaching. 

35.  The  war  still  continued  in  the  Spanish  peninsula.  Sir  Arthur 
Wellesley,  who  had  recently  been  created  Lord  Wellington,  had  the 
chief  command  of  the  English,  Spanish,  and  Portuguese  forces.  On 
the  I  Oth  of  July  the  Spanish  fortress  of  Ciudad  Kodrigo1  surrend- 
ered  to  Marshal  Massena,  but  on  the  27th  of  September  Massena 
was  defeated  in  an  attack  upon  Wellington  on  the  heights  of  Busaco.2 
Wellington,  still  pursuing  his  plan  of  defensive  operations,  then  re- 
tired to  the  strongly-fortified  lines  of  Torres  Vedras,3  which  defend- 

1.  Ciudad  Rodrigo  (in  Spanish  the-oo-dadr  rod-ree-go,  meaning,  "  the  city  Rodrigo,")  is  a 
strongly-fortified  city  of  Spain,  fifty-five  miles  south-west  from  Salamanca.    In  1812  this  city 
was  retaken  by  Wellington,  an  achievement  which  acquired  for  him  the  title  of  Duke  of  Ciudad 
Rodrigo  from  the  Spanish  government.    (Map  No.  XIII.) 

2.  Busaco  is  a  mountain  ridge  starting  from  the  northern  bank  of  the  river  Mondego  a  few 
liiles  north-east  of  Coimbra,  and  extending  north-west  about  eight  miles.    On  the  summit  of 
the  northern  portion  of  this  range,  around  the  convent  of  Busaco,  seventeen  miles  north-east 
of  Coimbra,  Wellington  collected  his  whole  army  of  fifty  thousand  men  on  the  evening  of  Sep- 
tember 36th,  while  Massena,  with  seventy-two  thousand,  lay  at  its  foot,  determined  to  force  the 
passage,  which  he  attempted  early  on  the  following  morning,  but  without  success.    (Map  No 
XIII.) 

3.  Torres  Vedras  is  a  small  village  on  the  road  from  Lisbon  to  Coimbra,  twenty-four  milet 
north-west  of  the  former.    The  "Lines  of  Torres  Vedras,"  constructed  by  Wellington  in  1810, 
consisted  of  three  distinct  ranges  of  defence,  extending  from  the  river  Tagus  to  the  Atlantic 

a.  Dec.  15th,  1809.  b.  July  9th,  1810. 


CHAP.  VLj  NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  493 

ed  the  approaches  to  Lisbon.  Massena  followed,  but  in  vain  en- 
deavored to  find  a  weak  spot  where  he  could  attack  with  any  prospect 
of  success,  and  after  continuing  before  the  lines  more  than  a  month, 
he  broke  up  his  position  on  the  14th  of  November,  and,  for  the  first 
time  since  the  accession  of  Napoleon,  the  French  eagles  commenced 
a  final  retreat. 

36.  The  early  part  of  1811  witnessed  the  siege  of  Badajoz1  by 
Marshal  Soult,  and  its  surrender  to  the  French  on  the 

1  Oth  of  March ;  but  this  was  soon  followed  by  the  battle 
of  Albuera,3  in  which  the  united  British  and  Spanish  forces  gained 
an  important  victory.     Many  battles  were  fought  during  the  re- 
mainder of  the  year,  but  they  were  attended  with  no  important 
results  on  either  side. 

37.  The  year  1812  opened  with  the  surrender  of  the  important 
:ity  of  Valencia  to  Marshal  Suchet  on  the  9th  of  Jan-  xnr  RUS8IAN 
uary — the  last  of  the  long  series  of  French  triumphs  in    CAMPAIGN, 
the  peninsula.     On  the  same  day  Wellington,  in  another       1812t 
quarter,  laid  siege  to  Ciudad  Rodrigo  ;  and  the  capture81  of  this  place 
by  the  British  arms  was  soon  followed  b  by  that  of  Badajoz.     Wel- 
lington, following  up  his  successes,  next  defeated  Marmont0  in  the 
battle  of  Salamanca  :3  the  intrusive  king  Joseph  fled  from  Mad- 
rid, and  on  the  next  day  the  capital  of  Spain  was  in  the  possess- 
ion of  the  British  army.     The  concentration  <•  of  the  French  forces 
again  compelled  the  cautious  Wellington  to  retreat  to  Portugal ;  but 
early  in  the  following  year,  1813,  he  resumed  the  offensive, — gained 

Ocean,— the  most  advanced,  embracing  Torres  Vedras,  being  twenty-nine  miles  in  length,— the 
second,  about  eight  miles  in  the  rear  of  the  first,  being  twenty-four  miles,  and  the  third,  or 
"  lines  of  embarcation,"  in  the  vicinity  of  Lisbon,  designed  to  cover  the  embarcation  of  the 
troops  if  that  extremity  should  become  necessary.  More  than  fifty  miles  of  fortifications,  bris- 
tling with  six  hundred  pieces  of  artillery,  and  one  hundred  and  fifty  forts,  flanked  with  abattis 
and  breastworks,  and  presenting,  in  some  places,  high  hills  artificially  scarped,  in  others  deep 
and  narrow  passes  carefully  choked,  and  artificial  pools  and  marshes  made  by  damming  up  the 
elreams,  were  defended  by  seventy  thousand  disposable  men.  The  French  force  under  Massena 
amounted  to  about  the  same  number.  (Map  No.  Xllf.) 

1.  Badajoz  is  a  city  in  the  west  of  Spain,  on  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Guadiana,  about  two 
hundred  miles  south-west  of  Madrid,  and  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  miles  east  of  Lisbon. 
(JfapNo.XIII.) 

a,  Albuera  is  a  small  town  fourteen  miles  south-east  of  Badajoz.  In  the  battle  of  Albuera, 
fought  May  16th,  1811.  the  allied  British,  Spanish,  and  Portuguese  troops,  were  commanded  by 
Marshal  Beresford,  and  the  French  by  Marshal  Soult.  (Map  No.  XIIJ.j 

3.  Salamanca  is  a  city  of  Leon  in  Spain,  one  hundred  and  nineteen  miles  north-west  from 
Madrid.  It  was  known  to  the  Romans  by  the  name  of  Salamantica.  During  a  long  period  it 
was  celebrated  as  being  the  seat  of  a  University,  which,  in  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries, 
was  attended  by  from  ten  thousand  to  fifteen  thousand  students.  (Map  No.  XIII.) 

a.  Jan.  12th.  b.  April  6th.  c.  July  22d.  d.  Aug.  llth. 


494  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  It 

the  decisive  battlea  of  Vittoria,1  and  before  the  close  of  the  campaign 
drove  the  French  across  the  Pyrenees  into  their  own  territories. 

38.  During  these  reverses  to  the  French  arms,  events  of  greater 
magnitude  than  those  of  the  peninsular  war  were  occupying  the  per- 
sonal attention  of  Napoleon.     The  jealousy  of  Russia  at  his  repeat- 
ed encroachments  in  Central  and  Northern  Europe  has  already  been 
mentioned  :  moreover,  the  commercial  interests  of  Russia,  in  com- 
mon with  those  of  the  other  Northern  powers,  had  been  greatly  in- 
jured by  the  measures  of  Napoleon  for  destroying  the  trade  of  Eng- 
land ;  but  the  French  emperor  refused  to  abandon  his  favorite  policy, 
and  the  angry  discussions  between  the  cabinets  of  St.   Petersburg 
and  Versailles  led  to  the  assembling  of  vast  armies  on  both  sides, 
and  the  commencement  of  hostilities  in  the  early  part  of  the  summer 
of  1812.    Napoleon  had  driven  Sweden  to  enter  into  an  alliance  with 
Russia  and  England ;  but  he  arrayed  around  his  standard  the  im- 
mense forces  of  France,  Italy,  Germany,  the  Confederation  of  the 
Rhine,  Poland,  and  the  two  monarchies  Prussia  and  Austria. 

39.  The  "  Grand  Army"  assembled  in  Poland  for  the  Russian 
war  amounted  to  the  immense  aggregate  of  more  than  five  hundred 
thousand  men,  of  whom  eighty  thousand  were  cavalry — the  whole 
supported  by  thirteen  hundred  pieces  of  cannon.     Nearly  twenty 
thousand  chariots  or  carts,  of  all  descriptions,  followed  the   army, 
while  the  whole  number  of  horses  amounted  to  one  hundred  and 
eighty-seven  thousand.     To  oppose  this  vast  army  the  Russians  had 
collected,  at  the  beginning  of  the  contest,  nearly  three  hundred  thou- 
sand men ;  but  as  the  war  was  carried  into  the  interior  their  forces 
increased  in  numbers  until  the  armies  on  both  sides  were  nearly 
equal. 

40.  On  the  24th  of  June,  1812,  Napoleon  crossed  the  Niemen  at 
the  head  of  the  "  Grand  Army,"  and  entered  upon  his  ever  mem- 
orable Russian  campaign.     As  the  enormous  superiority  of  his  forces 
rendered  it  hopeless  for  the  Russians  to  attempt  any  immediate  re- 
sistance, they  gradually  fell  back  before  the  invaders,  wasting  the 
country  as  they  retreated.     The  wisdom  of  this  course  soon  became 
apparent.     A  terrible   tempest  soon  set  in,  and  the  horses  in  the 
French  army  perished  by  thousands  from  the  combined  effects  of  in- 

1.  Vittoria  is  a  town  in  the  Spanish  province  of  Alava,  on  the  road  between  Burgos  and 
Bayonne,  sixty  miles  north-east  from  the  former.  The  Battle  of  Vittoria  almost  annihilated  the 
French  power  ai  Spain.  (Map  No.  XIII.) 

a.  June  21st,  1813. 


CHAP.  VI.]  NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  495 

cessant  rain  and  scanty  forage  :  the  soldiers  sickened  in  great  num- 
bers ;  and  before  a  single  shot  had  been  fired  twenty -five  thousand 
sick  and  dying  men  filled  the  hospitals ;  ten  thousand  dea4  horses 
strewed  the  road  to  Wilna,1  and  one  hundred  and  twenty  pieces  of 
cannon  were  abandoned  for  want  of  the  means  of  transport. 

41.  Still  Napoleon  pressed  onward  in  several  divisions,  frequently 
skirmishing  with  the  enemy,  and  driving  them  before  him,  until  he 
arrived  under  the  fortified  walls  of  Smolensko,  where  thirty  thousand 
Russians  made  a  stand  to  oppose  him.     A  hundred  and  fifty  cannon 
were  brought  up  to  batter  the  walls,  but  without  effect,  for  the  thick- 
ness of  the  ramparts  defied  the  efforts  of  the  artillery.a     But  the 
French  howitzers  set  fire  to  some  houses  near  the  ramparts ;   the 
flames  spread  with  wonderful  rapidity,  and  during  the  night  which 
followed  the  battle  a  lurid  light  from  the  burning  city  was  cast  over 
the  French  bivouacs,  grouped  in  dense  masses  for  several  miles  in 
circumference.     At  three  in  the  morning  a  solitary  French  soldier 
scaled  the  walls,  and  penetrated  into  the  interior ;  but  he  found 
neither  inhabitants  nor  opponents.     The  work  of  destruction  had 
been  completed  by  the  voluntary  sacrifice  of  the  inhabitants,  who  had 
withdrawn  with  the  army,  leaving  a  ruined  city,  naked  walls,  and  the 
cannon  which  mounted  them,  as  the  only  trophy  to  the  conqueror. 

42.  The   division   of  the    army  led   by  Napoleon   followed    the 
Russians  on  the  road  to  Moscow,  engaging  in  frequent  but  indecisive 
encounters  with  the  rear  guard.     When  the  retreating  forces  had 
reached  the  small  village  of  Borodino,8  their  commander,  General 
Kutusoff,  resolved  to  risk  a  battle,  in  the  hope  of  saving  Moscow. 
On  the  evening  of  the  6th  of  September  the  two  vast  armies  took  their 
positions  facing  each  other, — each  numbering  more  than  a  hundred 
and  thirty  thousand  men — the  Russians  having  six  hundred  and  forty 
pieces  of  cannon,  and  the  French  five  hundred  and  ninety.    Napoleon 
sought  to  stimulate  the  enthusiasm  of  his  soldiers  by  recounting  to 
them  the  glories  of  Marengo,  of  Jena,  and  of  Austerlitz ;  while  a 
procession  of  dignified  clergy  passed  through  the  Russian  ranks,  be- 
stowing their  blessings  upon  the  kneeling  soldiers,  and  invoking  the 
aid  of  the  God  of  battles  to  drive  the  invader  from  the  land. 

1.  Wilna,  the  former  capital  of  Lithuania,  is  at  the  confluence  of  the  rivers  Wilenka  and 
Wilna,  eastern  tributaries  of  the  Niemen,  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  north-east  from 
Warsaw.    Population  nearly  forty  thousand,  of  whom  more  than  twenty  thousand  are  Jews. 
(Map  No.  XVII.) 

2.  Borodino  (bor-o-dee'-no)  is  a  small  village  about  seventy  miles  south-west  from  Moscow, 
on  the  small  stream  ol  the  Kolotza,  a  tributary  of  the  Moskwa, 

a  Aug.  llth. 


496  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

43.  At  six  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  7th  a  gun  fired  from  the 
French  lines  announced  the  commencement  of  the  battle :  the  roar 
of  more  than  a  thousand  cannon  shook  the  earth :  vast  clouds  of 
smoke,  shutting  out  the  light  of  the  sun,  arose  in  awful  sublimity 
over  the  scene  ;  and  two  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  combatants,  led 
on  in  the  gathering  gloom  by  the  light  of  the  cannon  and  musketry, 
engaged  in  the  work  of  death.     The  battle  raged  with  desolating  fury 
until  night  put  an  end  to  its  horrors.     The  slaughter  was  immense. 
The  loss  on  both  sides  was   nearly  equal,  amounting,  in  the  aggre- 
gate, to   ninety  thousand  in   killed  and   wounded.      The  Russian 
position  was  eventually  carried,  but  neither  side  gained  a  decisive 
victory. 

44.  On  the  day  after  the  battle  the  Russians  retired,  in  perfect 
order,  on  the  great  road  to  Moscow.     Preparations  were  immediately 
made  by  the  inhabitants  for  abandoning  that  city,  long  revered  as 
the  cradle  of  the  empire ;  and  when,  on  the  14th,  Napoleon  entered 
it,  no  deputation  of  citizens  awaited  him  to  deprecate  his  hostility, 
but  the  dwellings  of  three  hundred  thousand  persons  were  as  silent 
as  the  wilderness.     It  seemed  like  a  city  of  the  dead.     Napoleon 
took  up  his  residence  in  the  Kremlin,  the  ancient  palace  of  the  czars ; 
but  the  Russian  authorities  had  determined  that  their  beloved  city 
should  not  afford  a  shelter  to  the  invaders.     At  midnight  on  the 
night  of  the  15th  a  vast  light  was  seen  to  illuminate  the  most  distant 
part  of  the  city ;  fires  broke  out  in  all  directions ;  and  Moscow  soon 
exhibited  a  vast  ocean  of  flame  agitated  by  the  wind.     Nine-tenths 
of  the  city  were  consumed,  and  Napoleon  was  driven  to  seek  a  tem- 
porary refuge  for  his  army  in  the  country ;  but  afterwards  returning 
to  the  Kremlin,  which  had  escaped  the  ravages  of  the  fire,  he  re- 
mained there  until  the  19th  of  October,  when,  all  his  proposals  of 
peace  being  rejected,  he  was  compelled  to  order  a  retreat. 

45.  The  horrors  of  that  retreat,  which,  during  fifty-five  days  that 
intervened  until  the  recrossing  of  the  Niemen,  was  almost  one  con- 
tinued battle,  exceeded  anything  before  known  in  the  annals  of  war. 
The  exasperated  Russians  intercepted  the  retreating  army  wherever 
an  opportunity  offered ;  and  a  cloud  of  Cossacks,  hovering  incessant- 
ly around  the  wearied  columns,  gradually  wore  away  their  numbers., 
But  the  severities  of  the  Russian  winter,  which  set  in  on  the  6th  of 
November,  were  far  more  destructive  of  life  than  the  sword  of  the 
enemy.    The  weather,  before  mild,  suddenly  changed  to  intense  cold : 
the  wind  howled  frightfully  through  the  forests,  or  swept  over  the 


CHAP.  VI.]  *  NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  497 

plains  with  resistless  fury ;  and  the  snow  fell  in  thick  and  continued 
showers,  soon  confounding  all  objects,  and  leaving  the  army  to  wander 
without  landmarks  through  an  icy  desert.  Thousands  of  the  soldiers, 
falling  benumbed  with  cold,  and  exhausted,  perished  miserably  in  sight 
of  their  companions ;  and  the  route  of  the  rear  guard  of  the  army  was 
literally  choked  up  by  the  icy  mounds  of  the  dead.  In  their  nightly 
bivouacs  crowds  of  starving  men  prepared,  around  their  scanty  fires, 
a  miserable  meal  of  rye  mixed  with  snow  water  and  horse  flesh ;  but 
numbers  never  awoke  from  the  slumbers  that  followed  ;  and  the  sites 
of  the  night  fires  were  marked  by  circles  of  dead  bodies,  with  their 
feet  still  resting  on  the  extinguished  piles.  Clouds  of  ravens,  issuing 
from  the  forests,  hovered  over  the  dying  remains  of  the  soldiers ; 
while  troops  of  famished  dogs,  which  had  followed  the  army  from 
Moscow,  howled  in  the  rear,  and  often  fell  upon  their  victims  before 
life  was  extinct.  The  ambition  of  Napoleon  had  led  the  pride  and 
the  chivalry  of  Europe  to  perish  amid  the  snows  of  a  Russian 
winter ;  and  he  bitterly  felt  the  taunt  of  the  enemy,  "  Could  the 
French  find  no  graves  in  their  own  land  ?" 

46.  Napoleon  had  first  thought  of  remaining  in  winter  quarters  at 
Smolensko ;  but  the  exhausted  state  of  his  magazines,  and  the  con- 
centrating around  him  of  vast  forces  of  the  enemy,  which  threatened 
soon  to  overwhelm  him,  convinced  him  that  a  protracted  stay  was 
impossible,  and  on  the  1 4th  of  November  the  retreat  was  renewed — 
Napoleon,  in  the  midst  of  his  still  faithful  guards,  leading  the  ad- 
vance, and  the  heroic  Ney  bringing  up  the  rear.  But  the  enemy 
harassed  them  at  every  step.  During  the  16th,  17th,  and  18th,  in 
the  battles  of  Krasnoi,1  Napoleon  lost  ten  thousand  killed,  twenty 
thousand  taken  prisoners,  and  more  than  a  hundred  pieces  of  cannon 
fell  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  The  terrible  passage  of  the  Bere- 
sina,2  which  was  purchased  by  the  loss  of  sixteen  thousand  prisoners, 
and  twenty-four  thousand  killed  or  drowned  in  the  stream,  completed 
the  ruin  of  the  Grand  Army.  All  subordination  now  ceased,  and  it 
was  with  difficulty  that  Marshal  Ney  could  collect  three  thousand 
men  on  foot  to  form  the  rear  guard,  and  protect  the  helpless  multi- 
tude from  the  indefatigable  Cossacks ;  and  when  at  length  the  few 
remaining  fugitives  reached  the  passage  pf  the  Niemen,  the  rear 
guard  was  reduced  to  thirty  men.  The  veteran  marshal,  bearing  a 
musket,  and  still  facing  the  enemy,  was  the  last  of  the  Grand  Army 

1.  Krasnoi  is  a  small  town  about  thirty  miles  south-west  from  Smolensko.    (Map  No.  XVIL) 

2.  The  Beresina  is  a  western  tributary  of  the  Dnieper.    See  Map  No.  XVII. 

32 


498  MODERN  HISTORY.     *  [PAET  II. 


. 


who  left  the  Russian  territory.  Napoleon  had  already  abandoned 
the  remnant  of  his  forces,  and,  setting  orit  in  a  sledge  for  Paris,  he 
arrived  there  at  midnight  on  the  18th  of  December,  even  before 
the  news  of  his  terrible  reverses  had  reached  the  capital.  It  has 
been  estimated  that,  in  this  famous  Russian  campaign,  one  hundred 
and  twenty-five  thousand  men  of  the  army  of  Napoleon  perished  in 
battle ;  that  one  hundred  and  thirty-two  thousand  died  of  fatigue, 
hunger,  and  cold ;  and  that  nearly  two  hundred  thousand  were  taken 
prisoners. 

47.  While  these  great  events  were  transpiring  on  the  continent  of 
Europe,  difficulties  arose  between  the  United  States  of  America  and 
Great  Britain,  which  led  to  the  opening  of  war  between  those  two 
powers  in  the  summer  of  1812.     Mexico  was  at  this  time  passing 
through  the  struggles  of  her  first  Revolution  ;  and  a  feeble  war  was 
still  maintained  between  the  French  and  British  possessions  in  the 
Indian  seas ;  but  these  events  were  of  little  interest  in  comparison 
with  that  mighty  drama  which  was  enacting  around  the  centre  of  Na- 
poleon's power,  and  which  was  converting  nearly  all  Europe  into  a 
field  of  blood. 

48.  Notwithstanding  his  terrible  reverses  in  the  Russian  campaign, 

Napoleon  found  that  he  still  possessed  the  confidence  of 
the  French  nation  :  he  at  once  obtained  from  the  senate 
a  new  levy  of  three  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  men — took  the  most 
vigorous  measures  to  repair  his  losses,  and,  having  arranged  his  dif- 
ficulties with  the  pope,  on  the  15th  of  April  he  left  Paris  for  the 
theatre  of  war.  In  the  meantime  Prussia  and  Sweden  had  joined 
the  alliance  against  him ;  a  general  insurrection  spread  over  the 
German  States  ;  Austria  wavered  ;  and  already  the  confederates  had 
advanced  as  far  as  the  Elbe.  On  the  2d  of  May  Napoleon  gained 
the  battle  of  Lutzen,  and  a  fortnight  later  that  of  Bautzen  j1  but  as 
these  were  not  decisive,  on  the  4th  of  July  an  armistice  was  agreed 
to,  and  a  congress  met  at  Prague  to  consider  terms  of  peace. 

49.  As  Napoleon  would  listen  to  nothing  calculated  to  limit  his 
power,  on  the  expiration  of  the  armistice,  on  the  10th  of  August, 
war  was  renewed,  when  the  Austrian  emperor,  abandoning  the  cause 
of  his  son-in-law,  joined  the  allies.     Napoleon  at  once  commenced  a 
series  of  vigorous  operations  against  his  several  foes,  and  with  vari- 

1.  Bautzen  (bout-sen)  is  a  town  of  Saxony,  on  the  eastern  bank  of  the  river  Spree,  thirty-two 
jnilss  north-east  from  Dresden.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 


CHAP.VL]  NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  499 

ous  success  fought  the  battles  of  Culm,1  Gross-Beren,*  the  Katsbach,1 
and  Dennewitz,4  in  which  the  allies,  although  not  decidedly  victorious, 
were  constantly  gaining  strength.  In  the  first  battle  of  Leipsic, 
fought  on  the  16th  of  October,  the  result  was  indecisive,  but  in  the 
battle  of  the  1 8th  the  French  were  signally  defeated,  and  on  the  fol- 
lowing morning  began  a  retrograde  movement  towards  the  Rhine. 
Pressed  on  all  sides  by  the  allies,  great  numbers  were  made  prisoners 
during  the  retreat ;  about  eighty  thousand,  left  to  garrison  the 
Prussian  fortresses,  surrendered ;  the  Saxons,  Hanoverians,  and 
Hollanders,  threw  off  the  French  yoke ;  and  it  was  at  this  time  that 
Wellington  was  completing  the  expulsion  of  the  French  from  Spain. 
50.  The  year  1814  opened  with  the  invasion  of  France,  on  the 
eastern  frontiers,  by  the  Prussian,  Russian,  and  Austrian 
armies  ;  while  Wellington,  having  crossed  the  Pyrenees, 
laid  siege  to  Bayonne  :  Bernadotte,  the  old  comrade  of  Napoleon, 
but  now  king  of  Sweden,  was  marching  against  France  at  the  head 
a  hundred  thousand  men  ;  and  Murat,  king  of  Naples,  brother-in-law 
of  the  French  emperor,  eager  to  secure  his  crown,  entered  into  a  se- 
cret treaty  with  Austria  for  the  expulsion  of  the  French  from  Italy. 
Never  did  the  military  talents  of  Napoleon  shine  with  greater  lustre 
than  at  this  crisis.  During  two  months,  with  a  greatly  inferior  force, 
he  repelled  the  attacks  of  his  enemies,  gained  many  brilliant  victo- 
ries, and  electrified  all  Europe  by  the  rapidity  and  skill  of  his  move- 
ments. But  the  odds  were  too  great  against  him ;  the  enemy  had 
crossed  the  Rhine,  and  while,  by  a  bold  movement,  Napoleon  threw 
himself  into  the  rear  of  the  allies,  hoping  to  intimidate  them  into  a 
retreat,  they  marched  upon  Paris,  which  was  compelled  to  capitulate 
before  he  could  come  to  its  relief.  Two  days  later  the  emperor  was 
formally  deposed  by  the  senate,  and,  on  the  6th  of  April,  with  a 
trembling  hand,  he  signed  an  unconditional  abdication  of  the  thrones 
of  France  and  Italy.  By  a  treaty  concluded  between  him  and  the 
allies  on  the  1 1  th,  Napoleon  was  promised  the  sovereignty  of  the 

1.  Culm  is  a  small  town  in  the  north  of  Bohemia,  at  the  foot  of  the  Erze-Gebirg  mountains, 
about  fifty  miles  north-west  from  Prague.    On  the  30th  of  August,  1813,  the  French  under 
Vandamme  were  utterly  overwhelmed  by  the  allied  Austrians,  Russians,  and  Prussians,  com- 
manded by  Barclay  de  Tolly.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

2.  Gross-Berenjtgroce-bZren)  is  a  small  village  a  short  distance  south  of  Berlin,  and  east 
of  Potsdam    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

3.  The  Katsbach.  (kats-back)  is  a  western  tributary  of  the  Oder,  in  Silicia.    The  battle,  or 
several  battles  of  that  name,  were  fought  near  the  eastern  bank  of  that  stream,  west  of  Lieguitz, 
and  fifty-five  miles  norlh-west  from  Breslau.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

4.  Dennewitz  is  a  small  village  of  Prussian  Saxony,  seven  miles  north-east  from  Wittemberg 
(Map  No.  XVII.) 


500  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PABT  IL 

island  of  Elba,1  and  a  pension  of  one  hundred  thousand  pounds  per 
annum.  On  the  3d  of  May,  Louis  XVIII.,  returning  from  his  long 
exile,  reentered  Paris :  to  conciliate  the  French  people  he  gave  them 
a  constitutional  charter,  and  soon  after  concluded  a  formal  treaty 
with  the  allies,  by  which  the  continental  dominions  of  France  were 
restricted  to  what  they  had  been  in  1 792. 

51.  The  final  settlement  of  European  affairs  had  been  left  to  a 
general  congress  of  the  ministers  of  the  allied  powers,  which  assem- 
bled at  Vienna  on  the  25th  of  September  ;  but  while  the  conferences 
were  still  pending,  the  congress  was  thrown  into  consternation  by  the 
announcement  that  Napoleon  had  left  Elba.     An  extensive  conspira- 
cy had  been  formed  throughout  France  for  restoring  the 
fallen  emperor,  and  on  the  1st  of  March,  1815,  he  landed 

at  Frejus,  accompanied  by  only  eleven  hundred  men  : — everywhere 
the  soldiery  received  him  with  enthusiasm  :  Ney,  who  had  sworn 
fidelity  to  the  new  government,  went  over  to  him  at  the  head  of  a 
force  sent  to  arrest  his  progress ;  and  on  the  evening  of  the  20th  of 
March  he  reentered  the  French  capital,  which  Louis  XVIII.  had 
left  early  in  the  morning.  With  the  exception  of  Augereau,  Mar- 
mont,  Macdonald,  and  a  few  others,  all  the  officers,  civil  and  military, 
embraced  his  cause ; — at  the  end  of  a  month  his  authority  was  rees- 
tablished throughout  all  France ;  and  he  again  found  himself  at  the 
summit  of  power,  by  one  of  the  most  remarkable  transitions  recorded 
in  history. 

52.  In  vain  Napoleon  now  attempted  to  open  negotiations  with 
the  allied  powers,  and  professed  an  ardent  desire  for  peace ;  the  allies 
denounced  him  as  the  common  enemy  of  Europe,  and  refused  to  re- 
cognize his  authority  as  emperor  of  the  French  people.     All  Europe 
was  now  in  arms  against  the  usurper,  and  it  was  estimated  that,  by  the 
middle  of'summer,  six  hundred  thousand  effective  men  could  be  as- 
sembled against  him  on  the  French  frontiers.     But  nothing  which 
genius  and  activity  could  accomplish  was  wanting  on  the  part  of  Na- 
poleon to  meet  the  coming  storm ; — and  in  a  country  that  seemed 
drained  of  men  and  money,  he  was  able,  by  the  1st  of  June,  to  put 

1.  Elba,  (the  (Etholia  of  the  Greeks,  and  the  Iloa  or  Ilva  of  the  Romany)  is  a  mountainous 
island  of  the  Mediterranean,  between  the  Italian  coast  and  Corsica,  six  or  seven  miles  from  the 
nearest  point  of  the  former,  and  having  an  area  of  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  square  miles. 
It  derives  its  chief  historical  interest  from  its  having  been  the  residence  and  empire  of  Napo- 
leon from  the  3d  of  May  1814,  to  the  26th  of  February  1815.  During  this  short  period  a  road 
was  opened  between  the  two  principal  towns,  trade  revived,  and  a  now  era  seemed  to  have 
dawned  upon  the  island.  (Map  No.  VIII.) 


CHAP  VL]  NINETEENTH  CENTURY.  501 

on  foot  an  army  of  two  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  veterans,  who 
had  served  in  his  former  wars. 

53.  His  policy  was  to  attack  the  allies  in  detail,  before  their  forces 
could  be  concentrated,  and  with  this  view  he  hastened  across  the 
Belgian  frontier  on  the  15th  of  June,  with  a  force  numbering,  at  that 
point,  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  men.  On  the  1 6th  he  defeated 
the  Prussians,  under  Blucher,  at  Ligny,1  but  at  the  same  time  Ney  was 
defeated  by  Wellington  at  Quatre  Bras.*  The  defeat  of  the  Prussians 
induced  Wellington  to  fall  back  upon  Waterloo,3  where,  at  eleven 
o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  18th,  he  was  attacked  by  Napoleon  in 
person,  while,  at  the  same  time,  large  bodies  of  French  and  Prussians 
were  engaged  at  Wavre.3  On  the  field  of  Waterloo  the  combat 
raged  during  the  day  with  terrific  fury — Napoleon  in  vain  hurling 
column  after  column  upon  the  British  lines,  which  withstood  his  as- 
saults like  a  wall  of  adamant ;  and  when,  at  length,  at  seven  in  the 
evening,  he  brought  up  the  Imperial  Guard  for  a  final  effort,  it  was 
driven  back  in  disorder.  At  the  same  time  Blucher,  coming  up  with 
the  Prussians,  completed  the  rout  of  the  French  army.  The  broken 
host  fled  in  all  directions,  and  Napoleon  himself,  hastening  to  Paris,  was 
the  herald  of  his  own  defeat.  Once  more  the  capital  capitulated,  and 
was  occupied  by  foreign  troops  :  Napoleon  a  second  time  abdicated 
the  throne,  and,  after  vainly  attempting  to  escape  to  America,  sur- 
rendered himself  to  a  British  man-of-war.  He  was  banished  by  the 

allies  to  the  island  of  St.  Helena,6  where  he  died  on  the  5th  of  May, 

j    ... 

1.  Ligny  is  a  small  village  on  the  small  stream  of  the  same  name,  two  or  three  miles  north- 
east of  Fleurus,  and  about  eighteen  miles  east  of  south  from  Waterloo.    (Maps  Nos.  XII. 
and  XV.) 

2.  Quatre  Bras  (kah-tr-brah  "  four  arms,")  is  at  the  meeting  of  four  roads  about  seventeen 
miles  south  from  Brussels,  and  nearly  ten  miles  south  from  Waterloo.     {Maps  Nos.  XII. 
and  XV.) 

3.  Waterloo  is  a  small  village  or  hamlet  of  Belgium,  nine  miles  south  of  Brussels,  and  on  the 
south-western  border  of  the  forest  of  Soignies.    The  great  road  from  Brussels  leading  south  to 
Charleroi  passes  through  Waterloo,  about  three-quarters  of  a  mile  south  of  which  was  the 
centre  of  the  position  of  the  allies,  who  occupied  the  crest  of  a  range  of  gentle  eminences,  ex- 
tending about  two  miles  in  length,  and  crossing  the  high  road  at  right  angles.    The  French 
army  occupied  a  corresponding  line  of  ridges  nearly  parallel,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  valley, 
and  about  three-quarters  of  a  mile  distant.    In  the  valley  between  these  ridges  the  "  Battle  of 
Waterloo"  was  fought.    (Maps  Nos.  XII.  and  XV.) 

4.  Wavre  is  a  small  village  on  the  western  bank  of  a  small  stream  called  the  Dyle,  nine  miles 
a  little  south  of  east  from  Waterloo,  and  fifteen  miles  south-east  from  Brussels.    The  river  Dyle 
is  not  deep,  but  at  the  period  of  the  battle  it  was  swollen  by  the  recent  heavy  rain,  and  the 
roads  were  in  a  miry  state.    (Maps  Nos.  XII.  and  XV.) 

5.  St.  Helena  is  an  island  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  belonging  to  Great  Britain,  in  fifteen  deg. 
fifteen  min.  south  hit.,  and  twelve  hundred  miles  west  from  the  coast  of  Benguela  in  South  Af« 
rica.    Length  ten  and  a-half  miles,  breadth  six  and  a-half  miles.    It  is  a  rocky  island,  the  inte- 
rior of  which  is  a  plateau  about  fifteen  hundred  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.    The  highest 


502  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAET  IL 

1821,  during  one  of  the  most  violent  tempests  that  had  ever  raged 
on  the  island — fitting  time  for  the  soul  of  Napoleon  to  take  its  de- 
parture. In  his  last  moments  his  thoughts  wandered  to  the  scenes  of 
his  military  glory,  and  his  last  words  were  those  of  command,  as  he 
fancied  himself  at  the  head  of  his  armies. 

54.  After  the  capitulation  of  Paris,  the  tranquilization  of  France, 
and  the  future  peace  and  safety  of  Europe,  received  the  first  atten- 
tion of  the  allies.     Louis  XVIII.  following  in  the  rear  of  their 
armies,  entered  the  capital  on  the  8th  of  July;    but  the  French 
people  felt  too  deeply  the  humiliation  of  defeat  to  express  any  joy  at 
his  restoration.     The  mournful  tragedy  which  followed,  in  the  exe- 
cution of  Marshal  Ney  and  Labedoyere  for  high  treason  in  favoring 
Napoleon's  return  from  Elba,  after  the  undoubted  protection  which 
had  been  guaranteed  them  by  the  capitulation  of  Paris,  was  a  stain 
upon  the  character  of  the  allies ;  and  although  Ney's  treason  was 
beyond  that  of  any  other  man,  to  the  end  of  the  world  his  guilt  will 
be  forgotten  in  the  broken  faith  of  his  enemies,  and  the  tragic  interest 
and  noble  heroism  of  his  death.     The  fate  of  Murat,  king  of  Naples, 
was  equally  mournful,  but  less  unjust.     On  Napoleon's  landing  at 
Frejus  he  had  made  a  diversion  in  his  favor  by  breaking  his  alliance 
with  Austria,  and  commencing  the  war ;  but  the  cowardly  Neapoli- 
tans were  easily  overthrown,  and  Murat  was  obliged  to  seek  refuge  in. 
France.    At  the  head  of  a  few  followers  he  afterwards  made  a  descent 
upon  the  coast  of  Naples,  in  the  hope  of  regaining  his  power ;  but 
being  seized,  he  was  tried  by  a  military  commission,  condemned,  and 
executed. 

55.  On  the  20th  of  November,  1815,  the  second  treaty  of  Paris 
was  concluded  between  France  and  the  allied  powers,  by  which  the 
French  frontier  was  narrowed  to  nearly  the  state  in  which  it  stood 
in  1790  :  twenty-eight  million  pounds  sterling  were  to  be  paid  by 
France  for  the  expenses  of  the  war,  and  a  larger  sum  still  for  the 


mountain  summit  is  two  thousand  seven  hundred  and  three  feet  in  height.  Jamestown,  the  port, 
and  residence  of  the  authorities,  is  the  only  town.  Longwood,  the  residence  of  Napoleon,  stand* 
on  the  plateau,  in  the  middle  of  an  extensive  park.  After  Napoleon's  death  the  house  was  for 
some  time  uninhabited,  but  was  finally  converted  into  a  kind  of  farming  establishment ;  and 
recently,  the  room  in  which  the  conqueror  of  Austerlitz  breathed  his  last,  was  occupied  as  a 
caruhouse  and  stable ! 

Napoleon  arrived  at  St.  Helena  on  the  13th  of  October,  1815,  and  there  he  expired  on  the  5th 
of  May,  1821.  His  remains,  after  having  been  deposited  for  nineteen  years  in  a  humble  grave 
near  the  house,  were,  in  1840,  conveyed  with  great  pomp  and  ceremony  to  France,  where, 
agreeably  to  the  wish  expressed  in  his  last  will,  they  now  repose,  in  the  Hotel  dea  Invalidea,  In 
Paris. 


CHAP  VI.]  NINETEENTH    CENTURY.  503 

spoliations  which  she  had  inflicted  on  other  powers  during  her  Revo- 
lution, and  for  five  years  her  frontier  fortresses  were  to  be  placed  in 
the  hands  of  her  recent  enemies ;  while  the  vast  treasures  of  art 
which  adorned  the  museums  of  the  Louvre — the  trophies  of  a  hundred 
victories — were  to  be  restored  to  the  States  from  which  they  had 
oeen  pillaged  by  the  orders  of  Napoleon.  Mournfully  the  Parisians 
parted  with  these  memorials  of  the  glories  of  the  consulate  and  the 
empire.  The  tide  of  conquest  had  now  set  against  France  herself: — 
her  pride  was  broken — her  humiliation  complete — and  the  iron  en- 
tered into  the  soul  of  the  nation. 


SECTION    II. 

FROM  THE  FALL  OF  NAPOLEON  TO  THE  PRESENT  TIME. 
I.  THE  PERIOD  OF  PEACE :  1815—1820. 

ANALYSIS.  [TREATIES  OF  1815.]  1.  Treaty  between  Russia,  Prussia,  Austria,  and  Eng- 
land. The  "  Holy  Alliance."  General  accession  to  it.— 2.  Its  authorship,  objects,  and  effects.— 
3.  Condition  of  Europe.  Continued  popular  excitement,  but  change  in  its  objects. 

4.  The  social  contest  in  ENGLAND.  Prosperity  of  England  during  the  war. — 5.  Disappointed 
expectations.  Causes  of  a  general  revulsion.  Scarcity,  in  1816. — 6.  Other  contributing  causes — 
diminished  supply  of  the  precious  metals,  &c.  Demands  of  the  Radicals. — 7.  Policy  of  the 
English  government.  Reforms  granted.  Reported  conspiracy.— 8.  Stringent  measures  of  gov- 
ernment. The  meeting  at  Manchester.  [Manchester.]  Continued  complaints.  Government 
carries  all  its  important  measures. — 9.  The  piratical  States  of  Northern  Africa.  [Barbary.]  The 
United  States  of  America  and  Algiers.— 10.  Chastisement  of  Algiers  by  an  English  gquadron,  in 
J816.— J 1.  Importance  of  these  events.  Decline  of  the  Ottoman  empire. 

12.  Situation  of  FRANCE  at  the  time  of  the  second  restoration.  Change  in  public  feeling 
against  the  Bonapartisls  and  Republicans.  Punishment  of  the  Revolutionists  demanded. — 13. 
Religious  and  political  feuds.  Atrocities. — 14.  Demands,  and  acts,  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies 
of  1815.  Singular  position  of  parties.— 15.  Policy  of  the  king  and  ministry,  and  coup  d'etat 
(Koo-dd-tah)  of  Sept.  1816. — 16.  Effects  of  the  new  measures. 

II.   REVOLUTIONS  IN  SPAIN,   PORTUGAL,   NAPLES,   PIEDMONT,  GREECE, 
FRANCE,  BELGIUM,  AND  POLAND:   1820—1831. 

I.  SPAIN.    1.  Spain  from  1815  to  1820.    Grant  of  a  constitution  in  1820.    The  party  opposed 
to  it.    Action  taken  by  the  European  powers.— 2.  Interference  of  the  French  in  1823.    Re 
mainder  of  the  reign  of  Ferdinand.    The  course  of  England  and  the  United  States  of  America. 

II.  PORTUGAL.    1.  Situation  of  Portugal.    Revolution  of  1820.     Opposition  to,  and  sup- 
pression of,  the  new  constitution.    Anarchy. — 2.  Don  Pedro.    Don  Miguel's  usurpation.    Civil 
war.    Foreign  interference,  and  restoration  of  tranquillity. 

III.  NAPLES.    1.  History  of  the  kingdom  of  Naples  previous  to  1815. — 2.  The  subsequent  rule 
of  Ferdinand.    Popular  insurrection  in  July,  1820.    Grant  of  a  constitution.    Resolution  of 
Russia,  Austria,  and  Prussia,  to  put  down  the  constitution.    [Troppau.]— 3.  Conduct  of  Ferdi- 
nand.   [Laybach.]    An  Austrian  army  suppresses  the  Revolution. 

IV.  PIEDMONT.    1.  Account  of  the  Sardinian  monarchy.    [Sardinia.    Tessino.]    Feelings  and 


504  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAET  II. 

complaints  of  the  Piedmontese. — 2.  Insurrection  in  Piedmont,  March  1821.    Success  of  the  in- 
surgents, and  abdication  of  the  king.    Austrian  interference  suppresses  the  Revolution. 

V.  THK  GREEK  REVOLUTION.    J.  History  of  Greece  from  1481  to  1821.    Proclamation  of 
Grecian  independence  in  1821.    Suppression  of  the  Revolution  in  Northern  Greece.    [Islam- 
ism.    Trieste.]— 2.  Beginning  and  spread  of  the  Revolution  in  the  Morea.    Proclamation  of 
the  Messenian  senate.    [Kalamatia.]    Aid  extended  to  the  Greeks. — 3.  Rage,  and  cruelties,  of  the 
Turks.    Effects  produced.— 4.  Events  on  the  Asiatic  coast,  in  Candia,  Cypress,  Rhodes,  &c. 
Successes  and  retaliatory  measures  of  the  Greeks.    [Monembasia.    Navariuo.    Tripolitza.] — 5. 
Defeat  of  the  Turks  at  Thermopylae.    The  peninsula  of  Cassandra  laid  waste  by  them.    [Cas- 
sandra.]   The  Turks  driven  from  the  country  to  the  cities. 

[182-2.]— 6.  Acts  of  the  Greek  congress.  [Epidaurus.]  Dissensions  and  difficulties  among 
the  Greeks. — 7.  Principal  military  events  of  1822.  [Scio.  Napoli  di  Romania.] — 8.  Destruction 
of  Scio.  Events  in  Southern  Macedonia.  [Saloniea.]— 8.  Events  in  Western  Greece.  The 
Greek  flre-ships.  [Tenedos.]  Great  loss  of  Turkish  vessels.  Taking  of  Napoli  di  Romania. 

[1823.]— 9.  Events  of  the  war  during  the  year  1823.  [Missolonghi.]  The  poet  Lord  Byron. 
[1824.] — 10.  The  Turks  besiege  Negropont,  subdue  Candia,  reduce  Ipsara,  and  attack  Samos. 
The  Egyptian  fleet,  [1825-6.]— 11.  Successes  of  Ibrahim  Pacha  in  the  Morea.  Siege  and  fall 
of  Missolonghi.  [Salona.]  Fate  of  the  inhabitants  of  Missolonghi. — 12.  Danger  apprehended 
from  the  successes  of  Ibrahim  Pacha,  and  treaty  of  London,  July  1827. — 13.  Allied  squadron 
sent  to  the  archipelago.  Battle  of  Navarino.  Rage  of  the  Porte. — 14.  French  and  English  army 
sent  to  the  Morea,  1828.  War  between  Russia  and  Turkey.  [Pruth.]  Convention  with  Ibra- 
him Pacha.  Successes  of  the  Greeks.  Retaliatory  measures  of  the  sultan.— 15.  Protocol  of  the 
allies,  Jan.  1827.  [Cyclades.J  Successes  of  the  Russians,  and  peace  of  Adrianople.  [Balkan 
Mts.] — 16.  Unsettled  condition  of  the  country  and  its  subsequent  history. 

VI.  THK  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  OF  1830.    1.  Beginning  of  the  reign  of  Charles  X.    Principles 
of  his  government  and  opposition  of  the  people.    The  Poliguac  ministry,  1829. — 2.  The  royal 
speech  at  the  opening  of  the  Chambers  in  183!).    Effects.    Reply  of  the  Chambers.    Dissolution 
of  the  Chambers.— 3.  War  with  Algiers.— 4.  Continued  excitement  in  France.    Result  of  the 
elections.    Course  pursued  by  the  ministry.    The  three  ordinances  of  July  26th.    Accompany- 
ing report  of  the  ministers. — 5.  The  course  pursued  by  the  public  journals.     Excitement 
throughout  Paris.    Apathy  of  the  king  and  ministers.— 6.    Events  of  the  27th.    Marmont. 
Arming  of  the  people. — 7.  On  the  28th  the  riot  assumes  the  aspect  of  a  Revolution.    The  con- 
test during  the  day.    Its  results.— 8.  Renewal  of  the  contest  on  the  third  day.    Defection  of 
the  troops  of  the  line,  and  success  of  the  revolution.    Installation  of  a  provisional  government. 
Louis  Phillippe  elected  king.— 9.  Alarm  of  the  continental  sovereigns.    The  emperor  of  Russia. 
Charles  X.  and  his  ministers. 

VII.  BELGIUM.    1.  Effects  of  the  French  Revolution  upon  Europe.    Revolution  in  Belgium. 
— 2.  Vain  attempts  at  reconciliation.    Declaration  of  Belgian  independence.    Protocol  of  the 
five  great  European  powers.    Selection  of  a  king.    [Saxe-Coburg,    Gotha.]    Siege  and  sur- 
render of  Antwerp.    Prosperity  of  Belgium. 

VIII.  POLISH  REVOLUTION.    1.  Disposition  made  of  Poland  by  the  congress  of  Vienna.    Al- 
exander's arbitrary  government  of  Poland.— 2.  The  government  of  Poland  under  the  emperor 
Nicholas.    Character  of  Constantine.    Effect  of  his  barbarities.    Secret  societies.    [Volhynia.] 
—3.  Revolutionary  outbreak  at  Warsaw,  Nov.  1830.    A  general  rising  in  Warsaw.    The  pro- 
visional government. — 4.  Fruitless  attempts  to  negotiate.    Russian  and  Polish  forces.    Opening 
events  of  the  war.— 5.  Night  attacks  and  rout  of  the  Russians.    [Bug  River.]    Conduct  of 
Prussia  and  Austria.— 6.  Battle  of  Ostrolenka.    [Minsk.    Ostrolenka.]    Death  of  Diebitsch  and 
Constanline.    Conspiracy  at  Warsaw. — 7.  Dissensions  among  the  Poles.    Fall  of  Warsaw  and 
end  of  the  war.    Fate  of  the  Polish  generals,  soldiers,  and  nobility.    Result, 

III.  ENGLISH  REFORMS.    FRENCH  REVOLUTION  OF  1848.    REVOLUTIONS  IN  THE 

GERMAN  STATES,  PRUSSIA,  AND  AUSTRIA.    REVOLUTIONS  IN  ITALY. 

HUNGARIAN  WAR.    USURPATION  OF  LOUIS  NAPOLEON. 

I.  ENGLISH  REFORMS.  1.  England  from  1820  to  1830.  Reforms  obtained  in  1828  and  1829. 
Resignation  of  the  Wellington  ministry,  1830.  The  whig  rainisLry  of  Earl  Grey.  Lord  Russell's 
Reform  bill : — lost  in  the  Commons. — 2.  Dissolution  of  Parliament.  Result  of  the  new  elections. 
Second  defeat  of  the  Reform  bill,  1831.  Pop  ilar  resentment,  and  riots.  [DerDy-  Bristol.]— 3. 


CHAP.  VI]  NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  505 

Third  defeat  of  the  Reform  bill.  1832.  Resignation  of  ministers.  Causes  of  their  reinstatement. 
Final  passage  of  the  Reform  bill.— 4.  Important  effects  of  this  measure.  More  intimate  union 
with  France.  Prosperity  of  England  under  the  change.— 5.  Accession  of  Victoria  to  the  throne, 
1837 ;  and  her  marriage  to  Prince  Albert,  1840. 

II.  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  or  1848.    1.  Most  important  events  of  the  reign  of  Louis  Phillippe. 
— 2.  Lafayetle's  instrumentality  in  his  election.    Anomalous  and  difficult  position  of  Louis 
Phillippe.    The  temporary  success  of  his  government.— 3.  Discontent  of  the  middle  and  lower 
classes. — 4.  The  political  reform  banquets  of  1847-8.    The  contemplated  banquet  for  the  22d 
of  Feb.,  1848,— forbidden  by  the  government.    Measures  taken  by  the  opposition  deputies. — 5. 
Announcement  of  the  postponement  of  the  banquet.    Popular  assemblage  dispersed.    Dis- 
turbances in  the  evening  of  the  22d. — 6.  Renewed  disturbances  on  the  morning  of  the  23d. 
Demands  of  the  National  Guards  acceded  to.    The  people  fired  upon  in  the  evening.— 7. 
A  Thiers'  ministry  organized.     Proclamation  on  the  morning  of  the  24th,  and  withdrawal 
of  the  troops.    Disarming  of  the  troops,  abdication  of  the  king,  pillage  of  the  palace,  and  flight 
of  the  king  and  ministers.— 8.  Meeting  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies.    Adoption  of  a  Republic. 
— 9.  M.  Lamartine.    General  adhesion  to  the  new  government. — 10.  The  Moderate  and  the 
Red  Republicans.     Their  respective  principles.    Demands  upon  the  government.— II.  Ani- 
mosities of  the  two  sections  of  the  Republican  party.    Popular  demonstrations.    The  April 
elections.    The  executive  committee.— 12.  Insurrection  of.  the  15th  of  May.    Its  suppression. 
— 13.  Precautionary  measures  of  the  government.    Insurrection  of  June — suppressed  after  a 
bloody  contest. — 14.  Cavaignac  chief  executive.    Treatment  of  the  insurgent  prisoners.    Adop- 
tion, and  character  of,  the  new  constitution. 

III.  REVOLUTIONS  IN  THE  GKRMAN  STATES,  PRUSSIA,  AND  AUSTRIA.    1.  Effects  of  the  recent 
French  Revolution  upon  the  German  States.     Events  in   Baden. — 2.   Events  at  Cologne, 
Munich,  and  Hesse-Cassel.    [Hanau.    Hesse-Cassel.]— 3.  Convention  at  Heidelberg.    [Heidel- 
berg.]   Action  of  the  Frankfort  diet.    Course  of  Frederick  William  of  Prussia.    Saxony  and 
Hanover.    Revolt  of  Sleswick  and  Holstein. 

4.  Excitement  in  Vienna,  caused  by  the  Revolution  in  Paris.  [Galicia.  Metternich.] — 5. 
Opening  of  the  diet  of  Lower  Austria.  Commotions  and  bloodshed.— 6.  Concessions  of  the 
government,  and  triumph  of  the  people.— 7.  Efforts  of  government  to  fulfil  its  promises.  Dif- 
ficulties that  intervened.  Rule  of  the  mob.  Flight,  and  return,  of  the  emperor.  [Inspruck.] 
8.  Demands  of  the  Bohemians.  A  Slavic  Congress.  Bombardment  of  Prague,  and  termination 
of  the  Bohemian  Revolution. — 9.  Hungary  at  this  period.  Revolt  of  the  Croats,  who  are  sup- 
ported by  Austria.  [Hungary.  Croatia.]  Second  Revolution  in  Vienna.  Flight  of  the  em 
peror.  [Olmutz.]  Siege  and  surrender  of  Vienna,— 10.  The  Hungarian  army  during  the  siege. 
— II.  Character  of  the  second  Revolution  in  Vienna.  Reaction  in  the  popular  mind,  and 
triumph  of  despotism. 

IV.  REVOLUTIONS  IN  ITALY.    1.  Austrian  influence  and  interference  in  Italian  affairs  since 
Uie  fall  of  Napoleon.    [Modena.    Parma.    Papal-States.]— 2.    Election  of  Pope  Pius  IX.  in 
1846.    His  character  and  acts.    Austria  interferes.    [Ferrara.]    A  general  rising  jagainst  Aus- 
tria.   Withdrawal  of  Austrian  troops.    [Bologna.    Lucca.]-^3.  Austrian  force  in  Lombardy. 
General  insurrection  throughout  Austrian  Italy.    Charles  Albert  of  Sardinia  espouses  the 
cause  of  Italian  nationality.    Final  triumph  of  the  Austrians  under  Radetsky.    An  armistice.— 
4.  Renewal  of  the  war — second  triumph  of  Radetsky,  and  abdication  of  Charles  Albert. — 5. 
Blockade  and  fall  of  Venice. — 3.  Revolution  in  Naples.    [Kingdom  of  Naples.]    War  with, 
and  final  reduction  of,  the  Sicilians.    [Palermo.]— 7.  Difficulties  of  the  pope.— 8.  His  growing 
unpopularity  and  flight.    [fiaeta-]    The  Roman  Republic  instituted.— 9.  The  pope's  appeal  for 
aid— how  responded  to.— 10.  Reduction  of  Rome  by  the  French  army.    Return  of  the  pope. 
The  change  in  him  and  his  people. 

V.  HUNGARIAN  WAR.    1.  Immediate  cause  of  the  second  Revolution  in  Vienna.    Hungarian 
and  Croatian  war.— 2.  Historical  account  of  the  Magyars.    [Theiss.]    Character  of  the  Hun- 
garian government. — 3.  Repeated  acknowledgments  of  its  independence. — 4.  Ferdinand  the 
Fifth.    His  means  of  influence, — and  Austrian  control  over  the  government  of  the  Hungarians. 
The  two  parties  in  Hungary.— 5.  Concessions  to  Hungary  in  March,  1848.    [Pesth.]— 6.  Anarchj 
and  misrule  in  Hungary. — 7.  A  more  alarming  danger  to  Hungary.    Her  population.    Revolt 
of  Croatia.    [Slavonians.]    The  Serbian  revolt.    [Serbs.]    Actual  beginning  of  the  war  on  th« 
part  of  Hungary.    [Carlowitz.     Peterwardein.     The  Banat.]     Austria  openly  supports  thj» 
Croatian  retMlibn.— 8.  Action  of  the  Hungarian  Diet.    Defeat  of  Jellachich  near  Pesth.-k 


506  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  II. 

Character,  and  situation,  of  Ferdinand,  who  abdicates  the  throne.  The  Hungarian  Diet  refuses 
to  acknowledge  his  successor.  Failure  of  the  attempt  at  negotiations.— 10.  Defection  of  several 
of  the  Hungarian  leaders,— but  general  adherence  to  Kossuth  and  the  country.  Want  of  arms— 
but  partially  supplied.  Hungarian  force. — 1.1.  Austrian  plan  of  invasion.  Austrians  enter 
Pesth,  Jan.  1849,  and  the  government  retires  to  Debreczin.  Concentration  of  the  Hungarian 
forces.  General  Bern.  [Debreczin.  Comorn.  Eperies.  Bukowina.]— 12.  Loss  of  Esseck. 
Bern  is  at  first  repulsed.  His  final  successes.  [Esseck.  Wallachs.  Hermanstadt.  Cronstadt. 
Temeswar.] — 13.  Dembinski.  Operations  in  the  valley  of  the  Theiss.  [Szegedin.  Maros.  Ka- 
polna,  &c.]  Battles  of  Kapolna. — 14.  Gorgey.  His  victories  over  the  Austrians.  [Tapiobieske. 
Godollo.  Waitzen.  Nagy  Sarlo.]  Siege  of  Buda.  [Buda.]— J5.  Constitution  for  the  Austrian, 
empire.  Declaration  of  Hungarian  independence.  Kossuth  governor  of  Hungary.— 16.  Aus- 
trian and  Russian  preparations  for  a  second  campaign.  The  Hungarian  forces. — 17.  Invasion 
of  Hungary  in  June.  [Presburg.  Bartfeld.]— 18.  Gradual  concentration  of  the  enemies  of 
Hungary.  [Hegyes.]  Barbarities  of  Hayuau. — 19.  Gorgey's  retreat  to  Arad.  [Onod.  Tokay. 
Arad.]  Want  of  concert  among  the  Hungarian  generals.— 20.  Retreat  of  Dembinski.  Defeat 
at  Temeswar,  and  breaking  up  of  the  southern  Hungarian  army.  Gorgey's  failure  to  support 
Dembinski.  His  suspected  fidelity.  Supreme  power  conferred  upon  him. — '21 .  Gorgey's  treason, 
and  surrender  of  his  army,  Aug.  13th,  1849. — 22.  Previous  successes  of  the  Hungarians  in  the 
vicinity  of  Comorn.  [Raab.]  Surrender  of  Comorn,  Sept.  29th.— 23.  Fate  of  Kossulh,  Bern, 
Dembinski,  &c.  [Widdin.]— 24.  The  closing  tragedy  of  the  Hungarian  war.  Fate  of  the  in- 
ferior officers,  Hungarian  soldiers,  &c. 

VI.  USURPATION  OF  Louis  NAPOLEON.  1.  Election  of  a  chief  magistrate  in  France  in  1848. 
The  six  candidates.  Cavaignac,  and  Louis  Napoleon.  Election  of  the  latter.  Inauguration 
and  oath  of  office. — 2.  History  of  Louis  Napoleon  down  to  the  period  of  his  election.  [Fortress 
of  Ham.] — 3.  His  declaration  of  principles.  Jealousy  of  him.  Parties  in  the  Assembly. — 4. 
Want  of  confidence  between  the  President  and  Assembly.  Acts  of  the  Assembly.— 5.  Pro- 
posed revision  of  the  constitution. — 6.  President's  message  of  November  1851.  Increasing  ani- 
mosity of  the  Assembly  against  the  President.— 7.  An  approaching  crisis,— how  anticipated  by 
Louis  Napoleon.  Circumstances  of  the  coup  d'etat  of  December  2d. — 8.  Meeting,  and  arrest, 
of  members  of  the  Assembly.  The  public  press.  Decree  for  an  election.  Insurrection  of  De 
cember  4th,  suppressed  by  the  military.— 9.  Result  of  the  elections  of  December.  The  new- 
constitution.  Louis  Napoleon  President  for  ten  years.  Assumes  the  title  of  emperor. 


I.  THE  PERIOD  OF  PEACE:  1815—1820. 

1.  On  the  day  of  the  signing  of  the  treaty  of  Paris,  another  was 
concluded  between  Russia,  Prussia,  Austria,  and  Eng- 
land,  designed  as  a  measure  of  security  for  the  allied 
powers,  and  declaring  that  Napoleon  Bonaparte  and  his 
family  should  be  forever  excluded  from  the  throne  of  France.  On 
the  same  clay  a  third  treaty,  of  notorious  celebrity,  called  "  The 
Holy  Alliance,"  was  subscribed  by  the  emperors  of  Russia  and 
Austria,  and  the  king  of  Prussia,  who  bound  themselves,  "  in  con- 
formity with  the  principles  of  Holy  Scripture, — to  lend  each  other 
every  aid,  assistance,  and  succor,  on  every  occasion."  This  treaty 
was  ere  long  acceded  to  b}r  nearly  all  the  continental  powers  as  parties 
to  the  compact,  although  the  ruling  prince  of  England  declined  sign- 
ing it,  on  the  ground  that  the  English  constitution  prevented  him 
from  becoming  a  party  to  any  convention  that  was  not  countersigned 
by  a  responsible  minister. 


CHAP.  VI]  NINETEENTH  CENTURY.  507 

2.  The  terms  of  the   Holy  Alliance  were  drawn  by  the  young 
Russian  emperor  Alexander,  whose  enthusiastic  benevolence  prompt- 
ed him  to  devise  a  plan  of  a  common  international  law  that  should 
substitute  the  peaceful  reign  of  the  Gospel  in  place  of  the  rude  em- 
pire of  the  sword.     But  the  law  of  the  Holy  Alliance,  although  be- 
neficent in  its  origin,  was  to  be  interpreted  by  absolute  monarchs:  as 
it  was  evident  that  its  only  active  principle  would  be  the  maintenance 
of  despotic  power,  under  the  mask  of  piety  and  religion,  it  was  justly 
regarded  with  dread  and  jealousy  by  the  liberal  party  throughout 
Europe,  and  was  in  reality  made  a  convenient  pretext  for  enforcing 
the  doctrine  of  passive  obedience,  and  resisting  all  efforts  for  the  es- 
tablishment of  constitutional  freedom. 

3.  The  treaties  of  1815  both  closed  the  ascendency  of  imperial 
France  in  Europe,  and  terminated,  for  a  time  at  least,  the  revolution- 
ary movements  in  the  civilized  world.     Twenty-five  years  of  war  had 
exhausted  the  treasures  of  Europe,  and  covered  her  soil  with  mourn- 
ing, and  never  before  had  the  sweets  of  repose  been  so  eagerly  cov- 
eted by  rulers  and  people.     But  although  the  nations  had  tired  of 
the  mingled  horrors  and  glories  of  military  strife,  the  excitement  oc- 
casioned by  the  revolutionary  wars  continued,  and,  for  want  of  other 
channels  of  action,  seized  hold  of  the  social  passions  of  the  masses : 
military  gave  place  to  democratic  ambition — the  old  ante-revolution- 
ary contest  between  despotism  and  democracy  revived, — to  be  fol- 
lowed by  other  revolutions  still,  until  one  or  the  other  principle  shall 
triumph — until,  in  the  language  of  Napoleon,  Europe  shall  become 
either  Cossack  or  Republican. 

4.  In   England,  the  social  contest,  wearing  a  milder  aspect  than 
on  the  continent,  displayed  itself  in  the  legal  strife  for  government 
relief  and  parliamentary  reforms.     During  a  long  and 
expensive  war,  England  had  enjoyed  extraordinary  do-    ENG"^ND 
mestic  prosperity:  since  the  year  1792  her  population 

had  increased  more  than  four  millions,  notwithstanding  the  absorp- 
tion of  five  hundred  thousand  men  in  the  army  and  navy :  the  ex- 
ports, imports,  and  tonnage,  of  the  kingdom,  had  more  than  doubled 
since  the  war  began ;  and  although  the  public  debt  had  grown  to  an 
enormous  amount,  agriculture,  commerce,  and  manufactures,  had 
gone  on  increasing,  during  the  whole  struggle,  in  an  unparalleled  ratio. 

5.  It  was  confidently  anticipated,  not  only  by  the  ardent  and  en- 
thusiastic, but  also  by  the  prudent  and  sagacious,  that  when  the 
enormous  expenses  of  the  war  establishment  should  be  removed,  and 


508  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAKT  II 

peace  had  thrown  open  the  ports  of  all  Europe  to  the  enterprise  of 
British  merchants,  the  tide  of  national  prosperity  would  rise  still 
higher  and  higher ;  but  never  were  hopes  more  cruelly  disappointed. 
Exports,  to  an  enormous  amount,  being  suddenly  thrown  into  countries 
impoverished  by  war,  glutted  the  foreign  market ;  and  the  consign- 
ments, in  most  instances,  were  sold  for  little  more  than  half  their 
original  cost — spreading  ruin  throughout  the  commercial  interests. 
Moreover,  the  opening  of  the  European  and  American  ports  for  the 
the  supplies  of  grain,  glutted  the  home  market  of  England ;  and 
prices  of  every  species  of  agricultural  produce  soon  fell  to  two-thirds 
of  what  they  had  been  during  the  closing  scenes  of  the  war  :  a  season 
of  unusual  scarcity,  in  1816,  threatening  a  famine,  increased  the 
general  distress,  which,  like  a  pall  of  gloom,  enshrouded  the  whole 
kingdom. 

6.  Other  causes,  in  addition  to   those  originating  in  the  mere 
transition  from  a  state  of  war  to  one  of  peace,  doubtless  contributed 
to  the  general  revulsion  in  business,  among  which  may  be  mentioned, 
as  the  most  prominent,  the  greatly  diminished  supply  of  the  precious 
metals  from  South  America,*  owing  to  the  unsettled  state  of  that 
country  then  occupied  with  revolutionary  wars,  and  the  rapid  con- 
traction of  the  paper  currency  of  Great  Britain,  in  anticipation  of  a 
speedy  return  to  specie  payments.     But  the  English  Radical  or  Re- 
publican party  attributed  the  difficulties  to  excessive  taxation  and  the 
measures  of  a  corrupt  government ;    and  a  vehement  outcry  was 
raised  for  parliamentary  reform,  and  retrenchment  in  all  branches  of 
public  expenditure. 

7.  The  English  government,  wiser  than  the  continental  powers, 
has   ever   had   the   prudence    to    make   seasonable    concessions   to 
reasonable  popular  demands,  before  the  spark  of  discontent  has  been 
blown  into  the  blaze  of  revolution ;  and  now,  after  a  spirited  contest, 
a  heavy  property  tax,  that  had  been  patiently  submitted  to  as  a 
necessary  war  measure,  was  repealed,  amid  the  universal  transports 
of  the  people  :  the  remission  of  other  taxes  followed,  and,  in  one 
year,  a  reduction  of  thirty-five  million  pounds  sterling  was  made  from 
the  national  expenditure,  although  strongly  opposed  by  the  ministry. 
Still  the  distress  continued  ;  the  popular  feeling  against  the  govern- 
ment increased ;  numerous  secret  political  societies  were  organized 
amo^ng  the  disaffected  ;  and  early  in  the  following  year  ( 1 8 1 7)  a  com- 

a.  From  1815  to  1810  the  amount  of  gold  and  silver  coin  produced  from  the  mines  of  South 
America  fell  from  about  seven  million  pounds  sterling  to  five  and  a  half  million  pounds. 


CHAP.VL]  NINETEENTH  CENTURY.  509 

mittee  of  parliament  reported  that  an  extensive  conspiracy  existed, 
chiefly  in  the  great  towns  and  manufacturing  districts,  for  the  over- 
throw of  the  monarchy,  and  the  establishment  of  a  republic  in  its  stead. 

8.  In  consequence  of  the  information,  greatly  exaggerated,  which 
had  been  communicated  to  the  committee,  ministers  were  enabled  to 
carry  through  parliament  bills  for  suspending  the  privileges  of  the 
writ  of  habeas  corpus,  and  for  suppressing  tumultuous  meetings,  de- 
bating societies,  and  all  unlawful  organizations.     Armed  with  ex- 
tensive powers,  government  took  the  most  active  measures  for  putting 
a  stop  to  the  threatened  insurrection  :  a  few  mobs  were  suppressed ; 
many  persons  were  arrested  on  a  charge  of  high  treason  ;  and  several 
were  convicted,  and  suffered  death.     In  1819  a  large  and  peaceable 
meeting  at  Manchester,1  assembled  to  discuss  the  question  of  parlia- 
mentary reforms,  was  charged  by  the  military,  and  many  lives  in- 
humanly sacrificed ;  but  all  attempts  in  parliament  for  an  inquiry 
into  the  conduct  of  the  Manchester  magistrates,  under  whose  orders 
the  military  had  acted,  were  defeated.     Although  the  people  still 
justly  complained  of  grievous  burdens  of  taxation,  and  unequal  rep- 
resentation in  parliament,  those  evils  were  not  so  oppressive  as  to  in- 
duce them   to  incur   the  hazards  of  revolution  ;  and  government, 
having  yielded  to  the  point  where  danger  was  past,  was  sufficiently 
strong  to  carry  all  its  important  measures. 

9.  An  event  of  general  interest  that  occurred  soon  after  the  close 
of  the  European  war  was  the  merited  chastisement  of  the  piratical 
State  of  Algiers.     During  a  long  period  the  Barbary3  powers  had 
carried  on  a  piratical  warfare  against  those  nations  that  were  not  suf- 
ficiently powerful  to  prevent  or  punish  their  depredations.     From 
the  year  1795  to  1812  the  United  States  of  America  had  preserved 
peace  with  Algiers  by  the  payment  of  an  annual  tribute ;  but  in  the 
latter  year  the  Dey,  believing  that  the  war  with  England  would  render 
the  Americans  unable  to  protect  their  commerce  in  the  Mediterranean, 
commenced  a  piractical  warfare  against  all  American  vessels  that  fell 
in  the  way  of  his  cruisers.     In  the  month  of  June  1815,  an  Ameri- 
can squadron,  under  the  command  of  Commodore  Decatur,  being  sent 

1.  Manchester,  the  great  centre  of  the  cotton  manufacture  of  Great  Britain,  and  the  greatest 
manufacturing  town  in  the  world,  is  situated  on  the  Irwell,  an  affluent  of  the  Mersey,  thirty-one 
miles  east  from  Liverpool.    (Map  No.  XVI.) 

2.  Barbary  is  the  name  that  has  been  usually  given,  in  modern  times,  to  that  portion  of 
northern  Africa  bordering  on  the  Mediterranean,  and  lying  between  the  western  frontier  of 
Egypt  and  the  Atlantic.    The  name  Barbary  is  derived  from  that  of  its  ancient  inhabitants,  the 
Berbers. 


510  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAST  IL 

to  the  Mediterranean,  after  capturing  several  Algerine  vessels,  com- 
pelled Algiers,  Tripoli,  and  Tunis,  to  releasfe  all  American  prisoners 
in  their  possession,  pay  large  sums  of  money,  and  relinquish  all  future 
claims  to  tribute  from  the  United  States. 

1 0.  In  the  following  year,  the  continued  piracies  of  the  Algerines 
upon  some  of  the  smaller  European  States  that  claimed  the  protec 
tion  of  England,  induced  the  British  government  to  send  out  a  pow- 
erful squadron,  with  directions  to  obtain  from  the  Dey  unqualified 
abolition  of  Christian  slavery,  or,  in  case  of  refusal,  to  destroy,  if 
possible,  the  nest  of  pirates  whose  tolerance  had  so  long  been  a  dis- 
grace to   Christendom.     On  the  27th  of  August  the  British  fleet, 
commanded  by  Lord  Exinouth,  appeared  before  Algiers,  whose  for- 
tifications, admirably  constructed,  and  of  the  hardest  stone,  were  de- 
fended by  nearly  five  hundred  cannon  and  forty  thousand  men.     No 
answer  being  returned  to  the  demands  of  the  British  government, 
the  attack  was  commenced  in  the  afternoon  of  the  same  day ;  and 
although  the  defence  was  most  spirited,  by  ten  in  the  evening  all  the 
fortifications    that   defended   the   approaches   by   sea   were    totally 
ruined,  while  the  shot  and  shells  had  carried  destruction  and  death 
throughout  the  city.     On  the  following  morning  the  Dey  submitted, 
agreeing  to  abolish  Christian  slavery  forever,  and  immediately  re- 
storing twelve  hundred  captives  to  their  country  and  friends.     The 
total  number  liberated  at  Algiers,  Tripoli,  and  Tunis,  was  more  than 
three  thousand. 

11.  The  humiliation  of  the  piratical  Barbary  powers  by  the  Ameri- 
cans in  1815,  and  the  battle  of  Algiers  in  the  following  year,  were 
events  highly  important  to  the  general  interests  of  humanity,  not 
only  from  their  immediate  results,  but  as  the  beginning  of  the  de- 
cisive ascendency  of  the  Christian  over  the  Mohammedan  world. 
Former  triumphs  of  the  cross  over  the  crescent  had  averted  subju- 
gation from  Christendom,  or  had  been  obliterated  by  subsequent  dis- 
asters ;  but  since  the  battle  of  Algiers,  the  followers  of  the  prophet 
have  seen,  and  mournfully  submitted  to,  their  destiny ;  Algiers  has 
since  become  a  province  of  a  Christian  State ;  and  the  Ottoman  em- 
pire is  only  saved  from  dissolution  by  the  jealousies  of  its  Christian 
neighbors. 

12.  The  situation  of  France  at  the  time  of  tho  second  restoration 

of  Louis  XVIII.,  with  a  vast  ftrci^n  army  quartered 

HI.  FRANCE. 

upon  her  people,  an  empty  treasury,  and  an  unsettled 
government,  was  gloomy  in  the  extreme.     With  a  vacillation  peculiar 


L]  NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  511 

to  the  French  people,  public  opinion  had  already  turned  against  the 
Bonapartists  and  the  Republicans,  who  were  regarded  as  the  authors 
of  all  the  evils  under  which  the  nation  suffered ;  and  the  king  soon 
found  himself  seriously  embarrassed  by  the  ardor  of  his  own  friends. 
Punishment  of  the  Revolutionists,  and  a  restoration  of  the  powers 
and  privileges  of  the  nobility  and  the  clergy,  were  violently  demand- 
ed by  the  Royalists;  but,  fortunately,  the  extreme  danger  of  any 
violent  reactionary  movement  was  too  manifest  to  permit  the  king 
to  intrust  the  government  to  the  ultraists  of  his  own  party. 

13.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  presence  of  a  large  foreign  army, 
France  might  again  have  been  doomed  to  the  horrors  of  civil  war  : 
as  it  was,  the  party  feuds  of  centuries  between  the  Roman  Catholics 
and  Protestants,  revived  by  the  imbittered  feelings  of  the  moment, 
broke  forth  anew  in  the  south  of  France  :  the  Royalists  demanded 
vengeance  against  the  Republicans ;  and  political  zeal  combined  with 
religious  enthusiasm  to  arouse  the  worst  passions  of  the  people,  and 
incited  to  numerous  massacres,  which  recalled  the  memory  of  the 
bloodiest  period  of  the  Revolution.     Although  the  king  denounced 
these  atrocities,  and  called  upon  the  magistrates  to  bring  the  guilty 
parties  to  justice,  the  latter  were  screened  from  arrest,  or,  if  taken, 
were  acquitted  in  face  of  the  clearest  evidence  of  their  guilt. 

1 4.  The  Chamber  of  Deputies,  at  its  first  meeting,  in  the  autumn 
of  1815,  urgently  demanded  of  the  king  that  those  "who  had  im- 
perilled alike  the  throne  and  the  nation  should  be  delivered  over  to 
the  just  severity  of  the  tribunals  :"  stringent  laws  were  passed  punish- 
ing seditious  words  ;  courts  martial  were  established  for  trying  politi- 
cal offences;  and  when  the  king,  after  the  execution  of  Ney,  La- 
bedoyere,  and  a  few  others,  proposed  a  general  amnesty,  the  chamber 
had  prepared,  and  demanded  the  proscription  of,  a  list  of  twelve  hun- 
dred additional  victims  ;  and  in  order  to  secure  the  amnesty  the  king 
was  compelled,  against  his  inclination  for  moderate  measures,  to  assent 
to  an  amendment  providing  for  the  perpetual  banishment  of  all  those 
who  had  voted  for  the  death  of  his  brother,  the  unfortunate  Louis 
XVI.     France  presented  the  singular  spectacle  of  an  ascendant  Roy- 
alist party  arrayed  in  opposition  to  the  king,  who,  in  order  to  check 
their  undue  zeal,  was  compelled  to  ally  himself  with  the  Republi- 
cans, the  natural  enemies  of  his  cause. 

15.  Although  the  ultra  Royalists  controlled  the  action  of  the  leg- 
islature, there  was  still  a  powerful  party  of  ultra  Revolutionists 
among  the  people  ;  and  it  was  the  policy  of  the  king  and  his  ministry 


512  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

to  guard  against  the  danger  of  the  ascendency  of  either,  by  conform- 
ing to  the  general  principles  which  the  Revolution  had  impressed 
upon  the  nation.  As  the  legislative  body  continually  thwarted  the 
government,  it  was  determined  to  alter  the  composition  of  the  repre- 
sentatives by  a  coup  d'etat,  or  arbitrary  ordinance  of  the  king  ;  and 
accordingly,  on  the  5th  of  September,  1816,  a  royal  ordinance  was 
published,  which  dissolved  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  arbitrarily  di- 
minished the  number  of  representatives,  and  secured  the  election  of 
a  majority  of  those  who  were  attached  to  the  measures  of  the  minis- 
terial party. 

16.  The  royal  ordinance  of  September,  although  conferring  the 
right  of  suffrage  upon  only  one  hundred  thousand  out  of  thirty  mil- 
lions of  the  population  of  France,  was  far  more  democratic  than  ac- 
corded with  the  wishes  of  the  Royalists,  who  feared  that  the  new 
representatives,  chosen  mostly  from  the  middle  classes  of  landed  pro- 
prietors, would  incline  towards  a  republican  form  of  government,  under 
which  they  might  most  effectually  secure  their  own  rights,  and  divide 
among  themselves  the  honors  and  emoluments  of  office.a  And  such, 
indeed,  was  the  result.  .  The  electoral  law  proclaimed  by  the  king, 
and  the  subsequent  creation*3  of  a  large  body  of  peers  taken  from 
the  Liberals  and  Bonapartists,  soon  placed  the  control  of  govern- 
ment in  the  hands  of  the  democratic  party,  which  was  naturally  an- 
tagonistic to  the  power  which  had  given  it  influence ;  but  the  Royal- 
ists, who  at  the  restoration  had  seemed  the  ruling  party,  were  unwilling 
to  resign  the  control  of  the  government ;  and  the  struggle  continued 
to  increase  in  violence  between  them  and  the  Liberals,  until  it  finally 
resulted  in  the  Revolution  of  1830,  and  the  overthrow  of  the  mon- 
archy. 

IL  REVOLUTIONS  IN  SPAIN,  PORTUGAL,  NAPLES,  PIEDMONT, 

GREECE,  FRANCE,  BELGIUM,  AND  POLAND: 

1820—1831. 

I.  SPAIN.  1.  During  the  period  of  general  peace,  from  1815  to 
1820,  Spain,  under  the  rule  of  the  restored  Ferdinand,  was  in  a  state 
of  constant  political  agitation;  and  in  1820  an  insurrection  of  the 
soldiery  compelled  the  king  to  restore  to  his  subjects  the  free  and 
almost  republican  constitution  of  1812.  The  Republicans,  however, 

a.  By  the  ordinance  of  Sept.  5th,  1816,  the  right  of  suffrage  was  established  on  the  basis  of 
the  payment  of  three  hundred  francs  direct  taxes  to  the  government, 

b.  March  5th,  1819. 


CHAP.  VI]  NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  513 

who  thus  obtained  the  direction  of  the  government,  showed  little 
wisdom  or  moderation ;  and  a  large  party,  directed  by  the  monks 
and  friars,  and  supported  by  the  lower  ranks  of  the  populace,  was 
formed  for  the  restoration  of  the  monarchy.  Several  of  the  European 
powers,  in  a  congress  held  at  Verona,  adopted  a  resolution  to  sup- 
port the  authority  of  the  king  in  opposition  to  the  constitution  which 
he  had  granted ;  but  England  stood  aloof,  and  to  France  was  in- 
trusted the  execution  of  the  odious  measure  of  suppressing  democratic 
principles  in  Spain. 

2.  Accordingly,  early  in  the  year  1 823,  a  French  army  of  a  hun- 
dred thousand  men,  under  the  command  of  the  Duke  d'Angouleme, 
entered  Spain  :  the  patriots  made  but  a  feeble  resistance,  and  the 
king  was  soon  restored  to  absolute  authority,  on  the  ruins  of  the  con- 
stitution. The  remainder  of  the  reign  of  Ferdinand,  who  died  in 
1833,  was  characterized  by  the  complete  suppression  of  all  liberal 
principles  in  politics  and  religion,  and  the  revival  of  the  ancient 
abuses  which  had  so  long  disgraced  the  Spanish  monarchy.  England 
and  the  United  States  severely  censured  the  interference  of  France 
in  the  domestic  affairs  of  the  Spanish  nation,  and  showed  their  sym- 
pathy with  the  cause  of  the  oppressed  by  recognizing,  at  as  early  a 
period  as  possible,  the  independence  of  the  Spanish  South  American 
republics,  which  had  recently  renounced  their  allegiance  to  Spain. 

II.  PORTUGAL.  1.  The  adjoining  kingdom  of  Portugal  was  a 
prey  to  similar  commotions.  The  emigration  of  the  king  and  court 
to  Brazil  during  the  peninsular  war,  has  already  been  mentioned, 
(p.  488.)  The  nation  being  dissatisfied  with  the  continued  residence 
of  the  court  in  Brazil,  which  in  fact  made  Portugal  a  dependency 
of  the  latter,  and  desiring  some  fundamental  changes  in  the  frame 
of  government,  at  length  in  August  1820  a  revolution  broke  out,  and 
a  free  constitution  was  soon  after  established,  having  for  its  basis  the 
abolition  of  privileges,  the  legal  equality  of  all  classes,  the  freedom 
of  the  press,  and  the  formation  of  a  representative  body  in  the  na- 
tional legislature.  This  constitution,  being  violently  opposed  by  the 
clergy  and  privileged  classes,  who  formed  what  was  called  the  apos- 
tolical party,  at  the  head  of  whom  was  Don  Miguel,  the  king's 
younger  son,  was  suppressed  in  1823,  and  a  state  of  anarchy  con- 
tinued until  the  death  of  the  king  in  1826,  when  the  crown  fell  to 
Don  Pedro,  emperor  of  Brazil. 

2.  Don  Pedro,  however,  resigned  his  right  in  favor  of  his  infant 
daughter  Donna  Maria,  at  the  same  time  granting  to  Portugal  a 

33 


514  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAKT  II 

constitutional  charter,  and  appointing  his  brother  Don  Miguel  regent. 
Although  the  latter  took  an  oath  of  fidelity  to  the  charter,  he  soon 
began  openly  to  aspire  to  the  throne,  and  by  means  of  an  artful 
priesthood  caused  himself,  in  1829,  to  be  proclaimed  sovereign  of 
Portugal,  while  the  charter  was  denounced  as  inconsistent  with  the 
purity  of  the  Roman  faith.  The  friends  of  the  charter,  aided  by 
Don  Pedro,  who  repaired  to  Europe  to  assert  the  rights  of  his 
daughter,  organized  a  resistance,  and  after  a  sanguinary  struggle, 
during  which  they  were  once  driven  into  exile,  they  obtained  the 
promise  of  support  from  France,  Spain,  and  England,  who  in  1834 
entered  into  a  convention  to  expel  the  younger  brother  from  the  Por- 
tuguese territories.  Soon  after,  Don  Miguel  gave  up  his  pretensions, 
and  the  young  queen  was  placed  upon  the  throne,  since  which  time 
the  country  has  remained  comparatively  tranquil. 

III.  NAPLES.  1.  The  kingdom  of  Naples,  embracing  Sicily  and 
southern  Italy,  nearly  identical  with  the  Magna  G-raecia  of  antiquity, 
had  been  erected  into  an  independent  monarchy  in  1734,  under  the 
Infante  Don  Carlos  of  Spain,  who  took  the  name  of  Charles  III.  It 
continued  under  a  succession  of  tyrannical  or  imbecile  rulers  of  the 
Bourbon  dynasty  till  1 798  :  the  Italian  portion  of  the  kingdom  was 
then  overrun  by  the  French,  who  held  it  from  1803  till  1815,  when 
it  reverted  to  its  former  sovereign  Ferdinand,  who,  during  the  French 
rule,  had  maintained  his  court  in  the  Sicilian  part  of  his  kingdom. 

2.  Under  the  rule  of  Ferdinand,  popular  education  was  wholly 
neglected  ;  the  roads,  bridges,  and  other  public  works  which  the 
French  had  either  planned  or  executed,  were  left  unfinished,  or  fell 
into  decay ;  and  yet  the  people  were  oppressively  taxed,  and  a  repre- 
sentative government  was  denied  them.  At  length,  on  the  2d  of 
July,  1820,  the  growing  discontents  of  the  people  broke  out  in  open 
insurrection,  and  a  remonstrance  was  sent  to  the  government  de- 
manding a  representative  constitution.  One  based  on  the  Spanish 
constitution  of  1812  was  immediately  granted,  and  the  Neapolitan 
parliament  was  opened  on  the  1st  of  October  following;  but  on  the 
same  month  a  convention  of  the  three  crowned  heads  who  formed  the 
Holy  Alliance,  attended  by  ministers  from  most  of  the  other  Eu- 
ropean powers,  met  at  Troppau;1  and  it  was  there  resolved  by  the 

1.  Troppau,  the  capital  of  Austrian  Silesia,  is  situated  on  the  Oppa,  a  tributary  of  the  Oder, 
thirty-seven  miles  north-east  from  Olmutz.  From  20th  October  to  20th  November,  1820,  it  was 
the  place  of  meeting  of  the  diplomatic  congress,  which  afterwards  removed  to  Laybach.  (Map 
No.  XVII,) 


CHAP.  VI.]  NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  515 

sovereigns  of  Russia,  Austria,  and  Prussia,  to  put  down  the  Neapoli- 
tan constitution  by  force  of  arms. 

3.  France  approved  the  measure,  but  the  British  cabinet  remained 
neutral.  The  old  king  Ferdinand,  wno  had  been  invited  to  visit  the 
sovereigns  at  Laybach,1  was  easily  convinced  that  his  promises  had 
been  extorted,  and  therefore  were  not  binding ;  and  Austrian  troops 
immediately  prepared  to  execute  the  resolutions  of  the  congress, 

ile  the  aid  of  a  Russian  army  was  promised,  if  necessary.  An 
Austrian  force  of  forty-three  thousand  men  entered  the  Neapolitan 
territory,  heralded  by  a  proclamation  from  Ferdinand,  calling  his 
subjects  to  receive  the  invaders  as  friends.  A  few  slight  skirmishes 
took  place,  but  the  country  was  quickly  overrun;  foreign  troops  gar- 
risoned the  fortresses ;  the  king's  promise  of  complete  amnesty  was 
forgotten  ;  and  courts  martial  and  executions  closed  the  brief  drama 
of  the  Neapolitan  Revolution. 

IV.  PIEDMONT.  1.  Piedmont  is  the  principal  province  of  the  Sar- 
dinian monarchy  ;2  and  the  latter,  first  recognized  as  a  separate  king 
dom  by  the  treaty  of  Utrecht  in  1713,  comprises  the  whole  of  north- 
ern Italy  west  of  the  Tessino,3  together  with  the  island  of  Sardinia 
in  the  Mediterranean.  The  Piedinontese,  never  considering  them- 
selves properly  as  Italians,  had  been  proud  of  their  annexation  to 
France  under  the  rule  of  Napoleon ;  and  on  the  restoration  of  the 
monarchy  they  were  the  first  of  the  Sardinian  people  to  exhibit  the 
liberal  principles  of  the  French  Revolutionists,  and  to  complain  of 
the  oppressive  exactions  imposed  upon  them  by  the  government. 

2.  Scarcely  had  the  Neapolitan  Revolution  been  suppressed,  when 
an  insurrection,  beginning  with  the  military,  broke  out  in  Piedmont. 
On  the  10th  of  March,  1821,  several  regiments  of  troops  simulta- 
neously mutinied ;  and  it  is  believed  that  the  malcontents  were  se- 
cretly favored  by  Charles  Albert,  a  kinsman  of  the  royal  family,  who 

1.  Laybach,  the  capital  of  Austrian  Illyria,  (which  latter  embraces  the  duchies  of  Carinthia 
and  Carniola,)  is  situated  on  a  navigable  stream,  a  tributary  of  the  Save,  fifty-four  miles  north- 
east from  Trieste.    It  is  celebrated  in  diplomatic  history  for  the  congress  held  here  in  1821. 
(Map  No.  XVII.) 

2.  Sardinia  (Kingdom  of)  embraces  the  territory  of  Piedmont,  Genoa,  and  Nice,  and  the 
adjacent  duchy  of  Savoy  on  the  west  side  of  the  Alps,  together  with  the  island  of  Sardinia. 
Savoy,  which  was  governed  by  its  own  counts  as  early  as  the  tenth  century,  was  the  nucleus 
of  this  monarchy.    Genoa  was  annexed  to  the  Sardinian  crown  at  the  peace  of  J815.    (Map 
No.  XVII.) 

3.  The  Tessino  or  Ticino  (anciently  Ticiuus,  see  p.  158,)  having  its  sources  in  Mount  St. 
Gothard,  flows  southward,  and  after  traversing  the  Lago  Maggiore  in  its  entire  length,  and 
forming  the  boundary  between  Lombardy  and  Piedmont,  falls  into  the  Po  at  Pa  via.    (Map  No. 
XVII.) 


516  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  II. 

afterwards  became  king  of  Sardinia.  The  seizure  of  the  citadel  of 
Turin,  on  the  12th,  was  followed,  on  the  13th,  by  the  abdication  of 
the  king  Victor  Emanuel,  in  favor  of  his  absent  brother  Charles 
Felix,  and  the  appointment  of  Prince  Albert  as  regent.  While  ef- 
forts were  made  to  organize  a  government,  an  Austrian  army  was 
assembled  in  Lombardy  to  put  down  the  Revolution  :  the  new  king 
repudiated  the  acts  of  the  regent,  who  threw  himself  on  the  Aus- 
trians  for  protection  :  on  the  8th  of  April  the  insurgents  were  over- 
thrown in  battle  ;  and  on  the  10th  the  combined  royal  and  Austrian 
troops  were  in  possession  of  the  whole  country.  In  Piedmont,  as  in 
Naples,  Austrian  interference,  ever  exerted  on  the  side  of  tyranny, 
suppressed  every  germ  of  constitutional  freedom. 

V.  THE  GREEK  REVOLUTION.  1.  In  the  year  1481,  Greece,  the 
early  and  favored  seat  of  art,  science,  and  literature,  was  conquered 
by  the  Turks,  after  a  sanguinary  contest  of  more  than  forty  years. 
The  Venetians,  however,  were  not  disposed  to  allow  its  new  masters 
quiet  possession  of  the  country  ;  and  during  the  sixteenth  and  seven- 
teenth centuries  it  was  the  theatre  of  obstinate  wars  between  them 
and  the  Turks,  which  continued  till  1718,  when  the  Turks  were  con- 
firmed in  their  conquest  by  treaty.  Although  the  Turks  and  Greeks 
never  became  one  nation,  and  the  relation  of  conquerors  and  con- 
quered never  ceased,  yet  the  Turkish  rule  was  quietly 
submitted  to  until  1821,  when,  according  to  previous  ar- 
rangements, on  the  7th  of  March  Alexander  Ypsilanti,  a  Greek,  and 
then  a  major-general  in  the  Russian  army,  proclaimed,  from  Moldavia, 
the  independence  of  Greece,  at  the  same  time  assuring  his  country- 
men of  the  aid  of  Russia  in  the  approaching  contest.  But  the 
Russian  emperor  declined  intervention ;  the  Porte  took  the  most 
rigorous  measures  against  the  Greeks,  and  called  upon  all  Mussulmen 
to  arm  against  the  rebels  for  the  protection  of  Islamism  :'  the  wildest 
fanaticism  raged  in  Constantinople,  where  hundreds  of  the  resident 
Greeks  were  remorselessly  murdered ;  and  in  Moldavia  the  bloody 
struggle  was  terminated  with  the  annihilation  of  the  patriot  army, 
and  the  flight  of  Ypsilanti  to  Trieste,2  where  the  Austrian  govern- 
ment seized  and  imprisoned  him. 

1.  Islamism,  from  the  Arabic  word  salama,  "to  be  free,  safe, or  devoted  to  God,"  is  the  term 
which  the  followers  of  Mahomet  apply  to  their  religion.    The  term  "  Mohammedism"  ia  as 
objectionable  as  the  term  "  popery." 

2.  Trieste,  a  seaport  town  of  Austrian  Illyria,  is  near  the  north-eastern  extremity  of  the 
Adriatic,  seventy-three  miles  north-east  from  Venice.    During  the  middle  agea  Trieste  was  the 
capital  of  a  small  republic.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 


CHAP.  VI]  NINETEENTH  CENTURY.  517 

2.  In  southern  Greece  no  cruelties  could  quench  the  fire  of  liberty ; 
and  sixteen  days  after  the  proclamation  of  Ypsilanti  the  Revolution 
of  the  Morea  began  at  Suda,  a  large  village  in  the  northern  part  of 
Achaia,  where  eighty  Turks  were  made  prisoners.     The  revolution 
rapidly  spread  over  the  Morea  and  the  islands  of  the  jiEgean :  the 
ancient  names  were  revived ;  and  on  the  6th  of  April  the  Messenian 
senate,  assembled  at  Kalarnatia,1  proclaimed  that  Greece  had  shaken 
off  the  Turkish  yoke  to  save  the  Christian  faith,  and  restore  the 
ancient  character  of  the  country.     From  that  time  the  Greeks  found 
friends  wherever  free  principles  were  cherished ;  and  from  England 
and  the  United  States  large  contributions  of  clothing  and  provisions 
were  forwarded  to  relieve  the  sufferings  inflicted  by  the  wanton 
atrocities  of  the  Turks. 

3.  The  rage  of  the  Turks  was  particularly  directed  against  the 
Greek  clergy,  many  of  whom  were  murdered,  among  them  the  aged 
patriarchs  of  Constantinople  and  Adrianople ;  and  several  hundred 
of  the  Greek  churches  were  torn  down,  while  the  Christian  ambassa 
dors  of  neutral  powers  in  vain  remonstrated  with  the  Turkish  divan. 
These  excesses,  and  the  massacre  of  those  whom  the  Turks  took  in 
arms,  showed  to  the  Greeks  that  the  struggle  in  which  they  had  en- 
gaged was  one  of  life  and  death ;  and  it  is  not  surprising,  therefore, 
that  the  Greeks  often  retaliated  when  the  power  was  in  their  hands. 

4.  During  the  summer  months  the  Turks  committed  great  depre- 
dations among  the  Greek  towns  on  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor  :  the  in- 
habitants of  the  island  of  Candia,  who  had  taken  no  part  in  the  insur- 
rection, were  disarmed,  and  the  archbishops,  and  many  of  the  priests, 
executed :  in  Cyprus,  where  also  there  had  been  no  appearances  of 
insurrection,  the  Greeks  were  disarmed,  and  their  archbishop  and 
other  prelates  murdered.     The  most  barbarous  atrocities  were  also 
committed  at  Rhodes,  and  other  islands  of  the  Grecian  Archipelago, 
where  the  villages  were  burned,  and  the  country  desolated.     But 
when  in  August  the  Greeks  captured  the  strong  Turkish  fortresses 
of  Monembasia"  and  Navarino,8  and  in  October  that  of  Tripolitza," 

1.  Kalamatia  is  near  the  head  of  the  Messenian  Gulf,  now  called  the  Gulf  of  Kalmatia.    Its 
ancient  name  was  Calamte.    It  is  east  of  the  Paraisus  river — now  the  Pamitza.    (Map  No.  I.) 

2.  The  fortress  of  Monembasia  is  in  the  vicinity  of  the  ancient  Epidaurus,  on  the  eastern  coast 
of  Laconia,  forty-three  miles  south-east  from  Sparta.    (Map  No.  I.) 

3.  JVaearzno  is  on  the  western  coast  of  Messenia,  near  the  ancient  Pylus.    It  stands  on  the 
south  side  of  a  fine  semi-circular  bay  of  the  same  name,  cut  off  from  the  sea  by  the  long  narrow 
Island  of  Sphagia— anciently  Sphacteria.    (Map  No.  I.) 

4.  Tripolitza,  &  town  of  modern  origin,  and,  under  the  Turks,  the  capital  of  the  Morea,  la 
about  five  miles  north  of  Tegea*  in  the  ancient  Arcadia.    IU  name  Tripolitia,  "  the  thro 


518  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  II 

they  took  a  terrible  revenge  upon  their  enemies ;  and  in  Tripolitza 
alone  eight  thousand  Turks  were  put  to  death. 

5.  On  the  5th  and  6th  of  September  the  Greek  general  Ulysses 
defeated,  near  the  pass  of  Thermopylae,  a  large  Turkish  army  which 
had  advanced  from  Macedonia ;  but  on  the  other  hand  the  peninsula 
of  Cassandra1  was  taken  by  the  Turks,  when  three  thousand  Greeks 
were  put  to  the  sword ;  women  and  children  were  carried  into  slave- 
ry, and  the  flourishing  peninsula  converted  into  a  desert  waste.     The 
Athenian  Acropolis  was  garrisoned  by  the  Turks,  and  the  inhabitants 
of  Athens  fled  to  Salamis  for  safety  ;  but  in  general,  throughout  all 
southern  Greece,  the  Turks  were  driven  from  the  country  districts, 
anc(  compelled  to  shut  themselves  up  in  the  cities. 

6.  The  year  1822  opened  with  the  assembling  of  the  first  Greek 

congress  at  Epidaurus,2  the  proclaiming  of  a  provisional 
constitution  on  the  13th  of  January,  and  the  issuing, 
on  the  27th,  of  a  manifesto  which  announced  the  union  of  the  Greeks 
under  an  independent  federative  government,  under  the  presidency 
of  Alexander  Mavrocordato.  But  the  Greeks,  long  kept  in  bondage, 
and  unaccustomed  to  exercise  the  rights  of  freemen,  were  unable  at 
once  to  establish  a  wise  and  firm  government :  they  often  quarreled 
among  themselves  ;  and  their  captain,  or  captains,  who  had  exercised 
an  independent  authority  under  the  government  of  the  Turks,  could 
seldom  be  brought  to  submit  to  the  control  of  the  central  govern- 
ment. The  few  men  of  intelligence  and  liberal  views  among  them, 
and  the  few  foreign  officers  who  entered  their  service,  had  a  difficult 
task  to  perform ;  and  all  that  enabled  them  to  continue  the  struggle 
was  the  wretchedly  undisciplined  state  of  the  Turkish  armies. 

7.  The  principal  military  events  of  1822  were  the  destruction  of 
Scio3  by  the  Turks,  the  defeat  of  the  Turks  in  the  Morea,  the  successes 
of  the  Greek  fire-ships,  and  the  surrender  of  Napoli  di  Romania* 

cities,"  is  supposed  to  be  derived  from  the  circumstance  of  its  having  been  constructed  of  the 
ruins  of  the  three  cities  Tegca,  Mantinea,  and  Pallantium.    (Map  No.  I.) 

1.  The  peninsula  of  Cassandra  is  the  same  as  the  ancient  Pellene,  at  the  eastern  entrance  of 
the  Thermaic  Gulf,  now  Gulf  of  Salonica.    (Maps  Nos.  I.  and  X.) 

2.  Epidaurus.    See  Monembasia. 

3.  Scio  (anciently  Chios')  is  a  celebrated  and  beautiful  island,  about  thirty-two  miles  in  length, 
near  the  Lydian  coast  of  Asia  Minor.    In  antiquity,  and  in  modern  times  down  to  the  dreadful 
catastrophe  of  1822,  the  island,  although  for  the  most  part  mountainous  and  rugged,  was  cul- 
tivated with  the  greatest  care  and  assiduity.    It  was  called  the  "paradise  of  modern  Greece." 
Scio  aspired  to  the  honor  of  being  the  native  country  of  the  first  and  greatest  of  poets, — 

"  The  blind  old  man  of  Chio's  rocky  isle." 

4.  Napoli  di  Romania  (the  ancient  jYauplia,  the  port  of  Argos)  is  situated  on  a  point  of  land 
at  the  head  of  the  Argolic  Gulf,  or  Gulf  of  Nauplia.    (Map  No.  I,) 


CHAP.  VI.]  NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  519 

to  the  Greeks.  The  Greek  population  of  the  flourishing  and  de- 
fenceless island  of  Scio  had  declined  every  invitation  to  engage  in 
the  Revolution,  until  a  Greek  fleet  appeared  on  the  coast  in  March 
1822,  when  the  peasants  arose  in  arms  against  their  Turkish  masters, 
attacked  the  citadel,  and  put  the  Turkish  garrison  to  the  sword.  To 
punish  the  Sciots,  on  the  1 1th  of  April  five  thousand  of  the  most  bar- 
barous of  the  Turkish  Asiatic  troops  were  landed  on  the  island, 
which  was  given  up  to  indiscriminate  pillage  and  massacre ;  and  in  a 
few  days  the  paradise  of  Scio  was  changed  into  a  scene  of  desolation. 
According  to  the  Turkish  accounts,  twenty  thousand  individuals  were 
put  to  the  sword,  and  a  still  greater  number,  mostly  women  and 
children,  sold  into  slavery.  Soon  after,  one  hundred  and  fifty  villages 
in  southern  Macedonia  experienced  the  fate  of  Scio ;  and  the  pacha 
of  Salonica1  boasted  that  he  had  destroyed,  in  one  day,  fifteen  hun- 
dred women  and  children 

8.  In  the  meantime  the  Turks  had  made  extensive  preparations  to 
conquer  western  Greece — the  ancient  Epirus,  Acarnauia,  and  JEtolia, 
and  relieve  the  Turkish  garrisons  in  the  Morea ;  but  after  some  suc- 
cesses they  experienced  a  series  of  defeats  so  disastrous,  that,  during 
the  month  of  August  alone,  more  than  twenty  thousand  Turks  per- 
ished by  the  sword.  In  June,  soon  after  the  destruction  of  Scio, 
forty-seven  Greeks  rowed  a  number  of  fire-ships  into  the  midst  of  the 
fleet  of  the  enemy,  and  blew  up  the  vessel  of  the  Turkish  admiral, 
with  more  than  two  thousand  men  on  board.  The  admiral  himself, 
mortally  wounded,  was  carried  on  shore,  where  he  died.  On  the  10th 
of  November,  seventeen  daring  sailors  conducted  two  fire-ships  into 
the  midst  of  the  Turkish  fleet  off  the  island  of  Tenedos,2  and  fastened 
one  of  them  to  the  admiral's  ship,  and  the  other  to  that  of  the  second 
in  command.  The  former  narrowly  escaped ;  the  latter  blew  up  with 
eighteen  hundred  men  on  board.  Several  of  the  Turkish  vessels 
were  wrecked  on  the  Asiatic  coast ;  others  were  captured  ;  and  out 
of  a  fleet  of  thirty-five  vessels  that  had  sailed  for  the  relief  of  the 

1.  Salonica,  (anciently  Thessalonica,  at  the  head  of  the  Thermaic  Gulf  in  Macedonia,)  is  now 
a  celebrated  city  and  seaport  of  European  Turkey,  at  the  north-eastern  extremity  of  the 
Gulf  of  Salonica.    The  town  was  known  to  Herodotus,  Thucydides,  and  ^Eschines,  by  the 
name  of   Therma,  but  Cassandra  changed  its  name  to  that  of  his  wife  Thessalonica,  the 
daughter  of  Philip,  and  sister  of  Alexander  the  Great.    In  Thessalonica  the  Apostle  Paul  made 
many  converts,  to  whom  he  adressed  the  Epistle  to  the  Thessalonians.    (Maps  Nos.  I.  and  X.) 

2.  Tenedos  is  a  small  but  celebrated  island  of  Turkey,  in  the  ^Egean  Sea,  (Archipelago,) 
fifteen  miles  south-west  from  the  mouth  of  the  Dardanelles,  and  about  five  miles  west  from 
the  Asiatic  coast.    According  to  Virgil,  (^Eneid  ii.)  it  was  the  place  to  which  the  Grecian  fleet 
made  the  feigned  retreat  before  the  sack  of  Troy.    (Map  No.  III.) 


520  MODERN   HISTORY.  [PABT  IL 

Morea,  only  eighteen  returned,  much  injured,  to  the  Dardanelles. 
Finally,  to  crown  the  successes  of  the  year,  on  the  1 2th  of  December 
the  strong  Turkish  fortress  of  Napoli  di  Romania  was  carried  by 
assault. 

9.  During  the  year  1 823  the  war  was  carried  on  with  results  gen- 

erally favorable  to  the  Greeks.  In  Thessaly  and  Epirus 
there  was  a  suspension  of  arms :  on  the  22d  of  March 
the  Greek  fleet  gained  a  victory  over  an  Egyptian  flotilla :  daring 
expeditions  were  made  to  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor :  a  Turkish  army 
of  twenty -five  thousand  men,  that  attempted  to  invade  the  Morea  by 
way  of  the  Corinthian  Isthmus,  was  repulsed  by  the  brave  Suliot 
leader  Marco  Botzaris,  who  fell  in  the  moment  of  victory ;  and  the 
Turks  failed  in  repeated  attacks  on  Missolonghi.1  In  the  summer 
of  this  year  the  illustrious  poet,  Lord  Byron,  arrived  in  Greece,  and 
took  an  active  part  in  aid  of  Greek  independence ;  but  he  died  at 
Missolonghi  on  the  19th  of  April  following. 

10.  The  Turks  commenced  the  campaign  of  1824,  while  dissensions 

prevailed  among  the  Greek  captains,  by  seizing  Negro  - 
pont,  subduing  Candia,  and  reducing  the  small  but 
strongly-fortified  rocky  island  of  Ipsara,  in  which  latter  place  the 
heroic  Greeks  blew  up  their  last  fort,  after  two  thousand  of  the  enemy 
had  entered  it,  and  thus  perished  with  their  conquerors.  The  Turk- 
ish fleet  next  made  an  attempt  on  Samos,  but  was  driven  away  in 
terror  by  the  skill  and  boldness  of  the  Greek  fire-ships.  A  large 
Egyptian  fleet,  sent  to  attack  the  Morea,  was  frustrated  in  all  its  de- 
signs, and  the  campaign  terminated  gloriously  to  the  Greeks. 

1 1.  The  campaign  of  1825  was  opened  by  the  landing,  in  the  Morea, 

of  an  Egyptian  army  under  Ibrahim  Pacha,  son  of  the 
viceroy  of  Egypt,  whom  the  sultan  had  induced  to  engage 
in  the  war.  Navarino  soon  fell  into  his  power  ;  nor  was  his  course 
arrested  till  he  had  carried  desolation  as  far  as  Argos.  In  the 
meantime  Missolonghi  was  closely  besieged  by  a  combined  land  and 
naval  Turkish  force,  which,  on  the  2d  of  August,  after  a  contest  of 
several  days,  suffered  a  disastrous  defeat,  with  the  loss  of  nine  thou- 
sand men.  But  Missolonghi  was  again  besieged,  for  the  fourth  time, 
the  siege  being  conducted  by  Ibrahim  Pacha  alone,  who  had  an  army 
of  twenty-five  thousand  men,  trained  mostly  by  French  officers.  Af- 
ter repelling  numerous  assaults,  and  enduring  the  extremities  of 

1.  Missolonghi  is  on  the  coast  of  ^Etolia,  about  ten  miles  west  of  the  ancient  Chalcis, 
o.  I.) 


CHAP.  VI]  NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  521 

famine,  Missolongki  at  length  fell,  on  the  22d  of  April,  1826,  when 
eighteen  hundred  of  the  garrison  cut  their  way  through 
the  enemy,  and  readied  Salona1  and  Athens  in  safety. 
Many  of  the  inhabitants  escaped  to  the  mountains ;  large  numbers 
were  captured  in  their  flight ;  and  those  who  remained  in  the  city, 
about  one  thousand  in  number,  mostly  old  men,  women  and  children, 
blew  themselves  up  in  the  mines  that  had  been  prepared  for  the 
purpose.     Five  thousand  women  and  children  were  made  slaves,  and 
more  than  ^hree  thousand  ears  were  sent  as  a  precious  trophy  to 
Constantinople. 

12.  Ibrahim   Pacha  was  now  in  possession  of  a  large  part  of 
southern   Greece,  and  most  of  the  islands  of  the   Archipelago  or 
^Egean  Sea ;  and  the  foundation  of  an  Egyptian  military  and  slave- 
holding  State  seemed  to  be  laid  in  Europe.     This  danger,  connected 
with  the  noble  defence  and  sufferings  of  Missolonghi,  roused  the  atten- 
tion of  the  European  governments  and  people :  numerous  philanthropic 
societies  were  formed  to  aid  the  suffering  Greeks ;  and, 

finally,  on  the  6th  of  July,  1827,  a  treaty  was  concluded 
at  London  between  England,  Russia,  and  France,  for  the  pacification 
of  Greece — stipulating  that  the  Greeks  should  govern  themselves,  but 
that  they  should  pay  tribute  to  the  Porte. 

13.  To  enforce  this  treaty,  in  the  summer  of  1827  a  combined  Eng- 
lish, French,  and  Russian  squadron,  sailed  to  the  Grecian  Archipel- 
ago ;  but  the  Turkish  sultan  haughtily  rejected  the  intervention  of 
the  three  powers,  and  the  troops  of  Ibrahim  Pacha  continued  their 
devastations  in  the  Morea.     On  the  20th  of  October  the  allied  squad- 
ron entered  the  harbor  of  Navarino,  where  the  Turkish-Egyptian  fleet 
lay  at  anchor  ;  and  a  sanguinary  battle  followed,  in  which  the  allies 
nearly  destroyed  the  fleet  of  the  enemy.     The  Porte,  enraged  by  the 
result,  detained  the  French  ships  at  Constantinople,  stopped  all  com- 
munication with  the  allied  powers,  and  prepared  for  war. 

14.  In  the  following  year  the  French  cabinet,  in  connection  with 
England,  sent  an  army  to  the  Morea :  Russia  declared  war  for  vio- 
lations of  treaties,  and  depredations  upon  her  commerce  : 

~*1         f    H/T  T>  C  1          J       J      Vm'    1828' 

and  on  the  7th  of  May  a  Russian  army  or  one  hundred 

and  fifteen  thousand  men,  under  command  of  Count  Wittgenstein, 

crossed  the  Pruth,3  and  by  the  second  of  July  had  taken  seven  for 

.L  Salona  is  the  same  aa  the  ancient  Amphissa,  in  Locris.   See  Jlmphissa,  p.  96.   ( Map  No  1.) 
2.  .The  river  Pruth,  forming  the  boundary  between  the  Russian  province  of  Bessarabia  and 

the  Turkish  province  of  Moldavia,  enters  the  Danube  about  sixty  miles  from  its  mouth.  (JKapi 

Nos.  X.  and  XVII.) 


rf22  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PAET  II. 

tresses  from  the  Turks.  In  August  a  convention  was  concluded 
with  Ibrahim  Pacha,  who  agreed  to  evacuate  the  Morea  with  his 
troops,  and  set  his  Greek  prisoners  at  liberty.  In  the  meantime  the 
Greeks  continued  the  war,  drove  the  Turks  from  the  country  north 
of  the  Corinthian  Gulf,  and,  towards  the  close  of  the  year,  fitted  out 
a  great  number  of  privateers  to  prey  upon  the  commerce  of  the 
Turks  in  the  Mediterranean.  In  consequence  of  these  measures  the 
sultan  banished  from  Constantinople  all  the  Greeks  and  Armenians 
not  born  in  the  city,  amounting  to  more  than  twenty-live  thousand 
persons. 

15.  In  the  month  of  January,  1829,  the  sultan  received  a  protocol 
from  the  three  allied  powers,  declaring  that  they  took 

the  Morea  and  the  Cyc'  lades1  under  their  protection,  and 
that  the  entry  of  any  military  force  into  Greece  would  be  regarded  as 
an  attack  upon  themselves.  The  danger  of  open  war  with  France 
and  England,  together  with  the  successes  and  alarming  advance  of 
the  Russians,  now  commanded  by  Marshal  Diebitsch,  who,  by  the 
close  of  July,  had  crossed  the  Balkan2  mountains  and  reached  the 
Black  Sea,  and  on  the  20th  of  August,  took  Adrianople,  within  one 
hundred  and  thirty  miles  of  the  Turkish  capital,  induced  the  sultan 
to  listen  to  overtures  of  peace.  On  the  14th  of  September  the 
peace  of  Adrianople  was  signed  by  Turkey  and  Russia,  by  which  the 
sultan  recognized  the  independence  of  Greece,  granted  to  Russia 
considerable  commercial  advantages,  and  guaranteed  to  pay  the  ex- 
penses of  the  Russian  war. 

16.  The  provisional  government  of  Greece,  which  had  been  or- 
ganized during  the  Revolution,  was  agitated  by  discontents  and  jeal- 
ousies ;  for  some  time  the  country  remained  in  an  unsettled  condition, 
and  the  president,  Count  Capo  d'Istria,  was  assassinated  in  October 
1831.     The   allied  powers,  having  previously  determined  to  erect 
Greece  into  a  monarchy,  first  offered  the  crown  to  Prince  Leopold  of 
Saxe-Coburg,  (since  king  of  Belgium,)  who  declined  it  on  account 
of  the  unwillingness  of  the  Greeks  to  receive  him,  and  their  dissatis- 
faction with  the  boundaries  prescribed  by  the  allied  powers.     Finally, 

1.  The  Cyc'  lades  is  a  name  given  by  the  ancient  Greeks  to  that  large  cluster  of  islands  in  the 
^Egean  Sea  lying  east  of  southern  Greece.    {Map  No.  III.) 

2.  The  Balkan  mountains  are  the  same  as  the  ancient  Hamus,  which  formed  the  northern 
boundary  of  Thrace,  separating  it  from  Maesia.    (See  Map  No.  IX.)    The  Balkan  range  extends 
from  the  Black  Sea, westward  a  distance  of  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles,  dividing  the 
Turkish  provinces  of  IJulgaria  ,and  Roumelia,  and  the  waters  that  flow  into  the  Danube  oil 
the  north  from  those  that  flow  into  the  Maritza  on  the  south.    (Map  No.  X.) 


.  VI]  NINETEENTH  CENTURY.  523 

the  crown  was  conferred  on  Otho,  a  Bavarian  prince,  who  arrived  at 
Nauplia  in  1833. 

VI.  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  OF  1830.  1.  On  the  death  of  Louis 
XVIII.,  in  1824,  the  crown  of  France  fell  to  his  brother  Charles  X,, 
who  commenced  his  reign  by  a  declaration  of  his  intentions  of  con- 
firming the  constitutional  charter  that  had  been  granted  the  French 
people  at  the  time  of  the  first  restoration.  But  the  new  king,  bit- 
terly opposed  to  the  principles  of  the  Revelation,  and  governed  by 
the  counsels  of  bigoted  priests,  labored  to  build  up  an  absolute  mon- 
archy, with  a  privileged  nobility  and  clergy  for  its  support ;  while, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  people,  persuaded  that  a  plot  was  formed  to 
deprive  them  of  their  constitutional  privileges,  talked  of  open  resist- 
ance to  the  arbitrary  demands  of  the  court.  A  ministry,  which  the 
popular  party  had  forced  upon  the  king,  was  suddenly  dismissed,  and 
in  August,  1829,  an  ultra-royalist  ministry  was  appointed,  at  the  head 
of  which  was  Prince  Polignac,  one  of  the  old  royalists,  and  an  early 
adherent  of  the  Bourbons. 

2.  At  the  opening  of  the  Chambers  in  March  1 830,  the  speech 
from  the  throne  plainly  announced  the  determination  of  the  king  to 
overcome,  by  force,  any  obstacles  that  might  be  interposed  in  the 
way  of  his  government,  concluding  with  a  threat  of  resuming  the 
concessions  made  by  the  charter.     As  soon  as  this  speech  was  made 
public  the  funds  fell ;  the  ministers  had  a  decided  majority  opposed  to 
them  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  and  a  spirited  reply  was  returned, 
declaring  that  "  a  concurrence  did  not  exist  between  the  views  of  the 
government  and  the  wishes  of  the  people ;  that  the  administration 
was  actuated  by  a  distrust  of  the  nation ;  and  that  the  nation,  on  the 
other  hand,  was  agitated  with  apprehensions  which  threatened  its 
prosperity  and  repose."     The  king  then  prorogued  the  chambers, 
and  on  the  17th  of  May  a  royal  ordinance  declared  them  dissolved, 
and  ordered  new  elections, — measures  that  produced  the  greatest  ex- 
citement throughout  France. 

3.  In  the  meantime  the  king  and  his  ministers,  hoping  to  facilitate 
their  projects,  and  overcome  their  unpopularity  by  gratifying  the 
taste  of  the  French  people  for  military  glory,  declared  war  against 
Algiers,  the  Dey  having  refused  to  pay  long-standing  claims  of  French 
citizens,  and  having  insulted  the  honor  of  France  by  striking  the 
French  consul  when  the  latter  was  paying  him  a  visit  of  ceremony. 
A  fleet  of  ninety-seven  vessels,  carrying  more  than  forty  thousand 
soldiers,  embarked  at  Toulon  on  the  10th  of  May, — on  the  14th  of 


524  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

June  effected  a  landing  on  the  African  coast, — and  on  the  5th  of 
July  compelled  Algiers  to  capitulate,  after  a  feeble  resistance.  The 
Dey  was  allowed  to  retire  unmolested  to  Italy  ;  and  his  vast  treasures 
fell  into  the  hands  of  the  conquerors. 

4.  The  success  of  the  French  arms  in  Africa  occasioned  great  ex- 
ultation in  France,  but  did  nothing  towards  allaying  the  excited  state 
of  public  feeling  against  a  detested  ministry.     The  elections,  ordered 
to  be  held  in  June  and  the  early  part  of  July,  resulted  in  a  large  in- 
crease of  opposition  members ;  and  the  ministerial  party  was  left  in 
a  miserable  minority.     The  infatuated  ministry,  however,  instead  of 
withdrawing,  madly  resolved  to  set  the  voice  of  the  nation  at  defiance, 
and  even  to  subvert  the  constitutional  privileges  granted  by  the 
charter.     They  therefore  induced  the  king  to  publish,  on  the  morn- 
ing of  the  26th  of  July,  three  royal  ordinances, — the  first  dissolving 
the  newly-elected  Chamber  of  Deputies — the  second  changing  the 
law  of  elections,  sweeping  off  three-fourths  of  the  former  constituency, 
and  nearly  extinguishing  the  representative  system — and  the  third, 
suspending  the  liberty  of  the  press.     In  the  ministerial  report,  pub- 
lished at  the  same  time  with  these  ordinances,  the  ministers  argue,  in 
favor  of  the  latter  measure,  that  "  At  all  epochs,  the  periodical  press 
has  only  been,  and  from  its  nature  must  ever  be,  an  instrument  of 
disorder  and  sedition"  ! 

5.  In  defiance  of  these  ordinances  the  conductors  of  the  liberal 
journals  determined  to  publish  their  papers  ;  and  on  the  evening  of 
the  same  day,  the  26th,  they  published  an  address  to  their  country- 
men, declaring  tha^  "  the  government  had  stripped  itself  of  the  charac- 
ter of  law,  and  was  no  longer  entitled  to  their  obedience," — language 
that  would  probably  have  exposed  them  to  the  penalties  of  treason 
if  the  contest  had  terminated  differently.     It  was  late  in  the  day  be- 
fore intelligence  of  the  arbitrary  measures  of  government  was  gen- 
erally circulated  through  Paris :  then  crowds  began  to  assemble  in 
the  streets  :  cries  of  "  down  with  the  ministry,"  and  "  the  charter 
forever,"  were  heard  :  the  fearless  harangued  the  people  ;  and  during 
the  night  the  lamps  in  several  of  the  streets  were  demolished,  and 
the  windows  of  the  hotel  of  Polignac  broken.     So  little  had  the 
king  anticipated  any  popular  outbreak,  that  he  passed  the  day  of  the 
26th  in  the  amusements  of  the  chase  ;  and  it  appears  that  the  infatu- 
ated ministry  had  not  even  dreamed  of  a  Revolution  as  the  conse- 
quence of  their  obnoxious  measures.  , 

6.  On  the  morning  of  the  27th  several  of  the  journalists  printed 


CHAP.  VI.]  NINETEENTH  CENTURY.  525 

and  distributed  their  papers ;  but  their  doors  were  soon  closed,  and 
their  presses  broken  by  the  police.  This  morning  the  king  appointed 
Marshal  Marmont  commander-in-chief  of  the  forces  in  Paris ;  but  it 
was  not  till  four  in  the  afternoon  that  orders  were  given  to  put  the 
troops  under  arms,  when  they  were  marched  to  different  stations, 
to  aid  the  police,  and  overawe  the  people.  The  latter  then  be- 
gan to  arm  :  some  skirmishing  occurred  with  the  troops  :  during  the 
night  the  lamps  throughout  the  city  were  demolished ;  and,  under 
the  cover  of  darkness,  many  of  the  streets  were  barricaded  with 
paving-stones  torn  up  for  the  purpose.  At  the  close  of  the  day  Mar- 
mont had  informed  the  king  that  tranquillity  was  restored ;  and 
therefore  no  additional  troops  were  sent  for ;  nor  were  the  great 
depots  of  arms  and  ammunition  guarded. 

7.  At  an  early  hour  on  the  morning  of  the  28th,  armed  multitudes 
appeared  in  the  steets ;  and  numbers  of  the  National  Guard,  which 
the  king  had  previously  disbanded,  appeared  in  their  uniform  among 
the  throng,  and  with  them  the  famous  tri-colored  flag,  so  dear  to  the 
hearts  of  all  Frenchmen.     To  the  surprise  of  Marmont,  the  king, 
and  the  ministry,  the  riot,  which,  on  the  previous  evening,  they  had 
thought  suppressed,  had  assumed  the  formidable  aspect  of  a  Revolu- 
tion.    By  nine  o'clock  the  flag  of  the  people  waved  on  the  pinnacles 
of  Notre  Dame,   and  at  eleven   it  surmounted  the  central  tower 
of  the  Hotel  de  Ville,  which  was  afterwards,  however,  retaken  by 
the  royal  troops.     Marmont  showed  great  indecision  in  his  move- 
ments :  his  columns  were  everywhere  assailed  with  musketry  from 
the  barricades,  from  the  windows  of  houses,  from  the  corners  of  the 
streets,  and  from  the  narrow  alleys  and  passages  which  abound  in 
Paris ;   and  paving-stones  and  other  missiles  were  showered  upon 
them  from  the  house-tops.     The  royal  guards  were  disheartened  : 
the  troops  of  the  line  showed  great  reluctance  to  fire  upon  the  citi- 
zens ;  and  the  28th  closed  with  the  withdrawal  of  the  royal  forces 
from  every  position  in  which  they  had  attempted  to  establish  them- 
selves during  the  day. 

8.  The  contest  was  renewed  early  on  the  morning  of  the  third  daj, 
when  several  distinguished  military  characters  appeared  as  leaders  of 
the  people,  and  among  them  General  Lafayette,  who  took  command 
of  the  National  Guard ;  but  while  the  issue  was  yet  doubtful,  several 
regiments  of  the  line  went  over  to  the  insurgents,  who,  thus  strength- 
ened and  encouraged,  rushed  upon  the  Louvre  and  the  Tuilleries, 
and  speedily  overcame  the  troops  stationed  there.     So  suddden  was 


526  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  II 

the  assault  that  Marmont  himself  with  difficulty  escaped,  leaving  be- 
hind him  more  than  twenty  thousand  dollars  of  the  public  funds. 
About  half  past  three  P.  M.  the  last  of  the -military  posts  in  Paris 
surrendered ;  the  royal  troops  who  escaped  having  in  the  meantime 
retreated  to  St.  Cloud,  where  were  the  king  and  ministry,  now  in  con- 
sternation for  their  own  safety.  The  Revolution  was  speedily  com- 
pleted  by  the  installation  of  a  provisional  government :  on  the  31st 
Louis  Phillippe,  Duke  of  Orleans,51  the  most  popular  of  the  royal 
family,  accepted  the  office  of  lieutenant-general  of  the  kingdom  : 
when  the  Chambers  met  he  was  elected  to  the  throne ;  and  on  the 
9th  of  August  took  the  oath  to  support  the  constitutional  charter. 

9.  The  results  of  the  revolutionary  movement  in  France,  and  the 
overthrow  of  the  elder  branch  of  the  Bourbons,  in  defiance  of  the 
guarantees  of  the  congress  of  Vienna,  spread  alarm  among  the  sov- 
ereigns of  continental  Europe ;  and  the  emperor  of  Russia  went  so 
far  as  not  only  to  hesitate  about  acknowledging  the  title  of  the  citi- 
zen king  of  France,  but,  as  is  believed,  was  preparing  to  support  the 
claims  of  the  exiled  Charles  X.,  when  the  popular  triumph  in  Eng- 
land, in  the  passage  of  the  Reform  Bill  of  1832,  by  converting  a 
former  ally  into  an  enemy,  raised  up  obstacles  that  arrested  his 
measures.  Charles  X.,  after  having  abdicated  the  throne,  was  per- 
mitted to  retire  unmolested  from  France ;  but  his  ministers,  attempt- 
ing to  escape,  were  arrested,  and  afterwards  brought  to  trial,  when 
three  of  them,  including  Polignac,  were  declared  guilty  of  treason, 
and  sentenced  to  imprisonment  for  life.  At  the  end  of  six  years  they 
were  released  from  confinement, — indignation  towards  them  having 
given  place  to  pity. 

VII.  BELGIUM.  1.  The  French  Revolution  of  1830  produced  a 
powerful  sensation  throughout  Europe,  and  aroused  an  insurrection- 
ary spirit  wherever  the  people  complained  of  real  or  fancied  wrongs, 
while  the  continental  sovereigns,  on  the  other  hand,  alarmed  for  the 
safety  of  their  thrones,  looked  with  jealousy  on  every  political  move- 
ment that  originated  with  the  people,  and  prepared  to  suppress,  by 
military  force,  the  incipient  efforts  of  rebellion.  The  Belgians,  who 
had  been  compelled  by  the  congress  of  Vienna  to  unite  with  the  Hol- 
landers in  forming  the  kingdom  of  the  Netherlands,  having  long  been 
goaded  by  unjust  laws,  and  treated  rather  as  vassals,  than  as  subjects, 

a.  Louis  Phillippe,  Duke  of  Valois  at  his  birth,  Duke  of  Chartres  on  the  death  of  his  grand- 
father  iu  1785,  and  Duke  of  Orleans  on  the  death  of  his  father  in  1794,  was  the  son  of  Louis 
Phillippe  Joseph,  Duke  of  Orleans,— better  known  under  his  Revolutionary  title  of  Philip 
Egalite. 


.  VI]  NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  527 

of  the  Dutch  king,  judging  the  period  favorable  for  dissolving  their 
union  with  a  people  foreign  to  them  in  language,  manners,  and  in- 
terests, arose  in  insurrection  at  Brussels,  in  the  latter  part  of  August, 
and,  after  a  contest  of  four  days'  duration,  drove  the  Dutch  authori- 
ties and  garrison  from  the  city. 

2.  In  vain  were  efforts  made  by  the  Prince  of  Orange  to  reconcile 
the  conflicting  demands  of  the  Dutch  and  the  Belgians,  and  again 
unite  the  two  people  under  one  government.  The  proposals  of  the 
prince  were  disavowed  by  his  father  the  king  of  Holland,  and  equally 
rejected  by  the  Belgians ;  and  on  the  4th  of  October  the  latter  made  a 
formal  declaration  of  their  independence.  Soon  after,  the  representa- 
tives of  the  five  great  powers, — France,  Great  Britain,  Prussia,  Russia, 
Mid  Austria,  assembled  at  London,  agreed  to  a  protocol  in  favor  of 
an  armistice,  and  directed  that  hostilities  should  cease  between 
the  Dutch  and  Belgians.  The  Belgians,  having  decided  upon  a 
constitutional  monarchy,  first  offered  the  crown  to  the  Duke  of 
Nemours,  the  second  son  of  Louis  Phillippe;  but  the  latter  de- 
clined the  proffered  honor  on  behalf  of  his  son ;  after  which  the 
Belgian  congress  elected  Leopold,  prince  of  Saxe-Coburg-Gotha,1 
for  their  king.  As  the  Dutch  continued  to  hold  the  city  of  Antwerp, 
contrary  to  the  determination  of  the  five  great  powers,  a  French 
army  of  sixty-five  thousand  men,  under  Marshal  Gerard,  entered  Bel- 
gium in  November  1832,  and,  after  encountering  an  obstinate  defence, 
compelled  the  surrender  of  the  place  on  the  24th  of  December. 
Since  her  separation  from  Holland,  Belgium  has  increased  rapidly  in 
every  industrial  pursuit  and  social  improvement. 

VIII.  POLISH  REVOLUTION.  1.  By  the  decrees  of  the  congress  of 
Vienna,  most  of  that  part  of  Poland  which  Napoleon  had  erected 
into  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Warsaw,  and  conferred  upon  his  ally  the 
king  of  Saxony,  (see  p.  487,)  was  reestablished  as  an  independent 
kingdom,  to  be  united  to  the  crown  of  Russia,  but  with  a  separate 
constitution  and  administration;  and  on  the  20th  of  June,  1815,  the 
Russian  emperor  Alexander  was  proclaimed  king  of  Poland.  The 
mild  character  of  Alexander  had  inspired  the  Poles  with  hopes  that 
he  would  protect  them  in  the  enjoyment  of  their  liberties ;  but  his 

1.  Saxe-Coburg- Ootha  is  a  duchy  of  central  Germany,  consisting  of  the  two  principalities, 
Saxe-Coburg,  and  Gotha ;— the  former  on  the  south  side  of  the  Thuringian  forest,  and  the  latter 
on  the  north  side.  Area  of  the  whole,  seven  hundred  and  ninety-seven  aqunre  miles :  popula- 
tion one  hundred  and  forty  thousand :  chief  towns,  Coburg,  and  Gotha.  The  government  is 
a  constitutional  monarchy.  The  house  of  Saxe-Coburg  has  intermarried  with  the  principal 
reigning  families  of  Europe.  (Map  No.  XVII.) 


528  MODERN  HISTORY.  [TAUT  IL 

fine  professions  soon  began  to  prove  delusive :  ere  long  none  but 
Russians  held  the  chief  places  of  government :  the  article  of  the 
constitution  establishing  liberty  of  the  press  was  nullified  :  publicity 
of  debate  in  the  Polish  diet  was  abolished ;  and  numerous  state 
prosecutions  imbittered  the  feelings  of  the  Poles  against  their 
tyrants. 

2.  On  the  accession  of  Nicholas  to  the  throne  of  Russia,  in  De- 
cember 1 825,  although  the  lieutenancy  of  Poland  was  intrusted  to  a 
Pole,  yet  the  real  power  was  invested  in  the  king's  brother,  the 
Archduke  Constantine,  who  held  the  appointment  of  commander-in- 
chief  of  the  army.     Constantine  proved  to  be  the  worst  of  tyrants — 
a  second  Sejanus — delighting  in  every  species  of  judicial  iniquity 
and  ministerial  cruelty.     The  barbarities  of  Constantine,  sanctioned 
by  Nicholas,  revived  the  old  spirit  of  Polish  freedom  and  nationality; 
and  the  successful  examples  of  France  and  Belgium  roused  the  Poles 
again  to  action.     Secret  societies,  organized  for  the  express  purpose 
of  securing  the  liberty  of  Poland,  and  uniting  again  under  one  gov- 
ernment those  portions  that  had  been  torn  asunder  and  despoiled  by 
the  rapacity  of  Russia,  Prussia,  and  Austria,  existed  not  only  in  Po- 
land proper  and  Lithuania,  but  also  in  Volhynia1  and  Podolia,  and 
even  in  the  old  provinces  of  the  Ukraine,  which,  it  might  be  sup- 
posed, had  long  since  lost  all  recollections  of  Polish  glory. 

3.  The  fear  of  detection  and  arrest  on  the  part  of  some  members 
of  one  of  these  societies,  led  to  the  first  outbreak  at  Warsaw,  on  the 
evening  of  the  29th  of  November,  1830.     The  students  of  a  military 
school  at  Warsaw,  one  hundred  and  eighty  in  number,  first  attempted 
to  seize  Constantino  at  his  quarters,  two  miles  from  the  city ;  but 
during  the  struggle  with  his  attendants,  of  whom  the  Russian  general 
Gendre,  a  man  infamous  for  his  crimes,  was  killed,  the  duke  escaped 
to  his  guards,  who,  being  attacked  in  a  position  from  which  retreat 
was  difficult,  lost  three  hundred  of  their  number,  when  the  students 
returned  to  the  city,  liberated  every  State  prisoner,  and  were  joined 
by  the  school  of  the  engineers,  and  the  students  of  the  university.    A 
party  entered  the  only  two  theatres  open,   calling  out,  "  Women, 
home — men,  to  arms  !"     The  arsenal  was  next  forced,  and  in  one 
hour  and  a  half  from  the  first  movement,  forty  thousand  men  were 
in  arms.     Constantine  fell  back  to  the  frontier.     Chlopicki  was  first 
appointed  by  the  provisional  government  commander-in-chief  of  the 

1.  Volhynia  is  a  province  of  European  Prussia,  formerly  comprised  in  the  kingdom  of  Poland, 
lying  south  of  Grodno  and  Minsk.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 


CHAP  VI.]  NINETEENTH    CENTURY.  529 

army  of  Poland,  and  afterwards  was  made  dictator ;  but  he  soon  re- 
signed, and  Adam  Czartoriski  was  appointed  president. 

4.  After  two  months'  delay  in  fruitless  attempts  to  negotiate  with 
the  emperor  Nicholas,  who  refused  all  terms  but  absolute  submission, 
the  inevitable  conflict  began — Russia  having  already  assembled  an 
army  of  two  hundred  thousand  men  under  the  command  of  Field 
Marshal  Diebitsch,  the  hero  of  the  Turkish  war,  while  the  Poles  had 
only  fifty  thousand  men  equipped  for  the  fight.     On  the  5th  of  Feb- 
ruary, 1831,  the  Russians  crossed  the  Polish  frontier :  on  the  18th 
their  advanced  posts  were  within  ten  miles  of  Warsaw  ;  and  on  tho 
20th  a  general  action  was  brought  on,  which  resulted  in  the  Poles 
retiring  in  good  order  from  the  field  of  battle.     On  the  25th  forty 
thousand  Poles,  under  Prince  Radzvil,  withstood  the  shock  of  more 
than  one  hundred  thousand  of  the  enemy ;  and  at  the  close  of  the 
day  ten  thousand  of  the  Russians  lay  dead  on  the  field,  and  several 
thousand  prisoners  were  taken. 

5.  Skryznecki,   being  now  appointed  commander-in-chief  of  the 
Polish  forces,  concerted  several  night  attacks  for  the  evening  of  the 
31st,  which  resulted  in  the  total  rout  of  twenty  thousand  Russians, 
and  the  capture  of  a  vast  quantity  of  muskets,  cannon  and  ammuni- 
tion.    These  successes  were  so  rapidly  followed  up,  that  before  the 
end  of  April  the  Russians  were  driven  either  across  the  Bug1  into 
their  own  territories,  or  northward  into  the  Prussian  dominions.    The 
conduct  of  Prussia,  in  affording  the  Russians  a  secure  retreat  on 
neutral  territory,  and  furnishing  them  with  abundant  supplies,  while 
in  all  similar  cases  the  Poles  were  detained  as  prisoners,  destroyed 
all  advantages  of  Polish  valor.     Austria,  likewise,  permitted  the 
Russians  to  pass  over  neutral  ground  to  outflank  the  Poles,  but  de- 
tained the  latter  as  prisoners  if  they  once  set  foot  on  Austrian  terri- 
tory.    Thus  Russia  and  Austria  interpreted  and  enforced  the  princi- 
ples of  the  "  Holy  Alliance." 

6.  While  the  Poles  were  stationed  at  Minsk,3  Skryznecki,  uniting 
all  his  forces  in  that  vicinity,  to  the  number  of  twenty  thousand,  sud- 
denly crossed  the  Bug  and  forced  his  way  to  Ostrolenha,3  a  distance 

1.  The  Bug,  a  large  tributary  of  the  Vistula,  forms  a  great  part  of  the  eastern  boundary  of 
the  present  Poland.    Another  river  of  Ihe  same  name,  running  swtth-east  through  Podolia  and 
Kherson,  falls  into  the  estuary  of  the  Dnieper,  east  of  Odessa.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

2.  Minsk  is  a  small  town  of  Poland,  about  twenty-five  miles  south-east  of  Warsaw.    A  large 
city  of  the  same  name  is  the  capital  of  the  Russian  province  of  Minsk,  formerly  embraced  in 
Poland.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

3.  Ostrolenka  is  a  small  town  sixty-eight  miles  north-east  from  Warsaw.    (Map  No.  XVII;) 

34 


530  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  II. 

of  eighty  miles,  where,  on  the  26th  of  May,  he  engaged  in  battle 
with  sixty  thousand  Russians.  The  combat  was  terrific — no  quarter 
was  asked,  and  none  was  given.  The  Poles,  led  by  the  heroic  Gen- 
eral Bern,  lost  one-fourth  of  their  number.  The  loss  of  the  Russians 
was  less  in  proportion,  but  they  had  three  generals  killed  on  the  field. 
In  the  following  month,  both  the  Russian  comniander-in-chief,  Mar- 
shal Diebitsch,  and  the  Archduke  Constantine,  died  suddenly.  About 
the  same  time  a  conspiracy  for  setting  at  liberty  all  the  Russian 
prisoners,  thirteen  thousand  in  number,  was  detected  at  Warsaw. 

7.  Dissensions  among  the  Polish  chiefs,  and  the  want  of  an  ener- 
getic government,  soon  produced  their  natural  consequences  of  di- 
vided counsels,  and  disunited  efforts  in  the  field ;  and  by  the  6th  of 
September,  during  the  strife  of  factions  at  Warsaw,  a  Russian  arm} 
of  one  hundred  thousand  men,  supported  by  three  hundred  pieces  of 
cannon,  had  assembled  for  the  storming  of  the  city.  Although  de- 
fended with  heroism,  after  two  days'  fighting,  in  which  the  Russians 
had  twenty  thousand  slain,  and  the  Poles  about  half  that  number, 
Warsaw  surrendered  to  the  Russian  general  Paskewitch — the  main 
body  of  the  Polish  army,  and  the  most  distinguished  citizens,  retiring 
from  the  city,  and  afterwards  dispersing,  when  no  farther  hopes  re- 
mained of  serving  their  ill-fated  country.  Large  numbers  crossed 
the  frontiers  and  went  into  voluntary  exile  in  other  lands  :  most  of 
the  Polish  generals,  who  surrendered  under  an  amnesty,  were  sent  to 
distant  parts  of  the  Russian  empire ;  and  the  soldiers,  and  Polish 
nobility,  were  consigned  by  thousands  to  the  dungeons  and  mines  of 
Siberia.  The  subjugation  of  Poland  is  complete :  her  nationality 
seems  extinguished  forever. 

III.  ENGLISH  REFORMS.     FRENCH  REVOLUTION  OF  1848.     REVO- 
LUTIONS IN  THE  GERMAN  STATES,  PRUSSIA,  AND  AUS- 
TRIA.    REVOLUTIONS  IN  ITALY.     HUNGARIAN 
WAR.     USURPATION  OF  LOUIS  NAPOLEON. 

I.  ENGLISH  REFORMS.  1.  From  the  death  of  George  the  Third, 
in  1820,  to  the  death  of  George  the  Fourth,  in  June  1830,  England 
was  agitated  by  a  continued  struggle  between  the  two  great  parties 
which  divided  the  nation — the  whigs  and  the  tories.  Civil  disabili- 
ties of  all  kinds  were  loudly  objected  to,  and  political  abuses  denounc- 
ed with  a  plainness  and  force  never  before  known  in  England.  In 
1828  the  reform  party  obtained  the  abolition  of  the  test  act,  which, 
though  nearly  obsolete  in  point  of  fact,  still  imposed  nominal  disabili- 
ties on  Protestant  dissenters ;  and  in  1 829  the  barriers  which  had 


CHAP.  V1.J  NINETEENTH  CENTURY.  531 

so  long  excluded  Roman  Catholics  from  the  legislature  were  removed. 
At  the  time  of  the  accession  of  William  IV.,  in  1830,  a  tory  ministry, 
headed  by  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  was  in  power ;  but  the  decided 
sentiment  of  the  nation  in  favor  of  reform  in  all  the  branches  of  gov- 
ernment, occasioned  its  resignation  in  November  of  the  same  year.  A 
whig  ministry,  pledged  for  reform,  with  Earl  Grey  at  its  head,  then 
came  into  power ;  and  on  the  first  of  March  of  the  following  year 
Lord  John  Russell  brought  forward  in  parliament  the  ministerial 
plan  for  reforming  the  representation  of  England,  Scotland,  and 
Ireland,  which,  if  adopted,  would  extend  the  right  of  suffrage  to  half 
a  million  additional  voters,  disfranchise  fifty-six  of  the  so-called  rot- 
ten or  decayed  boroughs,  and  more  nearly  equalize  representation 
throughout  the  kingdom.  After  a  long  but  animated  debate  the  bill 
passed  a  second  reading  in  the  House  of  Commons  by  a  majority  of 
only  one,  but  was  lost  on  the  third  reading,  the  vote  being  two  hun- 
dred and  ninety-one  for  the  bill,  and  two  hundred  and  ninety-nine 
against  it. 

2.  By  advice  of  the  ministers,  the  king  hastily  dissolved  parlia- 
ment, and  ordered  new  elections  'for  the  purpose  of  better  ascertain- 
ing the  sense  of  the  people.     The  elections  took  place  amid  great 
excitement,  and  the  advocates  of  reform  were  returned  by  nearly  all 
the  large  constituencies.     The  new  parliament  was  opened  on  the 
14th  of  June,  1831.     The  reform  bill,  being  again  introduced,  passed 
the  commons  by  a  majority  of  one  hundred  and  thirteen,  but  was  re- 
jected by  the  lords,  whose  numbers  remained  unchanged,  by  a  ma- 
jority of  forty-one.     The  rejection  of  the  bill  by  the  lords  led  to 
strong  manifestations  of  popular  resentment  against  the  nobility : 
serious  riots  occurred  at  Nottingham  and  Derby;1  and  at  Bristol3 
many  public  buildings,  and  an  immense  amount  of  private  property, 
were  destroyed  ;  ninety  persons  were  killed  or  wounded  ;  five  of  the 
rioters  were  afterwards  executed,  and  many  were  sentenced  to  trans- 
portation. 

3.  On  the  12th  of  December  Lord  John  Russell  a  third  time  in- 
troduced a  reform  bill,  similar  to  the  former  two ;  and  on  the  23d 
of  March,  1832,  it  passed  the  Commons  by  a  majority  of  one  hundred 
and  sixteen,  but  was  defeated  in  the  House  of  Lords  by  a  majority 

1.  Derby  is  a  large  town  on  the  Derwent,  one  hundred  and  ten  miles  north-west  from  London. 

2.  Bristol  is  a  large  and  important  city  and  seaport  of  England,  at  the  confluence  of  the 
Avon  and  the  Frome,  eight  miles  from  the  entrance  of  the  former  into  Bristol  Channel,  and 
one  hundred  and  eight  miles  west  from  London.    The  city  extends  over  six  or  seven  distinct 
hills  and  their  intermediate  valleys,  amidst  a  picturesque  and  fertile  district.    (Map  No.  XVI.) 


532  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

of  forty.  The  ministry  now  advised  the  king  to  create  a  sufficient 
number  of  peers  to  insure  the  passage  of  the  bill ;  and  on  his  refusal 
to  proceed  to  such  extremities,  all  the  members  of  the  cabinet  re- 
signed. Political  unions  were  now  formed  throughout  the  country ; 
the  people  determined  to  refuse  payment  of  taxes,  and  demanded 
that  the  ministers  should  be  reinstated.  There  were  no  riots,  but 
the  people  had  risen  in  their  collective  strength,  determined  to  assert 
their  just  rights.  The  king  yielded  to  the  force  of  public  opinion, 
and  Earl  Grey  and  his  colleagues  were  reinstated  in  office,  with  the 
assurance  that,  if  necessary,  a  sufficient  number  of  new  peers  should 
be  created  to  secure  the  passing  of  the  bill.  When  the  lords  were 
apprized  of  this  fact  they  withdrew  their  opposition  ;  but  it  is  worthy 
of  remark  that  many  of  them,  and  all  the  bishops,  left  their  seats  on 
the  final  passage  of  the  bill,  which,  having  been  rapidly  hurried 
through  both  houses,  received  the  royal  assent  on  the  7th  of  June. 

4.  The  passage  of  the  Reform  bill  was,  to  England,  a  political 
revolution — none  the  less  important  because  it  was  bloodless,  and 
carried  on  under  the  protection  of   law.     Thereby   the    electoral 
franchise,  instead  of  being  confined  to  a  varied  and  limited  class  in 
the  interest  of  the  aristocracy,  was  extended,  not  to  the  whole  citi- 
zens, as  in  America,  but  to   a  large  body  comprising  the  middle 
classes  of  society,  who  were  thus,  in  effect,  vested  with   supreme 
power  in  the  British  empire.     An  entire  change  in  the  foreign  policy 
of  the  country  was  the  consequence.     The  French  Revolution  of  1830 
had  elevated  to  power  the  middle  classes  of  the  French  people  also  ; 
and  the  ceaseless  rivalry  of  four  centuries  between  France  and  Eng- 
land was,  for  the  time,  forgotten  :  the  political  interests  of  the  two 
great  powers  of  Western  Europe  were  united ;  and  the  Russian  auto- 
crat, in  full  march  to  overturn  the  throne  of  the  citizen-king,  and 
put  down  republicanism  in  France,  was  arrested  on  the  Vistula,  where 
his  arms  found  ample  employment  in  crushing  the  last  remnants  of 
Polish  nationality.     As  to  England  herself,  none  of  the  many  evils 
arising  from  democratic  ascendency  in  the  government,  so  often  pre- 
dicted by  the  aristocratic  party,  have  yet  followed  in  the  train  of  re- 
form ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  the  peace,  power,  and  prosperity  of  the 
country,  have  increased  thereby. 

5.  The  reign  of  William  IV.  was  terminated  on  the  19th  of  June, 
1837,  when  the  Princess  Victoria,  daughter  of  the  Duke  of  Kent, 
and  grand-daughter  of  George  III.,  succeeded  to  the  throne,  at  the 
age  of  eighteen  years.     One  effect  of  the  descent  of  the  crown  to  a 


OHAP.VL]  NINETEENTH  CENTURY.  533 

female  was  the  separation  from  it  of  Hanover,  after  a  union  of  more 
than  a  century.  On  the  10th  of  February,  1840,  her  majesty  was 
married  to  Albert,  prince  of  Saxe-Coburg  and  Gotha,  a  duchy  of 
central  Germany. 

II.  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  OF  1848.  1.  The  most  important  events 
that  distinguished  the  reign  of  Louis  Phillippe  were  the  abolition 
of  the  hereditary  rights  of  the  French  peerage  in  October  1831  ; 
the  siege  of  Antwerp,  and  its  surrender  by  the  Dutch,  after  a  long 
and  vigorous  resistance,  in  1 832 ;  an  attempt  of  Louis  Napoleon 
Bonaparte,  nephew  of  the  emperor  Napoleon,  to  excite  an  insurrec- 
tion at  Strasbourg,  in  October  1836,  for  the  purpose  of  overthrowing 
the  government ;  the  second  attempt  of  Louis  Napoleon  to  excite  a 
revolution  in  France,  by  landing  at  Boulogne  in  August  1840,  and 
his  subsequent  condemnation  to  perpetual  imprisonment;  and,  in 
December  of  the  same  year,  the  splendid  pageant  of  the  restoration 
of  the  remains  of  the  emperor  Napoleon  to  France. 

2.  Louis  Phillippe  had  been  selected  to  fill  the  throne  of  France 
chiefly  through  the  instrumentality  of  the  venerable  Lafayette,  who, 
thinking  France  still  unfitted  for  a  republic,  preferred  for  her  "  a 
throne   surrounded   by   republican   institutions."      Placed   in    this 
anomalous  position,  Louis  Phillippe,  in  the  vain  attempt  to  concili- 
ate both  monarchists  and  republicans,  had  a  difficult  game  to  play ; 
and  while  he  was  laboring  to  consolidate  his  power,  a  large  and  influ- 
ential party,  that  he  dare  not  openly  denounce,  was  zealously  striving 
to  undermine  it.     Yet  for  a  time,  with  an  immense  revenue,  and  un- 
bounded patronage,  and  the  numerous  means  of  political  corruption 
which  they  placed  at  his  disposal,  the  government  of  Louis  Phillippe 
seemed  to  be  steadily  acquiring  solidity,  and  by  its  success  in  keep- 
ing down  domestic  factions,  and  maintaining  friendly  relations  with 
foreign  powers,  acquired  a  high  reputation  for  wisdom  and  firmness. 

3.  Yet  amid  all  this  seeming  security,  the  middle  and  lower  classes, 
disappointed  in  their  expectations  as  to  the  results  of  the  Revolution 
of  1830,  were  daily  growing  more  and  more  discontented  with  the 
measures  and  policy  of  the  government ;  and  it  was  this  all-pervading 
feeling  of  discontent,  which,  without  any  serious  aggressions  on  the 
part  of  government,  and  without  any  previous  conspiracy  on  the  part 
of  the  people,  led  to  the  unpremeditated  Revolution  of  February 
1848, — a  revolution  which,  in  its  completeness  and  importance,  and 
the  bloodless  means  by  which  it  was  accomplished,  is  without  a  par- 
allel in  history. 


534  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  II. 

4.  During  the  winter  of  1847-8  numerous  political  reform  ban- 
quets were  held  throughout  France ;  and  the  omission  of  the  king's 
health  from  the  list  of  toasts  on  these  occasions  was  a  circumstance 
that  added  much  to  the  jealousy  with  which  these  displays  were  re- 
garded by  the  government.     The  leaders  of  the  opposition  having 
announced  that  reform  banquets  would  be  held  throughout  France 
on  the  22d  of  February,  Washington's  birthday ;  on  the  evening 
preceding  the  22d,  the  administration  forbade  the  intended  meeting 
in  Paris,  and  made  extensive  military  preparations  to  suppress  it  if 
it  were  attempted,  and  to  crush  at  once  any  attempt  at  insurrection. 
In  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  then  in  session,  this  arbitrary  measure 
of  government  was  warmly  discussed,  when  the  opposition  members, 
consenting  to  give  up  the  meeting  for  the  morrow,  concurred  in  the 
plan  of  moving  an  impeachment  of  ministers,  with  the  expectation 
of  obtaining  either  a  change  of  cabinet,  or  a  dissolution  of  the  Cham- 
ber and  a  new  election,  which  would  test  the  sense  of  the  nation. 

5.  On  the  morning  of  the  22d  the  opposition  papers  announced 
that  the  banquet  would  be  deferred,  when  the  orders  for  the  troops 
of  the  line  to  occupy  the  place  of  the  intended  meeting  were  counter^ 
manded,  and  picquets  only  were  stationed  in  a  few  places ;  but  no 
serious  disturbance  was  anticipated,  either  by  the  ministry  or  its  op- 
ponents.    The  announcement  of  the  opposition  journals,  however, 
came  too  late ;  and  at  noon  a  large  concourse,  chiefly  of  the  working 
classes,  had  assembled  around  the  church  of  the  Madeline,  where 
the  procession  was  to  have  been  organized.     But  the  multitude  ex- 
hibited no  symptoms  of  disorder,  and  were  dispersed  by  the  munici- 
pal cavalry  without  any  loss  of  life.     In  the  evening,  however,  dis- 
turbances began  :  gunsmiths'  shops  were  broken  open ;   barricades 
were  formed ;   lamps  extinguished ;  the  guards  were  attacked ;  the 
streets  were  filled  with  troops  ;  and  appearances  indicated  a  sangui- 
nary strife  on  the  morrow. 

6.  At  an  early  hour  on  Wednesday,  February  23d,  crowds  again 
appeared  in  the  streets,  barricades  were  erected,  and  some  skirmish- 
ing ensued,  in  which  a  few  persons  were  killed.     Numbers  of  the 
National  Guards  also  made  their  appearance,  and  a  portion  of  them, 
having  declared  for  reform,  sent  their  colonel  to  the  king,  to  acquaint 
his  majesty  with  their  wishes.     He  immediately  acceded   to  their 
requests,  dismissed  the  Gruizot  cabinet,  and  requested  Count  Mole  to 
form  a  new  ministry.     This  measure  produced  a  momentary  calm  ; 
but  the  rioters  continued  to  traverse  the  streets,  often  attacking,  and 


CHAP.  VI]  NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  535 

sometimes  disarming,  the  municipal  guards.  Between  ten  and  eleven 
in  the  evening  a  crowd,  passing  the  Hotel  of  Foreign  Affairs,  was 
suddenly  fired  upon  by  the  troops  with  fatal  effect.  The  people  fled 
in  consternation,  but  their  thirst  for  vengeance  was  aroused,  and  the 
cry,  "  To  arms !  Down  with  the  assassins  !  Down  with  Louis  Phil- 
lippe  !  Down  with  the  Bourbons  !"  resounded  throughout  Paris. 

7.  The  attempt  to  establish  a  Mole  administration  having  failed, 
the  king  sent,  late  at  night,  for  M.  Thiers,  and  intrusted  to  him  the 
formation  of  a  ministry  that  should  be  acceptable  to  the  people  ;  and 
on  the  following  morning,  the  24th,  a  proclamation  to  the  citizens  of 
Paris  announced  that  M.  Thiers  and  Odillon  Barrot  had  been  ap- 
pointed ministers — that  orders  had  been  given  the  troops  to  cease 
firing,  and  retire  to  tbeir  quarters — that  the' Chamber  would  be  dis- 
solved, and  an  appeal  made  to  the  people — and  that  General  Lam- 
oriciere  had  been  appointed  commandant  of  the  National  Guards. 
The  order  to  the  troops  to  retire,  which  occasioned  the  resignation 
of  their  commander,  Marshal  Bugeaud,  after  a  protest  against  the 
measure,  was  a  virtual  surrender,  on  the  part  of  government,  of  the 
means  of  defence ;  and  the  king  and  royal  family  soon  found  them- 
selves at  the  mercy  of  an  excited  populace.     The  troops  quietly  al- 
lowed themselves  to  be  disarmed  by  the  mob,  who  then,  to  the  num- 
ber of  twenty  thousand,  and  accompanied  by  the  National  Guard, 
directed  their  course  to  the  Palace  Royal  and  the  Tuilleries,  and 
demanded  the  abdication  of  the  king.     In  the  course  of  the  day  the 
king  signed  an  abdication  in  favor  of  his  grandson,  the  young  Count  of 
Paris  ;  but  before  this  fact  was  generally  known  the  armed  populace 
broke  into  the  palace,  made  a  bonfire  of  the  royal  carriages  and  furni- 
ture, and  after  having  carried  the  throne  of  the  state  reception  room 
in  triumph  through  the  streets,  burned  that  also.     Meanwhile  the 
ex-king  and  queen  escaped  to  St.  Cloud,  whence  they  pursued  their 
way  to  Versailles,  and  thence  to  Dreux,  from  which  latter  place  they 
escaped  in  disguise  to  England,  whither  they  were  followed  by  M. 
Guizot,  and  other  members  of  the  late  ministry. 

8.  On  the  day  of  the  king's  abdication  the  Chamber  of  Deputies 
assembled ;  but,  being  overwhelmed  by  the  crowd,  the  greatest  con- 
fusion prevailed,  and  amid  shouts  of  "  No  king  !  Long  live  the  Re- 
public," the  members  of  a  provisional  government  were  named,  and 
adopted  by  popular  acclamation.     Although  a  majority  of  the  depu- 
ties seemed  opposed  to  the  establishment  of  a  republic,  and  it  was 
by  no  means  certain  that  there, was  any  great  party  out  of  Paris  in 


536  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  II 

its  favor,  every  attempt  to  adjourn  the  question  was  the  signal  of  re- 
newed shouts  and  disorder  •  and  amid  the  turbulent  demonstrations 
of  the  Parisian  populace  the  French  Republic  was  adopted,  and  pro- 
claimed to  the  nation.  Royalty  had  vanished,  almost  without  a 
struggle, — blown  away  by  the  breath  of  an  urban  tumult, — and  the 
strangest  revolution  of  modern  times  was  consummated. 

9.  The  leading  member  of  the  provisional  government  was  M. 
Lamartine,  to  whom  belongs  the  renown  of  saving  the  country  from 
immediate  anarchy.     By  his  noble  and  fervid  eloquence  the  passions 
of  the  mob  were  calmed  ;  and  by  his  prompt  and  judicious  measures, 
among  the  first  of  which  was  the  declaration  of  the  abolition  of  capi- 
tal punishment  for  political  offences,  tranquillity  and  confidence  were 
at  once  restored.     On  the  26th  the  bank  of  France  was  reopened ; 
the  public  departments  resumed  their  duties  ;  and  with  unparalleled 
unanimity  the  army,  the  clergy,  the  press,  and  the  people,  in  the 
provinces  as  well  as  in  Paris,  immediately  gave  in  their  adhesion  to 
the  new  Republic. 

10.  The  Revolution  of  February,  1848,  was  accomplished  by  the 
union  of  the  two  great  sections  of  the  democratic  party — the  Mod- 
erate and  the  Red  Republicans.     The  principles  advocated  by  the 
former  were  the  right  of  self-government,  civil  and  religious  liberty, 
and  universal  suffrage.     The  latter  went  much  farther,  and,  adopting 
the  leading  principles  of  the  Socialists,  demanded  the  establishment 
of  new  social  relations  between  capital  and  labor  ;  a  new  distribution 
of  wealth,  the  elevation  of  the  laboring  classes  at  the  expense  of  the 
wealthy,  labor  and  food  to  all,  by  government  regulations,  and  the 
working  out,  on  a  national  scale,  of  the  grand  problem  of  Commun- 
ism.    Believing  that  it  is  the  duty  and  in  the  power  of  government  to 
remedy  most  of  the  many  evils  of  society,  the  people  soon  began  to 
manifest  the  hopes  which  they  expected  the  Revolution  to  transform 
into  realities.     Deputations  from  all  trades  and  callings — even  to 
shoe-cleaners,  waiters,  and  nursery-maids — waited  on  the  provisional 
government,  making  known  their  grievances,  and  demanding  relief, 
which  generally  consisted  of  freedom  from  taxation,  the  establish- 
ment of  national  workshops,  fewer  hours  of  labor,  higher  wages,  and 
more  holidays. 

11.  Although  the  Moderate  and  Red  Republicans  had  united  in 
overthrowing  the  monarchy,  no  sooner  was  tranquillity  restored  than 
the  animosities  of  the  two  sections  revived  ;  and  when  it  was  found 
that  the  Moderates  had  control  of  the  provisional  government,  their 


CHAP.  VI]  NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  537 

opponents  determined  upon  its  overthrow.  On  several  occasions, 
during  the  month  of  April,  the  working  classes  of  Paris  assembled 
in  mass  to  make  a  demonstration  of  their  numbers ;  but  the  fidelity 
of  the  National  Guard  showed  that  the  real  physical  power  of  Paris 
was  still  in  the  hands  of  the  provisional  government.  The  elections, 
held  in  April,  also  showed  a  large  majority  in  favor  of  the  Moderate 
party ;  and  on  the  ballot,  in  May,  for  an  executive  committee  of  the 
government,  consisting  of  five  members,  not  one  of  the  avowed  lied 
Republicans  was  elected ;  and  Ledru  Rollin,  the  most  violent  and 
ultra  of  the  committee,  was  the  lowest  on  the  list. 

12.  On  the  15th  of  May  the  National  Assembly  was  surrounded 
by  the  populace,  led  by  Barbes,  Blanqui,  Hubert,  and  other  Com- 
munist leaders,  who,  after  having  driven  the  deputies  from  their  seats, 
and  assumed  the  functions  of  government,  proclaimed  themselves  the 
national  executive  committee,  and  through  Barbes,  one  of  their  num- 
ber, declared  that  a  contribution  of  a%  thousand  millions  of  francs 
should  be  levied  on  the  rich  for  the  benefit  of  the  poor — that  a  tax 
of  another  thousand  millions  should  be  raised  for  the  benefit  of  Po- 
land— that  the  National  Assembly  should  be  dissolved — and,  finally, 
that  the  guillotine  should  be  put  in  operation  against  the  enemies  of 
the  country.     But  in  the  meantime  the  National  Guard  was  called 
out,  the  rioters  were  soon  dispersed,  their  leaders  arrested,  and  the 
provisional  government  reinstated. 

13.  Owing  to  the  fear  of  another  demonstration  against  the  gov- 
ernment, the  full  command  of  all  the  troops  in  Paris  was  given  to 
General  Cavaignac,  the  minister  of  war ;  and  all  the  approaches  to 
the  National  Assembly,  and  the  different  ministries,  were  strongly 
guarded.     In  June,  the  government,  finding  the  burdens  imposed 
on  the  public  treasury  too  heavy  to  be  borne,  determined  to  send  out 
of  Paris,  to  the  provinces,  about  twelve  thousand  of  the  workmen  then 
unprofitably  employed  in   the  national  workshops.     This  was  the 
signal  of  alarm :  disturbances  began  on  the  evening  of  the  22d :  on 
the  23d  the  most  active  preparations  were  made  by  both  parties  for 
the  coming  contest,  and  some  blood  was  shed  at  the  barricades  erect- 
ed by  the  insurgents.     At  one  o'clock  on  Saturday  morning,  the  24th, 
General  Cavaignac  declared  Paris  in  a  state  of  siege,  and  the  struggle 
began  in  earnest.     From  that  hour  until  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon, 
when  the  insurgents  were  driven  from  the  left  bank  of  the  Seine,  the 
musketry  and  cannonade  were  incessant,  and  Paris  was  a  vast  battle- 
field.    The  fight  was  renewed  at  an  early  hour  on  Sunday  morning, 


538  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  II 

and  continued  during  most  of  the  day,  and  it  was  not  till  noon  on 
Monday  that  the  struggle  was  terminated,  by  the  unconditional  sur- 
render of  the  last  body  of  the  insurgents.  The  number  killed  and 
wounded  in  this  insurrection — by  far  the  most  terrible  that  has  ever 
desolated  Paris — will  never  be  known  ;  but  five  thousand  is  probably 
not  a  high  estimate. 

14.  The  exertions  and  success  of  General  Cavaignac  in  defending 
the  government  procured  for  him  a  vote  of  thanks  from  the  Assembly, 
and  the  unanimous  appointment  of  temporary  chief-executive  of  the  na- 
tion, with  the  power  of  appointing  his  ministers.  Many  of  the  leaders 
of  the  insurrection,  among  them  Louis  Blanc  and  Caussidiere,  fled  from 
the  country  :  a  small  number  of  those  taken  with  arms  in  their  hands 
were  condemned  to  transportation ;  but  the  great  majority,  after  a 
short  confinement,  were  set  at  liberty.  The  Assembly,  in  the  mean- 
time, proceeded  with  its  task  of  constructing  the  new  Constitution, 
which  was  adopted  on  the  4th  of  November,  1848,  by  a  vote  of 
seven  hundred  and  thirty-nine  in  its  favor,  and  thirty  in  opposition. 
It  declared  that  the  French  nation  had  adopted  the  republican  form 
of  government,  with  one  legislative  assembly,  and  that  the  executive 
power  should  be  vested  in  a  President,  to  be  elected  by  universal 
suffrage,  for  a  term  of  four  years.  Its  principles  were  declared  to  be 
liberty,  equality,  and  fraternity ;  and  the  basis  on  which  it  rested, 
family,  labor,  property,  and  public  order. 

III.  REVOLUTIONS  IN  THE  GERMAN  STATES,  PRUSSIA,  AND  AUSTRIA. 
1.  As  soon  as  the  first  accounts  of  the  French  Revolution  of  the  24th 
of  February,  1848,  reached  Germany,  the  whole  of  that  vast  country 
was  in  a  ferment :  popular  commotions  took  place  in  all  the  large 
cities ;  and  the  people  demanded  a  political  constitution  that  should 
give  them  a  share  in  legislation,  establish  the  liberty  of  the  press, 
and  otherwise  secure  them  their  just  rights.  On  the  29th  of  Feb- 
ruary deputations  from  every  town  in  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Baden  de- 
manded of  the  Grand  Duke  liberty  of  the  press,  trial  by  jury,  th 
right  of  the  people  to  bear  arms,  and  meet  in  public,  and  a  more 
popular  representation  in  the  national  diet  at  Frankfort.a  On  the 

a.  The  present  confederation  of  Germany,  organized  in  1815,  embraces  nearly  forty  States, 
some  of  very  small  dimensions,  but  each  possessing  an  independent  government,  and  only 
liable  to  be  called  on  to  furnish  its  proportionate  contingent  to  the  army  of  the  Confederation 
in  case  of  danger.  The  emperor  of  Austria,  being  the  sovereign  of  many  territories  that  were 
considered  fiefs  of  the  German  empire,  is  a  member  of  the  Germanic  Confederation ;  and  his 
minister  has  the  right  of  presiding  in  the  Confederate  Germanic  Diet,  held  at  Frankfort.  The 
Austrian  German  provinces  belonging  to  the  Germanic  Confederation  are  the  arch-duchy  of 


CHAP.  VI]  NINETEENTH  CENTURY.  539 

the  2d  of  March  the  Duke  yielded  to  their  demands,  and  appointed 
a  ministry  from  the  popular  party. 

2.  Similar  demonstrations  were  made  in  nearly  all  the  Grerman 
States.     At  Cologne,  a  riot  ensued,  the  town-house  was  stormed,  and 
the  authorities  made  prisoners.     At  Munich  the  people  stormed  the 
arsenal,  and,  having  possessed  themselves  of  the  arms  it  contained, 
forced  from  the  Bavarian  king  the  concessions  which  he  had  refused 
to  make.     At  Hanau,1  in  Hesse  Cassel,3  the  Elector  yielded  only  af- 
ter a  severe  conflict.     Within  a  week  from  the  revolution  in  Paris 
the  demands  of  the  people  had  been  acceded  to  throughout  nearly  all 
the  south  and  west  of  G-ermany. 

3.  In  a  popular  convention  held  at  Heidelberg3  on  the  5th  of  March, 
the  necessity  of  the  reforms  demanded  by  the  people  was  insisted  upon ; 
and  at  the  same  time  the  Federal  Diet,  sitting  at  Frankfort,  invoked 
the  different  German  States  to  take  the  measures  necessary  for  a  new 
constitution  of  the  Diet,  providing  that  the  people  as  well  as  the 
rulers  should  be   represented  in  it.     King  Frederick  William  of 
Prussia,  after  having  in  vain  resisted  a  popular  revolution  in  Berlin, 
unexpectedly  to  all  placed  himself,  foremost  in  the  ranks  of  the  reform 
party,  with  the  hope,  it  is  believed,  of  reuniting  the  German  States 
in  one  great  empire,  and  placing  himself  at  its  head.     The  king  of 
Saxony  was  compelled  to  grant  the  requests  of  his  subjects,  who  had 
pronounced  in  favor  of  reform  :  the  king  of  Hanover  also  yielded, 
but  with  much  reluctance,  and  only  when  farther  delay  would  have 
cost  him  h/is  throne.     On  the  26th  of  March,  Sleswick  and  Holstein,* 
the  two  southern  duchies  of  Denmark,  which  had  always  considered 

1.  Hanau  is  a  town  of  fifteen  thousand  inhabitants  in  the  electorate  of  Hesse,  eleven  miles 
north-east  from  Frankfort.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

2.  Hesse  Cassel  is  an  irregularly-shaped  State  of  Germany,  consisting  of  a  central  territory 
and  several  detached  portions,  the  whole  lying  mostly  north  of  north-western  Bavaria.    The 
government  is  a  limited  monarchy.    Hesse  Darmstadt,  or  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Hesse,  also  a 
limited  monarchy,  is  divided  by  Hesse  Cassel— part  of  it  lying  north  and  part  south  of  the 
river  Mayn.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

3.  Heidelberg-  is  a  city  of  northern  Baden,  on  the  south  side  of  the  Neckar,  forty-eight  mik» 
south  of  Frankfort.    (Map  Nj>.  XVII.) 

4.  Sieswick  and  Holstein.    See  p.  408,  and  Maps  Nos.  XIV.  and  XVII. 

Austria,  the  kingdom  of  Bohemia,  with  Moravia  and  Silesia,  part  of  Galicia,  the  county  of 
Tyrol,  and  the  duchies  of  Styria,  Carinthia,  and  Carniola,  with  the  town  of  Trieste.  The  other 
States  of  the  Austrian  empire  have  no  connection  with  the  Germanic  Confederation.  The  king 
of  Prussia,  in  the  same  manner  as  the  Austrian  emperor,  is  a  member  of  the  Confederation. 
The  empires  of  Austria  and  Prussia,  and  the  kingdoms  of  Bavaria,  Saxony,  Hanover,  and 
Wirtemburg,  have,  each,  four  votes  in  the  German  Diet ;  and  the  smallest  State,  the  free  city 
of  Hamburg,  containing  an  area  of  only  forty-three  square  miles,  has  one  vote :  the  principality 
of  Lichtenstein,  with  a  population  of  only  seven  thousand,  has  also  one  vote. 


540  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  II. 

themselves  as  governed  by  the  king  of  Denmark  in  his  capacity  of  a 
prince  of  Germany,  long  dissatisfied  with  the  Danish  rule,  and  irri- 
tated by  the  refusal  of  the  king  to  accede  to  any  of  their  demands, 
declared  themselves  independent  of  Denmark,  and  solicited  admission 
into  the  Germanic  Confederation.  Being  assisted  by  twenty  thousand 
Prussian  and  Hanoverian  volunteers,  they  waged  a  sanguinary  war 
against  the  Danish  king  until  foreign  intervention  terminated  the 
contest. 

4.  For  some  time  there  had  been  much  political  excitement  in 
those  portions  of  the  Austrian  empire  embracing  Galicia,1  Hungary, 
and  northern  Italy ;  but  down  to  the  period  of  the  French  Revolu- 
tion, in  February  1848,  the  German  provinces  of  the  empire  had  re- 
mained tranquil.     When,  however,  news  of  the  downfall  of  Louis 
Phillippe  reached  Vienna,  a  shock  was  felt  which  vibrated  through- 
out the  whole  Austrian  empire  :  the  public  funds  immediately  fell 
thirty  per  cent.  :  the  people,  sympathizing  with  the  Parisians,  ex- 
pressed themselves  upon  the  great  subject  of  reform  with  a  freedom  and 
earnestness  altogether  foreign  to  their  habits ;  and  the  royal  family, 
panic-stricken  by  the  gathering  tempest,  were  closeted  in  deep  con- 
sultation.    All  the  royal  family  and  the  imperial  cabinet,  with  the 
exception  of  the  Archduke  Louis,  uncle  of  the  emperor,  and  the  min- 
ister Metternich,  were  in  favor  of  making  immediate  concessions  to 
the  people,  as  the  only  means  of  retaining  the  provinces,  if  not  of 
preserving  the  throne.     Metternich  tendered  his  resignation,  but  was 
persuaded  to  retain  his  post  only  on  condition  of  being,  as  hitherto, 
unobstructed  in  his  administration  of  the  government. 

5.  At  the  opening  of  the  Diet  of  Lower  Austria,  at  Vienna,  on 
the  13th  of  March,  an  immense  concourse  of  citizens,  headed  by  the 
students  of  the  University,  marched  to  the  hall  of  the  Assembly,  and 
there  presented  their  petition  in  favor  of  a  constitutional  government, 
a  responsible  ministry,  freedom  of  the  press,  a  citizens'  guard,  trial 
by  jury;  and  religious  freedom.     The  crowd  increasing,  the  Arch- 
duke Albert  ordered  the  people  to  disperse,  but,  not  being  obeyed, 
commanded  the  soldiers  to  fire  upon  them.     Many  victims  fell,  and 
the  greatest  excitement  was  occasioned,  which  was  only  partially 
calmed  by  an  order  from  the  emperor  for  the  military  to  withdraw. 

6.  The  city  guard  had  in  the  meantime  sided  with  the  people,  and 

1.  Galicia  and  Lodomeria,  now  constituting  a  province  of  the  Austrian  empire,  and  lying 
north  of  Hungary,  include  those  territories  of  Poland  which  have  fallen  to  Austria  in  the  vari- 
Otw  partitions  of  that  country.  (Map  No.  X  VII.) 


CHAP.  VI]  NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  541 

opened  to  them  the  arsenal.  Metternich  and  the  Archduke  Albert 
resigned.  On  the  next  day,  the  14th,  the  emperor  abolished  the 
censorship  of  the  press,  and  assented  to  the  formation  of  a  National 
Guard ;  and  forty  thousand  citizens  enrolled  their  names,  and  were 
furnished  with  arms.  On  the  following  day,  the  15th,  all  the  other 
demands  of  the  people  were  complied  with,  and  a  promise  given  that 
a  convention  of  deputies  from  each  of  the  provinces  should  be  as- 
sembled as  speedily  as  possible  for  the  purpose  of  framing  a  consti- 
tution for  the  empire.  This  announcement  was  received  with  ex- 
pressions of  the  greatest  joy ;  and  the  supposed  dawn  of  Austrian 
liberty  was  celebrated  by  triumphal  processions  and  illuminations. 

7.  The  first  period  of  the  Revolution  terminated  with  the  triumph 
of  the  people,  and  was  followed  by  apparently  sincere  efforts  on  the 
part  of  the  government  to  fulfil  its  promises  and  carry  out  the  reforms 
projected.     But  serious  difficulties  intervened.     The  various  races  in 
the  empire — Germans,  Magyars,  Slavonians,  and  Italians — were  jeal- 
ous of  each  other,  while  their  wants  and  requirements  were  dissimi- 
lar ;•  the  people,  generally,  were  unprepared  for  free  institutions  ;  and 
the  government  was  undecided  to  what  extent  concessions  were  expe- 
dient.    During  the  whole  of  April  and  May,  the  mob,  guided  by  the 
students,   who   often  conducted    themselves  disgracefully,   ruled  in 
Vienna  :  the  liberty  of  the  press  degenerated  into  licentiousness  :  a 
shameful  literature  flooded  the  city :   violations  of  law  and  order 
were  frequent :  the  Reign  of  Terror  commenced  ;  and  finally,  on  the 
18th  of  May,  the  emperor,  anxious  for  his  personal  safety,  secretly 
left  Vienna  and  repaired  to  Innspruck 1  in  the  Tyrol.     But  the  with- 
drawal of  the  emperor  was  not  what  the  people  wished,  and  they  de- 
sired him,  now  that  Metternich  was  removed,  to  lead  them  onward 
in  the  way  of  reform.     Returning  in  August  he  strove  in  vain  to 
resume  the  reins  of  government :  the  students  of  the  university  and 
the  democratic  clubs  usurped  the  entire  control  of  the  city,  and,  in 
the  name  of  democracy,  exercised  a  most  cruel  and  unmitigated  des- 
potism. 

8.  In  the  meantime  the  Bohemians,  of  Slavic  origin,  opposed  to 
every  measure  tending  to  identify  them  with  the  German  Confedera- 
tion, had  demanded  of  the  emperor  a  constitution  that  should  give 
them  a  national  existence,  equivalent,  in  its  relations  with  the  empire, 
to  that  enjoyed  by  the  Hungarians.     Being  refused  their  demands;  a 

1.  Innspruck,  the  chief  city  of  the  Tyrcl,  is  on  the  river  Inn,  two  hundred  and  forty  milet 
south-west  from  Vienna. 


542  MODERN    HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

congress  of  the  Slavic  nations  of  the  Austrian  empire  had  assembled 
at  Prague  early  in  June,  and  was  discussing  the  various  plans  of 
Slavic  regeneration,  when  a  vast  assemblage  of  citizens  and  students 
addressed  a  "  Storm  Petition"  to  Prince  Windischgratz,  the  military 
commander  of  the  city,  demanding  the  withdrawal  of  the  regular 
troops,  and  a  distribution  of  arms  and  ammunition  for  the  use  of  the 
people.  The  petition  not  being  granted,  the  people  rose  in  open  re- 
volt ;  a  most  fearful  and  bloody  conflict  ensued  within  the  city,  which 
was  also  bombarded  from  the  surrounding  heights,  and  after  almost 
an  entire  week  of  fighting,  on  the  17th  the  city  capitulated.  The 
Slavic  congress  was  broken  up ;  the  bright  visions  of  Bohemian  na- 
tionality vanished ;  and  subsequently  the  strong  national  feelings 
of  the  Slavonic  population,  and  their  hatred  alike  of  Magyars  and 
Germans,  rendered  them  the  chief  supporters  of  the  Austrian  throne 
and  government. 

9.  At  this  time  Hungary1  was  striving  for  a  peaceable  maintenance 
of  her  rights  against  Austrian  encroachments ;  and  Croatia,2  which 
was  considered  as  an  integral  part  of  the  Hungarian  monarchy,  en- 
couraged by  Austria,  had  revolted,  and  her  troops  were  already  on 
their  march  towards  the  Hungarian  capital.  Austria  now  openly 
supported  the  Croats ;  and  an  order  of  the  emperor,  on  the  5th  of 
October,  for  some  troops  stationed  in  Vienna  to  march  against  Hun- 
gary, produced  another  Revolution  in  the  Austrian  capital.  The 
people,  sympathizing  with  the  Hungarians,  opposed  the  march  of  the 
troops :  a  sanguinary  contest  followed ;  the  insurgents  triumphed ; 
the  ministry  was  overthrown ;  the  minister  of  war  murdered ;  and 
the  emperor  fled  to  Olmutz,3  attended  by  the  troops  that  remained 

1.  Hungary,  taken  in  its  widest  acceptation,  includes,  besides  Hungary  proper,  Croatia, 
Slavonia,  the  military  frontier  provinces,  the  Banat,  and  Transylvania.    The  Carpathian  moun- 
tains form  the  boundary  of  Hungary  on  the  north-east,  separating  it  from  Galicia  and  Lodo- 
ineria.    The  greater  part  of  the  kingdom  consists  of  two  extensive  plains ; — the  plain  of  Upper 
Hungary,  north  of  Buda,  traversed  by  the  Danube  from  west  to  east ;  and  the  great  plain  of 
Southern  Hungary,  south  of  Buda,  watered  by  the  Danube  and  its  tributaries,  the  Drave, 
the  Save,  and  the  Theiss,  with  the  numerous  affluents  of  the  latter.    The  whole  of  this 
lower  plain,  an  exceedingly  fertile  territory,  embracing  thirty-six  thousand  English  square 
miles,  is  in  scarcely  a  single  point  more  than  one  hundred  feet  above  the  level  of  the  Danube. 
(Map  No.  XVII.) 

2.  Croatia,  (Austrian)  regarded  as  forming  the  maritime  portion  of  Hungary,  has  Slavonia, 
Turkish  Croatia,  and  Dalmatia,  on  the  east  and  south-east,  and  the  Adriatic  on  the  south-west. 
The  Drave  separates  it  from  Hungary  proper.    The  Croats  are  of  Slavonic  stock,  and  speak  a 
dialect  which  has  a  greater  affinity  with  the  Polish  than  any  other  language.    About  the  year 
1180  Croatia  was  incorporated  with  Hungary.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

.2.  Olmutz,  a  town  of  Moravia,  and  one  of  the  strongest  fortresses  of  the  Austrian  empire,  is 
on  the  river  March,  forty  miles  north-east  of  Brunn.    Olmutz  was  taken  by  the  Swedes  in  the 


CHAP.  VI]  NINETEENTH  CENTURY.  543 

faithful  to  his  cause.  Fortunately  for  the  emperor,  a  large  and  faith- 
ful army  in  other  parts  of  the  empire  enabled  him  soon  to  concentrate 
an  overwhelming  force  around  the  chief  seat  of  rebellion :  Prince 
Windischgratz  from  the  north,  and  Jellachich  the  ban  or  governor 
of  Croatia  from  the  south,  united  their  forces  before  Vienna :  on 
the  morning  of  the  28th  of  October  they  opened  their  batteries  on 
the  city;  and  on  the  31st,  after  a  great  destruction  of  life  and  prop- 
erty, compelled  an  unconditional  surrender.  Of  sixteen  hundred 
persons  arrested  under  martial  law,  nine  only  were  punished  with 
death. 

10.  While  these  events  were  occurring  at  Vienna,  a  Hungarian 
army  of  twenty  or  thirty  thousand  men,  which  had  pursued  Jellachich 
to  the  Austrian  frontier,  had  remained  there  many  days  awaiting  an 
invitation  from  the  Viennese  to  come  to  their  aid.     At  last,  on  the 
28th  of  October,  the  Hungarians  took  the  responsibility  of  advancing 
into  the  Austrian  territory  :  on  the  30th  and  31st  they  met  the  im- 
perialists, when  some  skirmishing  ensued ;  but  the  fatal  blow  had 
already  been  struck  at  Vienna,  and  the  Hungarian  army  recrossed 
the  frontiers. 

1 1.  The  second  Revolution  of  Vienna  was  a  riot,  neither  national 
nor  liberal  in  its  character,  and  not  participated  in  by  the  other 
parts  of  the  empire ;  but  its  suppression,  in  connection  with  the 
scenes  of  anarchy  which  preceded  it,  produced  an  unfavorable  effect 
on  the  cause  of  freedom  throughout  the  whole  of  Germany.     A  re- 
action had  already  taken  place  in  the  popular  mind  :  peace,  under 
imperial  rule,  began  to  be  preferred  to  the  unchecked  excesses  of  the 
mob  :    the  emperor  Ferdinand,  yearning  for   repose,  resigned  his 
crown  in  favor  of 'his  nephew  the  Archduke  Joseph  :  the  government 
resumed  its  despotic  powers ;  and  Austria  fell  back  to  her  old  posi- 
tion.    In  Prussia,  Frederick  William,  imitating  the  Austrian  empe- 
ror, and  calling  the  army  to  his  aid,  dissolved  the  assembly  which  he 
had  called  for  the  purpose  of  constructing  a  constitution,  and  forgot 
all  his  promises  in  favor  of  reform  and  constitutional  liberty.     With 
Prussia  and  Austria  against  them,  the  smaller  German  States,  di- 
vided in  their  counsels,  could  accomplish  nothing ;  and  the  project 
of  German  unity  was  virtually  abandoned. 

IV.  REVOLUTIONS  IN  ITALY.     1.  Since  the  fall  of  Napoleon,  Aus- 
trian influence  has  been  predominant  in  Italy.     The  Congress  of 

Thirty  Years'  War :  it  was  besieged  unsuccessfully  by  Frederick  tin  Great  in  1758 ;  and  Lafay- 
ette was  confined  there  in  1794.  (Map  No.  XVIL) 


544  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

Vienna  assigned  to  Austria  the  whole  Milanese  and  Venetian  prov- 
inces, now  included  in  Austrian  Lombardy :  at  the  same  time  the 
dependent  thrones  of  Tuscany,  Modena,1  and  Parma,1  were  filled  by 
members  of  the  house  of  Hapsburg;  and  it  was  not  long  before 
Austria,  in  her  steady  adherence  to  the  principles  of  despotism,  had 
exacted  treaties  from  all  the  princes  of  Italy,  stipulating  that  no  con- 
stitution should  be  granted  to  their  subjects.  When,  in  1820,  the 
Neapolitans  established  a  constitution,  Austria  suppressed  it  by  the 
force  of  arms,  (see  p.  516)  :  in  1821  she  interfered  in  Piedmont; 
and  in  1831  and  1832,  in  the  Papal  States3  also,  for  the  purpose  of 
suppressing  all  liberal  tendencies,  whether  in  the  government  or  the 
people. 

2.  The  election  in  June  1846,  of  Cardinal  Mastai,  to  fill  the  pon- 
tifical chair,  with  the  appellation  of  Pius  the  Ninth,  threatened  the 
subversion  of  Austrian  influence  throughout  a  great  part  of  Italy. 
The  pope,  a  plain  upright  man,  earnestly  desiring  to  ameliorate  the 
condition  of  his  people,  immediately  commenced  the  work  of  reform ; 
and  the  liberal  course  pursued  by  him  at  once  revived  the  spirit  of 
nationality  throughout  the  entire  peninsula.  Austria,  alarmed  by 
these  movements,  used  every  means  to  change  the  course  of  the  pope ; 
and  on  the  19th  of  July,  1847,  the  Austrian  army  entered  Ferrara,4 
a  northern  frontier  town  of  the  Papal  States.  The  occupation  of 
Ferrara  was  the  signal  for  a  general  rising  against  the  emperor  of 
Austria,  not  only  in  Home,  but  also  in  Florence,  Bologna,5  Lucca,8 
and  Genoa,  without  regard  to  their  distinct  governments.  In  De- 

1.  The  Duchy  of  Modena  is  a  State  of  northern  Italy,  having  Austrian  Lombardy  on  the 
north,  the  northern  division  of  the  Papal  States  on  the  east,  Parma  on  the  west,  and  Tuscany, 
Lucca,  and  the  Mediterranean,  on  the  south.    Modena,  the  ancient  Mutina,  is  the  capital.   The 
government,  an  absolute  monarchy,  is  possessed  by  a  collateral  branch  of  the  House  of  Austria. 

2.  The  Duchy  of  Parma  adjoins  Modena  on  the  west,  and  has  Austrian  Lombardy  on  the 
north,  from  which  it  is  separated  by  the  Po.    Government,  an  absolute  monarchy.    Capital, 
Parma,  thirty-three  miles  south-west  from  Mantua. 

3.  The  Papal  States',  or  the  "  States  of  the  Church,"  occupying  a  great  part  of  central,  with  a 
portion  of  northern  Italy,  have  Austrian  Italy  on  the  north,  from  which  they  are  separated  by 
the  Po  ;  Modeua,  Tuscany,  and  the  Mediterranean,  on  the  west ;  the  Neapolitan  dominions  on 
the  south  ;  and  the  Adriatic  on  the  north-east. 

4.  Ferrara,  formerly  an  independent  duchy  belonging  to  the  family  of  Este,  and  now  the 
most  northern  city  belonging  to  the  pope,  is  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Volano,  five  miles  south 
of  the  Po,  and  fifty-three  miles  south-west  from  Venice. 

5.  Bologna,  the  second  city  in  rank  in  the  Papal  States,  is  at  the  southern  verge  of  the  valley 
of  the  Po,  twenty-five  miles  s,outh-west  from  Ferrara.    Bologna,  which  has  always  assumed  the 
title  of  "  Learned,"  has  given  birth  to  eight  popes,  nearly  two  hundred  cardinals,  and  more 
than  one  thousand  literary  and  scientific  men  and  artists. 

6.  Lucca,  a  duchy  of  central  Italy,  and,  next  to  San  Marino,  the  smallest  of  the  Italian 
States,  has  the  duchy  of  Modena  on  the  north,  and  the  Mediterranean  on  the  south-west 
Lucoa,  its  capital,  is  eleven  miles  north-east  of  Pisa,  and  thirty-eight  west  of  Florence. 


CHAP.  VI.]  NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  545 

cember  the  Austrian  army  was  withdrawn ;  and  the  right  of  the 
States  of  Italy,  not  under  Austrian  rule,  to  choose  their  own  forms 
of  government,  seemed  to  be  conceded. 

3.  The  Austrian  emperor,  fearing  for  the  safety  of  Lombardy, 
which  was  already  in  commotion,  increased  his  forces  in  that  prov- 
ince, until,  in  the  beginning  of  March  1848,  the  different  garrisons 
numbered  a  hundred  thousand  men.     The  proclamation*  of  a  republic 
in  France  hastened  the  crisis  in  the  Austrian  portion  of  Italy,  and, 
by  the  unexpected  tidings  of  the  Revolution  in  Vienna,  the  climax 
was  precipitated.     On  the  18th  of  March  the  citizens  of  Milan  arose 
in  insurrection,  and  after  a  contest  of  five  days  drove  the  Austrian 
troops,  commanded  by  Marshal  Radetsky,  from  the  city.     At  the 
same  time  the  Austrians  were  driven  out  of  Parma  and  Pavia ;  and 
nearly  all  the  Venetian  territory  was  in  open  insurrection.     On  the 
23d  of  March  the  king  of  Sardinia,  Charles  Albert,  issued  a  procla- 
mation in  favor  of  Italian  nationality,  and  marched  into  Lombardy 
to  aid  in  driving  the  Austrians  beyond  the  Alps.     The  Austrian  gen- 
eneral,  Radetsky,  a  skilful  and  veteran  commander,  retreated  until  he 
could  concentrate  all  his  forces,  when  he  returned  to  meet  the  Ital- 
ians, who,  gradually  overpowered  by  superior  numbers,  were  soon 
compelled  to  retire ;  and  one  by  one  the  Austrians  regained  possess- 
ion of  all  the  cities  from  which  they  had  been  driven.     After  defeat- 
ing the  Sardinian  king  in  several  engagements  during  the  latter  part 
of  July,  on  the  5th  of  August  Radetsky  was  again  before  Milan  :  all 
Lombardy  submitted ;  an  armistice  was  agreed  upon ;  and  Charles 
Albert  retired  to  his  own  dominions. 

4.  After  some  attempts  of  England  and  France  to  mediate  be- 
tween the  contending  parties,  the  armistice  was  terminated  by  Charles 
Albert  on  the  20th  of  March,  1849,  on  the  avowed  ground  that  its 
terms  had  been  repeatedly  violated  by  the  Austrians  ;  but,  in  reality, 
in  obedience  to  the  clamors  of  his  people,  and  as  the  only  chance  of 
saving  his  crown,  and  preventing  Sardinia  from  becoming  a  republic. 
Sardinia  was  poorly  prepared  for  the  conflict :  her  forces  were  badly 
organized,  and  her  officers  incompetent ;  while  opposed  to  th^em  was 
one  of  the  most  efficient  and  best-disciplined  armies  in  Europe,  under 
the  command  of  an  able  and  experienced  general.     At  twelve  o'clock 
on  the  20th,  the  moment  that  the  armistice  expired,  Radetsky  entered 
Piedmont,  while  the  Sardinians  were  utterly  ignorant  of  his  move- 
ments ;  and  by  the  24th  the  war  was  at  an  end.     Charles  Albert, 
defeated  in  three  battles,  and  rightly  judging  that  more  favor  would 

35 


546  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  H. 

be  shown  his  countrymen  if  the  supreme  power  were  in  other  hands, 
abdicated  in  favor  of  his  son  Victor  Emanuel  on  the  evening  of  the 
23d,  and  in  a  few  hours  left  the  country — bidding  adieu  not  only  to 
his  crown,  but  his  kingdom  also.  Victor  Emanuel  purchased  peace 
by  the  payment  of  fifteen  millions  of  dollars  as  indemnity  for' the  ex- 
penses of  the  war. 

5.  While  these  successes  were  attending  the  Austrian  arms  in 
Piedmont,  an  Austrian  army  was  blockading  Venice,  which  on  the 
22d  of  March,  1848,  had  proclaimed  the  "  Republic  of  Saint  Mark." 
Venice  held  out  until  her  provisions  were  exhausted,  and  an  immense 
amount  of  property  had  been  destroyed — not  less  than  sixty  thousand 
shot  and  shells  having  been  thrown  into  the  city  during  the  last  few 
days  of  the  siege.     In  the  last  days  of  August  1849,  Venice  sur- 
rendered to  Marshal  Radetsky ; — and  with  the  fall  of  the  Republic 
of  Saint  Mark,  Austria  recovered  her  authority  throughout  all  north- 
ern Italy. 

6.  During  this  period  the  southern  portions  of  the  peninsula  were 
far  from  enjoying  tranquillity.     The  subjects  of  Ferdinand,  king  of 
Naples1  and  Sicily,  had  risen  early  in  1848,  and  their  demands  for  a 
constitution  were  acceded  to ;  but  the  promises  of  the  king  to  the 
Sicilians  were  broken,  and  Sicily  revolted  from  his  authority,  and 
elected  for  her  sovereign  the  Duke  of  Genoa,  the  second  son  of 
Charles  Albert  king  of  Sardinia.     A  sanguinary  war  between  the 
Neapolitans  and  Sicilians  followed  :  Messina,  after  two  days'  bom- 
bardment, fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Neapolitans  :  the  Sicilians  were 
defeated  in  a  desperate  battle  at  Catania ;  Syracuse,  terror  stricken, 
surrendered  without  a  blow :  Palermo,2  the  last  stronghold  of  the 
islanders,  fell  after  a  short  struggle ;  and  Ferdinand  of  Naples  re- 
sumed his  former  sway  as  unlimited  monarch  of  the  two  Sicilies. 

7.  From  the  well-known  liberal  character  of  Pius  the  Ninth,  and 
the  manner  in  which  his  reign  began,  it  was  to  be  expected  that,  in 
the  Papal  States  at  least,  liberty  would  find  a  quiet  asylum.     For  a 
time  prince  and  people  were  united  in  the  noble  cause  of  the  political 
regeneration  of  Italy ;  but  the  people  soon  outran  the  pope  in  the 
inarch  of  reform,  and  began  to  murmur  because  he  lingered  so  far 
behind  them.      He  granted  liberty  of   the  press,  and   its  license 
alarmed  him  :  he  placed  arms  in  the  hands  of  the  people,  but  could 

1.  The  Kingdom  of  Naples,  otherwise  called  the  "  Kingdom  of  the  two  Sicilies,"  nearly 
identical  with  the  Magna  Grsecia  of  antiquity,  comprises  the  southern  portion  of  Italy,  together 
with  Sicily  and  the  adjacent  islands. 

2.  Palermo  :  see  Panormus,  p.  117. 


CHAP.  VI]  NINETEENTH  CENTURY.  547 

not  control  the  use  of  them  :  he  named  a  council  to  assist  him  in  the 
administration  of  civil  affairs,  but  was  dismayed  at  the  cries  for  a 
representative  assembly  that  should  share  in  the  government  of  the 
country. 

8.  In  the  summer  of  1848  symptoms  of  reaction  began  to  appear: 
Pius  signified  to  the  Roman  Chamber  of  Deputies  that  it  was  asking 
too  much  ;   and  his  appointment  of  Rossi  to  the  post  of  prime  minis- 
ter  exasperated   the   people,   and  diminished   his   own   popularity. 
Rossi's  avowed  hostility  to  the   democratic  movement  led  to  his 
assassination  on  the  15th  of  November,  as  he  was  proceeding  to  open 
the  Chambers ;  and  eight  days  later  the  pope  fled  from  Rome,  and 
took  up  his  residence  in  Gaeta,1  in  the  territory  of  the  king  of  Naples. 
On  the  9th  of  February  following,  a  National  Assembly,  elected  by 
the  people,  proclaimed  that  the  pope's  temporal  power  was  at  an  end, 
and  that  the  form  of  government  of  the  Roman  States  should  be  a 
pure  democracy,  with  the  name  of"  The  Roman  Republic." 

9.  Month  after  month  Pius  remained  at  Gaeta,  unwilling  to  de- 
mand foreign  aid  to  reinstate  him  in  his  temporal  sovereignty,  and 
hoping  that  his  people,  acknowledging  their  past  misconduct,  would 
recall  him  of  their  own  accord ;  but  no  signs  of  any  change  in  his 
favor  being  exhibited,  he  at  length  availed  himself  of  the  only  re- 
source left  him.     The  Roman  Catholic  powers  of  Austria,  Naples, 
Spain,  and  France,  responded  to  his  appeal  for  aid  :  the  Austrians 
entered  the  Papal   States  on  the  north — the   Neapolitans  on  the 
south — a  body  of  Spanish  troops  landed  on  the  coast — and,  to  the 
shame  of  republican  France,  towards  the  close  of  April  a  French 
army,  under  the  command  of  General  Oudinot,  was  sent  to  southern 
Italy,  under  the  avowed  pretence  of  checking  Austrian  influence  in 
that  quarter,  but,  in  reality,  as  the  sequel  proved,  to  restore  papal 
authority  on  the  ruins  of  the  Roman  Republic. 

10.  The  pretended  "  friendly  and  disinterested  mission"  of  the  French 
army  was  resisted  with  a  heroism  worthy  of  the  days  of  the  early 
Roman  Republic,  and  the  first  attack  of  the  French  upon  the  city  of 
Rome  resulted  in  their  defeat ;  but  the  assailants  were  reenforced,  and, 
after  a  regular  siege  and  bombardment,  on  the  30th  of  June,  1849, 
Rome  surrendered.     When  the  French  troops  entered  the  city  they 
were  received  with  silence  and  coldness  on  the  part  of  the  people ; 

1.  Oaeta  is  a  strongly-fortified  seaport  town,  forty-one  miles  north-west  from  Naples,  and 
eeveuty-two  miles  south-east  from  Rome.  Cicert  was  put  to  death,  by  order  of  Antony,  in  the 
immediate  vicinity  of  this  town. 


548  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

the  Roman  guards  could  not  be  induced  to  pay  them  the  customary 
salute ;  the  common  laborers  refused  to  engage  in  removing  the  bar- 
ricades from  the  streets,  and  the  French  soldiers  were  compelled  to 
perform  this  task  themselves.  Pius  the  Ninth  returned  to  Home, 
stealthily,  and  in  the  night,  a  changed  man.  Three  years  of  political 
experience  had  changed  his  zeal  for  reform  into  the  most  imbit- 
tered  feelings  towards  all  democratic  institutions  :  political  tolerance 
gave  place  to  the  most  determined  support  of  absolutism ;  and  the 
blessings  with  which  his  people  once  greeted  him  were  changed  to 
curses. 

V.  HUNGARIAN  WAR.  1.  It  has  been  mentioned  that  the  imme- 
diate cause  of  the  second  Revolution  in  Vienna,  in  October  1848, 
was  the  order  to  some  Austrian  troops  stationed  in  Vienna  to  march 
to  the  aid  of  the  Groats,  who  had  revolted  from  Hungary.  The  Hun- 
garian and  Croatian  war  soon  became  a  war  between  Hungary  and 
Austria.  In  order  to  understand  the  true  character  of  this  important 
war  it  will  be  necessary  to  explain  the  previous  political  connection 
between  the  two  countries. 

2.  The  Magyars,  from  whom  the  present  Hungarians  are  descend- 
ed, were  a  numerous  and  powerful  Asiatic  tribe,  which,  after  over- 
running a  great  part  of  central  Europe,  settled  in  the  fertile  plains 
of  the  Danube  and  the  Theiss,1  about  the  close  of  the  ninth  century. 
For  a  long  period  the  government  of  the  Magyars  was  an  elective 
monarchy,  and  in  the  year  1526  Ferdinand  of  Austria,  of  the  house 
of  Hapsburg,  was  elected  to  the  throne  of  Hungary ;  and  this  was 
the  first  connection  between  the  two  countries.     Seven  succeeding 
Austrian  princes  of  the  same  house  were  elected  in  succession  by  the 
Hungarian  Diet,  until,  in  the  year  1687,  the  Diet  declared  the  suc- 
cession to  the  Hungarian  throne  hereditary  in  the  house  of  Hapsburg ; 
yet  the  independence  of  the  kingdom  was  not  affected  thereby,  al- 
though Hungary,  with  all  its  dependent  provinces,  among  which  was 
Croatia,  became  permanently  attached  to  the  Austrian  dominions. 
The  same  as  Bohemia,  it  acknowledged  the  Austrian  emperor  for  its 
monarch ;  but  Austria,  Hungary,  and  Bohemia,  were  still  separate 
nations,  each  governed  by  its  own  laws. 

3.  In  the  year  1790  Leopold  the  Second,  emperor  of  Austria, 
yielded  to  the  demands  of  the  Hungarian  Diet,  and  signed  a  solemn 

1.  The  Theiss,  (ancient  Tibiscus,)  a  northern  tributary  of  the  Danube,  ia  a  large  and  navi- 
gable river  of  Hungary,  flowing  south  through  the  great  Hungarian  plain.  The  area  of  its 
basin  is  estimated  at  six  thousand  square  miles.  (Map  No  XVII.) 


CHAP.  VI.]  NINETEENTH  CENTURY.  549 

declaration  that  "  Hungary  is  a  free  and  independent  nation  in  her 
entire  system  of  legislation  and  government,"  and  that  "  all  royal 
patents  not  issued  in  conjunction  with  the  Hungarian  Diet,  are  illegal, 
null,  and  void."  After  the  peace  of  1815,  Francis  the  Second  re- 
solved to  govern  Hungary  without  the  aid  of  a  Diet,  in  violation  of 
the  laws  which  he  had  sworn  to  support ;  but  after  a  long  period  of 
confusion  he  found  it  necessary,  in  1825,  to  yield,  and  again  summon 
the  Diet.  His  attempt  to  subvert  the  constitution  of  Hungary,  ter- 
minated in  renewed  acknowledgment  of  the  constitutional  rights  of 
the  Hungarians,  and  a  reiteration  of  the  declaratory  act  of  1 790. 

4.  Ferdinand  the  Fifth,  who  succeeded  his  father  Francis  in  1835, 
took  the  usual  coronation  oath,  acknowledging  the  rights,  liberties, 
and  independence  of  Hungary ;    and  the  project  of  incorporating 
Hungary  with  Austria  seemed  to  be  abandoned ;  but  still  the  empe- 
ror, by  the  exercise  of  the  royal  prerogative  in  making  appointments 
to  office,  could  command  a  majority  in  the  House  of  the  Magnates, 
and,  by  the  influence  which  he  could  exert  in  the  elections,  hoped  to 
secure  an  ascendency  in  the  House  of  Deputies.     Moreover,  the  af- 
fairs of  Hungary,  instead  of  being  regulated  in  Hungary  by  native 
Hungarians,  were  managed  by  a  bureau  or  chancery  in  Vienna,  under 
the  direct  supervision  and  control  of  the  Austrian  cabinet.     Austrian 
influence  very  naturally  produced  an  Austrian  party  in  the  country, 
opposed  to  which  was  the  great  mass  of  the  Hungarians,  who  took 
the  designation  of  the  Liberal  or  Patriotic  party. 

5.  At  a  most  opportune  moment,  just  after  the  first  Revolution  in 
Vienna,  in  March  1 848,  when  the  emperor  had  conceded  to  the  people 
of  his  hereditary  States  the  rights  and  privileges  which  they  demand- 
ed, a  deputation  from  Hungary  appeared,  asking,  for  their  kingdom, 
the  royal  assent  to  a  series  of  acts  passed  by  the  Hungarian  Diet, 
providing  for  its  annual  meeting,  the  union  of  Transylvania  and 
Hungary,  the  organization  of  a  National  Guard,  equality  of  taxation 
for  all  classes,  religious  toleration,  freedom  of  the  press,  and  a  re^ 
sponsible  ministry.     After  some  delay  these  acts  received  the  royal 
assent,  and  on  the  1 1th  of  April  were  confirmed  by  the  emperor  per- 
sonally, in  the  midst  of  the  Diet  assembled  at  Pesth,1  the  capital  of 
Hungary.     These  concessions  were  received  with  the  utmost  joy 
throughout  the  Hungarian  nation. 

1.  Pesth,  which,  in  conjunction  with  Buda,  is  the  seat  of  government  of  Hungary,  ia  on  the 
east  side  of  the  Danube,  immediately  opposite  Buda,  with  which  it  is  connected  by  a  bridge 
of  boats.  Population  about  sixty-five  thousand.  It  ia  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  miles  south- 
east from  Vienna.  (Map  No.  XVIL) 


550  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  II 

6.  The  sudden  change  from  the  restraints  of  a  rigid  government 
to  the  enjoyment  of  constitutional  liberty,  exerted,  among  the  masses 
who  had  hitherto  enjoyed  no  political  privileges,  and  especially  in  the 
provinces  dependent  upon  Hungary,  an  influence  the  most  adverse  to 
rational  freedom.     Liberty  was  construed  to  mean  license  :  in  some 
places  the  Jews  were  plundered  and  maltreated  :  officers  and  jurors 
who  did  their  duty  were  sacrificed  to  the  vengeance  of  the  mob  :  the 
imbittered  feelings  and  prejudices  of  race  were  kindled  into  all  their 
fury  ;  and  the  most  horrid  atrocities  were  committed,  while  the  new 
government,  scarcely  organized,  was  too  feeble  to  afford  protection  to 
the  persons  and  property  of  the  more  peaceful  inhabitants.     Calls 
upon  the  Austrian  government  for  assistance  from  the   Austrian 
troops  in  the  provinces  to  suppress  this  anarchy  were  unheeded  ;  and 
the  indifference  thus  shown  to  the  welfare  of  Hungary  gave  rise  to  the 
first  threats  of  separation. 

7.  A  more  alarming  danger  to  Hungary  was  the  opposition  against 
her  in  her  own  provinces,  first  secretly  encouraged,  and  afterwards 
openly  aided,  by  the  Austrian  government.     The  Hungarian  domin- 
ions embrace  a  population  of  about  fifteen  millions,  of  whom  only 
six  millions  are  Magyars ;  and  unfortunately  the  other  eight  millions 
were  so  jealous  of  the  Magyar  ascendency  as  to  be  found  either  cold 
to  the  cause  of  Hungary,  or  openly  joining  the  Austrian  party. 
First  the  Croats,  a  portion  of  the  southern  Slavi,  or  Slavonians,1  af- 
ter demanding  entire  independence  of  Hungarian  rule,  and  showing 
a  disposition  to  place  themselves  in  more  immediate  connection  with 
Austria,  also  a  Slavonic  nation,  took  up  arms  against  Hungary,  and 
rejected  all  advances  towards  reconciliation.     Notwithstanding  the 
unconstitutionality  of  their  position,  the  emperor  sided  in  their  favor, 
and  sent  Austrian  armies  to  their  aid.     Portions  of  Slavonia  proper 
joined  the  Croats ;  and  the  Serbs,2  or  Servians,  in  eastern  Slavonia, 
distinguishing  their  revolt  by  the  greatest  atrocities,  with  unrelent- 
ing fury  laid  waste  the  Magyar  villages,  and  massacred  the  unresist- 
ing inhabitants.     The  actual  beginning  of  the  war  on  the  part  of 
Hungary  was  the  bombardment,  on  the  12th  of  June,  1848,  of  Car- 

1.  The  Slavonians  comprise  a  numerous  family  of  nations,  descendants  of  the  ancient  Sar- 
inatians.    The  Slavonian  language  extends  throughout  the  whole  of  European  Russia ;  and 
dialects  of  it  are  spoken  by  the  Croats,  Servians,  and  Slavonians  proper,  and  also  by  the  Poles 
and  Bohemians. 

2.  The  Serbs  or  Servians,  who  belong  to  the  wide-spread  Slavonian  stock,  are  inhabitants  of 
the  Turkish  province  of  Servia ;  but  many  of  the  Serbs  are  scattered  throughout  the  southern 
Hungarian  provinces. 


CHAP.  VI]  NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  551 

lowitz,1  the  metropolis  or  holy  city  of  the  Serbs.  The  city  made  a 
brave  defence  :  the  Ottoman  Serbs  hastened  across  the  frontiers  to 
the  assistance  of  their  brethren,  and  the  Magyars  were  driven  back 
into  the  fortress  of  Peterwardein.2  The  whole  Servian  race  in  the 
Banat8  then  rose  in  rebellion,  and  the  peninsula a  at  the  confluence 
of  the  Theiss  and  the  Danube  became  the  theatre  of  a  furious  con- 
flict between  the  hostile  races.  Finally,  on  the  29th  of  June,  the  Aus- 
trian cabinet,  throwing  off  all  disguise,  announced  the  intention  of 
Austria  to  support  Croatia  openly.  It  soon  appeared,  also,  that  the 
altered  condition  of  Austria,  consequent  upon  the  late  triumphs  of 
the  imperial  arms  in  Italy,  had  determined  the  emperor  to  revoke 
the  concessions  recently  made  to  Hungary. 

8.  The  Hungarian  Diet,  now  convinced  that  the  constitution  and 
independence  of  Hungary  must  be  defended  by  force  of  arms,  decreed 
a  levy  that  should  raise  the  Hungarian  army  to  two  hundred  thou- 
sand men.     In  the  meantime  Jellachich,  the  ban,  or  governor,  of 
Croatia,  had  advanced  unopposed  into  Hungary,  at  the  head  of  an 
Austrian  and  Croatian  army,  and  had  arrived  within  twenty  miles 
of  Pesth,  when  the  eloquence  and  energy  of  Kossuth,  one  of  the 
leaders  of  the  patriot  party,  collected  a  considerable  body  of  troops, 
and  on  the  29th  of  September  Jellachich  was  repulsed  and  the  capi- 
tal saved.     The  ban  fled,  and  on  the  5th  of  October  the  rear  guard 
of  the  Croatian  army,  ten  thousand  strong,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
Hungarians. 

9.  Hitherto  both  parties,  the  invaders  and  invaded,  appeared  to 
be  acting  under  the  orders  of  the  emperor -king,  a  kind-hearted  man, 
but  of  moderate  abilities,  and  unfitted  for  the  trying  situation  in 
which  he  found  himself  placed.     Wearied  by  the  contentions  in  dif- 
ferent parts  of  his  empire,  desiring  the  good  of  all  his  subjects,  but 
distracted  by  diverse  counsels,  and  involved,  by  a  series  of  intrigues, 
in  conflicting  engagements,  Ferdinand  abdicated  the  throne  on  the 

1.  Carlowitz  is  a  town  of  Slavonia,  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Danube,  four  miles  south-east  of 
Peterwardein.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

2.  Peterwardein,  the  capital  of  the  Slavonian  military  frontier  district,  and  one  of  the  strongest 
fortresses  in  the  Austrian  empire,  is  on  the  south  bank  of  the  Danube,  in  eastern  Slavonia.    It 
derives  its  present  name  from  Peter  the  Hermit,  who  marshalled  here  the  soldiers  of  the  first 
crusade.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

3.  The  Banat,  or  Hungary-bey  ond-the-Theiss,  is  a  large  division  of  south-eastern  Hungary, 
having  Transylvania  on  the  east,  and  Slavonia  on  the  west.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

a.  "  The  very  spot  that  was,  in  1697,  the  theatre  that  witnessed  the  splendid  victories  of 
Eugene  of  Savoy  over  the  Turks,  and  which  were  followed  by  the  peace  of  Carlowitz,  that 
memorable  era  in  the  history  of  the  house  of  Austria  and  of  Europe." — Stiles'1  Austria,  ii.  p.  68. 
See  p.  390. 


552  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

2d  of  December,  but  a  short  time  after  the  second  Revolution  in 
Vienna,  (see  p.  542;)  and,  by  a  family  arrangement,  the  crown  was 
transferred,  not  to  the  next  heir,  Ferdinand's  brother,  but  to  his 
nephew  Francis  Joseph.  The  Hungarian  Diet,  declaring  that  Ferdi- 
nand had  no  right  to  lay  down  the  crown  of  Hungary  and  transfer 
it  to  another — that  the  same  was  settled  by  statute  on  the  direct  heirs 
of  the  house  of  Hapsburg — and,  moreover,  that  Francis  Joseph  had 
not  taken  the  requisite  oath,  in  the  Hungarian  capital,  to  preserve  in- 
violate the  constitution,  laws,  and  liberties,  of  the  Hungarians, — de- 
nied the  right  of  the  new  emperor  to  reign  over  their  nation.  The 
Hungarians,  however,  averse  to  a  war  with  Austria,  attempted  nego- 
tiations for  a  settlement  of  all  difficulties  ;  but  the  Austrian  cabinet, 
desirous  of  setting  aside  the  constitutional  privileges  recently  grant- 
ed to  Hungary,  had  resolved  upon  the  unconditional  submission  of 
the  Hungarians ;  and  the  new  emperor  yielded  himself  to  the  course 
of  policy  dictated  by  his  ministers. 

10.  With  the  alarming  prospect  of  a  desperate  conflict  with  the 
whole  power  of  the  Austrian  empire,  several  of  the  Hungarian  leaders, 
who  had  thus  far  supported  all  the  measures  of  the  movement  party, 
withdrew  altogether  from  the  struggle ;  but  the  great  mass  of  the 
Hungarian  people,  more  than  one-half  of  the  high  aristocracy,  and 
nearly  all  the  untitled  nobility,  and  both  Romanist  and  Protestant 
clergy,  rallied  around  Kossuth,  and  sided  with  the  country.    Although 
the  peasantry,  whom  the  constitution  had  elevated  from  the  condition 
of  serfs  to  that  of  freemen,  rose  en  masse,  arms  and  ammunition 
were  wanting,  and  the  regular  troops  of  Hungary  were  still  in  Italy, 
fighting  the  battles  of  Austria.     Manufactories  of  powder  and  arms 
had  to  be  established ;  but  they  arose  as  if  by  magic ;  and  in  every 
town  the  anvils  rang  with  the  clang  of  the  arms  which  the  artizans 
forged  by  night  and  by  day.     But,  after  all  possible  efforts,  the  Hun- 
garian army,  at  the  actual  opening  of  the  campaign  in  December 
1848,  amounted  to  only  about  sixty-five  thousand  men,  which  was  as 
nothing  compared  with  the  forces  which  Austria  was  concentrating 
for  the  subjugation  of  the  country. 

11.  The  plan  of  Prince  Windischgratz,  Commander-in-chief  of  the 
Austrian  forces,  consisted  in  invading  Hungary  from  nine  points  at 
the  same  time — all  the  lines  of  attack  tending  to  a  common  centre, 
the  capital  of  the  kingdom.     The  main  divisions  of  the  Austrian 
army,  entering  Hungary  from  the  north  and  west,  met  with  but  little 
opposition  from  the  Hungarian  general  Gorgey,  who  had  the  com- 


CHAP.  VI]  NINETEENTH  CENTURY.  553 

mand  in  that  quarter,  and  on  the  5th  of  January,  1849,  both  Win- 
dischgratz  and  Jellachich  entered  Pesth  without  striking  a  blow. 
Kossuth  and  the  government  retired  to  Debreczin.1  in  the  south- 
eastern part  of  the  kingdom,  leaving  a  strong  garrison,  however,  in 
the  almost  impregnable  fortress  of  Cornorn,2  while  the  Hungarian 
forces  gradually  concentrated  in  the  valley  of  the  Theiss,  from 
Eperies8  to  the  Danube.  To  protect  the  rear,  General  Bern,  a  Pole, 
was  sent  to  Bukowina,*  at  the  eastern  extremity  of  Transylvania,  at 
the  head  of  ten  thousand  men. 

12.  On  the  30th  of  January  the  Hungarians  lost  the  strong  for- 
tress of  Esseck6  in  Slavonia,  which  surrendered  with  about  five  thou- 
sand men.  About  the  same  time  Bern  was  driven  from  Bukowina, 
and,  after  repeated  disasters,  from  Transylvania  also, — the  Saxons 
and  Wallachs,8  who  form  the  bulk  of  the  population,  having  joined 
the  Austrians.  The  Szeklers,  however,  a  wild,  restless,  and  warlike 
race  of  southern  Hungary,  espousing  the  side  of  the  Hungarians, 
placed  themselves  under  the  command  of  Bern,  who,  thus  reenforced, 
was  soon  in  a  condition  to  resume  the  offensive.  Again  he  entered 
Transylvania,  at  the  head  of  a  well-disciplined  corps  of  twenty  thou- 
sand men ;  and  although  ten  thousand  Russian  troops  had  crossed 
the  frontiers  to  aid  the  Austrians,  he  repeatedly  defeated  their  united 
forces,  took  Herrnanstadt7  after  a  severe  battle,  and  entered  Cron- 
stadt8  without  opposition.  In  a  few  weeks  Bern  was  complete  master 


1.  Debreczin)  the  great  mart  for  the  produce  of  northern  and  eastern  Hungary,  is  situated  in 
a  flat,  sandy,  and  arid  plain,  one  hundred  and  fourteen  miles  east  of  Pesth.    Population  forty, 
five  thousand.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

2.  Comorn,  situated  on  a  point  of  land  formed  by  the  confluence  of  the  Waag  and  the  Dan- 
ube, is  forty-six  miles  north-east  of  Buda.    The  citadel  is  one  of  the  strongest  fortresses  iu 
Europe,  and  has  never  been  taken.     (Map  No.  XVII.) 

3.  Eperies  is  a  fortified  town  of  Upper  Hungary,  on  an  affluent  of  the  Theiss,  one  hundred 
and  forty  miles  north-east  of  Pesth. 

4.  Bukowina,  ceded  by  the  Turks  to  Austria  in  1774,  is  now  included  in  Galicia  and  Lodo- 
meria.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

5.  Esseck,  (ancient  Mursia,)  the  capital  of  Slavonin,  is  a  strongly-fortified  town  situated  on 
the  Drave,  thirteen  miles  from  its  confluence  with  the  Danube.    It  is  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
four  miles  south  of  Buda.    Mursia,  founded  by  the  emperor  Adrian,  in  the  year  125,  became 
the  capital  of  Lower  Pannonia.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

6.  The  Wallachs — properly  the  inhabitants  of  the  Turco-Russian  province  of  Wallachia,  are 
the  descendants  of  the  ancient  Dacians.    (Pronounced  Wol'-laks :  Wol-ia'-ke-a.) 

7.  Hermanstadt,  the  capital  of  the  "  Saxon  land,"  a  Saxon  portion  of  Transylvania,  is  situated 
In  an  extensive  and  fertile  plain,  on  a  branch  of  the  Aluta,  in  the  southern  part  of  Transyl- 
vania.   (Map  No.  XVII.) 

8.  Cronstadt,  the  largest  and  most  populous,  as  well  as  the  principal  manufacturing  and 
commercial  town  of  Transylvania — also  in  the  "  Saxon  land" — is  seventy  miles  east  of  Her* 
manstadt.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 


554  MODERN   HISTORY.  [PART  II. 

of  Transylvania,  from  which  he  passed  into  the  Banat.  and  captured 
Temeswar,1  its  capital. 

13.  In  the  meantime  important  events  had  occurred  in  the  valle}1" 
of  the  Theiss.      About  the  first  of  February  General  Dembinski, 
also  a  Pole,  was  invested,  by  Kossuth,  with  the  command-in-chief  of 
the   Hungarian  armies.     Although  the  appointment  of  Dembinski 
aroused  the  jealousy  of  the  native  Hungarian  officers,  who  seconded 
him  with  little  cordiality,  yet  his  plan  of  operations  was  judicious. 
Leaving  strong  garrisons  at  Szegedm"  and  on  the  Maros,3  about  the 
middle  of  February  he  concentrated  his  forces  in  the  upper  valley 
of  the  Theiss,  to  meet  the  Austrians,  then  advancing  in  full  force 
under  Windischgratz.     In  the  vicinity  of  Kapolna,3  on  the  26th  and 
27th,  a  severe  battle  was  fought  between  forty  thousand  Hungarians 
and  sixty  thousand  Austrians,  without  any  decisive  result ;  but  had 
it  not  been  for  the  inactivity  of  Gorgey,  who  restricted  himself  to  a 
defensive  position,  the  Austrians  would  have  suffered  a  total  defeat. 

14.  Early  in  March  Dembinski  resigned,  and  General  Yetter  was 
appointed  commander-in-chief  of  the  Hungarian  forces ;  but  owing 
to  the  illness  of  Vetter  the  command  soon  devolved  on  Gorgey, 
under  whom  was  gained  a  series  of  victories  by  which  the  Austrians 
were  for  a  time  driven  out  of  Hungary.     On  the  4th  of  April  Jella- 
chich  was  defeated  at  Tapiobieske,3  and  on  the  6th  the  corps  of 
Windischgratz  at  Godollo  :8  on  the  9th  Gorgey  took  Waitzen8  by 
storm  :  on  the  19th  the  Ausrians  were  defeated  in  a  desperate  battle 
at  Nagy-Sarlo  ;3  and  on  the  20th  Gorgey  relieved  the  fortress  of 
Comorn,  which  the  Austrians  had  closely  besieged  during  several 
months.     In  a  few  days  the  main  body  of  the  Austrians  was  driven 
from  the  right  bank  of  the  Danube,  when  nothing  but  a  routed  army 
remained  between  the  Hungarians  and  the  city  of  Vienna.     Had 
Gorgey  then  followed  up  his  successes,  as  he  was  strongly  urged 
to  do  by  Kossuth,  in  two  days  his  forces  might  have  bivouacked 
in  the  Austrian  capital ;    but  he  remained  inactive  eight  days  at 
Comorn,  and  then  proceeded  to  the  siege  of  the  fortress  of  Buda,4 

1.  Temeswar,  the  capital  of  the  Banat,  is  a  strongly-fortified  town,  seventy-five  miles  north- 
east of  Peterwardein.    It  was  taken  from  the  Turks  in  1716  by  Prince  Eugene.    The  Bega 
canal,  seventy-three  miles  in  length,  passes  through  the  town.    Temeswar  is  supposed  to  rep- 
resent the  ancient  Tabiscus,  to  which  Ovid  was  banished.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

2.  Siegedin  is  a  large  town  of  Hungary,  situated  at  the  confluence  of  the  Maros  and  the 
Theiss,  one  hundred  miles  south-east  of  Pesth.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

3.  For  the  river  Maros,  and  the  towns  Kapolna,  Tapiobieske,  Godollo,  Waitzen,  and  Nagy- 
Sarlo,  see  Map  No.  XVII. 

4.  Buda,  situated  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Danube,  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  miles  south 


CHAP.  VI.]  NINETEENTH    DENTURY.  555 

which  was  carried  by  storm  on  the  21st  of  May.  Buda  was  the  bait 
which  the  retreating  army  left  behind  them  to  lure  the  Hungarians ; 
and  its  siege  was  the  salvation  of  Vienna,  and,  perhaps,  of  the  Aus- 
trian empire. 

15.  On  the  4th  of  March  the  Austrian  emperor  had  made  known 
the  project  of  a  constitution  for  his  empire,  the  effect  of  which  would 
have  been  to  rob  Hungary  of  her  independence  and  constitutional 
rights.     This  measure,  in  connection  with  the  well-known  fact  that 
Russia  had  been  invoked  to  lond  her  aid  in  suppressing  the  Hungarian 
rebellion,  induced  the  Hungarian  Diet  to  make,  on  the  1 4th  of  July, 
1849,  the  declaration  of  Hungarian  independence.     The  Diet  also 
decreed  that,  until  the  form  of  government  to  be  adopted  for  the 
future  should  be  fixed  by  the  nation,  the  government  should  be  con- 
ducted by  Louis  Kossuth  and  the  ministers  to  be  appointed  by  him. 
Kossuth  was  thereupon  unanimously  declared  governor  of  Hungary, 
with  little  less  than  regal  powers. 

16.  The  demand  which  the  Austrian  emperor  had  made  upon  the 
Czar  for  assistance  was  neither  rejected  nor  delayed ;  and  prepara- 
tions for  a  second  campaign  against  Hungary  were  speedily  com- 
pleted.    Four  hundred  thousand  men,  of  whom  one  hundred  and 
sixty  thousand  were  Russians,  were  assembled  on  the   Hungarian 
frontiers  early  in  June, — the  whole  being  placed  under  the  command- 
in-chief  of  the  Austrian  general  Haynau,  of  whom  little  was  then 
known,  except  that  he  had  served  under  Radetsky  in  Italy,  where  he 
had  distinguished  himself  by  his  atrocities.     To  meet  this  force  the 
Hungarians  had  raised  an  army  of  one  hundred  and  forty  thousand 
men,  with  four  hundred  pieces  of  artillery.     Of  these,  forty-five  thou- 
sand, under  the  immediate  command  of  Gorgey,  were  on  the  upper 
Danube,  between  Presburg1  and  the  capital.     The  other  principal 
divisions  of  the  Hungarian  forces  consisted  of  thirty-five  thousand 
men  under  General  Perczel  in  the  Banat,  thirty-two  thousand  under 
General  Bern  in  Transylvania,  and  twelve  thousand  under  Dembinski 
at  Eperies,  near  the  Galician  frontier. 

1 7.  Almost  simultaneously,  in  the  early  part  of  June,  Haynau,  at 
the  head  of  fifty  thousand  men,  entered  Hungary  at    Presburg; 

east  of  Vienna,  is,  in  conjunction  with  Pesth,  the  capital  of  Hungary.  Attila  occasionally  made 
Buda  his  residence.  Arpad,  the  Magyar  chief,  made  it  his  head-quarters  in  the  year  900 ;  and 
it  then  became  the  cradle  of  the  Hungarian  monarchy.  (Map  No.  XVII.) 

1.  Presburg;  once  the  capital  of  Hungary,  is  on  the  north  bank  of  the  Danube,  thirty-four 
milea  east  of  Vienna.  The  castle,  now  in  ruins,  is  memorable  as  the  scene  of  the  appeal  made 
in  1741  by  Maria  Theresa  to  the  Hungarian  States,  which  was  so  generously  responded  to  by 
the  latter.  See  p.  420.  (Map  No.  XVII.) 


556  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  H 

Paskie witch,  at  the  head  of  eighty-seven  thousand  Russians,  passed 
the  frontiers  of  Galicia,  and  descended  into  the  valley  of  the  Theiss 
"by  way  of  Bartfeld1  and  Eperies  ;  and  forty  thousand  Russians  and 
fourteen  thousand  Austrians  entered  Transylvania  from  the  south 
and  east.  Smaller  divisions  entered  at  other  points — the  whole  de- 
signed to  enclose  the  Hungarians  within  a  circle  of  armies,  in  the 
plains  of  the  Theiss  and  the  Danube. 

18.  The  plan  of  the  Austrians  and  Russians  was  too  successfully 
carried  out.     The  Russians,  after  encountering  a  heroic  resistance, 
drove  Bern  from  Transylvania :  Jellachich.  after  experiencing  the 
most  disastrous  defeat  in  the  defile  of  Hegyes,3  marched  up  the 
Theiss  :  the  Russians,  under  Paskiewitch,  in  two  divisions  entered 
Debreczin  on  the  7th  of  July,  and   Pesth  on  the   llth.     Haynau 
fought  his  way  from  Presburg  to  the  vicinity  of  Comorn,  near  which 
place  he  fought,  on  the  llth  of  July,  a  severe  battle  with  Gorgey, 
in  which  the  latter  had  the  advantage.     On  the  19th  he  reached 
Pesth,  where  he  renewed  those  brutal  scenes  which  had  marked  his 
whole  career  in  Hungary.     To  his  own  everlasting  infamy,  and  the 
deep  disgrace  of  the  Austrian  government,  he  repeatedly  ordered 
ladies  of  great  respectability  and  high  rank  to  be  publicly  flogged 
for  having  held  communication  with  the  insurgents, — and  one,  the 
daughter  of  a  professor  in  Raab,  for  having  turned  her  back  upon 
the  emperor  as  he  entered  the  city.     Brave  officers  were  hanged  by 
him  for  no  other  crime  than  that  of  defending  their  country.     Hay- 
nau, by  his  barbarities,  fully  earned  the  title  which  has  been  given 
him, — that  of"  Hungary's  Hangman." 

19.  From  Comorn,  Gorgey,  constantly  harassed  by  the  enemy,  re- 
treated to  Waitzen,  and  thence  to  Onod,3  and  on  the  29th  crossed 
the  Theiss  at  Tokay,4  from  which  place  he  turned  south,  and,  pur- 
sued by  the  enemy,  continued  his  retreat,  until,  on  the  8th  of  August, 

1.  Bartfeld  is  at  the  foot  of  the  Carpathian  mountains,  in  northern  Hungary,  on  the  Tope,  an 
affluent  of  the  Theiss.    It  formerly  enjoyed  considerable  distinction  as  a  seat  of  learning.    It  is 
one  hundred  and  fifty-five  miles  north-east  from  Pesth.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 

2.  Hegyes  is  a  small  town  of  Southern  Hungary,  thirty-five  miles  north-west  of  Peterwardein. 
(Map  No.  XVIL) 

3.  Onod  is  on  the  western  bank  of  the  Theiss,  ninety-five  miles  north-east  of  Pesth.     (Map 
No.  XV II.) 

4.  Tokay  is  a  small  town,  situated  at  the  confluence  of  the  Bodrog  with  the  Theiss,  one  hun- 
dred and  thirteen  miles  north-east  from  Pesth.    Tokay  derives  its  whole  celebrity  from  its  being 
the  entrepot  for  the  sale  of  the  famous  sweet  wine  of  the  same  name,  made  in  a  hilly  tract  of 
country  extending  twenty-five  or  thirty  miles  north-west  from  the  town.    The  finest  quality  of 
the  wine  is  that  which  flows  from  the  ripe  grapes  by  their  own  pressure,  while  in  heaps.    (Map 
No.  XVII.) 


.  VI]  NINETEENTH  CENTURY.  557 

he  reached  the  fortress  of  Arad,1  on  the  Maros.  Petty  jealousies 
between  the  Hungarian  generals  frequently  prevented  concert  of 
action  and  a  union  of  forces  when  the  safety  of  whole  armies  depend- 
ed upon  it;  and  the  ambition  of  Gorgey,  in  particular,  who  was 
possessed  of  both  skill  and  courage,  seemed  to  be  to  show  himself  a 
great  general.  His  country's  safety  was  a  secondary  consideration. 

20.  Dernbinski,  in  the  meantime,  had  retreated  south,  and  crossed 
the  Danube  also  in  the  Banat.     After  almost  constant  fighting  on 
the  5th,  6th,  7th,  and  8th  of  August,  on  the  latter  of  which  days  he 
was  severely  wounded,  on  the  9th  his  army,  commanded  by  Bern, 
fought  with  Jellachich  and  Haynau  the  decisive  battle  of  Temeswar, 
in  which  the  Austrians  were  at  first  repulsed  with  great  loss ;  but 
the  failure  of  ammunition  in  the  Hungarian  lines  finally  gave  the 
victory  to  the  Austrians.     The  southern  Hungarian  army  was  com- 
pletely broken  up  by  this  disaster  :  many  laid  down  their  arms  and 
returned  home  :  some  escaped  into  Turkey ;  and  some  thousands  fell 
into  the  hands  of  the  pursuing  enemy.     On  the  8th  Gorgey  had 
reached  Arad  with  forty  thousand  troops,  within  half  a  day's  march 
of  the  spot  where  Dembinski  was  fighting ;  but  instead  of  joining  his 
countrymen  at  that  opportune  moment,  when  he  might  have  turned 
the  scale  of  victory,  he  was  then  engaged  in  efforts  for  obtaining  the 
dissolution  of  the  government,  and  procuring  for  himself  the  ap- 
pointment of  dictator.     Gorgey's  fidelity  to  the  Hungarian  cause  had 
long  been  suspected,  even  by  Kossuth  himself,  yet  he  had  been  re- 
tained in  command  of  the  largest  division  of  the  Hungarian  army ; 
and  now,  when  he  declared  that  he  alone  could  and  would  save  the 
country  if  dictatorial  powers  were  conferred  upon  him,  Kossuth, 
considering  the  cause  of  Hungary  desperate,  took  the  important  step 
of  dissolving  the  government  and  conferring  upon  Gorgey  the  su- 
preme civil  and  military  power.     (Aug.  10th.) 

21.  It  soon  appeared  that  Gorgey  had  long  maintained  a  treason- 
able correspondence  with  the  enemy.     He  had  long  disobeyed,  at  his 
pleasure,  the  orders  sent  him  by  the  government ;  and  he  now  made 
such  a  disposition  of  his  forces  that  the  Kussians  might  enclose  his  army, 
of  which,  in  spite  of  its  corrupt  condition,  he  still  stood  in  fear.     On 
the  13th  he  surrendered  to  the  Russian  general  Rudiger,  without 
any  conditions,  his  entire  force,  with  one  hundred  and  forty-four  can- 
nons.    When  the  troops  were  drawn  up  for  surrender,  grief  and  in- 

1.  J}rad  is  a  strongly-fortified  town,  situated  on  both  sides  6f  the  Maros,  twenty-seven  miles 
north  of  Temeswar.    (Map  No.  XVII.) 


558  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  It 

dignation  were  visible  throughout  the  ranks :  one  officer  broke  his 
sword,  and  threw  it  with  curses  at  Gorgey's  feet :  many  a  hussar 
shot  his  noble  charger,  that  it  might  not  survive  the  disgrace  of  its 
master;  and  some  regiments  burned  their  standards,  determined 
never  to  surrender  them  to  the  enemy. 

22.  A  few  days  before  Gorgey's  treacherous  surrender,  one  parting 
gleam  of  success  shed  its  lustre  on  the  Hungarian  arms.     At  mid- 
night on  the  3d  of  August  the  garrison  of  Comorn,  commanded  by 
General  Klapka,  sallied  from  the  fortress,  and  drove  back  the  Aus- 
trians  with  dreadful  slaughter ;  and  so  great  was  the  panic  that  on 
the  5th  of  August  Raab1  was  taken,  and  with  it  supplies  and  ammu- 
nition to  the  value  of  several  millions  of  dollars.     The  peasantry  in 
the  valley  of  the  Danube  rose  en  masse,  and  Klapka  thought  serious- 
ly of  marching  upon  Vienna  itself,  when  the  news  of  Gorgey's  sur- 
render paralyzed  all  farther  effort.     Comorn  surrendered  on  the  29th 
of  September,  on  favorable  terms ;  and  with  the  fall  of  that  import- 
ant fortress,  terminated  the  military  operations  in  Hungary. 

23.  After  the  surrender  of  Gorgey,  Kossuth  left  Arad  and  direct- 
ed his  course  to  the  Turkish  frontier,  and,  finding  that  no  hope  re- 
mained of  serving  his  country,  delivered  himself  up  to  the  Ottoman 
garrison  at  Widdin.2     Austria  in  vaid  demanded  him  of  the  Turkish 
government.     When  he  was  finally  permitted  to  leave  the  country 
he  came  to  the  United  States.     The  attentions  there  bestowed  upon 
him  for  his  noble  efforts  in  the  cause  of  Hungarian  freedom,  called 
forth,  from  the  Austrian  government,  a  remonstrance,  which  was 
nobly  answered  by  Mr.  Webster,  the  American  Secretary  of  State. 
Bern  also  fled  into  Turkey,  where,  after  receiving  a  command  in  the 
Turkish  army,  he  died  in  1850,  of  wounds  received  in  the  Hungarian 
war.     Dembinski  and  a  few  others  followed  the  fortunes  of  Kossuth. 

24.  On  the  6th  of  October,  1849, — a  day  rendered  forever  mem- 
orable for  infamy  in  the  annals  of  Austria — thirteen  Hungarian 
generals  and  staff  officers,  who  had  surrendered,  were  shot  or  hanged 
at  Arad  :  many  of  the  Hungarian  ministers  and  other  civil  officials 
were  also  executed  :  an  immense  number  of  inferior  officers  were  sent 
to  fortresses  to  be  imprisoned  for  life,  or  a  term  of  years;  and  about 
seventy  thousand  Hungarians,  who  had  taken  part  in  the  contest, 

1.  Raab  is  situated  south  of  the  Danube,  twenty-two  miles  south-west  of  Comorn.    It  was  a 
atrong  post  under  the  Romans.    In  1809  an  Austrian  force  was  routed  by  the  French  under  its 
walls.     (Map  No.  XVII.) 

2.  Widdin  is  a  fortified  town  of  Bulgaria  in  Turkey,  on  the  southern  bank  of  the  Danube,  one 
hundred  and  sixty-five  miles  south-east  of  Peterwa/dein.    (Map  No.  VIU 


CHAP  VI.]  NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  559 

were  forcibly  enlisted  in  Austrian  regiments.  Thus  terminated  the 
struggle  of  Hungary  for  freedom.  Her  national  existence,  preserved 
through  a  thousand  years,  was  annihilated,  not  so  much  by  the  over- 
whelming power  of  two  great  empires,  as  by  the  faults  and  treason  of 
her  own  sons.a 

VI.  USURPATION  OF  Louis  NAPOLEON.  1.  After  France  had 
adopted  a  republican  constitution  in  1848,  the  election  of  a  chief 
magistrate,  to  hold  the  executive  power  of  the  nation  for  four  years, 
became  the  absorbing  subject  of  thought  and  discussion  with  the 
French  people.  Six  candidates  were  in  the  field, — Lamartine,  Ledru 
Rolliu,  Raspail,  Generals  Changarnier  and  Cavaignac,  and  Louis  Na- 
poleon. Lamartine,  who  had  saved  the  country  from  anarchy  in  the 
Revr^ition  of  February,  but  had  made  a  feeble  president  of  the  pro- 
visional government,  soon  virtually  withdrew  from  the  contest,  by  re- 
questing his  friends  to  make  no  efforts  in  his  behalf:  the  adherents 
of  Ledru  Rollin,  although  earnest  and  active,  were,  comparatively, 
few  in  number :  Raspail  and  Changarnier  possessed  no  peculiar  rec- 
ommendations for  the  office ;  and  it  was  soon  evident  that  the  choice 
would  lie  between  General  Cavaignac  and  Louis  Napoleon — the 
former,  popular  with  the  Assembly  and  the  leading  republicans,  a 
man  of  tried  integrity,  and  possessing  every  requisite  qualification 
for  the  office — the  latter  an  adventurer,  who  had  made  two  fool- 
hardy attempts  to  usurp  the  throne  of  France,  viewed  with  jealousy 
and  distrust  by  the  republicans,  and  treated  with  coldness  by  the 
politicians  of  all  parties,  but  strong  in  the  prestige  of  a  name, 
and  hailed  by  the  people  as  the  living  representative  of  that  world- 
renowned  emperor  whom  France  can  never  forget.  The  result  of 
the  election  surprised  every  one.  Seven  and  a-half  millions  of  votes 
were  polled  in  the  nation,  and,  of  these,  five  and  a-half  millions 
were  cast  for  Louis  Napoleon,  who  was  inaugurated  President  on 
the  20th  of  December.  He  then  solemnly  swore  "  to  remain  faith- 
ful to  the  Democratic  Republic,  and  to  fulfil  all  the  duties  which  the 
constitution  imposed  upon  him." 

2.  Louis  Napoleon,  the  son  of  Louis  Bonaparte  and  Hortense 
Beauharnais,  the  king  and  queen  of  Holland,  was  born  in  the  palace 

a.  When  Kossuth,  with  the  members  of  the  provisional  government,  was  retreating  from 
point  to  point  as  the  Austrian  and  Russian  armies  advanced,  he  carried  with  him  the  Hunga- 
rian regalia— the  royal  jewels,  and  the  crown  of  St.  Stephen— objects  of  almost  religious  ven- 
eration to  the  Hungarian  people.  It  long  remained  a  mystery  what  had  become  of  them,  but 
after  years  of  search  by  individuals  sent  out  by  the  Austrian  government,  they  were  discovered 
in  Sept.  1853,  buried  in  an  iron  chest  near  the  confines  of  Wallachia, 


560  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  IL 

of  the  Tuilleries  on  the  20th  of  April,  1808,  and,  being  the  first 
prince  of  the  Napoleon  dynasty  born  under  the  imperial  regime,  and 
the  only  one  living  at  the  time  of  his  election  as  President  of  the 
French  Kepublic,  considered  himself,  and  was  acknowledged  by  the 
Bonapartists,  as  the  legitimate  representative  of  the  emperor  Napo- 
leon, and  the  heir  to  his  empire.  After  his  second  attempt,  in 
August  1840,  to  excite  a  Revolution  against  Louis  Phillippe,  he  was 
confined  in  the  castle  of  Ham,1  from  which  he  made  his  escape  in 
May  1846,  after  an  imprisonment  of  more  than  five  years.  Being 
in  London  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution  of  February,  1848,  he  imme- 
diately repaired  to  Paris,  but  was  so  coldly  received  by  the  members 
of  the  provisional  government  that  he  again  left  the  country.  Soon 
after  he  was  informed  that  he  had  been  elected  a  member  of  the  As- 
sembly from  three  different  departments ;  but  the  hostility  against 
him  in  the  Assembly  was  so  great  that,  deeming  it  unsafe  to  take 
his  seat  as  a  delegate,  he  resigned  the  office.  In  the  election  to  fill 
vacancies,  in  August,  he  was  reflected,  when  he  returned  to  France, 
and  on  the  26th  of  September  took  his  seat  as  the  representative  of 
Paris,  his  native  city.  But  even  then,  nearly  all  the  members,  re- 
garding him  as  a  secret  enemy  of  the  government,  treated  him  with 
marked  coldness  and  neglect ;  nor  did  the  icy  reserve  wear  away 
when  the  suffrages  of  nearly  six  millions  of  his  countrymen  had 
elevated  him  to  the  first  place  in  the  Republic. 

3.  The  first  act  of  Louis  Napoleon  was  to  make  a  public  declara- 
tion of  the  principles  of  his  government,  which  he  avowed  to  be 
strictly  republican ;  yet  from  the  outset  it  was  assumed  by  a  large 
portion  of  the  Assembly  that  he  would  prove  unfaithful  to  his  oath, 
and  endeavor  to  establish  an  imperial  dynasty.     The  Assembly  was 
composed  of  several  parties, — first,  the  Legitimists,  who  were  ad- 
herents of  the  elder  branch  of  the  Bourbons  : — second,  the  Orlean- 
ists,  who  desired  to  see  the  heir  of  Louis  Phillippe  raised  to  the 
throne  : — third,  the  Republicans,  both  moderate  and  ultra  ; — and, 
finally,  the  Bonapartists,  who  openly  expressed  their  desire  for  the 
restoration  of  the  empire,  and  were  encouraged  by  Louis  Napoleon, 
although  he  remained  professedly  attached  to  the  Republic. 

4.  From  the  beginning  there  was  no  mutual  confidence  between 
the  President  and  the  Assembly;  and  while  the  conduct  of  the 

1.  -Ham,  celebrated  for  its  strong  fortress  used  as  a  State  Prison,  is  a  town  in  a  marshy  plain, 
in  the  former  province  of  Picardy,  seventy  miles  north-east  from  Paris,  and  thirty-five  south-east 
from  Amiens.  Here  Prince  Polignac  and  other  ministers  of  Charles  X.  were  confined  for  six 
years. 


CHAP,  VI.]  NINETEENTH    CENTURY.  561 

former  exhibited  marked  dishonesty  of  purpose  in  furthering  his  am- 
bitious views,  the  whole  career  of  the  latter  was  a  serious  of  intrigues 
against  the  President,  of  party  contests,  and  encroachments  upon 
popular  rights.  The  Assembly  introduced  severe  restrictions  upon 
the  liberty  of  the  press  :  it  placed  the  entire  control  of  education  in 
the  hands  of  the  Roman  Catholic  clergy  :  it  made  restrictions  upon 
the  right  of  suffrage,  which  disfranchised  three  millions  of  electors ; 
and  it  united  with  the  President  in  sending  an  army  to  crush  the 
rising  Republic  of  Rome. 

5.  The  constitution  of  1848  provided  that  it  might  be  revised  by 
a  vote  of  three-fourths  of  the  Assembly  during  the  last  year  of  the 
Presidential  term,  and  that  the  President  should  be  ineligible  to 
reelection,  until  after  an  interval  of  four  years.     This  latter  provision 
would  therefore  render  the  continuance  of  Louis  Napoleon  in  power 
impossible,  without  a  revision  of  the  constitution.     Early  in  1851  the 
question  of  revision  was  brought  before  the  Assembly,  and  after 
being  the  subject  of  some  very  exciting  and  stormy  debates,  in  which 
any  change  was  vehemently  opposed  by  the  republicans,  the  motion 
to  revise  failed  by  nearly  a  hundred  votes. 

6.  In  his  annual  message  in  November  the  President  strongly  urged 
upon  the  Assembly  the  extension  of  the  right  of  suffrage,  a  measure 
which  greatly  increased  his  popularity  with  the  French  people ;  but 
the  bill  introduced  for  that  purpose  was  rejected  by  the  Assembly. 
Soon  after,  the  increasing  animosity  of  the  Assembly  towards  the 
President  was  exhibited  by  the  proposal  of  a  law  authorizing  his 
impeachment  in  case  he  should  seek  a  reelection  in  violation  of  the 
constitution.     His  accusation  and  arrest  on  a  charge  of  treason  were 
also  hinted  at. 

7.  The  strife  of  parties  in  the  Assembly  was  fast  bringing  matters 
to  a  crisis  that  would  probably  have  ended  in  anarchy  and  civil  war, 
when  suddenly — unexpectedly — and   quietly,   Louis    Napoleon   put 
forth  his  hand,  and  with  a  degree  of  skill  that  would  have  done  honor 
to  his  great  name-sake,  grasped  the  reins  of  power,  and,  crushing  the 
constitution,  overwhelmed  all  opposition  to  his  will.     On  the  night 
of  Monday,  December  1st,  the  palace  of  the  President  was  the  scene 
of  a  gay  assemblage  of  the  fashion  and  beauty  of  Paris ;  and  it  was 
remarked  that  the  President  was  in  the  highest  spirits,  and  unusually 
attentive  to  his  guests.     On  the  following  morning  the  inhabitants 
of  Paris  awoke  to  find  the  city  filled  with  troops,  and  every  com- 
manding position  in  the  vicinity  occupied  by  them,  while  the  Presi- 

36 


562  MODERN  HISTORY.  [PART  II. 

dent's  decree,  posted  on  every  wall,  announced  the  dissolution  of  the 
National  Assembly,  the  restoration  of  universal  suffrage,  and  the  es- 
tablishment of  martial  law  throughout  Paris.  The  chief  members 
of  the  Assembly,  together  with  Generals  Cavaignac,  Changarnier, 
Lamoriciere,  and  others,  had  been  seized  in  their  beds,  and  were  already 
in  prison  :  not  a  man  was  left  of  sufficient  ability  and  popularity  to 
rally  the  people ;  the  coup  d'etat  was  entirely  successful,  and  Louis 
Napoleon  was  absolute  dictator  of  France. 

8.  On  Tuesday  the  2d  of  December  about  three  hundred  members 
of  the  Assembly,  finding  the  doors  of  the  hall  of  legislation  guarded,  met 
in  another  part  of  the  city,  declared  the  President  guilty  of  treason, 
and  proclaimed  his  deposition ;  but  scarcely  had  they  signed  the 
decree  when  they  were  surrounded  b}7  a  band  of  soldiers,  and  all 
marched  to  prison.     The  Assembly  being  destroyed,  measures  were 
next  taken  to  disarm  the  power  of  the  press ;  and  none  of  the  jour- 
nals, except  the  government  organs,  were  allowed  to  appear.     On 
Wednesday,  the  3d,  a  decree  was  promulgated,  convening  the  whole 
people  for  an  election  to  be  held  between  the  14th  and  22d  of  De- 
cember— the  questions  submitted  to  them  being  whether  Louis  Na- 
poleon should  remain  at  the  head  of  the  state  ten  years,  or  not,  with 
the  power  of  forming  a  new  constitution  on  the  basis  of  universal 
suffrage.     On  Thursday,  the  4th,  troops  were  called  out  to  suppress 
an  insurrection  in  Paris  :  no  quarter  was  given,  and  about  a  thousand 
of  the  insurgents  were  killed,  when  tranquillity  was  restored.     In 
some  of  the  departments  the  people  rose  in  great  strength  against 
the  usurpation ;  but  the  army  remained  faithful,  and  in  the  course 
of  two  or  three  days  all  resistance  was  quelled. 

9.  It  had  been  arranged  that  the  army  should  vote  first  on  the 
great  question  submitted  to  the  nation  ;  and,  as  had  been  anticipated, 
its  vote  was  nearly  unanimous  in  favor  of  Louis  Napoleon.     The 
official  returns  showed  nearly  seven  and  a-half  millions  of  votes  in 
his  favor,  and  but  little  more  than  half  a  million  against  him.     Thus 
the  nation  sanctioned  his  usurpation  of  the  2d  of  December,  and 
virtually  proclaimed  its  wish  for  the  restoration  of  the  empire.     On 
the  1st  of  January,  1852.  the  result  of  the  election  was  celebrated  at 
Paris  with  more  than  royal  magnificence,  and  on  the  1 4th  the  new 
constitution  was  decreed.     It  was  avowedly  based  on  the  constitution 
which  the  emperor  Napoleon  had  given  to  the  French  nation.     It 
intrusted  the  government  to  Louis  Napoleon  for  ten  years,  made 
him  commander-in-chief  of  the  army  and  navy,  gave  him  control  over 
legislation,  and  the  power  to  declare  war  and  make  treaties.     He  was 
all  but  in  name  an  emperor  ;  and  before  a  year  had  passed  he  assumed 
that  title,  apparently  with  the  consent,  and  by  the  desire,  of  the  na- 
tion.    France  had  accepted  the  Napoleon  Dynasty  as  a  refuge  from 
anarchy — as  the  only  compromise  between  Bourbonism,  or  the  past, 
and  Republicanism,  or  the  future. 


GENERAL  GEOGRAPHICAL  AND  HISTORICAL  VIEWS, 

(IN  ADDITION  TO  THE  NOTES  THROUGHOUT  THE  WORK.) 

ILLUSTRATED  BY  THE  FOLLOWING  MAPS. 

PAGE  MAP  No. 

ANCIENT  GREECE 564  L 

ATHENS  AND  ITS  HARBORS 566 II. 

ISLANDS  OF  THE  AEGEAN  SEA 568 III. 

ASIA  MINOR 570 IV. 

PERSIAN  EMPIRE 572  .. V. 

PALESTINE 574 VI. 

TURKEY  IN  EUROPE 576 VII. 

ANCIENTITALY 578 VIII. 

ROMAN  EMPIRE 580 IX. 

ANCIENT  ROME 582 X. 

CHART  OF  THE  WORLD 584  XI. 

BATTLE  GROUNDS  OF  NAPOLEON,  &c 586  XII. 

FRANCE,  SPAIN,  AND  PORTUGAL 588  XIII. 

SWITZERLAND,  DENMARK,  &c 590 XIV. 

NETHERLANDS  (HOLLAND  AND  BELGIUM) 592  XV. 

GREAT  BRITAIN  AND  IRELAND 594  XVL 

CENTRAL  EUROPE 596  XVII. 

UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA...  ..  598  ..  ..  XVIII. 


ANCIENT  AND  MODERN  GREECE.    Map  No.  I. 

« 

A  general  description  of  both  Ancient  and  Modern  Greece  may  be  found  on  pp.  21  and  22 — 
Grecian  Mythology,  22  to  27— Ancient  History  of  Greece,  27  to  123— Modern  History,  510  to 
5-23.  For  descriptive  accounts  of  the  Grecian  States,  and  important  towns,  cities,  rivers,  battle- 
grounds, &c.,  see  the  "  Index  to  the  Descriptive  Notes"  at  the  end  of  the  volume. 

The  following  is  a  brief  synopsis  of  the  leading  events  in  Grecian  History,  beginning  with 
the  Persian  wars,  which  ended  B.  C.  469.  The  Peloponnesian  wars  lasted  nearly  thirty  years, 
B.  C.  431-404.  Subjugation  of  Greece  by  Philip  of  Macedon,  B.  C.  338,  after  which  come  the 
conquests  of  Alexander,  the  Achaean  League,  and  then  the  Roman  conquest.  B.  C.  146.  from 
which  time,  during  thirteen  hundred  and  fifty  years,  Greece  continued  to  be  either  really  or 
nominally  a  portion  of  the  Roman  empire.  The  country  was  invaded  by  Alaric  the  Goth, 
A.  D.  400,  and  afterwards  by  Genseric  and  Zaber  Khan,  in  the  sixth  and  seventh,  and  by  the 
Normans  in  the  eleventh  century.  After  the  capture  of  Constantinople  by  the  crusaders  in 
1204,  Greece  was  divided  into  feudal  principalities,  and  governed  by  a  variety  of  Norman,  Ve- 
netian, and  Fraukish  nobles.  It  was  invaded  by  the  Turks  in  1438,  and  conquered  by  them  in 
1481.  It  was  the  theatre  of  wars  between  the  Turks  and  Venetians  during  the  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth  centuries ;  but  by  the  treaty  of  Passarovitcn,  in  1718,  it  was  given  up  to  the  Turks, 
who  retained  possession  of  the  country  till  the  breaking  out  of  the  Greek  Revolution  in  1821. 

The  present  kingdom  of  Greece  embraces  all  the  Grecian  peninsula  south  of  the  ancient 
Epirus  and  Thes'  saly,  as  seen  on  the  accompanying  map,  together  with  Euboa'a,  the  Cyc'  lades, 
and  the  northern  Spor'  ades.  Thes'  saly,  now  a  Turkish  province,  retains  its  ancient  name  and 
limits :  Epirus  is  embraced  in  the  Turkish  province  of  Albania,  for  which,  see  Map  No.  VII. 

The  Modern  Greeks  are  described  as  being,  generally,  "  rather  above  the  middle  height, 
and  well-shaped ;  they  have  the  face  oval,  features  regular  and  expressive,  eyes  large,  dark, 
and  animated,  eyebrows  arched,  hair  long  and  dark,  and  complexions  olive  colored."  They 
retain  many  of  the  customs  and  ceremonies  of  the  ancients ;  the  common  people  are  extremely 
credulous  and  superstitious,  and  pay  much  attention  to  auguries,  omens,  and  dreams.  They 
belong  mostly  to  the  Greek  Church ;  they  deny  the  supremacy  ot  the  pope,  abhor  the  worship 
of  images,  and  reject  the  doctrine  of  purgatory,  but  believe  in  transubstantiation.  The  priests 
are  generally  poor  and  illiterate,  although  improving  in  their  attainments ;  and  their  habits  are 
generally  simple  and  exemplary. 

The  inhabitants  of  Northern  Greece,  or  Hellas,  are  said  to  have  retained  M  a  chivalrous  and 
warlike  spirit,  with  a  simplicity  of  manners  and  mode  of  life  which  strongly  remind  us  of  the 
pictures  of  the  heroic  age."  The  inhabitants  of  the  Peloponnesus  are  more  ignorant  and  less 
honest  than  those  of  Hellas.  Previous  to  the  Greek  Revolution,  remains  of  the  Hellenic  race 
were  found,  in  their  greatest  purity,  in  the  mountainous  parts  of  the  country — in  the  vicinity 
of  Mount  Parnassus  in  Northern  Greece,  and  the  inhospitable  tracts  of  Taygetos  in  Southern 
Greece,  whither  they  had  been  driven  from  the  plains  by  their  ruthless  oppressors.  The 
language  of  the  modern  Greeks  bears,  in  many  of  its  words,  and  in  its  general  forms  and 
grammatical  structure,  a  strong  resemblance  to  the  ancient  Greek— similar  to  the  relation  sus- 
tained by  the  Italian  to  the  Latin ;  but  as  the  pronunciation  of  the  ancient  Greek  is  lost,  how 
far  the  modern  tongue  corresponds  to  it  in  that  particular  cannot  be  ascertained. 

Travellers  still  speak  in  the  highest  terms  of  the  fine  views  everywhere  found  in  Grecian  scene- 
ry ; — and  besides  their  natural  beauties,  they  are  doubly  dear  to  us  by  the  thousand  hallowed  asso- 
ciations connected  with  them  by  scenes  of  historic  interest,  and  by  the  numerous  ruins  of 
ancient  art  and  splendor  which  cover  the  country — recalling  a  glorious  Past,  upon  which  we 
love  to  dwell  as  upon  the  memory  of  departed  friends,  or  the  scenes  of  happy  childhood— 
14  sweet,  but  mournful,  to  the  soul." 

"Yet  are  thy  skies  as  blue,  thy  crags  as  wild; 
Sweet  are  thy  groves,  and  verdant  :ire  thy  fields, 
Thine  olive  ripe  as  when  Minerva  smiled, 
And  still  his  honied  wealth  Hymettus  yields. 
There  the  blithe  bee  his  fragrant  fortress  builds. 
The  freeboru  wanderer  of  thy  mountain  air ; 
Apollo  still  thy  long,  long  summer  gilds, 
Still  in  his  beam  Mendeli's  marbles  glare; 
Art,  Glory,  Freedom  fail,  but  Nature  still  is  fair. 

•*  Where'er  we  tread,  'tis  haunted,  holy  ground ; 
No  earth  of  thine  is  lost  in  vulgar  mould, 
But  one  vast  realm  of  wonder  spreads  around, 
And  all  the  muses  tales  seem  truly  told, 
Till  the  sense  aches  with  gazing  to  behold 
The  scenes  our  earliest  dreams  have  dwelt  upon: 
Each  hill  and  dale,  each  deepening  glen  and  wold, 
Defies  the  power  which  crush'd  thy  temples  gone : 

Age  shakes  Athena's  tower,  but  spares  gray  Marathon.'' 

Childe  Harolde,  cauto  ii. 


NO,  I. 


" 


ANCIENT  ATHENS,     Map  No.  II. 


Among  the  monuments  of  antiquity  which  still  exist  at  Athens,  the  most  striking  are  those 
which  surmount  the  Acrop'  olis,  or  Cecropian  citadel,  which  is  a  rocky  height  rising  abruptly 
out  of  the  Attic  plain,  and  accessible  only  on  the  western  side,  where  stood  the  Propyl&'a,  a 
magnificent  structure  of  the  Doric  order,  which  served  as  the  gate  as  well  as  the  defence  of 
the  Acrop' olis.  But  the  chief  glory  of  Athens  was  the  Par' then  on,  or  temple  of  Minerva, 
which  stood  on  the  highest  point,  and  near  the  centre,  of  the  Acrop'  olis.  It  was  constructed 
entirely  of  the  most  beautiful  white  marble  from  Mount  Pentel'  licus,  and  its  dimensions  were 
two  hundred  and  twenty-eight  feet  by  one  hundred  and  two— having  eight  Done  columns  in 
each  of  the  two  fronts,  and  seventeen  in  each  of  the  sides,  and  also  an  interior  range  of  six 
columns  in  each  end.  The  ceiling  of  the  western  part  of  the  main  building  was  supported  by 
(bur  interior  columns,  and  of  the  eastern  end  by  sixteen.  The  entire  height  of  the  building 
above  its  platform  was  sixty-five  feet.  The  whole  was  enriched,  within  and  without,  with 
matchless  works  of  art  by  the  first  sculptors  of  Greece.  This  magnificent  structure  remained 
entire  until  the  year  1687,  when,  during  a  siege  of  Athens  by  the  Venetians,  a  bomb  fell  on  the 
devoted  Par'  thenon,  and  setting  fire  to  the  powder  which  the  Turks  had  stored  there,  entirely 
destroyed  the  roof,  and  reduced  the  whole  building  almost  to  ruins.  The  eight  columns  of  the 
eastern  front,  however,  and  several  of  the  lateral  colonnades,  are  still  standing,  and  the  whole, 
dilapidated  as  it  is,  still  retains  an  air  of  inexpressible  grandeur  and  sublimity. 

North  of  the  Par'  thenon  stood  the  Erechtkeium,  au  irregular  but  beautiful  structure  of  the 
Ionic  order,  dedicated  to  the  worship  of  Neptune  and  Minerva.  Considerable  remains  of  it 
are  still  existing.  In  addition  to  the  three  great  edifices  of  the  Acrop'  olis,  which  were  adorned 
with  the  most  finished  paintings  and  sculptures,  the  entire  platform  of  the  hill  appears  to  have 
been  covered  with  a  vast  composition  of  architecture  and  sculpture,  consisting  of  temples, 
monuments,  and  statues  of  Grecian  gods  and  heroes.  Among  these  may  be  mentioned  statues 
of  Jupiter,  Apollo,  Neptune,  Mercury,  Venus,  and  Minerva ;  and  a  vast  number  of  statues  of 
eminent  Grecians — the  whole  Acrop'  olis  having  been  at  once  the  fortress,  the  sacred  enclosure, 
and  the  treasury  of  the  Athenian  nation,  and  forming  the  noblest  museum  of  sculpture,  the 
richest  gallery  of  painting,  and  the  best  school  of  architecture  in  the  world. 

Beneath  the  southern  wall  of  the  Acrop'  olis,  near  its  eastern  extremity,  was  the  Theatre  of 
Bacchus,  which  was  capable  of  containing  thirty  thousand  persons,  and  whose  seats,  rising  one 
above  another,  were  cut  out  of  the  sloping  rock.  Adjoining  this  on  the  east  was  the  Odeum 
built  by  Pericles,  and  beneath  the  western  extremity  of  the  Acrop'  olis  was  the  Odeum  or 
Musical  Theatre,  constructed  in  the  form  of  a  tent.  On  the  north-east  side  of  the  Acrop'  olis  stood 
the  Prytaneum,  where  were  many  statues,  and  where  citizens  who  had  rendered  service  to  the 
State  were  maintained  at  the  public  expense.  A  short  distance  to  the  north-west  of  the 
Acrop'  olis  was  the  small  eminence  called  Areop'  agus,  or  hill  of  Mars,  at  the  eastern  extremity 
of  which  was  situated  the  celebrated  court  of  the  Areop'  agus.  About  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
south-west  stood  the  Pnyx,  the  place  where  the  public  assemblies  of  Athens  were  held  in  its 
palmy  days,  a  spot  that  will  ever  be  associated  with  the  renown  of  Demosthenes,  and  other  famed 
Athenian  orators.  The  steps  by  which  the  speaker  mounted  the  rostrum,  and  a  tier  of  three 
seats  for  the  audience,  hewn  in  the  solid  rock,  are  still  visible.  A  short  distance  south  of  the 
Pnyx  was  the  eminence  called  the  Museum,  that  part  of  Athens  where  the  poet  Musaeus  is  said 
to  have  been  buried. 

In  the  Ccramicus,  north  and  west  of  the  Acrop'  olis,  one  of  the  most  considerable  parts  of  the 
ancient  city,  were  many  public  buildings,  some  dedicated  to  the  worship  of  the  gods,  others 
used  for  stores,  and  for  the  various  markets,  and  some  for  schools,  while  the  old  Forum,  often 
used  for  large  assemblies  of  the  people,  occupied  the  interior.  North  of  the  Areop' agus  is  the 
Temple  of  Theseus,  built  of  marble  by  Cimon.  The  roof,  friezes,  and  cornices,  of  this  temple, 
have  been  but  little  impaired  by  time,  and  the  whole  is  one  of  the  most  noble  remains  of  the 
ancient  magnificence  of  Athens,  and  the  most  perfect,  if  not  the  most  beautiful,  existing 
specimen  of  Grecian  architecture. 

South-east  of  the  Acrop'  olis,  and  near  the  Ilissus,  is  now  to  be  seen  a  cluster  of  sixteen  mag- 
nificent Corinthian  columns  of  Pentelic  marble,  the  only  remaining  ones  of  a  hundred  and 
twenty,  which  mark  the  site  of  the  Temple  of  Jupiter  Olympius.  On  the  left  bank  of  the 
Ilissus  was  the  Stadium,  used  for  gymnastic  contests,  and  capable  of  accommodating  twenty-five 


no.  n. 


568 

thousand  persons.  The  marble  seals  have  disappeared,  but  the  masses  of  masonry  which 
formed  the  semi-circular  end  still  remain. 

Just  without  the  ancient  city  walls  on  the  cast  was  the  Lyceum,  embellished  with  buildings, 
groves,  and  fountains,— a  place  of  assembling  for  military  and  gymnastic  exercises,  and  a 
favorite  resort  for  philosophical  study  and  contemplation.  Near  the  foot  of  Mount  Anchesmus 
was  the  Cynosar'  ges,  a  place  adorned  with  several  temples,  a  gymnasium,  and  groves  sacred  to 
Hercules.  Beyond  the  walls  of  the  city  on  the  north  was  the  Academy,  or  Public  Garden, — 
surrounded  with  a  wall,  and  adorned  with  statues,  temples,  and  sepulchres  of  illustrious  men, 
and  planted  with  olive  and  plane  trees.  Within  this  enclosure  Plato  possessed  a  small  garden, 
in  which  he  opened  his  school.  Thence  arose  the  Academic  sect. 

Athens  had  three  great  harbors,  the  PiraV  us,  Munych'  ia,  and  Phal'  erum.  Anciently  these 
ports  formed  a  separate  city  larger  than  Athens  itself,  with  which  they  were  connected  by 
means  of  two  long  walls.  During  the  prolonged  conflict  of  the  revolutionary  war  in  Greece, 
from  1820  to  18-27,  Athens  was  in  ruins,  but  it  is  the  now  capital  of  the  kingdom  of  Greece. 

The  philosophical  era  in  the  history  of  Athens  has  been  beautifully  alluded  to  by  A'ilton. 

"See  there  the  olive  grove  of  Academe, 
Plato's  retirement,  where  the  Attic  bird 
Trills  her  thick-warbled  notes  the  summer-long: 
There  flowery  hill  Hymeltus  with  the  sound 
Of  bees'  industrious  murmur  oft  invites 
To  studious  musing;  There  llissus  rolls 
His  whispering  stream:  within  the  walls  then  view 
The  schools  of  ancient  sages ;  his  who  bred 
Great  Alexander  to  subdue  the  world, 
Lyceum  there,  and  painted  Stoa  next: 
*        *        *        *      *        *        *        * 

To  sage  philosophy  next  lend  thine  ear, 
From  Heaven  descended  to  the  low-roofed  house 
Of  Socrates ;  see  there  his  tenement, 
Whom,  well  inspired,  the  oracle  pronounced 
Wisest  of  men;  from  whose  mouth  issued  forth 
Mellifluous  streams  that  water'd  all  the  schools 
Of  Academics  old  and  new,  with  those 
Surnamed  Peripatetics,  and  the  sect 
Epicurean,  and  the  Stoic  severe." 


ISLANDS  OF  THE  AEGEAN,    Map  No.  III. 

The  -lEoEAN  SEA,  now  called  the  Archipelago,  is  that  part  of  the  Mediterranean  lying  between 
Greece,  the  islands  Crete  and  Rhodes,  and  Asia  Minor.  It  embraces  those  groups  of  Islands, 
the  Cyc'  lades  and  the  Spor'  ades  ;*  also  Eubos'a,  Lesbos,  Chios,  Tenedos,  Lemnos,  &c.,  nearly 
all  of  which  cluster  with  interesting  classical  associations.  Mentioning  only  the  most  important 
in  history,  and  beginning  in  the  northern  Archipelago,  we  have  Thasos,  now  Theso  or  Tasso, 
early  colonized  by  the  Phoenicians  on  account  of  its  valuable  silver  mines : — Samothrace,  where 
the  mysteries  of  Cybele,  the  "  Mother  of  the  Gods,"  are  said  to  have  originated:—  Lemjios, 
known  in  ancient  mythology  as  the  spot  on  which  Vulcan  fell,  after  being  hurled  down  from 
heaven,  and  where  he  established  his  forge: — Tenedos,  whither  the  Greeks  retired,  as  Virgil 
relates,  in  order  to  surprise  the  Trojans: — Lesbos,  celebrated  for  its  olive  oil  and  figs,  and  as 
being  the  abode  of  pleasure  and  licentiousness,  while  the  inhabitants  boasted  a  high  degree  of 
intellectual  cultivation,  and,  especially,  great  musical  attainments : — Chios,  now  Scio,  called  the 
garden  of  the  Archipelago,  and  claimed  to  have  been  the  birthplace  of  Homer: — Samos,  early 
distinguished  in  the  maritime  annals  of  Greece  for  its  naval  ascendency,  and  for  its  splendid 
temple  of  Juno : — Icaria,  whose  name  mythology  derives  from  Ic'  arus,  who  fell  into  the  sea  near 
the  island  after  the  unfortunate  termination  of  his  flight  from  Crete:—  Patmos,  to  which  St. 
John  was  banished,  and  where  he  wrote  his  Apocalypse:— Cos,  celebrated  for  its  temple  of 
^sculapius,  and  as  being  the  birthplace  of  Hippocrates,  the  greatest  physician  of  antiquity  : — 
Jfisyrus,  said  to  have  been  separated  from  Cos  by  Neptune,  that  he  might  hurl  it  against  the 


*  The  division  between  the  Cyc'  lades  and  Spor'  ades,  on  the  accompanying  Map,  should 
include  the  islands  Jlscania,  Thera^  and  Jlnaphey  among  the  latter. 


No,  III 


AND 

ASIA  MINOK 


570 

giant  PolybaB'tes: — Jin'  aphe,  said  to  have  been  made  to  rise  by  th under  from  the  bottom  of 
the  sea,  in  order  to  receive  the  Argonauts  during  a  storm,  on  their  return  from  Colchis : — 
TAero,  now  called  Sautorin,  said  to  have  been  formed  in  the  sea  by  a  clod  of  earth  thrown  from 
the  ship  Argo  i—Jlstypala'a,  called  also  Trapedza,  or  the  "  Table  of  the  Gods,"  because  its  soil 
was  fertile,  and  almost  enamelled  with  flowers  :—Amorgus,  the  birthplace  of  the  Iambic  poet 
Simon' ides: — Jos,  claimed  to  have  been  the  burial  place  of  Homer: — Melos,  now  Milo,  cele- 
brated for  its  obstinate  resistance  to  the  Athenians,  and  its  cruel  treatment  by  them,  (see  p. 
83;  :—Jlntiparos,  celebrated  for  its  grotto,  of  great  depth  and  singular  beauty : — Paros,  lamed 
for  its  beautiful  and  enduring  marble : — JVazos,  the  largest  of  the  Cyc'  lades,  celebrated  for  the 
worship  of  Bacchus,  who  is  said  to  have  been  born  there : — Seriphus,  celebrated  in  mythology 
as  the  scene  of  the  most  remarkable  adventures  of  Perseus,  who  changed  Polydec'  tes,  king  of 
this  island,  and  his  subjects,  into  stones,  to  avenge  the  wrongs  offered  to  his  mother  Danae : — 
Delos,  (a  small  island  between  Rhenea  and  Mycanos,)  celebrated  as  the  natal  island  of  Apollo 
and  Diana : — Ceos,  the  birthplace  of  the  Elegiac  poet  Simonides,  grandson  of  the  poet  of 
Amorgus.  The  Simonides  of  Ceos  was  the  author  of  the  celebrated  inscription  on  the  tomb 
of  the  Spartans  who  fell  at  Thermopylae  : — "  Stranger,  tell  the  Lacedemonians  that  we  are 
lying  here  in  obedience  to  their  laws."  ./Egina,  Salamis,  Crete,  Rhodes,  &c.,  have  been  de- 
scribed in  other  parts  of  this  work.  See  Index,  p.  840. 


ASIA  MINOR,     Map  No.  IV. 

ASIA  MINOR,  or  Lesser  Asia,  a  celebrated  region  of  antiquity,  embraced  the  great  peninsula 
of  Western  Asia,  about  equal  in  area  to  that  of  Spain,  and  bounded  north  by  the  Black  Sea, 
east  by  Armenia  and  the  Euphrates,  south  by  Syria  and  the  Mediterranean,  and  west  by  the 
Euxine  Sea  or  Archipelago.  The  divisions  by  which  it  is  best  known  in  history  are  the  nine 
coast  provinces,  Cilicia,  Pamphylia,  and  Lycia,  on  the  Mediterranean ;  Caria,  Lydia,  and 
Mysia,  on  the  ^Egean  ;  Bithynia,  Paphlagonia,  and  Pontus,  on  the  Euxine ;  and  the  four  in- 
terior provinces,  Galatia,  Cappadocia,  Phrygia,  and  Pisidia.  All  of  these  were,  at  times,  inde- 
pendent kingdoms,  and  at  others,  dependent  provinces. 

The  most  renowned  of  the  early  kingdoms  of  Asia  Minor  was  that  of  Lydia,  situate  between 
the  waters  of  the  Hermus  and  the  Maeander,  and  bounded  on  the  east  by  Phrygia.  Under  the 
last  of  its  king?,  the  famous  Croesus,  renowned  for  his  wealth  and  munificence,  the  Lydian 
kingdom  was  extended  so  as  to  embrace  the  Grecian  colonies  on  the  Euxine  coast,  and  nearly 
all  Asia  .Minor  as  far  as  the  Halys.  On  the  overthrow  of  Croesus  by  Cyrus  the  Persian,  B.  C. 
566,  the  Lydian  kingdom  was  formed  into  three  satrapies  belonging  to  the  Medo-Persian  em- 
pire, under  which  it  remained  upward  of  two  centuries.  The  Macedonian  succeeded  the  Per- 
sian dominion,  B.  C.  331,  from  which  time,  during  nearly  two  centuries,  Asia  Minor  was  subject 
to  many  vicissitudes  consequent  on  the  changing  fortunes  of  Alexander's  successors.  During 
the  century  immediately  preceding  the  Christian  era,  the  western  provinces  of  the  peninsula 
fell  successively  into  the  hands  of  the  Romans,  under  whom  they  formed  what  was  called  the 
proconsulship  of  Asia,  (see  Map  No.  IX.,)  the  same  which  the  Greek  writers  of  the  Roman  era 
call  Asia  Proper,  and  in  which  sense  we  find  the  word  Asia  used  in  the  New  Testament, 
(Acts,  2 :  9,)  although  in  some  passages  Phrygia  is  spoken  of  as  distinct  from  Asia.  (Act?,  16:6, 
and  Revelations.)  The  decline  of  the  Roman  power  exposed  the  peninsula  to  fresh  invasions 
from  the  East ;  and  at  the  period  of  the  first  crusade  the  Mohammedans  had  spread  over  almost 
the  whole  peninsula.  Asia  Minor  now  constitutes  a  pachalick  of  Asiatic  Turkey,  under  the 
name  of  Jfatolia,  or  Anatolia— a.  corruption  of  a  Greek  word,  (avar6Xri,)  meaning  the  East, 
corresponding  to  the  French  word  Levant. 

The  Greek  colonists  of  Asia  Minor,  who  spread  themselves  along  the  coast  from  the  Euxine 
to  Syria,  were  at  least  equal,  in  commercial  activity,  refinement,  and  the  cultivation  of  the  arts, 
to  their  European  brethren.  Among  the  Grecian  poets,  philosophers,  and  historians  of  Asia 
Minor,  we  may  mention,  in  poetry,  Homer,  Hesiod,  Sappho,  and  Alcseus;  in  philosophy, 
Thales,  Pythag'  oras,  and  Anaxag'  oras  ;  and  in  history,  Herod'  otus,  Ctesias,  and  Dionysius  of 
Halicarnassus.  Anatolia  is  now  occupied  by  a  mixed  population  of  Turks  and  Greeks,  Arme- 
nians and  Jews ;  besides  wandering  tribes  of  Kurds  and  Turcomans  in  the  interior,  engaged 
partly  in  pastoral,  and  partly  in  marauding  occupations. 


No.  Iv". 


PERSIAN  EMPIRE,     Map  No.  V. 


ANCIENT  PERSIA  comprehended,  in  its  utmost  extent,  all  the  countries  between  the  river 
Indus  and  the  Mediterranean,  and  from  the  Euxiue  and  Caspian  Seas  to  the  Persian  Gulf  and 
Indian  Ocean ;  but  in  its  more  limited  acceptation  it  denoted  a  particular  province,  bounded 
on  the  north  by  Media  and  Parthia,  on  the  east  by  Carmania,  on  the  south  by  the  Persian  Gulf, 
and  on  the  west  by  Susiana.  (See  Map.)  This  was  the  original  seat  of  the  conquerors  of 
Asia. 

Great  obscurity  rests  on  the  early  history  of  the  nations  embraced  within  the  limits  of  the 
Persian  empire ;  but  about  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century  B.  C.,  Cyrus,  supposed  by  some  to 
have  been  grandson  of  Astyages,  the  last  Median  monarch,  being  elected  leader  of  the  Persian 
hordes,  became,  by  their  assistance,  a  powerful  conqueror,  at  a  time  when  the  Median  and 
Babylonian  kingdoms  were  on  the  decline,  and  on  their  ruins  founded  the  Persian  empire, 
which  properly  dates  frgm  the  capture  of  Babylon,  B.  C.  536.  Cambyses,  generally  supposed 
to  be  the  Ahasuerus  of  Scripture,  succeeded  Cyrus ;  then  followed  the  brief  reign  of  the 
usurper  Smerdis,  after  whom  Darius  Hystaspes  was  elevated  to  the  throne,  521  B.  C.  Darius  was 
both  a  legislator  and  conqueror,  and  his  long  and  successful  reign  exerted  a  powerful  influence 
over  the  destinies  of  Western  Asia.  Under  his  rule  the  Persian  empire  attained  its  greatest 
extent.  (See  Map.)  His  vast  realm  he  divided  into  twenty  satrapies  or  provinces,  and  ap- 
pointed the  tribute  which  each  was  to  pay ;  but  his  government  was  little  more  than  an  or- 
ganized system  of  taxation.  The  attempts  of  Darius  to  reduce  Greece  to  his  sway  were  de- 
feated at  Marathon ;  (B.  C.  490 ;)  and  the  mighty  armament  of  Xerxes,  his  son  and  successor, 
was  destroyed  in  the  battles  of  Sal'  amis,  Plats 'a,  and  Myc'  ale.  The  Medo-Persian  empire 
itself  was  finally  overthrown  by  Alexander  the  Great,  in  the  battle  of  Arbela,  B.  C.  331. 

The  Macedo-Grecian  kingdom  of  Alexander  succeeded  to  the  vast  Persian  domains,  with 
the  additional  provinces  of  Greece,  Thrace,  and  Macedon — thus  exceeding  the  Persian  kingdom 
in  extent.  About  the  middle  of  the  third  century  B.  C.,  the  Parthians,  under  Arsaces,  one  of 
their  nobles,  arose  against  the  successors  of  Alexander,  and  established  the  Parthian  empire, 
which,  under  its  sixth  monarch,  Mithridates  I.,  attained  its  highest  grandeur— extending  from 
the  Euphrates  to  the  Indus.  (See  Parthia,  p.  179.)  The  Parthian  empire  lasted  nearly  four 
hundred  and  eighty  years— from  B.  C.  250  to  A.  D.  226,  at  which  latter  period  the  Persians 
proper,  taking  advantage  of  the  weakened  state  of  the  empire  under  the  Seleucidae,  rebelled, 
and  founded  a  new  dynasty,  that  of  the  Sassanida.  (See  Note,  Persian  History,  p.  249.)  The 
Persian  empire  under  the  Sassanida3  continued  until  the  year  636,  when  it  was  overthrown  by 
the  Moslems  in  the  great  battle  of  the  Cadesiah.  (See  p.  249.)  Persia  then  continued  a  province 
of  the  caliphs  for  more  than  two  centuries,  when  the  sceptre  was  wrested  from  them  by  the 
chief  of  a  bandit  tribe.  After  this  period  Persia  was  wasted,  for  many  centuries,  by  foreign 
oppression  and  internal  disorder,  (see  pp.  287 — 311 — 351,)  when,  toward  the  end  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  order  was  restored,  and  Persia  again  rose  to  distinction  under  the  government  of  Shah 
Abbas,  surnamed  the  Great,  (p.  351.) 

The  present  kingdom  of  Persia  is  reduced  to  the  limits  of  the  ancient  provinces  of  Persia, 
Media,  Carmania,  Parthia,  the  country  of  the  Matieni,  and  the  southern  coasts  of  the  Caspian 
Sea.  The  Turkish  territories  extend  some  distance  east  of  the  Tigris ;  Russia  is  in  possession 
of  the  country  between  the  Euxine  or  Black  and  Caspian  Seas,  embracing  a  part  of  Armenia ; 
and  on  the  east  the  now  independent  but  constantly  changing  kingdoms  of  Cabool  and  Belo- 
chistan  embrace  the  ancient  Bactria,  India,  and  Gedrosia,  together  with  parts  of  Margiana  and 
Aria,  (now  eastern  Khorassan,)  and  the  country  of  the  ancient  Sarangaei.  The  present  Persia 
has  an  area  of  four  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  square  miles,  with  a  population  of  eight  or  ten 
millions.  The  most  striking  physical  features  of  Persia  are  its  chains  of  rocky  mountains ;  its 
long  arid  valleys  without  rivers ;  and  its  vast  salt  or  sandy  deserts.  The  population  is  a  mixture 
of  the  ancient  Persian  stock  with  Arabs  and  Turks.  The  language  spoken  is  the  Par  sec,— 
simple  in  s'ructure,  and,  like  the  French  and  English,  having  few  inflections.  The  religion  of 
the  country  is  Mohammedanism  (of  the  Sheah  sect,  or  adherents  of  Ali,)  which  seems,  how- 
ever, to  be  rapidly  on  the  decline. 


No.  V. 


PALESTINE,    Map  No.  VI. 


A  brief  geographical  account  of  PALESTINE  has  been  already  given  on  page  40 :— accounts 
of  the  Moabites,  Canaanites,  Midianites,  Philistines,  Ammonites,— and  of  the  Jordan,  Jabesh- 
Gilead,  Gilgal,  Gath,  Gilboa,  Hebron,  Tyre,  Sidon,  Joppa,  Syria,  Damascus,  Kabbah,  Edom, 
Samaria,  Gaza,  Bethoron,  Mount  Tabor,  &c.,  may  be  found  by  referring  to  the  Index  at  the  end 
of  the  volume. 

Joshua  divided  Palestine,  or  the  Holy  Land,  among  the  twelve  Israelitish  tribes,  whose 
localities  may  be  learned  from  the  accompanying  map.  The  Children  of  Israel  remained 
united  under  one  government  until  the  death  of  Solomon,  when  ten  of  the  twelve  tribes,  under 
Jeroboam,  rebelled  against  Rehoboam,  the  son  and  successor  of  Solomon.  The  tribe  of  Judah, 
with  a  part,  and  part  only,  of  the  little  clan  of  Benjamin,  remained  faithful  to  Rehoboam. 
From  this  time  forward  Judah  and  Israel  were  separate  kingdoms.  The  dividing  line  was 
about  ten  miles  north  of  Jerusalem,  between  Jericho  and  Gibeah, — the  former  belonging  to 
Israel,  the  latter  to  Judah.  Edom,  or  Idumea,  and  the  possession  of  the  capital,  Jerusalem, 
therefore  fell  to  Judah ;  but  four-fifths  of  the  territory,  and  the  sovereignty  over  the  Moabites, 
belonged  to  Israel.  The  Syrians  (Aramites)  and  Ammonites,  after  this,  were  no  longer  under 
subjection. 

The  history  of  ISRAEL  from  the  time  of  Jeroboam  to  the  carrying  away  of  the  ten  tribes 
captive  to  Assyria,  (B.  C.  721,)  was  a  series  of  calamities  and  revolutions.  The  reigns  of  its 
seventeen  princes  average  only  fifteen  years  each ;  and  these  seventeen  kings  belonged  to  seven 
different  families,  which  were 'placed  on  the  throne  by  seven  sanguinary  conspiracies.  With 
the  captivity,  the  history  of  the  ten  tribes  ends.  Josephus  assures  us  that  they  never  returned 
to  their  own  land. 

The  history  of  JUDAH,  after  the  revolt  of  the  ten  tribes,  is  little  more  than  the  history  of  a 
single  town,  Jerusalem.  After  the  lapse  of  three  hundred  and  eighty-nine  years  Jerusalem  was 
taken  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  (B.  C.  606,  and  afterwards,  B.  C.  587,)  and  Judca  became  tributary 
to  the  king  of  Babylon.  The  termination  of  the  captivity  of  Judah,  after  a  period  of  seventy 
years,  was  the  act  of  Cyrus,  soon  after  the  conquest  of  Babylon,  B.  C.  530 ;  but  it  was  a  com- 
mon saying  among  the  Jews,  that  "  only  the  bran,  that  is,  the  dregs  of  the  people,  returned  to 
Jerusalem,  but  that  all  the  fine  flour  stayed  behind  at  Babylon."  At  the  time  of  the  Persian 
conquest  by  Alexander,  Judea,  along  with  the  rest  of  the  Persian  provinces,  passed  under  the 
Macedonian  dominion.  After  the  death  of  Alexander  we  find  Palestine  alternately  subject  to 
the  kings  of  Syria  and  Egypt ;  about  the  middle  of  the  second  century  B.  C.,  Judea  was  rendered 
independent  by  the  Maccabees,  (pp.  112—114,)  and  in  the  year  63  B.  C.  it  was  conquered  by 
Pompey,  when  it  became  a  part  of  the  Roman  empire.  (See  p.  177.) 

Under  the  Roman  dominion,  Palestine  was  divided  into  five  provinces,  viz. :  Upper  and 
Lower  Galilee,  Samaria,  Judea,  and  Peraea, — situated  as  follows :  The  divisions  of  Asher  and 
Naphtali,  (see  Map,)  embracing  the  country  of  the  Sidonians,  formed  Upper  Galilee ;— the 
tribes  of  Zebulun  and  Issachar,  embracing  the  country  of  the  Perizites,  formed  Lower  Galilee ; 
— the  half  tribe  of  Manasseh  west  of  the  Jordan,  and  the  tribe  of  Ephraim,  embracing  the 
country  of  the  Hivites,  formed  Samaria ;— the  tribes  of  Benjamin,  Judah,  and  Simeon,  em- 
bracing the  countries  of  the  Jebusites,  Amorites,  Hittites,  and  Philistines,  formed  Judea ; — the 
tribes  of  Reuben,  Gad,  and  the  half  tribe  of  Manasseh  east  of  the  Jordan,  embracing  the 
countries  of  the  Moabites  and  Ammonites,  and  the  kingdom  of  Bashan,  formed  Peraea. 

Palestine  remained  under  the  Roman  dominion  (part  of  the  time  under  the  Eastern  or 
Greek  empire)  until  the  year  636,  when  Omar  conquered  Jerusalem,  (see  p.  249 :)  after  being 
more  than  four  hundred  years  subject  to  the  Arabian  caliphs,  the  country  fell  into  the  hands 
of  the  Turks,  (see  p.  268,)  who  proved  more  oppressive  masters  than  any  of  their  predecessors. 
Then  followed  the  Crusades ;  and  about  four  hundred  and  sixty  years  after  the  conquest  of 
Omar,  the  Holy  city  was  rescued  from  the  Mohammedan  yoke,  (see  p.  283 ;)  but  after  a  series 
of  changes,  in  the  year  1519  Jerusalem  came  finally  into  the  hands  of  the  Turks,  whose  flag  has 
ever  since  floated  over  its  sacred  places. 

The  inhabitants  of  Palestine  are  a  mixture  of  various  races— consisting  of  the  descendants 
of  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  the  country,  their  Arab  conquerors,  Turks,  Crusaders,  wandering 
Bedouins,  Kurds,  &c.,  but  all  now  equally  naturalized,  and  distributed  into  various  classes  or 
tribes  according  to  their  several  religious  systems. 


No.  VL 


TURKEY  IN  EUROPE,    Map  No.  VII. 

EUROPEAN  TDRKKY,  including  Moldavia,  Wallachia,  and  Servia,  which  are  connected  with 
the  Porte  only  by  the  slenderest  ties,  is  bounded  on  the  north  by  Slavonia,  Hungary,  and 
Transylvania— divisions  of  the  Austrian  empire — from  which  it  is  separated  by  the  Save,  the 
Danube,  and  the  eastern  Carpathian  mountains;  on  the  north-east-it  is  separated  from  the 
Russian  province  of  Bessarabia  by  the  Pruth  ;  on  the  east  it  has  the  Black  Sea,  the  Bosporus, 
the  Sea  of  Marmora,  and  the  Hellespont ;  on  the  south  the  Archipelago  and  Greece ;  and  on 
the  west,  the  Mediterranean,  the  Adriatic,  and  the  Austrian  province  of  Dalmatia.  Area  of 
European  Turkey  about  two  hundred  and  ten  thousand  square  miles  ;  population  about  fifteen 
millions. 

The  leading  events  in  the  history  of  European  Turkey  may  be  stated  as  follows :  The  ancient 
Byzanteum  founded  by  Byzas  the  Megarean,  B.  C.  656 : — destroyed  by  Septimius  Severus  in  his 
contest  with  Niger,  A.  D.  196: — rebuilt  by  Constantine,  who  gave  it  his  own  name,  and 
made  it  the  capital  of  the  Roman  empire,  A.  D.  323 :— captured  in  1204  by  the  Crusaders, 
who  retained  it  till  1261 :— taken  in  1453  by  the  Turks,  who  thus  put  an  end  to  the  Eastern  or 
Greek  empire,  and  firmly  established  their  power  in  Europe.  The  Turkish  arms  continue  to 
maintain  their  ascendency  over  those  of  Christendom  until  their  check  in  1683  by  the  famous 
John  Sobieski,  in  the  siege  of  Vienna.  (See  p.  389.)  Then  began  the  decline  of  the  Ottoman 
power:  it  received  a  severe  blow  by  the  victories  of  Prince  Eugene  in  1697,  (see  p.  390 ;)  since 
which  period  province  after  province  has  been  dismembered  from  the  empire,  which,  during 
the  last  century,  has  been  saved  from  dissolution  only  by  the  mutual  jealousies  and  animosities 
of  its  Christian  neighbors. 

The  divisions  by  which  European  Turkey  is  best  known  in  history  are  Rumilia,  Bulgaria, 
Moldavia,  Wallachia,  Servia,  Bosnia,  Turkish  Croatia,  Herzegovina,  Albania,  Thessaly,  and 
Macedonia,— for  which,  see  the  accompanying  Map.  Rumilia,  bordering  on  the  Black  Sea,  the 
Sea  of  Marmora,  and  the  Archipelago,  containing  the  cities  of  Adrianople  and  Constantinople, 
and  watered  by  the  Maritza,  the  ancient  Hebrus,  is  coterminous  with  the  ancient  Thrace, 
(p.  71.)  Bulgaria,  separated  from  Rumilia  by  the  Balkan  range  of  mountains,  having  Sophia 
for  its  capital,  and  the  Danube  for  its  northern  boundary,  corresponds  to  the  ancient  Moasia 
Inferior,  (p.  200.)  Moldavia  and  Wallachia,  separated  from  Transylvania  by  the  Carpathian 
mountains,  correspond  to  the  ancient  Dacia  conquered  by  Trajan,  (p.  200-3.)  The  inhabitants, 
descendants  of  the  ancient  Dacians,  call  themselves  Roumuni,  or  Romans.  Servia,  peopled  by 
Slavonians — corresponding  to  the  ancient  Moesia  Superior,  formed  an  independent  kingdom  in 
the  Middle  Ages.  It  was  conquered  by  the  Turks  in  1365  ;  but  since  that  period  it  has  fre- 
quently rebelled  against  its  Turkish  masters.  The  internal  government  is  now  wholly  in  the 
ijands  of  the  Servians,  who  pay  a  small  annual  tribute  to  the  sultan.  Bosnia,  now  a  pachalic 
of  Turkey,  comprising  also  under  its  government  Turkish  Croatia  and  Hersegovina,  and  occu- 
pying the  north-western  extremity  of  the  empire,  was  anciently  included  in  Lower  Pannonia. 
In  the  Middle  Ages  it  first  belonged  to  the  Eastern  empire,  and  afterwards  became  a  separate 
kingdom  dependent  upon  Hungary.  It  was  conquered  by  the  Turks  in  1480,  after  a  war  of 
seventeen  years  :  but  it  was  not  till  1522  that  Solyman  the  Magnificent  finally  annexed  it  to 
the  Turkish  dominions.  Albania,  a  large  province  bordering  on  the  Adriatic,  is  nearly  the 
same  as  the  ancient  Epirus,  (p.  44.)  Thessaly  and  Macedonia  preserve  their  ancient  names 
and  limits. 

CONSTANTINOPLE,  the  capital  of  the  Turkish  dominions,  occupies  a  triangular  promontory 
near  the  eastern  extremity  of  the  province  of  Rumilia,  at  the  junction  of  the  Sea  of  Marmora 
with  the  Thracian  Bosporus.  It  is  separated  from  its  extensive  suburbs  Galata,  Pera,  &c.,  on 
the  north,  by  the  noble  harbor  called  the  Golden  Horn.  Like  Rome,  Constantinople  was 
originally  built  on  seven  hills,  The  city  is  about  thirteen  miles  in  circuit — comprises  an  area 
«f  about  two  thousand  acres — and  has  a  population,  exclusive  of  its  suburbs,  of  about  five 
hundred  thousand.  The  seraglio,  containing  the  palace,  mint,  arsenal,  public  offices,  &c., 
occupies  the  site  of  the  ancient  Byzanteum,  (see  p.  218,)  at  the  apex  of  the  triangle.  It  is  about 
three  miles  in  circuit,  and  is  entirely  surrounded  by  walls.  The  Bosporus,  or  Channel  of  Con- 
stantinople, is  about  seventeen  miles  in  length,  with  a  width  varying  from  half  a  mile  to  two 
milea.  The  channel  is  deep  ;  the  banks  abrupt,  with  stately  cliffa ;  and  the  adjacent  country  is 
unrivalled  for  beauty. 


No.  VII. 


AMENT  ITALY,    Map  No.  VIII. 


ANCIENT  ITALY  was  called  by  the  Greeks  Hesperia,  from  its  western  situation  in  relation  to 
Greece ;  and  from  the  Latin  poets  it  received  the  names  Ausonia,  Saturnia,  and  CEnotria.  (See 
also  p.  123,)  About  the  time  of  Aristotle,  (B,  C.  380,)  the  Greeks  divided  Italy  into  six  countries 
or  regions, — Ausonia  or  Opica,  Tyrrhenia,  lapygia,  Ombria,  Liguria,  and  Henetia  ;  but  the  di- 
Yisions  by  which  it  is  best  known  in  Roman  history  are  those  given  on  the  accompanying 
Map,— Cisalpine  Gaul,  Etruria,  Umbria,  Pieenuro,  the  country  of  the  Sabines,  Latium,  Cam- 
paniaj  Samnium,  Apulia,  Calabria,  Lueania,  arid  Brutiorum  Ager. 

Cisalpine  Gaul,  or  Gaul  this  side  of  the  Alps,  embracing  all  northern  Italy  beyond  the 
Rubicon,  was  inhabited  by  Gallic  tribes,  which,  as  early  as  six  hundred  years  B,  C.,  began  to 
pour  over  the  Alps  into  this  extensive  and  fertile  territory.  Etruria,  embracing  the  country 
west  and  north  of  the  Tiber,  was  inhabited  by  a  nation  which  had  attained  to  an  advanced  de- 
gree of  civilization  before  the  founding  of  Rome.  Um.br ia  embraced  the  country  east  of 
Etruria,  from  the  Rubicon  on  the  north  to  the  river  Nar,  which  separated  it  from  the  Sabine 
territory  on  the  south.  Pieenum,  inhabited  by  the  Picentes,  was  a  country  on  the  Adriatic, 
having  the  river  ^Esis  on  the  north,  the  Matrinus  on  the  south,  and  on  the  west  the  Apennines, 
Which  separated  it  ffom  Umbria.  The  Country  of  the  Salines,  at  the  period  when  it  was 
marked  out  with  the  greatest  clearness  and  precision,  was  separated  from  Latium  by  the  river 
Anio,  from  Etruria  by  the  Tiber,  from  Umbria  by  the  Nar,  and  from  Pieenum  by  the  central 
ridge  of  the  Apennines.  (See  also  Map  No.  X,)  Latium  was  south  of  Etruria  and  the 
country  of  the  Sabines,  from  which  it  was  separated  by  the  Tiber  and  the  Anio.  Campania, 
separated  from  Latium  by  the  river  Liris,  was  called  the  garden  of  Italy.  The  Campanian 
nation  conquered  by  the  Romans  was  composed  of  Oscans,  Tuscans.  Samnites,  and  Greeks ;  the 
latter  having  formed  numerous  colonies  in  southern  Italy.  Samnium,  the  country  of  the  Samnites, 
bordered  on  the  Adriatic,  having  Pieenum  on  the  north,  Apulia  on  the  south,  and  Latium  and 
Campania  on  the  west  The  ambitious  and  warlike  Samnites  not  unfrequently  brought  into 
the  field  a  force  of  eighty  thousand  foot  and  eight  thousand  horse.  Apulia,  inhabited  by  the 
early  Daunii,  Peucetii,  and  Messapii,  bordered  on  the  Adriatic  on  the  east ;  and,  on  the  west, 
on  the  territories  of  the  Samuites,  the  Campanians,  and  Lucanians.  Calabria,  called  also  by 
the  Greeks  lapygia,  embraced  the  south-eastern  extremity  of  the  Italian  peninsula,  answering 
nearly  to  what  is  now  called  Terra  di  Otranto.  Lueania,  inhabited  by  the  warlike  Lucani, 
who  carried  on  a  successful  war  with  the  Greek  colonies  of  southern  Italy,  was  separated 
from  Apulia  and  Calabria  on  the  north-east  by  the  Bradanus.  Brutiorum  Agcr,  the  Country 
of  the  Brutii,  comprised  the  southern  extremity  of  the  peninsula,  now  called  Calabria  Ultra. 
The  Brutii,  the  most  barbarous  of  the  Italian  tribes,  were  reduced  by  the  Romans  soon  after 
the  withdrawal  of  Pyrrhus  from  Italy. 

Since  the  downfall  of  the  Roman  empire  Italy  has  never  been  united  in  one  State.  After 
having  been  successively  possessed  by  the  Heruli,  Ostrogoths,  Greeks,  and  Lombards,  Charle- 
magne annexed  it  to  the  empire  of  the  Franks  in  774 :  from  888  till  the  establishment  of  the 
•  republic  of  Milan  in  1150,  it  generally  belonged,  with  the  exception  of  the  territory  of  the  Ve- 
netians, to  the  German  emperors.  In  1535,  Milan,  then  a  duchy,  came  into  the  possession  of 
the  emperor  Charles  V.  Since  the  war  of  the  Spanish  succession,  the  duchies  of  Milan  and 
Mantua  have  generally  belonged  to  Austria,  with  the  exception  of  the  short  time  they  formed 
a  part  of  the  Cisalpine  republic  and  the  French  empire.  Venice  was  a  republic  from  the 
seventh  century  till  1797.  It  was  confirmed  to  Austria  by  the  treaty  of  1815.  The  present 
Italian  States  are  the  kingdom  of  Lombardy  and  Venice,  forming  a  part  of  the  Austrian  empire 
— kingdom  of  Sardinia — kingdom  of  Naples  and  Sicily — Grand-duchy  of  Tuscany— States  of 
the  Church— Duchies  of  Parma,  Modena,  and  Lucca — and  the  little  republic  of  San-Marino. 

The  French  rule  in  Italy  was  a  great  blessing  to  that  unhappy  country  ;  "  but  the  coalition," 
says  Sismondi,  "  destroyed  all  the  good  conferred  by  France."  The  state  of  the  people  con- 
trasts very  disadvantageously  with  the  fertility  of  the  soil  and  the  beauty  of  the  climate. 

"How  has  kind  Heav'n  adornM  the  happy  land,  And  Tyranny  usurps  her  happy  plains  ? 
And  scattered  blessings  with  a  wasteful  hand !   The  poor  inhabitant  beholds  in  vain 
But  what  avail  her  unexhausted  stores,  The  redd'ning  orange  and  the  swelling  grain, 

Her  blooming  mountains  and  her  sunny  shores,  Joyless  he  sees  the  growing  oils  and  wines, 
With  all  the  gifts  that  Heav'n  and  earth  imparl,  And  in  the  myrtle's  fragrant  shade  repines  :— 
.The  smiles  of  nature  and  the  char ms  of  art,       Starves,  in  the  midst  of  natures's  bounty  curst, 
>  While  proud  Oppression  in  her  valleys  reigne,  And  in  the  laden  vineyard  dies  for  thirst." 


No.  VIII. 


"7©  ME 
Scale  tf  Miles. 


THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE,     Map  No.  IX. 


REOAL  ROMK,  or  Rome  under  the  Kings,  occupying  a  period  of  about  two  hundred  and  forty 
years,  from  the  founding  of  the  city,  753  B.  C.,  to  the  overthrow  of  royalty,  510  B.  C.,  ruled  over 
only  a  narrow  strip  of  seacoast,  from  the  Tiber  southward  to  Terracina,  an  extent  of  about  seventy 
miles,  (see  Map  No.  X ;)  but  it  already  carried  on  an  extensive  commerce  with  Sardinia,  Sicily, 
and  Carthage. 

REPUBLICAN  ROME,  occupying  a  period  of  about  four  hundred  and  eighty  years,  from  the 
overthrow  of  royalty  510  B.  C.  to  the  accession  of  Augustus,  28  B.  C.,  extended  the  Roman  do- 
minion, not  only  over  all  Italy,  but  also  over  all  the  islands  of  the  Mediterranean — over  Egypt, 
and  all  Northern  Africa  from  Egypt  westward  to  the  Atlantic  Ocean — over  Syria  and  all  Asia 
Minor — over  Thrace,  Achaia  or  Greece,  Macedonia,  and  Illyricum — and  over  all  Gaul,  and  most 
of  Spain. 

IMPERIAL  ROME  occupies  a  period  of  about  five  hundred  years,  extending  from  the  accession 
of  Augustus,  28  B.  C.,  to  the  overthrow  of  the  Western  empire  of  the  Romans,  A.  D.  476. 
Under  Augustus,  the  Roman  dominion  was  extended  by  the  conquest  of  Masia,  corresponding 
to  the  present  Turkish  provinces  of  Bulgaria  and  Servia — of  Pannonia,  corresponding  to  the 
eastern  part  of  southern  Austria,  and  Hungary  south  of  the  Danube,  Styria,  Austrian  Croatia, 
and  Slavouia,  and  the  northern  part  of  Bosnia— of  Noricum,  corresponding  to  the  Austrian 
Salzburg,  western  Styria,  Carinthia,  Austria  north  to  the  Danube,  and  a  small  part  of  south- 
eastern Bavaria — Rhcetia,  extending  over  the  country  of  the  Tyrol  and  eastern  Switzerland — 
and  Vindelicia,  corresponding  to  southern  Wirtemberg  and  Bavaria  south  of  the  Danube. 
(See  also  Maps  Nos.  VII.  and  XVII.)  On  the  death  of  Augustus,  therefore,  the  Roman  empire 
was  bounded  by  the  Rhine  and  the  Danube  on  the  north ;  by  the  Euphrates  on  the  east ;  by 
the  sandy  deserts  of  Arabia  and  Africa  on  the  south  ;  and  by  the  Atlantic  Ocean  on  the  west. 

The  southern  part  of  Britain,  or  Brittania,  was  reduced  by  Ostorius,  in  the  reign  of  Claudius ; 
and  Agricola,  in  the  reign  of  Domitian,  extended  the  Roman  dominion  to  the  Frith  of  Forth, 
and  the  Clyde.  With  this  exception,  the  empire  continued  within  the  limits  given  it  by 
Augustus,  until  the  accession  of  Trajan,  who,  in  the  year  105,  added  to  it  Dacia,  a  region  north 
of  the  Danube,  and  corresponding  to  Wallachia,  Transylvania,  Moldavia,  and  all  Hungary  east 
of  the  Theiss  and  north  of  the  Danube.  Trajan  also,  in  his  eastern  expedition,  descended  the 
Tigris  from  the  mountains  of  Armenia  to  the  Persian  Gulf,  and  for  a  brief  period  extended  the 
sway  of  Rome  over  Colchis,  Armenia,  Mesopotamia,  and  Assyria;  and  even  the  Parthian 
monarch  accepted  his  crown  from  the  hands  of  the  emperor.  In  the  time  of  Trajan,  therefore, 
who  died  A.  D.  117,  thfe  Roman  empire  attained  its  greatest  extent, — being,  at  that  period, 
the  greatest  monarchy  the  world  has  ever  known,— extending  in  length  more  than  three  thou- 
sand miles,  from  the  Western  Ocean  to  the  Euphrates,  and  more  than  two  thousand  in  breadth, 
from  the  northern  limits  of  Dacia  to  the  deserts  of  Africa,— and  embracing  an  area  of  sixteen 
hundred  thousand  square  miles  of  the  most  fertile  land  on  the  face  of  the  globe.  Well  might 
it  be  called  the  Roman  WORLD. 

Adrian,  or  Hadrian,  the  successor  of  Trajan,  voluntarily  began  the  system  of  retrenchment 
which  was  forced  upon  his  successors.  In  order  to  preserve  peace  on  the  frontiers  he  aban- 
doned all  the  conquests  of  his  predecessor  except  Dacia,  and  bounded  the  eastern  provinces  by 
the  Euphrates.  The  unity  of  this  mighty  empire  was  first  broken  by  the  division  into  Eastern 
and  Western  in  the  year  395.  In  the  year  476  the  Western  Empire  fell  under  the  repeated 
attacks  of  the  barbarians  of  Germany  and  Scythia,  the  rude  ancestors  of  the  most  polished  na- 
tions of  Europe.  The  Eastern  Empire  survived  nearly  a  thousand  years  longer,  but  finally  fell 
under  the  power  of  the  Turks,  who  took  Constantinople,  its  capital,  in  the  year  1453,  and  made 
it  the  capital  of  the  Ottoman  empire. 


Nc.  IX. 


ANCIENT  ROME,     Map  No.  X. 


/ 


\  In  describing  ANCIENT  ROME  our  uttention  is  first  directed  to  the  relative  localities  of  the 
Seven  Hills  on  which  Rome  was  originally  built  —  the  Aventine,  Ccelian,  Palatine,  Esquiline, 
Capitoline,  Viminal,  and  Quirinal—  all  included  within  the  walls  of  Servius  Tullius,  built  about 
ibe  year  550  B.  C.  About  two  hundred  and  eighty  years  later  the  emperor  Aurelian  commenced 
the  erection  of  a  new  wall,  which  was  completed  by  Probus  five  years  afterward.  The  cir- 
cumference of  the  Servian  town  was  about  six  miles;  that  given  it  by  the  wall  of  Aurelian, 
which  extended  to  the  right  bank  of  the  Tiber,  and  inclosed  a  part  of  the  Janiculaii  mount, 
was  about  twelve  ;  although  the  city  extended  far  beyond  the  limits  of  the  latter.  The  modern 
rampart  surrounds,  substantially,  the  same  area  as  that  of  Aurelian. 

The  greater  part  of  Modern  Rome  covers  the  flat  surface  of  the  Campus  Mariius,  the  Capi- 
toline and  Quirinal  mounts,  and  the  right  bank  of  the  Tiber  from  Hadrian's  Mausoleum,  (now 
the  Castle  of  St.  Angelo,)  south  to  and  including  the  Janiculan  mount.  The  ancient  city  of  the 
Seven  Hills  is  nearly  all  contained  within  the  old  walls  of  Servius.  Almost  the  whole  of  this 
area,  with  the  exception  of  the  Capitoline  and  Quirinal  hills,  is  now  a  wide  waste  of  piles  of 
shattered  architecture  rising  amid  vineyards  and  rural  lanes,  exhibiting  no  tokens  of  habitation 
except  a  few  mouldering  convents,  villas,  and  cottages. 

Beginning  our  survey  at  the  Capitoline  hill,  on  which  once  stood  the  famous  temple  of  Jupiter 
Capitolinus,  we  find  there  no  vestiges  of  ancient  grandeur,  save  about  eighty  feet  of  what  are 
believed  to  have  been  the  foundations  of  the  temple.  At  the  northern  extremity  of  the  hill 
we  still  discern  the  fatal  Tarpeian  Rock,  surrounded  by  a  cluster  of  old  and  wretched  hovels, 
while  ruins  encumber  its  base  to  the  depth  of  twenty  feet. 

The  open  space  between  the  Capitoline,  Esquiline,  and  Palatine  hills,  is  covered  by  relics  of 
ancient  buildings  interspersed  among  modern  churches  and  a  few  paltry  streets.  Here  was 
the  Great  Roman  Forum—  &  large  space  surrounded  by  and  filled  with  public  buildings,  temples, 
statues,  arches,  &c.,  nearly  all  of  which  have  disappeared  ;  and  the  surface  pavement  on  which 
they  stood  is  now  covered  with  their  ruins  to  a  depth  of  from  fifteen  to  thirty  feet.  The  space 
which  the  Forum  occupied  has  l>een  called,  until  recently,  Campo  Vaccino,  or  the  Field  of 
Cows  ;  and  it  is  in  reality  a  market  place  for  sheep,  pigs,  and  cattle. 

In  early  times  there  was  a  little  lake  between  the  Capitoline  and  Palatine  hills.  In  time  this 
was  converted  into  a  marsh  ;  and  the  most  ancient  ruin  which  remains  to  us,  the  Cloaca. 
Maxima,  or  great  drain,  built  by  the  Tarquins,  was  designed  for  carrying  off  its  waters.  This 
drain,  still  performing  its  destined  service,  opens  into  the  Tiber  with  a  vault  fourteen  feet  in 
height  and  as  many  in  width.  The  beautiful  circle  of  nineteen  Corinthian  columns  near  the 
Tiber,  around  the  church  of  Santa  Maria,  has  been  usually  styled  the  Temple  of  Vesta.  —  sup- 
posed to  belong  to  the  age  of  the  Autonines. 

On  the  Palatine  hill  Augustus  erected  the  earliest  of  the  Palaces  of  the  Casars  ;  Claudius  ex- 
tended them,  and  joined  the  Palatine  to  the  Capitoline  by  a  bridge  ;  and  towards  the  northern 
point  of  the  Palatine,  Nero  built  his  "  Golden  House,"  fronted  by  a  vestibule  in  which  stood 
the  emperor's  colossal  statue.  The  Aventine  rises  from  the  river  steep  and  bare,  surmounted 
by  a  solitary  convent.  On  the  Coelian  are  remains  of  the  very  curious  circular  Temple  of 
Faunus,  built  by  Claudius.  Southward  are.  the  ruins  of  the  Baths  of  Caracalla,  occupying  a 
surface  equal  to  one-sixteenth  of  a  square  mile.  The  building,  or  range  of  buildings,  was  im- 
mense, —  containing  four  magnificent  temples  dedicated  to  Apollo,  ^Esculapius,  Hercules,  and 
Bacchus,—  a  grand  circular  vestibule,  with  baths  on  each  side  for  cold,  tepid,  warm,  and  sea- 
bathing —  in  the  centre  an  immense  square  for  exercise  —  and  beyond  it  a  noble  hall  with  sixteen 
hundred  marble  seats  for  the  bathers,  and,  at  each  end  of  the  hall,  libraries.  On/jach  side  of  the 
building  was  a  court  surrounded  by  porticoes,  with  an  odeum  for  music,  and,  in  the  middle, 
:i  spacious  basin  for  swimming.  There  was  also  a  gymnasium  for  running,  wrestling,  &c.,  and 
around  the  whole  a  vast  colonnade  opening  into  spacious  halls  where  the  poets  declaimed,  and 
philosophers  gave  lectures  to  their  auditors.  But  the  immense  halls  are  now  roofless,  and  the 
wind  sighs  through  the  aged  trees  that  have  taken  root  in  the  pavements. 

South  of  the  Palatine  was  the  Circus  Maximus,  which  is  said  to  have  covered  the  spot 
where  the  games  were  celebrated  when  the  Romans  seized  the  Sabine  women.  It  was  more 
than  two  thousand  feet  in  length,  and.  in  iis  greatest  extent,  contained  seats  for  two  hundred 


Wo.  X. 


.^iiS-H 

^i^JiiCS^  >^b4.  •-: 


584 

and  sixty  thousand  spectators.    We  can  still  trace  its  shape,  but  the  structure  has  entirely  dis- 
appeared. 

In  the  open  space  eastward  of  the  Great  Forum  stands  the  Coliseum  or  Flavian  Amphi- 
theatre, the  boast  of  Rome  and  of  the  world.  This  gigantic  edifice,  which  was  begun  by  Ves- 
pasian and  completed  by  Titus,  is  in  form  an  ellipse,  and  covers  an  area  of  ttbout  five  and 
a-half  acres.  The  external  elevation  consisted  of  four  stories, — each  of  the  three  lower  stories 
having  eighty  arches  supported  by  half  columns,  Doric  in  the  first  range,  Ionic  in  the  second, 
and  Corinthian  in  the  third.  The  wall  of  the  fourth  story  was  faced  with  Corinthian  pilasters, 
and  lighted  by  forty  rectangular  windows.  The  space  surrounding  the  central  elliptical  arena 
was  occupied  with  sloping  galleries  resting  on  a  huge  mass  of  arches,  ami  ascending  towards 
the  summit  of  the  external  wall.  One  hundred  and  sixty  staircases  led  to  the  galleries.  A 
movable  awning  covered  the  whole,  with  the  exception  of  the  Podium,  or  covered  gallery  for 
the  emperor  and  persons  of  high  rank.  Within  the  area  of  the  Coliseum,  gladiators,  martyrs, 
slaves,  and  wild  beasts,  combated  on  the  Roman  festivals ;  and  here  Ihe  blood  of  both  men 
and  animals  flowed  in  torrents  to  furnish  amusement  to  the  degenerate  Roman?.  The'  Coliseum 
ia  now  partially  in  ruins;  scarcely  a  half  presents  its  original  height;  the  uppermost  gallery 
has  disappeared ;  the  second  range  is  much  broken ;  the  lowest  is  nearly  perfect ;  but  the 
Podium  is  in  a  very  ruinous  state.  From  its  enormous  mass  "  walls,  palaces,  half  cities  have 
been  reared ;"  but  Benedict  XIV.  put  a  stop  to  its  destruction  by  consecrating  the  whole  to  the 
martyrs  whose  blood  had  been  spilled  there.  In  the  middle  of  the  once  bloody  arena  stands  a 
crucifix ;  and  around  this,  at  equal  distances,  fourteen  altars,  consecrated  to  different  saints,  are 
erected  on  the  dens  once  occupied  by  wild  beasts.  ^ 

The  principal  ruins  on  the  Esquiliue,  a  part  of  them  extending  their  intricate  corridors  on  the 
heights  overlooking  the  Coliseum,  have  been  called  the  Baths  and  the  Palace  of  Titus ;  but 
although  it  is  evident  that  baths  constituted  a  part  of  their  plan,  the  design  of  the  whole  is  not 
known.  What  is  called  the  Temple  of  Minerva  Medica,  in  a  garden  near  the  eastern  walls,  is  a 
decagonal  ruin,  supposed  to  belong  to  the  age  of  the  Autonines.  The  Baths  of  Diocletian,  on 
the  Viminal  mount,  appear  to  have  resembled,  in  their  general  arrangement,  those  of  Caracalla. 
Still  farther  to  the  north-east  are  the  remains  of  the  camp  erected  by  Sejanus,  the  minister  of 
Tiberius,  for  the  Praetorian  guards.  In  the  beautiful  gardens  of  the  historian  Sallust,  on  the 
eastern  declivity  of  the  Pincian  mount,  are  the  remains  of  a  temple  and  circus,  supposed  to 
belong  either  to  the  Augustan  age,  or  to  the  last  days  of  the  Republic.  On  the  western  ascent 
of  the  thickly-peopled  Quirinal,  whose  heights  are  crowned  by  the  palace  and  gardens  of  the 
pope,  are  extensive  ruins  of  walls,  vaults,  and  porticoes,  belonging  to  the  baths  of  Constantine. 
They  are  now  surrounded  by  the  beautiful  gardens  of  the  Colonna  palace.  Farther  south,  be- 
tween the  Quirinal  and  Capitoline,  some  striking  remains  of  the  Forums  of  Nerva  and  Trajan 
are  still  visible. 

Of  the  numerous  ruins  in  the  Campus  Marlius,  we  have  room  for  only  a  brief  notice.  Of  the 
Theatre  of  Marcellus,  eleven  arches  of  the  exterior  walls  still  remain.  Of  the  Theatre  of 
Pompey,  the  foundation  arches  may  be  seen  in  the  cellars  and  stables  of  the  Palazzio  Pio.  The 
Flcminian  Circus  and  the  Circus  Agonalis  are  entirely  in  ruins.  The  Column  of  Antoninus 
and  the  Tomb  of  Augustus  are  still  standing,  with  their  summits  much  lowered. 

The  Pantheon,  the  most  perfect  of  all  the  remains  of  ancient  Rome,  is  a  temple  of  a  circular 
form,  built  by  Agrippa.  It  was  dedicated  to  Jupiter  the  Avenger,  but  besides  the  statue  of 
this  god,  it  contained  those  of  the  other  heathen  deities,  formed  of  various  materials — gold, 
silver,  bronze,  and  marble.  The  portico  of  this  temple  is  one  hundred  and  ten  feet  long  by 
forty-four  in  depth,  and  is  supported  by  sixteen  Corinthian  columns,  each  of  the  shafts  con- 
sisting of  a  single  piece  of  Oriental  granite,  forty-two  feet  in  height.  The  bases  and  capital  are 
of  white  marble.  The  main  building  consists  of  a  vast  circular  drum,  with  niches  flanked  by 
columns,  above  which  a  beautiful  and  perfectly  preserved  cornice  runs  round  the  whole  build- 
ing. Over  a  second  story,  formed  by  an  attic  sustaining  an  upper  cornice,  rises,  to  the  height 
of  one  hundred  and  forty-three  feet,  the  beautiful  dome,  which  is  divided  internally  into  square 
panels  supposed  to  have  been  originally  inlaid  with  bronze.  A  circular  aperture  in  the  dome 
admits  the  only  light  which  the  place  receives.  The  consecration  of  this  temple  (A.  D.  608)  as 
a  Christian  church,  has  preserved,  for  the  admiration  of  the  moderns,  this  most  beautiful  of 
heathen  fanes.  Christian  altars  now  fill  the  recess  where  once  stood  the  most  famous  statues 
of  the  gods  of  the  heathen  world. 


No.  XI. 


CHART  OF  THE  WORLD.     Map  No.  XL 

Map  No.  XI.  is  a  CHART  OF  THE  WORLD  on  Mercator's  projection — a  Chart  of  History,  ex- 
hibiting the  world  as  known  to  Europeans  at  the  period  of  the  discovery  of  America — and  a 
Chart  of  Isothermal  lines,  or  lines  of  equal  heat,  showing  the  comparative  mean  annual  tem- 
perature of  different  parts  of  the  Earth's  surface. 

It  will  be  observed  that  General  History,  previous  to  the  discovery  of  America,  is  confined 
to  a  small  portion  of  the  Earth's  surface ;  as  represented  by  the  light  portions  of  the  Chart; 
while  the  whole  Western  Continent  and  Greenland,  most  of  Africa  and  Asia,  and  their  islands, 
and  parts  of  Northern  Europe  and  Iceland,  were  unknown  to  Europeans,  and  in  the  darkness 
of  barbarism.  It  would  seem,  therefore,  that  the  history  of  THE  WORLD  has  but  just  com- 
menced. 

The  Isothermal  lines  show  that  the  temperature  of  a  place  doe^  not  depend  wholly  upon  its 
latitude.  Thus  the  southern  limit  of  perpetually  frozen  ground  in  the  northern  hemisphere  (at 
a  mean  annual  temperature  of  thirty-two  degrees  Fahrenheit)  follows  a  line  ranging  from  below 
fifty-five  degrees  of  latitude  to  above  seventy.  The  mean  annual  temperature  of  London,  at 
fifty-one  and  a-half  degrees  north  latitude,  is  fifty  degrees  of  Fahrenheit,  the  same  as  that  of 
Philadelphia,  which  is  eleven  and  a-half  degrees  of  latitude  farther  south.  The  line  of  greatest 
heat,  (at  a  mean  annual  temperature  of  eighty-two  and  four-tenths  degrees  of  Fahrenheit,)  is  more 
than  ten  degrees  of  latitude  north  of  the  Equator  in  South  America,  in  Africa,  and  southern 
Hindostan;  and  about  eight  degrees  south  of  the  Equator  in  a  part  of  the  Indian  Ocean  be- 
tween Borneo  and  Hew  Holland.  The  sea  is,  generally,  considerably  warmer  in  winter  than 
the  land,  and  cooler  in  summer.  Continents  and  large  islands  are  found  to  be  wanner  on  their 
western  sides  than  on  the  eastern.  The  extremes  of  temperature  are  experienced  chiefly  in 
large  inland  tracts,  and  little  felt  in  small  islands  remote  from  continents.  Had  the  Arctic 
regions  been  entirely  of  land,  the  intense  heat  of  summer  and  the  cold  of  winter  would  have 
been  equally  fatal  to  animal  life. 


BATTLE  GROUNDS  OP  THE  WARS  OF  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 
AND  THE  WARS  OF  NAPOLEON,     Map  No.  XII. 

The  wars  growing  out  of  the  French  Revolution,  of  which  those  of  Napoleon  were  a  con- 
tinuation, embrace  a  period  of  nearly  twenty-three  years,  from  the  defeat  of  the  Austrians  at 
Jemappes  on  the  17th  of  November,  1792,  to  the  defeat  of  Napoleon  at  Waterloo  on  the  18th 
of  June,  1815. 

The  accompanying  Map  presents  at  a  glance  the  vast  theatre  on  which  were  exhibited  the 
thousand  Scenes  in  this  mighty  Drama  of  human  suffering.  The  thickly-dotted  Spanish  penin- 
sula may  be  regarded  as  one  great  battle-field,  where  Frenchman,  Spaniard,  Portuguese,  and 
Briton,  sank  in  the  death  struggle  together.  Those  dark  spots  where  the  "pealing  drum,"  the 
"  waving  standards,"  and  the  "  trumpets  clangor,"  invited  to  slaughter,  cluster  thickly  around 
the  eastern  boundaries  of  France,  including  Belgium  and  northern  Italy ;— they  are  seen  in 
far-off  Egypt  and  Palestine,  recalling  Napoleon's  dreams  of  Eastern  conquest ;  and  they  strew 
the  route  to  Moscow,  where,  from  the  fires  of  the  Kremlin,  and  amid  the  snows  of  a  Russian 
winter,  the  French  eagles  commenced  a  lasting  retreat. 

As  we  look  over  this  vast  gladiatorial  arena  of  frantic,  struggling  Life,  and  agooizing  Death, 
our  thoughts  naturally  turn  from  its  mingled  horrors  and  glories  to  rest  upon  the  commanding 
genius,— the  wizard  spirit,— of  him  "who  rode  upon  the  whirlwind  and  directed  the  storm"— 
of  him  whom  Byron  well  describes  as  a  mighty  Gambler, 

"Whose  game  was  empires,  and  whose  stakes  were  thrones, 
Whose  table  earth,  whose  dice  were  human  bones." 

But  the  French  Revolution  and  the  wars  of  Napoleon,  with  all  the  suffering  which  they  oc- 
casioned, have  not  been  unattended  with  useful  results  in  urging  forward  the  march  of  European 
civilization.  The  moral  character  of  Napoleon,  the  most  prominent  actor  in  the  drama,  has 
been  variously  drawn  by  friends  and  foes;  but  the  towering  height,  the  lightning-like  rapidity, 
and  the  brilliancy,  of  his  genius,  have  never  been  questioned  by  his  most  bitter  revilers. 


No.  XII. 


w 

IHaSter         '£      L 


FRANCE,  SPAIN,  AND  PORTUGAL,    Map  No.  XIII. 

FRANCE,  (ancient  Gaul,)  bordering  on  three  seas,  and  being  enclosed  by  natural  boundaries 
on  all  sides  except  the  north-east,  where  her  natural  limits  are  the  Rhine,  is  admirably  situated 
for  a  commanding  influence  in  European  affairs ;  and,  besides,  her  large  population,  the  active 
spirit  of  her  people,  the  fertility  of  her  soil,  and  the  amenity  of  her  climate,  place  her  among 
the  foremost  of  the  great  nations  of  the  earth  in  power  and  resources. 

When  first  known  to  the  Romans,  Gaul  was  divided  between  the  Belgae,  the  Ccltse,  and  the 
Aquitani ;  the  Belgae  or  Belgians  between  the  Seine  and  Lower  Rhine ;— the  Celts  between  the 
Seine  and  Garonne ;  and  the  Aquitani  between  the  Garonne  and  Pyrenees ;  but  the  Romans, 
under  Augustus,  made  four  divisions  of  Gaul ; — Belgica,  in  the  north-east ; — Lugduneusis,  be- 
tween the  Seine  and  Loire  ; — Aquitania,  between  the  Loire  and  Pyrenees ; — and  Narboriensis,  in 
the  south-east. 

None  of  the  barbarian  tribes  of  Europe  passed  through  a  more  agitated  or  brilliant  career 
than  the  ancient  Gauls,  the  ancestors  of  the  French  people.  They  burned  Rome,  conquered 
Macedonia,  forced  Thermopylae,  pillaged  Delphi,  besieged  Carthage,  and  established  the  empire 
of  Galatia  in  Asia  Minor ;  but,  after  a  century  of  partial  conflicts,  and  nine  years  of  general 
•war  with  Ca?sar,  they  yielded  to  the  overshadowing  power  of  Rome.  When  Rome  fell,  Gaul 
was  overrun  by  the  Germanic  nations :  then  came  the  beginning  of  the  empire  of  the  Franks — 
the  encroachments  and  defeat  of  the  Saracens— the  vast  empire  of  Charlemagne— and  then  the 
increasing  power  of  the  feudal  nobility,  until,  in  the  year  937,  the  last  of  the  Carlovingian 
princes  possessed  only  the  town  of  Laon !  Under  Hugh  Capet  even,  dukes,  counts,  and  minor 
seigneurs,  shared  among  themselves  nearly  all  of  the  modern  kingdom.  But  by  degrees  the 
great  fiefs,  one  after  another,  fell  to  the  crown :  and  before  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century 
all  France  was  united  under  one  monarchy  in  the  person  of  Louis  XIV. 

Thus,  with  her  history,  the  geography  of  France  has  been  continually  changing ;  but  those 
divisions  of  her  territory  best  known  in  general  hislory  are  the  old  Provinces,  as  given  on  the 
accompanying  Map.  These  provinces,  during  the  Middle  Ages,  were  all  either  duchies  or 
minor  seignories  ruled  by  the  feudal  nobility;  and  their  history  is,  therefore,  virtually,  for  a 
long  period,  that  of  separate  kingdoms.  (See  description  of  Provence,  Brittany,  Normandy, 
Aquitaine,  Burgundy,  Roussillon,  &c.,  pp.  300,  371-2,  379.) 

At  the  period  of  the  French  Revolution  the  thirty-three  provincial  divisions  were  abolished, 
and  France  was  then  divided  into  eighty-six  Departments  or  Prefectures ;  these  into  three 
hundred  and  sixty-three  Arrondissements  ;  these  into  two  thousand  eight  hundred  and  forty-five 
Cantons ;  and  these  latter  into  thirty-eight  thousand  six  hundred  and  twenty-three  Communes. 

SPAIN,  anciently  Hispania,  a  name  given  to  the  entire  peninsula  beyond  the  Pyrenees,  was 
not  fully  conquered  by  the  Romans  till  the  time  of  Augustus,  who  made  three  divisions  of  the 
country  ; — 1st,  Bcetica,  in  the  south  of  Spain,  embracing  the  more  modern  province  of  Anda- 
lusia;— 2d,  Lusitania,  embracing  all  Portugal  south  of  the  Douro,  and,  in  addition,  most  of 
Estremadura  and  Salamanca ; — and,  3d,  Tarraconensis,  embracing  the  remainder,  and  greater 
portion,  of  the  peninsula. 

About  the  time  of  the  subversion  of  the  Western  empire  of  the  Romans,  Spain  was  overrun 
by  the  Vandals,  and  other  Gothic  tribes;  and,  a  century  later,  the  Christianized  Visigoths  estab- 
lished their  supremacy  in  every  part  of  the  peninsula.  At  the  beginning  of  the  eighth  century 
the  Moors  from  Africa  overran  the  whole  country,  but  after  their  defeat  by  Charles  Martel  in 
France,  (see  p.  253,)  the  Christians  began  to  make  head  against  them,  founded  the  kingdom 
of  Leon  about  the  middle  of  the  eighth  century,  and,  from  that  period,  gradually  extended 
their  power  until,  in  1492,  Granada,  the  last  Moorish  kingdom,  yielded  to  the  arms  of  Ferdinand 
of  Aragon,  and,  soon  after,  the  whole  Spanish  peninsula  was  united  under  one  government. 
In  1139  PORTUGAL  became  an  independent  kingdom:  from  1580  to  1640  it  was  a  Spanish 
province ;  but  at  the  latter  period  it  regained  its  independence.  For  historical  accounts  of 
Navarre,  Aragon,  Castile,  Leon,  and  Granada,  see  p.  317,— Portugal,  318. 


SWITZERLAND,  DENMARK,  AND  PARTS  OF  NORWAY  AND 
SWEDEN,     Map  No.  XIV. 

As  a  brief  outline  of  the  history  of  SWITZERLAND  has  already  been  given  on  page  -69,  and 
of  DENMARK,  SWKDKN,  and  NORWAY,  on  page  308,  we  shall  here  confine  our  attention  princi- 
pally to  the  physical  geography,  government,  population,  &c.,  of  those  countries. 

SWITZERLAND  is  a  republic  formed  by  the  union  of  twenty-two  confederated  States  or 
cantons,  whose  total  area  is  about  fifteen  thousand  square  miles,  or  about  one-third  of  that  of 
the  State  of  New  York.  Population,  about  two  millions  two  hundred  thousand,  of  whom 
nearly  two-thirds  are  Protestants.  More  than  half  of  the  Swiss  people  speak  a  German  dialect : 
about  four  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  speak  French ;  and  about  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
thousand  a  corrupt  Italian. 

The  greater  portion  of  Switzerland  consists  of  mountains ;  and  the  geographical  appearance 
of  the  country  has,  not  improperly,  been  compared  to  a  large  town,  of  which  the  valleys  are 
the  streets,  and  the  mountains  groups  of  contiguous  houses.  Both  the  Rhine  and  the  Rhone, 
and  several  other  important  rivers,  have  their  sources  in  Switzerland ;  but  the  Aar  drains  the 
greater  part  of  the  country,  passes  through  the  lakes  of  Brienz  and  Thun,  and,  after  a  course 
of  about  one  hundred  and  seventy  miles,  unites  with  the  Rhine.  The  lakes  of  Switzerland  are 
numerous — all  navigable — and  remarkable  for  the  depth  and  purity  of  their  waters,  and  their 
great  variety  of  fish.  Lakes  Thun  and  Brienz  are  nineteen  hundred  feet  above  the  level  of  the 
sea— the  lakes  of  Geneva  and  Constance  about  twelve  hundred.  Not  only  is  Switzerland  much 
colder  than  the  adjacent  countries,  owing  to  its  elevation,  and  the  influence  of  its  glaciers  in 
cooling  the  atmosphere,  but  the  cold  has  increased  in  modern  times,  and  many  tracts  are  now 
bare  that  were  formerly  covered  with  forests  and  pasture  grounds. 

The  kingdom  of  DENMARK,  properly  so  called,  comprises  only  Jutland,  or  the  northern  half 
of  the  ancient  Cimbric  Chersonese,  together  with  the  islands  between  Jutland  and  Sweden,  and 
the  island  of  Bornholna  in  the  Baltic.  To  these  possessions  have  been  added  the  duchies  of 
Sleswick  and  Holstein,  which  originally  formed  part  of  the  German  empire ;  and  as  sovereign 
of  which  the  Danish  king  now  ranks  as  a  member  of  the  Germanic  confederation.  Iceland, 
part  of  Greenland,  the  Faroe  isles,  and  some  possessions  in  the  East  and  West  Indies,  also  be- 
long to  Denmark. 

The  surface  of  the  Danish  peninsula  is  remarkably  low  and  level ;  and  along  the  whole 
western  coast  of  Sleswick  and  Holstein  the  country  is  defended,  as  in  Holland,  against  irruptions 
from  the  sea,  by  immense  mounds  or  dikes.  The  soil  is  various,  but,  generally,  very  fertile. 
There  are  no  mountains,  and  no  rivers  of  any  magnitude ;  but  the  inlets  of  the  sea  are  numer- 
ous, and  penetrate  far  inland.  Since  the  year  1660  the  government  has  been  perhaps  as  abso- 
lute a  monarchy  as  any  other  in  the  world ;  but  the  sovereigns  have  generally  exercised  their 
extensive  powers  with  great  moderation.  The  Lutheran  is  the  established  religion.  Population 
but  little  more  than  two  millions. 

The  kingdom  of  SWEDEN  comprises,  with  Norway  and  Lapland,  the  whole  of  the  Scandi- 
navian peninsula,  west  of  the  Baltic.  Sweden  is,  in  general,  a  level,  well-watered  country,  but 
the  soil  is  poor.  Sweden  extends  so  far  north  that,  near  Tornea,  the  sun  is  visible,  at  mid- 
summer, during  the  whole  night.  The  government  of  Sweden  is  a  hereditary  monarchy,  with 
a  representative  diet  consisting  of  four  chambers,  formed,  respectively,  of  deputies  from  the 
nobility,  clergy,  burghers,  and  peasants,  or  cultivators. 

NORWAY,  forming  the  western  part  of  the  great  Scandinavian  peninsula,  is  a  mountainous 
country,  and  is  characterized  by  its  lofty  mountain  plateau  in  the  interior,  and  the  deep  in- 
dentations or  arms  of  the  sea  all  round  the  coast.  Although  Norway  is  under  the  same  crown 
with  Sweden,  it  is,  in  reality,  little  connected  with  the  latter  country.  Its  democratic  assembly, 
called  the  Storthing,  meets  for  three  months  once  in  three  years,  by  its  own  right,  and  not  by 
any  writ  from  the  king.  If  a  bill  pass  both  divisions  of  this  assembly  in  three  successive 
storthings,  it  becomes  a  law  of  the  land  without  the  royal  assent—a  right  which  no  other 
monarchico-legislative  assembly  in  Europe  possesses. 


"No  XIV. 


COUNTRIES 
around  the. 

BALTIC    SEA 


THE  NETHERLANDS,  NOW  EMBRACED  IN  THE  KINGDOMS  OP 
HOLLAND  AND  BELGIUM.    Map  No.  XV. 

Nearly  the  whole  kingdom  of  HOLLAND,  (often  mentioned  in  history  as  the  "  Low  Countries,"; 
with  the  exception  of  a  few  insignificant  hill  ranges,  is  a  continuous  flat— a  highly  fertile 
country— in  great  part  conquered  by  human  labor  from  the  sea,  which,  at  high  tide,  is  above 
the  level  of  a  considerable  portion  of  the  surrounding  country.  The  latter  is  at  all  times 
liable  to  dangerous  inundations.  Where  there  are  no  natural  ramparts  against  the  sea,  enormous 
artificial  mounds  or  dikes  have  been  constructed ;  but  these  are  sometimes  broken  down  by 
the  force  of  the  waves.  That  extensive  arm  of  the  sea  called  the  Zuyder  Zee,  occupying  an 
area  of  about  twelve  hundred  square  miles,  was  formed  by  successive  inundations  in  the 
course  of  the  thirteenth  century.  The  surface  of  the  country  presents  an  immense  network 
of  canals,  the  greater  number  being  appropriated  to  the  purposes  of  drainage.  When  the  sea 
is  once  shut  out  by  the  dikes  the  marsh  is  intersected  by  water  courses  ;  and  wind-mills,  erect- 
ed on  the  ramparts,  are  employed  to  force  up  the  water.  Sometimes  the  marsh  is  so  far  below 
the  level  of  the  sea— even  twenty-five  or  thirty  feet  below  the  highest  tides — that  twj>  or  more 
ramparts  and  mills,  at  different  elevations,  are  requisite.  There  is  no  other  country  where 
nature  has  done  so  little,  and  man  so  much,  as  this.  The  north  and  west  provinces  of  BELGIUM 
are  very  similar  in  their  flatness,  fertility,  dikes,  and  canals',  to  Holland. 

Goldsmith's  description  of  Holland  is  peculiarly  appropriate.       > 

"  To  men  of  other  minds  my  fancy  flies,  Spreads  its  long  arms  around  the  watery  roar, 

Embosom'd  in  the  deep  where  Holland  lies :  Scoops  out  an  empire  and  usurps  the  shore : 

Methinks  her  patient  sons  before  me  stand,  While  the  pent  ocean,  rising  o'er  the  pile,' 

Where  the  broad  ocean  leans  against  the  land ;  Sees  an  amphibious  world  beneath  him  smile, 

And,  sedulous  to  stop  the  coming  tide,  The  slow  canal,  the  yellow-blossom'd  vale, 

Lift  the  tall  ramparts  artificial  pride.  The  willow-tufted  bank,  the  gliding  sail, 

Onward,  methinks,  and  diligently  slow,  The  crowded  mart,  the  cultivated  plain, 

The  firm  compacted  bulwark  seems  to  grow ;  A  new  creation  rescued  from  his  reign." 

Holland  and  Belgium  were  partially  subjected  by  the  Romans:  in  the  second  century  Hot- 
land  was  overrun  by  the  Saxons :  in  the  eighth  both  were  conquered  by  Charles  Martel ;  and  they 
subsequently  formed  a  part  of  the  dominions  of  Charlemagne.  From  the  tenth  to  the  fifteenth 
century  they  were  divided  into  many  petty  sovereignties,  most  of  which  successively  passed 
into  the  possession  of  the  house  of  Burgundy,  thence  to  that  of  Austria,  and,  about  the  middle 
of  the  sixteenth  century,  the  whole  fell  under  the  rule  of  Charles  V.,  king  of  Spain  and  em- 
peror of  Germany.  The  arbitrary  measures  of  Philip  II.  of  Spain,  the  son  and  successor  of 
Charles  V.,  led  to  a  general  rebellion  in  the  Netherlands :  the  indpendence  of  the  "  Republic 
of  the  United  Provinces,"  embracing  the  States  of  Holland,  was  acknowledged  by  Spain  in 
1609,  while  the  ten  southern  provinces,  which  had  either  remained  loyal  to  Spain  or  been  kept 
in  subjection,  had  in  the  meantime  passed  under  the  sovereignty  of  the  house  of  Austria. 
From  this  period  the  southern  provinces  have  been  generally  distinguished  by  the  name  of 
Belgium.  After  having  been  several  times  conquered  by  the  French,  and  recovered  from  them, 
they  were  incorporated,  in  1795,  with  the  French  republic,  and  divided  into  departments.  In 
1805  the  republic  of  Holland  was  erected  into  a  kingdom  for  Louis,  a  brother  of  Napoleon  ; 
and  on  the  downfall  of  the  latter,  the  Congress  of  Vienna,  in  1815,  united  Holland  and  Belgium 
to  form  the  kingdom  of  the  Netherlands,  which  latter,  by  the  Revolution  of  1830,  was  dissolved 
into  the  present  kingdoms  of  Holland  and  Belgium.  A  portion  of  Luxembourg,  entirely  de- 
tached from  the  rest  of  the  Dutch  dominions,  belongs  to  Holland. 

Of  the  inhabitants  of  Holland,  numbering  about  two  millions  six  hundred  thousand,  about 
iwo  millions  are  Dutch,  who  speak  what  is  called  the  Low  Dutch,  as  distinguished  from  the 
High  Dutch  or  German — the  two  great  divisions  of  the  Dutch  or  Teutonic  language.  The  popu- 
lation of  Belgium  numbers  about  four  millions  three  hundred  thousand,  divided  among  three 
principal  races,— the  Germanic-,  which  comprehends  the  Flemings  and  Germans;  the  Gallic, 
to  which  belong  the  Walloons,  who  speak  a  dialect  of  the  ancient  French ;  and  the  Semitic, 
which  comprehends  only  the  Jews.  The  French  language  is  used  in  public  affairs,  and  by  all 
the  educated  and  wealthy  classes. 


No.  XV. 


now  divided  into 

MUM  AM) 

Scale  of  Miles 


GREAT  BRITAIN  AND  IRELAND,    Map  No.  XVI. 

The  UNITED  KINGDOM  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN  AND  IRELAND  consists  of  the  islands  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland,  the  former  including  the  once  independent  kingdoms  of  England  and  Scotland, 
and  the  whole  constituting  not  only  the  nucleus  and  the  centre,  but  also  the  main  body  and 
seat,  of  the  wealth  and  power  of  the  BRITISH  EMPIRE.  The  colonies  and  foreign  dependencies 
belonging  to  the  United  Kingdom  are  of  great  extent  and  importance,  consisting  principally  of  the 
British  possessions  in  North  America,  the  West  Indies,  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  Australia,  and 
the  East  Indies.  The  British  East  India  possessions  aloue  embrace  an  area  of  one  million  two 
hundred  thousand  square  miles.  It  is  doubtless  the  common  opinion  that  the  United  Kingdom 
is  indebted  to  its  territorial  possessions  for  a  large  portion  of  its  wealth  and  power ;  but  many 
able  writers  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  these  colonies  and  dependencies  occasion  an 
enormous  outlay  of  expense  without  any  equivalent  advantage,  and  that  they  are  a  source  of 
weakness  rather  than  of  strength. 

No  country  ever  existed  more  favorably  situated  for  the  centre  of  a  mighty  empire  than  the 
United  Kingdom.  Its  insular  situation  gives  it  a  well  defended  frontier,  rendering  the  country 
comparatively  secure  from  hostile  attacks,  and  affording  unequalled  facilities  for  commerce ; 
while  its  soil  enjoys  the  fortunate  medium  between  fertility  and  barrenness  that  excludes  in- 
dolence on  the  one  hand,  and  poverty  on  the  other.  Its  harbors  are  numerous  and  excellent : 
its  principal  rivers,  the  Thames,  Trent,  and  Severn  in  England,  and  the  Shannon  in  Ireland, 
are  all  navigable  to  a  very  great  distance :  iron  is  found  in  the  greatest  abundance :  its  tin 
mines  of  Devon  and  Cornwall  are  the  most  productive  of  any  in  Europe :  its  salt  springs  and  salt 
beds  are  alone  sufficient  for  the  supply  of  the  whole  world ;  and  its  inexhaustible  coal  mines, 
the  principal  source  and  foundation  of  its  manufacturing  and  commercial  prosperity,  are  more 
valuable  than  would  have  been  the  possession  of  all  the  gold  and  silver  mines  in  the  world. 
But  England  has  an  enormous  public  debt :  her  government  is  very  expensive  ;  and  con- 
sequently, with  all  her  wealth  and  prosperity,  the  burdens  of  taxation  are  unusually  heavy. 
In  1838  her  public  debt,  contracted  in  great  part  during  the  American  Revolution,  and  the 
French  revolutionary  wars,  amounted  to  nearly  eight  hundred  million  pounds  sterling:  Her 
expenditures  during  the  same  year  were  upwards  of  fifty  millions,  of  which  more  than 
twenty-nine  millions  were  appropriated  to  defray  the  interest  and  expense  of  managing  the 
public  debt ! 

The  inhabitants  who  occupied  the  British  isles  at  the  period  when  the  Romans  first  landed 
in  England,  fifty-five  years  before  Christ,  belonged  partly  to  the  Celtic,  and  partly  to  the  Gothic 
family — the  Celts  having  very  early  passed  over  into  England  from  the  contiguous  coasts  of 
France ;  and  the  Belgic  Goths  having  at  a  later  period  driven  the  Celts  northward  and  west- 
ward into  Scotland,  Wales,  and  Ireland,  and  occupied  the  eastern,  lower,  and  more  fertile  portions 
of  England.  The  Romans  conquered  England  and  the  more  southern  portions  of  Scotland, 
but  appear  not  to  have  visited  Ireland.  After  the  departure  of  the  Romans,  about  A.  D.  409, 
the  Caledonian  Celts  overran  the  country,  when  the  Saxon  chiefs,  Hengist  and  Horsa,  were  in- 
vited over  to  aid  their  English  brethren.  The  conquest  of  England  by  the  united  Saxons,  Jutes,  and 
Angles,  occupied  a  period  of  about  one  hundred  and  thirty  years,  from  the  landing  of  Hengist. 
In  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries  occurred  the  repeated  inroads  of  the  Danes,  who,  at  length, 
in  1017,  under  their  leaders  Sweyn  and  Canute,  became  masters  of  the  kingdom,  which,  how- 
ever, they  only  held  till  1041.  In  the  year  1066  occurred  the  conquest  of  England  by  William 
of  Normandy.  Through  William  and  the  princes  of  the  house  of  Plantagenet,  more  than  a 
third  part  of  France  was  placed,  by  inheritance,  marriage,  conquest,  &c.,  under  the  immediate 
jurisdiction  and  sovereignty  of  the  kings  of  England  ;  but  during  the  reign  of  John,  surnamed 
Lackland,  the  French  recovered  most  of  their  provinces.  In  1169  Henry  II.  began  the  conquest 
of  Ireland. 

The  leading  epochs  in  later  English  history  are,  the  Civil  Wars  of  the  Two  Roses,  terminated 
by  the  battle  of  Bosworlh  Field  in  1484 :  the  union  of  the  crowns  of  England  and  Scotland  in 
1604 :  the  great  Civil  War  in  the  reign  of  Charles  I.,  followed  by  the  execution  of  that  monarch 
in  1649 :  the  Restoration  in  1660 :  the  Revolution  of  1688 :  the  legislative  union  of  England 
and  Scotland  in  1707 :  the  accession  of  the  House  of  Hanover  in  1714,  (see  Hanover  p.  482 :)  the 
American  War,  1776-1784:  the  war  with  revolutionary  France,  1793-1815:  the  legislative 
union  of  Ireland  with  England  and  Scotland,  1799 :  the  repeal  of  the  Test  Act,  1828  :  Catholic 
Emancipation,  1829 ;  and  passage  of  the  Reform  Act,  1832. 


No.  XVI. 


IF    19'    9       f     9-     w     m       *       a      a       i       o 


and 

IfflBIMMD 

Scale  of*Milef. 


CENTRAL  EUROPE,  TOGETHER  WITH  POLAND,  HUNGARY, 
AND  WESTERN  RUSSIA.     Map  No.  XVII. 

CENTRAL  EUROPE  may  be  considered  as  embracing  the  present  numerous  German  States, 
and  Switzerland ;  including  in  the  former  those  portions  of  the  Austrian  and  Prussian  empires 
which,  previous  to  the  French  Revolution,  belonged  to  the  German  empire. 

The  "  German  Empire"  occupies  a  prominent  position  in  the  history  of  Continental  Europe ; 
but  it  has  passed  through  so  many  changes  in  limits,  divisions,  and  government,  that  the  reader 
of  history,  unless  he  is  familiar  with  them,  will  often  be  perplexed  by  apparent  contradictions. 
Thus  the  emperor  of  Austria  is  often  mentioned  as  the  emperor  of  Germany  ;  and  portions  of 
Germany  are  spoken  of  as  belonging  to  Austria.  The  following  sketch  of  the  German  Empire, 
and  the  Germanic  Confederation,  it  is  believed  will  explain  these  seeming  inconsistencies,  and 
render  German  history  more  intelligible  to  the  general  reader. 

The  first  Carlovingian  sovereigns  of  Germany  were  hereditary  monarchs ;  but  as  early  as  887 
the  great  vassals  of  the  crown  deposed  their  emperor,  and  elected  another  sovereign  in  hia 
stead ;  and  from  that  period  down  to  the  dissolution  of  the  German  empire  in  1806,  the  em- 
perors of  Germany  were  elected  by  the  most  powerful  vassals  of  the  empire,  some  of  whom 
were  monarchs  within  their  own  domains.  From  1745  to  1806  the  Austrian  emperors  exercised 
a  double  sovereignty, — as  emperors  of  Austria,  and  emperors  of  Germany  also  ;  but  a  portion 
of  the  Austrian  dominions  were  not  included  in  the  German  empire. 

At  the  period  of  the  outbreak  of  the  French  Revolution,  the  German  empire  was  divided 
into  what  were  termed  Ten  Great  Circles,  each  of  which  had  its  diet  for  the  transaction  of 
local  business ;  but  affairs  of  general  importance  to  the  empire  at  large  were  treated  by  the 
imperial  diet  summoned  by  the  emperor.  The  Ten  Great  Circles  were,  1st,  the  Circle  of 
Austria ;  2d,  The  Circle  of  Burgundy,  (including  most  of  the  present  Belgium,  and  belong- 
ing to  Austria;)  3d,  the  Circle  of  Westphalia;  4th,  the  Circle  of  the  Palatinate;  5th,  the 
Circle  of  the  Upper  Rhine ;  6th,  the  Suabian  Circle,  (including  Wirtemberg  and  Baden ;  see 
Suabia,  p.  270 ;)  7th,  the  Circle  of  Bavaria ;  8th,  the  Circle  of  Franconia,  (see  Franconia,  p.  270 ;) 
9tb,  the  Circle  of  Lower  Saxony,  (including  the  duchies  of  Magdeburg,  Holstein,  &c. :  the  latter 
a  part  of  Denmark;)  10th,  the  Circle  of  Upper  Saxony,  (including  Pomerania,  Brandenburg,  the 
electorate  of  Saxony,  &c.)  In  addition  to  these  Circles  the  empire  embraced  the  kingdom  of 
Bohemia;  the  margraviate  of  Moravia;  the  duchy  of  Silesia,  (Austrian  and  Prussian;)  and 
rarious  small  territories  held  directly  of  the  emperor.  The  Swiss  cantons  had  revolted  from  the 
empire,  and  maintained  their  independence.  Thus  the  German  empire,  consisting  of  a  vast 
aggregation  of  States,  from  large  principalities  or  kingdoms  down  to  free  cities  and  the 
estates  of  earls  or  counts,  comprised  all  the  countries  of  Central  Europe,  and  was  bounded 
north  by  northern  Denmark  and  the  Baltic;  east  by  Prussian  Poland,  Galicia,  and  Hungary; 
, south  by  the  Italian  Tyrol  and  Switzerland;  and  west  by  France  and  Holland.  The  Austrian 
monarch  was  at  the  head  of  this  vast  empire ;  but  he  had  also  other  States,  such  as  Hungary, 
Galicia,  Slavonia,  &c.,  which  had  no  connection  with  the  German  empire.  Most  of  Prussia, 
and  the  southern  half  of  Denmark,  were  also  included  in  the  German  dominions. 

Napoleon  made  important  changes  in  the  political  geography  of  the  German  empire.  By  the 
treaty  of  Campo  Formio  in  1797,  (see  p.  467,)  the  frontiers  of  France  were  for  the  first  time  ex- 
tended to  the  Rhine ;  and  the  Circle  of  Burgundy  was  thus  cut  off  from  the  German  dominions. 
The  treaty  of  Presburg  in  1805  was  followed  by  other  changes,  Austrian  Tyrol  being  given  to 
Bavaria,  and  Hanover  to  Prussia ;  and,  in  1806,  by  the  Confederation  of  the  Rhine,  (see  p.  485,) 
a  population  of  sixteen  millions  was  taken  from  the  Germanic  dominion  of  Austria.  Under 
these  circumstances,  on  the  6th  of  Aug.  1806,  the  Austrian  emperor  solemnly  renounced  the 
style  and  title  of  emperor  of  Germany.  The  war  with  Prussia  in  1807  deprived  the  Prussian 
monarch  of  nearly  one  half  of  his  dominions ;  and  Westphalia  was  soon  after  erected  into  a 
kingdom  for  Napoleon's  brother  Jerome. 

The  downfall  of  Napoleon  restored  Germany  to  its  geographical  and  political  position  in 
Europe,  but  not  as  an  empire  acknowledging  one  supreme  head.  A  confederation  of  thirty- 
five  (afterwards  changed  to  thirty-four)  Independent  sovereignties,  and  four  free  cities,  replaced 
the  old  elective  German  monarchy.  In  this  Confederation  are  embraced  all  the  Austrian  and 
Prussian  territories  formerly  belonging  to  the  German  empire  ;  also  Holstein,  (a  part  of  Den- 
mark,) and  Luxembourg,  (a  part  of  Holland ;) — the  emperor  of  Austria,  and  the  kings  of 
Prussia,  Denmark,  and  Holland,  becoming,  for  their  respective  German  territories,  parties  to 


:o.  xvn. 


598 

the  league.  The  affairs  of  the  Confederation  are  managed  by  a  diet,  in  which  the  representa- 
tive of  Austria  presides.  Until  a  very  recent  period  each  of  the  German  States  had  its  own 
custom  houses,  tariff  and  revenue  laws,  by  which  the  internal  trade  of  the  country  was  sub- 
jected to  many  vexations  and  ruinous  restrictions  ;  but  chiefly  through  the  influence  of  Prussia 
this  selfish  system  has  been  abandoned  ;  free  trade  exists  between  the  States  ;  and  a  commodity 
that  has  once  passed  the  frontier  of  the  league  may  now  be  conveyed  without  hinderance 
throughout  its  whole  extent. 
For  notices  of  Russia,  Poland,  and  Hungary,  see  pp.  287,  311,  and  542. 


THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA.    Map  No.  XVIII. 

The  UNITED  STATES  occupy  the  middle  division  of  North  America,  extending  from  the  At- 
lantic to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  embracing  an  area  of  about  three  millions  two  hundred  thou- 
sand square  miles.  Physical  geography  would  divide  this  broad  belt  into  three  great  sections ; 
1st,  the  Atlantic  coast,  whose  rivers  flow  into  the  Atlantic ;  2d,  the  Valley  of  the  Mississippi, 
whose  waters  find  an  outlet  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  ;  and  3d,  the  Pacific  coast,  embracing  an 
extensive  territory  west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  The  section  between  the  Alleghanies  and 
the  Atlantic,  embracing  the  thirteen  original  States,  has  a  soil  generally  rocky  and  rough  in  the 
north-eastern  or  New  England  States ;  of  moderate  fertility  in  the  Middle  States ;  and  generally 
light  and  sandy  in  the  Southern  Atlantic  States.  The  immense  Valley  of  the  Mississippi,  in- 
cluded between  the  Alleghanies  and  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  drained  by  the  Mississippi, 
Missouri,  Ohio,  Arkansas,  and  Red  rivers,  is  one  of  the  largest  and  finest  basins  in  the  world, 
embracing  an  area  of  more  than  one  million  square  miles — nearly  equal  to  all  Europe,  with 
the  exception  of  the  Russian  empire.  In  the  eastern  and  middle  sections  of  this  valley  the 
soil  is  generally  of  very  superior  quality ;  but  extensive  sandy  wastes  skirt  the  eastern  base  of 
the  Rocky  Mountains.  The  country  west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  exhibits  a  great  variety  of 
soil.  Washington  and  Oregon  territories  are  divided  into  three  belts  or  sections,  by  mountain 
ranges  running  nearly  parallel  with  the  coast.  The  eastern  section  is  rocky,  broken,  and 
barren ;  the  western  fertile.  Most  parts  of  Utah  and  western  New  Mexico  are  an  extensive 
elevated  region  of  sandy  barrens  and  prairie  lands :  the  northern  and  eastern  sections  of  Cali- 
fornia are  hilly  and  mountainous :  the  only  portion  adapted  to  agriculture  being  the  southern 
section,  and  a  narrow  strip  along  the  coast,  forty  or  fifty  miles  in  width.  The  vast  mineral 
wealth  of  California  gives  that  country  its  chief  importance. 

The  United  States  seem  destined  to  become,  at  no  distant  day,  in  population,  wealth,  and 
power,  the  greatest  nation  of  the  earth.  In  the  year  1850  their  population  numbered  more 
than  twenty-three  millions ;  and  if  it  should  continue  to  increase,  for  a  century  to  come,  as  it 
has  during  the  past  twenty  years,  at  the  end  of  the  century  it  will  number  one  hundred  and 
sixty  millions,  and  then  be  only  half  as  populous  as  Britain  or  France.  Hardly  any  limits  can 
be  assigned  to  the  probable  wealth  of  so  extensive  and  fertile  a  country,  intersected  by  numer- 
ous canals  and  navigable  lakes  and  rivers,  bound  together  by  its  roads  of  iron,  bordering  on 
two  oceans,  and  commanding  the  trade  of  the  world.  In  commerce  it  is  even  now  the  second 
country  on  the  globe,  being  inferior  only  to  Great  Britain :  in  its  agricultural  products  it  has  no 
equal ;  and  in  manufactures  it  has  alreaily  risen  to  great  respectability.  Its  revenue,  which  has 
arisen  chiefly  from  customs  on  imports,  and  the  sale  of  public  lands,  was  sufficient  in  January! 
1837,  not  only  to  complete  the  payment  of  the  public  debt  contracted  during  the  two  wars  withf 
Great  Britain,  but  also,  after  retaining  five  million  dollars  in  the  treasury,  to  distribute  more 
than  thirty-seven  millions  among  the  States.  In  1838  the  United  States  was  entirely  free  from 
debt,  while  at  the  same  time  Great  Britain  owed  a  debt  of  nearly  eight  hundred  million 
pounds  sterling,  equal  to  more  than  thirty-five  hundred  millions  of  dollars  !  the  annual  interest 
on  which,  at  the  low  English  rates,  was  more  than  three  times  the  amount  of  the  total  annual 
expenditure  of  the  American  government. 
The  national  existence  of  the  United  States  commenced  on  the  4th  of  July,  1776,  when  they 


No.  XVIII. 


600 

declared  their  independence  of  Great  Britain.  The  seven  years'  war  of  the  Revolution  fol- 
lowed: the  definitive  treaty  of  peace  was  signed  September  30th,  1783:  the  present  Constitu- 
tion was  ratified  by  Congress  July  14th,  1788 ;  and  on  the  30th  of  April,  1789,  Washington  was 
inaugurated  first  President  of  the  United  States.  In  1803,  Louisiana,  embracing  a  vast  and  un- 
defined territory  west  of  the  Mississippi,  was  purchased  from  France  for  fifteen  millions  of  dol- 
lars ;  and  in  1821  Florida  was  ceded  to  the  United  States  by  Spain.  On  the  4th  of  June,  1812, 
the  American  Congress  declared  war  against  Great  Britain:  peace  was  concluded  at  Ghent, 
Dec.  14th,  1814.  In  the  year  1845  the  Republic  of  Texas  was  annexed  to  the  United  States. 
In  April  184ti  a  war  with  Mexico  began :  California  was  conquered  by  the  Americans  during 
the  summer  of  the  same  year ;  on  the  27th  of  March,  1847,  Vera  Cruz  capitulated ;  and  on 
the  14th  of  September  the  American  army  entered  the  city  of  Mexico.  In  February,  1848,  a 
treaty  was  concluded  with  Mexico,  by  which  the  United  States  obtained  a  large  increase  of  ter- 
ritory, embracing  the  present  New  Mexico,  Utah,  and  California. 


PART     111. 
OUTLINES  OF  THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY, 


CHAPTER    I. 


THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

ANALYSIS.  1.  The  earliest  historical  statement  that  we  possess  carries  us  back  to  the 
antediluvian  period  of  our  world's  history.  Seeming  barrenness  of  the  field  thus  opened  to  us. 
What  assurances  are  given  the  student.— 2.  Subject  presented,  and  questions  suggested  by  the 
SCRIPTURAL  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  CREATION.  What  is  purposed  in  relation  thereto. — 3.  Popular 
belief  relative  to  the  work  of  creation.  The  belief  opposed  to  this. 

4.  GEOLOGICAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  EARTH. — 5.  The  facts  on  which  the  geological  argument  is 
based.  Character  of  the  earth's  surface. — 6.  Formation  of  the  stratified  rocks.  Fossil  remains 
in  the  uppermost  strata.— 7.  Evidences  of  great  convulsions  of  the  globe.  What  geology  has 
not  the  rashness  to  conjecture,  on  the  one  hand,  and  what  it  has  proved,  on  the  other. — 8.  How 
the  geological  theory  is  now  generally  regarded.  The  opposition  to  it.  The  suggestion  of  va- 
rious possibilities— miraculous  interpositions,  &c.,  how  regarded.  The  supposition  that  the 
fossil  remains  were  deposited  at  an  epoch  so  recent  as  the  deluge.— 9.  The  assertion  that  the 
geological  theory  is  derogatory  to  the  Deity.— 10.  Various  opinions  whether  the  whole  or  a  part  ot 
'.he  globe  was  embraced  in  the  "six  days"  work  of  creation. — 11.  Of  the  period  of  time  em- 
braced in  them. — 12.  Concluding  remarks  on  the  geological  portion  of  our  world's  history. 

13.  The  sceptical  argument  against  Bible  history.  Collateral  testimony— of  what  use  to  the 
student. — 14.  The  four  leading  historical  facts  in  the  history  of  the  antediluvian  world . 

15.  UNITY  OF  THE  HUMAN  RACE,  the  doctrine  of  the  Bible.  Varieties  of  the  human  family. 
Science  not  opposed  to  scripture  testimony. — 16.  Peculiarities  of  form  and  color  not  permanent 
characteristics  of  races.  Examples.  The  proof  furnished  by  them. — 17.  The  comparative 
study  of  languages  tends  to  the  same  result.  Languages  of  the  earth,  how  grouped.  The  af- 
finities between  them  show  a  common  origin. — 18.  The  same  result  shown  by  the  course  o) 
ancient  migrations. 

19.  INSTITUTION  OF  A  SABBATH.  The  sabbath  probably  known  to  the  antediluvians.  Evi- 
dences of  the  Sabbath  among  heathen  nations.— 20.  Division  of  time  by  our  Saxon  ancestors. 
Origin  of  our  names  of  the  days  of  the  week. — 21.  The  result — showing  a  common  origin  of  the 
prevalent  custom  of  dividing  time.— 22.  Jewish  festivals,  and  heathen  sacrifices. 

23.  THE  ORIGIN  OF  DISCORD.  Brief  scriptural  account  of  it  in  the  history  of  Cain.  Asiatic 
traditions  on  this  subject  more  minute.  Account  which  the  Asiatics  give  of  their  own  origin. 
Supposed  original  source  of  these  traditions.  Grecian  and  Roman  account  of  the  origin  of 
discord. — 24.  The  struggle  of  opposing  races  forms  the  main  subject  of  primitive  history.  How 
described  in  the  poems  of  Hindoo  mythology.  The  same  legend  enlarged  and  beautified  by 
the  Greeks.— 25.  Sources  of  early  profane  history.  Moses  probably  not  the  first  historian. 
Job. 

26.  COINCIDENCES  BETWEEN  SACRED  AND  PROFANE  HISTORY. — 27.  Sanchoniatho  and  hi« 
writings.  Coincidenceswith  scripture  history.— 28.  Phoenician  system  of  idolatry.— 29.  Genera] 


602  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [PART  TIT. 

analogy  between  Sanchoniatho's  account  and  the  Bible  record.— 30.  The  writings  of  Berosus.— 31. 
His  account  of  the  creation.  His  list  of  kings  before  and  after  the  deluge.  The  first  king  on  the 
list. — 32.  The  most  ancient  god  of  the  Chaldeans,  the  same  as  that  of  the  Romans  and  Greeks 
Confounded  by  the  Greeks  with  the  Noah  of  scripture.— 33.  Farther  illustrations  of  the  inter 
weaving  of  scripture  history  with  heathen  mythology,  in  the  history  of  Nitnrod. 

34.  TRADITIONS  OF  THE  DELUGE.  Their  universality. — 35.  and  36.  The  Chaldean  account 
of  the  deluge,  as  given  by  Bcrosus. — 37.  Grecian  traditions  of  the  deluge.  How  viewed  by 
Plutarch,  and  the  Latin  writers.— 38,  American  traditions.  Mexican  tradition  of  the  deluge. 
Of  the  building  of  the  pyramid  at  Cholula.  The  Mexican  Noah.  Tradition  of  the  Algonquin 
tribes.  Of  the  Iroquois  tribes.  The  age  of  fire. — 39.  Tradition  of  the  Tamenacs  of  South 
America.  Of  the  Chilians.  Of  the  natives  of  New  Granada.— 40.  Remarks  on  these  traditions. 
Their  probable  origin.  Causes  of  the  variety  of  character  which  they  present. — 41.  The  assei1 
tions  of  the  sceptic  disproved.  * 

42.  Summary  of  the  topics  examined.  ANCIENT  CHRONOLOGY. — 43.  Difficulties  in  the  way 
of  the  historian.  What  is  required  of  him  on  the  subject  of  ancient  chronology.  The  old  sys- 
tems still  generally  adhered  to.  Examples.  Bible  Chronology.  Danger  to  be  apprehended. — 
44.  Diversity  of  dates  assigned  to  the  creation.  To  the  deluge.  The  ten  most  important  dates 
of  the  deluge. — 45.  Result  of  the  comparison.  Dates  assigned  to  the  Exodus  of  the  Israelites — 
the  destruction  of  Troy — the  overthrow  of  Nineveh — the  founding  of  Rome — the  nativity  of  the 
Saviour. — 46.  Doubts  suggested.  Erroneousness  of  the  common  era  of  the  deluge— 47.  The 
epoch  of  the  deluge,  and  of  the  creation — how  calculated.  Sources  of  uncertainty  and  error 
in  the  calculations. — 48.  The  scriptures  in  the  time  of  Josephus.  Subsequent  changes  made  in 
their  chronology. — 49.  Probable  origin  of  the  errors.  The  Chronology  of  Usher  erroneous. — 

50.  Hieroglyphical  evidence.    Dates  assigned  by  Dr.  Hales  for  the  creation  and  the  deluge. — 

51.  The  certainty  of  some  historical  dates.    The  birth  of  the  Saviour.— 52.  The  founding  of 
Rome. — 53.  Similar  examples  numerous.    The  era  of  the  patriarch  Job. — 54.  Interesting  truths 
taught  by  these  examples. 

55.  Review  of  the  first  portion  of  our  subject — the  geological  history  of  the  globe. — 56.  The 
second  portion  of  the  history  of  the  antediluvian  world  proper.  Imaginary  comparison  between 
early  times  and  our  own. — 57.  Interest  and  importance  of  antediluvian  history.  Conclusion. 

I. 

1.  The  earliest  historical  statement  that  we  possess  is  the  simple 
but  sublime  declaration  that  "  In  the  beginning  G-od  created  the 
Heavens  and  the  earth."     This  historic  truth  carries  us  back  to  the 
antediluvian  period  of  our  world's  history — to  a  field  of  inquiry  that 
appears,  indeed,  at  first  view,  almost  an  unknown  and  desert  waste, — 
barren  of  interest  to  us,  shut  out  from  the  sympathies  of  the  present, 
and  seemingly  devoid  of  any  connection  with  the  subsequent  history 
of  our  race.     But  notwithstanding   the  dearth  of  materials  that 
might  be  anticipated  from  a  subject  so  distant  and  diminutive  in  the 
range  of  historical  vision,  we  venture  to  assure  the  student  that  it  is 
one  from  which  he  may  gather  something  besides  doubt,  and  con- 
jecture, and  idle  speculations,  and  fanciful  theories ;  one  that  will 
serve  at  least  to  mark  out  the  true  beginnings  of  historical  investi- 
gation, and  from  which  some  light  may  be  reflected  on  his  future 
course  of  exploration  on  the  great  ocean  of  human  life. 

2.  The  first  declaration  of  scripture  presents  to  us  a  subject  that 
is  receiving  much  attention  from  the  learned  of  the  present  age.     At 


CHAP.  L]  THE  ANTEDILUVIAN   WORLD.  603 

what  period  was  the  earth  created — was  it  the  work  of  six  days,  or 
of  an  untold  series  of  ages — what  does  the  Bible  teach,  and  what  are 
the  revelations  of  science  on  these  points — are  questions 

.      A  ,  i  i      i  i       /.  i  •  i        SCRIPTURAL 

that  arise  at  the  very  threshold  of  history,  opening  sub-  ACCOUNT  OF 
jects  on  which  volumes  have  been  written,and  with  which        THE 
the  student  of  history,  as  well  as  the  general  scholar, 
may  well  be  supposed  to  have  some  familiarity.     It  will  not  be  inap- 
propriate, therefore,  to  present,  in  this  place,  the  outlines  of  this  sub- 
ject to  the  historical  inquirer,  and  to  examine,  briefly,  how  far,  and 
with  what  degree  of  certainty,  these  questions  have  been  answered. 

3.  As  the  sacred  historian  declares  that  "  in  the  beginning'11  God 
created  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  and  then  proceeds  with  an  account 
of  the  six  days'  work  of  the  creation,  the  supposition  was  not  unnatu- 
ral that  the  first  act  of  creative  power,  in  calling  the  materials  of  the 
universe  into  being,  immediately  preceded  the  six  days'  work  of  or- 
dering, arranging,  and  beautifying  them  as  they  now  exist.     This, 
until  recently,  has  been  the  popular  belief;  but  many  eminent  theo- 
logians and  philologists  of  the  present  day  contend  that  the  language 
of  scripture  will  admit  an  indefinite  interval  between  the  "  beginning" 
of  all  things,  and  the  perfecting  of  the  great  work  of  creation.     As 
paraphrased  by  a  modern  commentator,  the  scriptural  account  of  the 
creation  would  read  thus.     "  In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heav- 
ens and  the  earth.     And  the  earth  was  desolate.     Afterwards  the 
spirit  of  God  moved  upon  the  face  of  the  waters;" — thus  allowing 
the  possibility  of  even  millions  of  years  between  the  first  act  of 
creative  power  and  the  six  days'  work  of  arranging  the  universe. 

II. 

4.  Admitting  that  this  interpretation  does  no  violence  to  scripture, 
the  question  still  remains, — are  there  sufficient  reasons  for  adopting 
it  ?     Here  the  modern  science  of  Geology  lends  its  pow-  GEOLOGJOAL 
erful  aid  to  explain  the  true  meaning  of  scripture  ;  and  HISTOKY  OF 
with  an  amount  of  testimony  and  force  of  argument  not  T 

easily  controverted  teaches  that  between  the  first  dawnings  of  creative 
power,  and  the  completion  of  the  stupendous  work  which  rendered 
our  earth  the  fit  habitation  of  man,  a  long — an  indefinite  period — 
must  be  assigned,  whose  history  is  written  in  characters  as  enduring 
as  the  materials  of  the  globe  itself. 

5.  The  facts  on  which  the  geological  argument  is  based  are  briefly 
these.     An  examination  of  the  outer  shell  or  surface  of  the  earth 


604  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [PART  IIL 

has  convinced  geologists  that  the  earth's  surface  is  not  as  it  was 
originally  created ;  but  that  the  different  layers^or  strata  of  which 
it  is  composed  are  the  results  of  second  causes,  of  a  chemical  or  me- 
chanical nature.  From  the  present  appearances  of  mountain  chains, 
and  chasms,  and  from  artificial  excavation,  geologists  have  been  en- 
abled, after  an  almost  incredible  amount  of  labor  and  research,  di- 
rected by  the  light  of  science,  to  rearrange,  measure,  and  examine, 
the  stratified  rocks,  which  reach  to  the  depth  of  about  ten  miles, — 
below  which,  and  of  an  unknown  depth,  are  the  unstratified  masses, 
which  show,  from  their  position,  and  the  crystalline  arrangement  of 
their  parts,  the  action  of  heat,  and  an  origin  earlier  in  point  of  time. 

6.  The  stratified  beds  give  evidence  that  they  have  been  formed 
out  of  the  fragments  of  other  rocks,  by  atmospheric  agencies,  and  the 
action  of  water, — that  the  materials  of  which  they  are  composed 
were  deposited  in  the  form  of  mud,  and  sand,  and  gravel ;  mingled 
with  which  were  the  remains  of  plants  and  animals ;  and  that  the 
several  masses  were  hardened  into  stone  by  chemical  agencies,  as 
rocks  are  forming,  at  the  present  day,  at  the  bottoms  of  lakes  and 
oceans.     The  uppermost  of  these  strata  of  the  earth's  shell  or  sur- 
face, when  the  rocks  of  which  they  are  composed  are  broken,  are 
found  to  contain  the  fossil  remains  of  plants  and  animals,  nearly  all 
of  which,  to  the  number  of  more  than  thirty  thousand  species,  be- 
longed to  races  different  from  any  that  now  exist. 

7.  Each  of  these  strata  appears  to  mark  some  important  era  in  the 
world's  history,  when  some  great  convulsion  of  the  globe,  or  sudden 
change  of  climate,  destroyed  the  living  races,  and  gave  place  to  a  new 
creation  of  plants  and  animals :  so  that,  some  half  a  dozen  times  at 
least,  the  earth  appears  to  have  changed  its  outer  form  and  its  inhab- 
itants.    But  geology  has  not  the  rashness  to  conjecture  the  era,  far 
back  in  the  early  dawn  of  time,  when  the  Creator  called  the  materials 
of  our  globe  into  being ;  nor  to  designate  the  period  when  his  breath 
cooled  the  liquid  fires  that  had  fused  them  into  one  homogeneous 
mass,  and  his  plastic  hand,  having  shaped  the  rude  planet,  sent  it 
wheeling  through  the  realms  of  space,  on  a  journey  that  shall  end 
only  when  time  shall  be  no  more.     It  is  perhaps  not  too  much  to  as- 
sert, however,  that  geology  has  proved,  that,  for  the  formation  of 
each  of  the  successive  layers  that  compose  the  shell  of  this  mighty 
ball,  untold  centuries  of  years  were  requisite ;  while  perhaps  tens  of 
thousands  of  years  must  be  assigned  for  the  gradual  development 
and  disappearance  of  those  orders  of   animal   and  vegetable    life, 


CHAP.  I]  THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD.  C05 

whose  fossil  remains,  imbedded  in  coffins  of  stone,  alone  reveal  to 
us  the  fact  of  their  existence,  and  of  the  distant,  widely  separated, 
but  unknown  ages  of  the  world  of  which  they  were  the  only  in- 
habitants. 

8.  The  geological  theory  of  the  great  antiquity  and  gradual  con- 
formation of  our  globe,  which  is  held  by  its  advocates  to  be  in  no  respect 
inconsistent  with  Revelation,  is  now  generally  regarded  by  the  learned 
as  one  of  the  settled  principles  of  science,  although  it  has,  indeed, 
been  attacked,  as  merely  hypothetical  and  unscriptural.     Those  who 
oppose  the  geological  theory,  while  they  admit  the  facts  which  geolo- 
gy furnishes,  make  no  serious  attempt  to  explain  their  causes,  which 
they  declare  to  be  beyond  the  province  of  geology.     The  suggestion 
of  various  possibilities  is  all  they  would  leave  in  the  place  of  the 
theory  which  they  attempt  to  overturn.     That  the  Deity,  however, 
when  he  called  the  materials  of  the  earth  into  being,  should  strew 
its  surface  with  the  apparent  fossil  remains  of  races  of  plants  and  ani- 
mals that  never  existed — or  that  all  the  seemingly  conclusive  evi- 
dences of  the  gradual  operation  of  natural  causes  on  our  earth,  through 
myriads  of  ages,  were  miraculous  interpositions  since  the  creation  of 
man — calculated  to  cheat  us  with  a  mockery  of  science,  and  to  throw 
distrust  upon  Revelation,  are  inconsistent,  to  say  the  least,  with  our 
views  of  the  wisdom  and  goodness  of  the  Creator.     That  the  fossil 
remains  which  geology  has  exhumed  from  the  solid  rock,  to  the  depth 
of  seven  miles  below  the  earth's  surface,  were  all  deposited  at  so  re- 
cent an  epoch  as  the  deluge,  by  the  breaking  up  of  continents  in  that 
great  catastrophe,  and  the  burying  of  others  beneath  the  detritus  of 
their  remains,  is  a  theory  inconsistent  with  the  order  in  which  the 
fossils  are  distributed  in  successive  series,  and  with  the  fact  that  the 
remains  of  man  and  of  his  works  are  found  only  in  the  uppermost 
of  the  earth's  strata. 

9.  Again,  the  assertion  that  the  geological  theory  is  derogatory  to 
the  Deity,  because  it  ascribes  to  him  the  creation  of  the  earth  in  an 
imperfect  state,  countless  ages  before  it  'W^s  finished  for  the  use  of 
man,  seems  like  an  attempt  to  estimate  the  years  and  the  works  of 
Him  who  is  without  beginning  and  without  end,  by  the  narrow  stand- 
ard of  man's  existence.     For  it  is  as  rational  to  suppose  that  He, 
who  knew  all  things  from  the  beginning,  and  who  designed  to  create 
or  fashion  a  world  for  the  abode  of  man  at  some  particular  period  of 
time,  may  have  called  its  primordial  elements  into  being,  myriads  of 
ages  before,and  through  the  operation  of  natural  causes,  may  have  been 


606  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [PART  III 

gradually  forming  them  into  a  habitable  world,  as  to  suppose  that 
the  whole  was  accomplished  in  a  moment  of  time,  or  in  six  natural 
days,  by  the  word  of  his  power. 

10.  Different  opinions,  however,  prevail  among  the  learned,  with 
regard  to  the  nature,  the  extent  of  time,  and  the  date,  of  the  six 
days'  work  of  creation.     While  it  is  the  most  prevalent  opinion  that 
the  six  days'  work  of  ordering,  arranging,  and  fitting  the  earth  for  the 
abode  of  man,  extended  over  the  entire  globe,  it  has  been  argued  by 
at  least  one  eminent  divine  and  geologist,  that  by  the  term  earth  in 
Genesis,  is  meant  only  "  that  part  of  our  world  which  God  was  adapt- 
ing for  the  dwelling  place  of  man,  and  for  the  animals  connected 
with  him."     This  interpretation  would  admit  the  possibility  of  dif- 
ferent places  and  periods  of  creation  for  the  lower  animals,  and  would 
remove  the  difficulty  of  accounting  for  their  distribution  from  one 
centre,  throughout  different  climates,  without  a  miracle. 

11.  In  the  early  period  of  geological  investigation  it  was  a  favor- 
ite theory  that  by  the  "  six  days"  work  of  creation  was  not  to  be  un- 
derstood six  literal  days,  but  indefinite  periods  of  time ;  as  it  is  said 
that,  with  the  Almighty,  "  a  thousand  years  are  to  be  reckoned  but 
as  one  day."     But  this  interpretation  has  very  generally  given  place 
to  that  which  is  in  accordance  with  the  literal  language  of  scripture — 
the  evening  and  the  morning  denoting,  literally,  the  successive  days 
caused  by  the  earth's  revolution  on  its  axis. 

12.  Such  is  the  brief  outline  of  the  geological  history  of  our 
globe — extending  back  perhaps  millions  of  years,  but  still  infinitely 
distant,  in  its  beginnings,  from  the  origin  of  the  first  Great  Cause 
of  all  things.     Whoever  would  read  this  portion  of  our  world's  his- 
tory must  look  for  it  in  the  department  of  geology,  a  science  com- 
paratively new,  but  opening  to  the  student  an  almost  boundless  field 
of  research,  of  deep  and  absorbing  interest. 

III. 

13.  But  having  disposed  of  this  subject,  we  still  find  that  the  way 
is  not  all  clear  before  us ;  for  as  the  compiler  of  the  early  history 
of  mankind  necessarily  draws  most  of  his  materials  from  the  Bible 
record,  he  will  often  be  met  by  the  sceptic  with  the  assertion  that  this 
portion  of  scripture  is  allegorical  or  fabulous ;  and  that,  as  a  history, 
it  has  no  valid  claims  to  authenticity.     In  reply  it  may  be  alleged 
that,  separate  from  the  evidence  which  the  scriptures  bear,  within 
themselves,  of  their  own  verity,  a  great  amount  of  collateral  testi- 


CHAP.  LJ  THE   ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD.  607 

mony  may  be  adduced,  corroborative  of  early  scripture  history ; 
and  it  is  to  this  testimony  that  we  now  desire  to  direct  the  reader, 
trusting  that  a  general  view  of  the  early  ages  of  the  world,  drawn 
from  other  sources  than  the  Bible,  will  be  profitable  to  students  of 
history,  whether  regarded  as  opening  new  sources  of  historical  infor- 
mation, with  which  all  should  be  acquainted,  or  as  furnishing  addi- 
tional means  of  refuting  the  cavillings  of  scepticism  and  infidelity. 

14.  The  great  leading  historical  facts  which  the  Bible  presents  us 
in  the  history  of  the  antediluvian  world,  after  the  adaptation  of  our 
earth  for  the  dwelling  place  of  man,  are,  1st.  The  unity  of  the  human 
race  ;  2d.  The  institution  of  a  Sabbath,  and  the  arbitrary  division  of 
time  into  weeks  of  seven  days ;  3d.  The  marked  distinction  between 
the  descendants  of  Cain  and  those  of  Seth,  together  with  the  origin 
of  discord,  and  the  history  of  the  struggle  that  ensued  between  the 
two  great  divisions  of  the  human  race — the  peaceful  and  pious  patri- 
archs on  the  one  hand,  and  a  giant  race  of  pretended  demi-gods  on 
the  other ;  and,  4th.  The  Universal  Deluge.     We  would  direct  at- 
tention to  the  character  of  the  evidence  corroborative  of  these  lead- 
ing outlines  of  sacred  history. 

IV. 

15.  While  it  is  admitted  that  the  descent  of  all  mankind  from 
the  same  original  pair  is  the  doctrine  of  the  Bible,  infidelity  has  at- 
tempted to  array  the  teachings  of  philosophy  against  it.     UNITY  OK 
The  human  race  is  known  to  consist  of  five  varieties,  dis-  THE  HUMAN 
playing  considerable  differences  of  form  and  color,  and       KACE> 
speaking  different  languages ;  and  so  striking  is  the  opposition  be- 
tween any  two  of  these  varieties,  the  white  and  the  black  in  par- 
ticular, that  the  supposition  of  separate  origins  has  seemed,  to  many, 
the  only  philosophical* way  of  accounting  for  the  diversity.     But  it 
may  be  safely  asserted  that  on  this  subject  science  can  no  longer  be 
appealed  to  as  testifying  against  scripture,  for  it  has  been  successfully 
shown  that  nothing  can  be   inferred,  from  external   peculiarities, 
against  the  original  unity  of  the  human  race. 

16.  From  extensive  researches  into  the  physical  history  of  man  it 
has  been  ascertained  that  very  marked  peculiarities  of  form  and  color 
often  arise  from  accidental  causes,  and  that  they  are  far  from  being 
permanent  characteristics  of  races.     Among  the  inhabitants  of  Hin- 
dostan  known  to  be  of  the  Mongolian  variety,  are  found  groups  of 
people  of  almost  every  variety  of  shade  and  color :  among  the  Negro 


608  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [PART  IIL 

nations  of  Central  Africa,  of  intensely  black  complexion,  there  are  tribes 
whose  features  and  limbs  are  as  elegantly  formed  as  those  Of  Euro- 
pean nations ;  and  in  Northern  Africa  there  are  unmixed  descend- 
ants of  ancient  Arab  and  Jewish  families,  who  have  become  as  black 
as  the  surrounding  natives.  Many  similar  examples  might  be  men- 
tioned, furnishing  proof  that  climate,  modes  of  living,  and  differences 
of  circumstance  and  situation,  are  powerful  agencies  in  producing  va- 
rieties of  form  and  color,  however  slowly  the  effects  may  be  after- 
wards eradicated  by  opposing  causes. 

17.  The  comparative  study  of  languages,  by  exhibiting  striking 
coincidences  of  verbal  forms  and  grammatical  structure,  and  by 
tracing  out  the  paths  of  ancient  migrations,  points  to  the  same  re- 
sult— unity  of  origin  of  the  human  race.     The  languages  of  the 
earth  are  grouped  into  six  great  families,  the  subdivision  of  which 
have  many  features  in  common,  viz.  :  The  Indo-European,  the  Syro- 
Phenician,  the  African,  the  Polynesian,  the  Chinese,  and  the  Ameri- 
can.    But  the  Chinese,  the  American,  and  the  Polynesian,  are  all 
based  in  words  of  one  syllable,  as  if  the  process  of  development  had 
been  arrested  at  an  early  point;  while  the  other  families  show  a 
greater  advance  in  the  language-forming  principle.     Moreover,  in 
the  various  American  languages,  one  hundred  and  seventy  words 
have  been  found  that  are  almost  identical  with  the  words  of  the 
same  meaning  in  the  languages  of  the  Old  World,  while,  in  grammati- 
cal structure,  sufficient  affinities  exist  among  the  whole  to  make  a 
common  origin  extremely  probable. 

18.  As  additional  evidence  on  this  point,  the  lines  in  which  the 
principal  tribes  of  the  human  family  appear  to  have  migrated  have 
been  traced  back,  until,  in  accordance  with  tradition,  they  seem  to 
converge  to  a  point  somewhere  in  the  region  of  Central  Asia.    From 
this  point  the  Malay  race  branches  off  to  the  south,  covering  the  In- 
dian Archipelago  :  the  Mongolians  radiate  to  the  east  and  north, 
spreading  over  China  and  Northern  Asia,  and  sending  off  the  Red- 
men  of  America  as  a  sub-variety  :  the  Indo-Europeans  or  Caucasians 
spread  away  to  the  north  and  west,  and  cover  Europe,  Northern  Af- 
rica, and  the  "  Isles  of  the  Gentiles;"  while  the  African  negro  ap- 
pears as  an  offshoot  of  the  family  of  Ham,  that  migrated  westward, 
along  southern  Arabia,  and  through  Abyssinia,  to  Ethiopia.     Thus 
physiology  and  philology  combine  to  prove  the  truth  of  the  Bible 
doctrine  of  the  unity  of  the  human  race,  and  of  their  central  Asiatic 
origin. 


CHAP.  L]  THE  ANTEDILUVIAN   WORLD.  609 

V. 

19.  We  are  told  that  when  the  Almighty  had  finished  the  work  of 
creation,  he  rested  from  his  labors ;  that  thereupon  he  instituted  a 
Sabbath,  or  day  of  rest ;  and  that  every  returning  seventh  INSTITUTIOX 
day  was  to  be  kept  holy,  in  remembrance  of  the  creator        OF  A 
and  governor  of  all  things.     In  accordance  with  this  ac-     SABBATH- 
count  we  might  naturally  suppose  that  this  divine  institution  was 
known  among  the  antediluvians,  and  that  the  observance  of  it  was 
enjoined  by  Noah  upon  his  three  sons  and  their  posterity.     Traces 
of  the  same  we  might  expect  to  find,  also,  among  heathen  nations, 
who,  although  they  had  lost  the  knowledge  of  the  true  God,  would 
be  apt  to  interweave,  in  their  own  crude  systems  of  mythology,  the 
traditionary  religious  rites  of  their  fathers.     And  such  has,  evidently, 
been  the  case.     It  appears  that  the  Israelites,  during  their  sojourn  in 
Egypt,  neglected  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath  ;  yet  the  Egyptians, 
a  heathen  people,  and  ignorant  of  the  Sabbath  as  a  day  of  rest,  di- 
vided time  into  weeks  of  seven  days,  and  the  days  they  consecrated 
to  the  seven  planets ; — a  system  of  dividing  time,  which,  singularly 
enough,  we  find  among  the  Greeks,  the  Romans,  the  Hindoos,  the 
Goths  and  Germans,  and,  partially,  among  the  Saxons. 

20.  Our  Saxon  ancestors,  a  heathen  people,  divided  time  into  weeks 
of  seven  days  ;  and  our  names  of  the  days  of  the  week  are  of  heathen 
and  not  scriptural  origin.     Thus  the  day  which  the  heathen  nations 
of  Northern  Europe  dedicated  to  the  worship  of  the  sun — the  first 
day  of  the  week,  we  still  call  Stem-day,  a  name  which  the  puritanical 
notions  of  our  New  England  fathers  rejected,  as  profanely  impious, 
and  in  its  place  adopted  the  Jewish  appellation — the  Sabbath.     The 
second  in  order  is  Monday,  or  Moon-day,  the  day  dedicated  to  the 
moon  :  3d,  we  have  Tuesday,  from  Tuisco,  the  Saxon  God  of  war : 
hence  Tuesday,  in  old  English,  is  court  day, — the  day  for  legal  com- 
bat, or  for  commencing  litigation.     The  4th,  is  Wodin's-day,  frqm 
Wodin,  or  Odin,  another  Saxon  divinity.     The  5th,  is  Thursday, 
that  is,  T7«?/-'s-day,  the  day  consecrated  to  Thor,  the  God  of  Thunder, 
answering  to  the  Jupiter  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans.     The  6th,  is 
Friday,  the  day  of  Freya,  a  divinity  corresponding  to  the  Grecian 
Venus ;  and  the  7th,  is  Saturday,  the  day  of  Sater  or  Saturn,  the 
most  ancient  of  the  gods  worshipped  by  the  Greeks  and  Romans, 
and  known  to  our  Saxon  ancestors  by  the  name  of  Seatur. 

21.  Thus  we  find  here  an  intermingling  of  different  systems  of  my- 
thology: we  find  Egyptians,  Greeks,  Romans,  Hindoos,  Goths,  Ger- 


610  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [PART  III. 

mans,  and  Saxons,  retaining  the  scriptural  division  of  time,  which 
they  have  introduced  into  their  own  religious  systems ;  and  even 
these  latter,  we  shall  find,  have  certain  prominent  analogies  running 
through  them,  all  traceable,  for  their  origin,  in  their  prominent  fea- 
tures, to  scripture  history  itself.  None  will  deny  that  this  custom 
of  dividing  time,  so  prevalent  among  different  and  widely-separated 
heathen  nations,  must  have  had  an  early  and  a  common  origin ;  and 
what  one  so  satisfactory  can  be  assigned,  as  that  to  which  the  Bible 
attributes  it  ? 

22.  In  memory  also  of  the  primeval  work  of  creation  and  the  di- 
vision of  time  into  weeks  of  seven  days,  not  only  did  each  of  the 
principal  festivals  of  the  Jews  continue   a  week,  but  even  among 
heathen  nations,  as  well  as  among  the  Jews,  sacrifices  appear  most 
frequently  to  have  been  offered  by  sevens.     When  Balak  called  on 
Balaam,  the  Chaldean  diviner,  to  curse  the  people  of  Israel,  the  latter 
commanded  seven  altars  to  be  built,  and  seven  rams  to  be  prepared  for 
the  sacrifice.    In  Virgil,  the  Cumasan  sibyl,  who  was  the  guide  of  ^Eneas 
to  the  lower  world,  directs  the  hero  to  haste  the  sacrifice  with  "  seven 
bullocks,   and  seven  unspotted  ewes."     The  heathen  poet  Hesiod 
calls  "  the  seventh  a  holy  day ;"  and  Theophilus,  bishop  of  Antioch, 
speaking  of  the  seventh  day,  says,  "  All  heathen  writers  distinguish 
it ;  but  most  are  ignorant  of  the  reason  why." 

VI. 

23.  We  now  pass  to  the  consideration  of  another  subject  to  which 
we  have  alluded  as  a  leading  historical  fact  in  the  Bible  records  of 

the  antediluvian  world ; — the  origin  of  discord,  and  the 
ODJSCORDF  hi13*0^  °f  the  struggle  between  the  pious  patriachs  and 

their  descendants  in  the  line  of  Seth  on  the  one  hand, 
and  the  giant  race  of  the  descendants  of  Cain  on  the  other.  While 
sacred  history  describes  minutely  the  origin  of  discord,  in  the  fra- 
tricide of  Cain,  it  barely  mentions  the  flight  of  that  restless  criminal 
to  the  country  eastward  of  Eden,  the  name  of  the  city  which  he 
founded,  and  the  seven  generations  of  his  descendants,  who  are  char- 
acterized as  a  haughty  and  wicked  race  of  giants.  The  early  tra- 
ditions of  the  Asiatic  nations,  however,  although  overlaid  with 
poetical  ornament,  and  rudely  adorned  with  gigantic  hyperbolej-^-the 
whole  wearing,  at  first  sight,  a  purely  fabulous  aspect, — yet  abundant- 
ly fill  up,  with  much  of  the  clearness  of  historic  truth,  the  outlines 
which  are  so  briefly  sketched  by  the  sacred  penman.  The  Asiatics 


CHAP.  I]  THE  ANTEDILUVIAN   WORLD.  611 

very  generally  trace  their  origin  to  one  or  the  other  of  two  brothers, 
who,  by  their  contentions,  transmitted  the  seeds  of  strife  and  future 
wars  to  their  descendants.  It  is  true  the  chequered  tablet  of  tradi- 
tion presents  much  chronological  confusion,  and  many  interpolations 
of  later  history  interwoven  with  ancient  narrative ;  but  even  this  di- 
versity often  corroborates  and  illustrates  the  main  truth  the  more  fully 
and  forcibly.  Thus,  one  Asiatic  nation,  describing  itself  as  descend- 
ed from  the  elder  of  the  first  two  brothers  of  mankind,  sets  forth  the 
circumstances  of  their  enmity  in  a  party  spirit  highly  favorable  to 
its  progenitor,  who  is  represented  as  having  been  driven  from  the  pa- 
ternal home,  and  compelled  to  take  refuge  in  the  East,  by  the  envy 
of  his  }Tounger  brother.  And  to  what  source,  we  may  ask,  can  the 
many  heathen  traditions  of  fraternal  strife  between  the  early  pro- 
genitors of  mankind  be  attributed  so  confidently  as  to  the  accredited 
history  of  Cain  and  Abel  ?  Among  the  Greeks  and  Romans  the 
origin  of  discord  is  referred  to  the  goddess  of  that  name  ;  and  the 
classical  scholar  will  hardly  fail  to  recognize,  in  the  fable  of  the 
golden  apple  thrown  into  the  festive  assembly  of  the  gods,  and  its 
results  of  discord,  enmity,  strife,  and  war,  among  the  race  of  mortals, 
the  preservation  of  a  truth  of  sacred  history, — the  origin  of  evil, 
and  the  fall  of  our  first  parents  from  a  state  of  innocence  and  purity. 
24.  Indeed,  the  opposition,  the  discord,  and  the  struggle  between 
the  two  great  divisions  of  the  human  race,  with  religion  and  truth 
on  the  one  hand,  and  impiety  on  the  other,  form  the  whole  tenor  of 
primitive  history.  The  wise  and  peaceful  patriarchs,  blessed  with 
long  life,  which  they  spend  in  pastoral  simplicity  and  innocence,  are 
everywhere  described,  in  the  traditions  of  Eastern  nations,  as  an- 
noyed, harassed,  and  often  overcome,  by  a  proud,  wicked,  and  violent 
race,  of  pretended  demi-gods.  The  chief  subject  of  the  grand  epic 
poems  of  Hindoo  mythology  is  this  war  of  opposing  races.  Wicked 
nations  of  giants  attack  the  Brahrninical  races  descended  from  the 
virtuous  patriarchs,  and  the  latter  are  assisted  by  divinely-inspired 
heroes,  who  achieve  many  wonderful  victories  over  these  formidable 
foes.  Grecian  philosophers  have  embodied  the  same  legend  in  the 
fable  of  the  war  of  the  Giants  against  Jupiter,  and  of  the  Heaven- 
storming  Titans  against  their  father  Saturn.  But  the  Greeks  great- 
ly enlarged  and  beautified  the  tradition  received  by  them  from  the 
Eastern  nations,  by  representing  these  opposing  states — the  virtuous 
and  the  violent — as  the  gradual  decline  and  corruption  of  mankind; — 
going  down  from  the  Golden  age  of  human  felicity,  through  many 


612  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [PART  IIL 

transitions,  to  the  Brazen  age  of  all-ruling  violence,  disorder,  and 
crime.  At  this  period  in  the  history  of  the  human  family,  the  Bible 
tells  us  that  God  punished  the  wickedness  of  mankind  by  one  univer- 
sal flood.  But  the  vivid  imagination  of  the  Greeks  stopped  not 
here  :  they  closed  the  period  of  human  existence  by  the  Iron  age,  in 
which  they  themselves  lived — the  last  term  of  man's  progressive  de- 
generacy. 

25.  It  is  the  common  belief  that  tradition  is  the  only  source  of 
early  profane  history,  and  especially  of  the  history  of  the  antediluvi- 
ans ;  but  many  circumstances  render  this  supposition  quite  improba- 
ble.    Eminent  scholars  maintain  that  Moses  was  not  the  first  histo- 
rian, and  that  in  the  book  of  Genesis  may  be  seen  evidences  of 
several  original  records,  which  the  Hebrew  lawgiver  used  in  making 
his  compilation.     Again,  Job  is  supposed  to  have  been  an  Arabian, 
and  not  a  Hebrew ;  and  his  probable  epoch  is  placed  from  six  hun- 
dred to  eight  hundred  years  before  that  of  Moses.     But  Job  says  : 
"  Oh  that  my  words  were  ivritten  ;  Oh  that  they  were  printed  in  a 
book," — evidence  sufficient  to  show  that  in  the  time  of  Job,  long  be- 
fore Moses  compiled  the  Pentateuch,  books,  or  manuscript  records, 
were  not  unknown. 

VII. 

26.  It  is  not  improbable  that  the  antediluvians  were  acquaint 
COINCIDENCES  ed  with  a  system  of  writing,  and  had  written  annals, 

BETWEEN  which  survived  the  deluge ;  and  this  supposition  is 
PROFANE  strengthened  by  the  striking  coincidences  that  are  found 
HISTORY,  to  exist  between  the  Mosaic  records  of  the  antediluvian 

world,  and  those  found  in  the  writings  of  Sanchoniatho  and  Berosus, 

the  most  ancient  of  profane  historians. 

27.  Only  a  few  fragments  of  the  writings  of  Sanchoniatho  have 
been  handed  down  to  us.     He  is  said  to  have  been  a  Phoenician  ;  and 
by  some  he  is  supposed  to  have  lived  in  the  twelfth  or  thirteenth 
century  before  the  Christian  era,  while  others  make  him  cotemporary 
with  Gideon,  a  judge  of  Israel,  and  others,  still,  carry  him  back  to 
the  era  of  the  Assyrian  queen  Semiramis.     This  writer,  in  his  Phoa 
nician  history,  gives  us  a  list  of  eight  antediluvian  generations,  the 
same  number  that  is  found  in  scripture,  commencing  with  "  Proto- 
gonos"  and  his  wife  "  Aion,"  corresponding  with  Adam  and  Eve,  and 
continuing  down,  in  the  line  of  Cain,  to  Jubal  and  Tubal  Cain,  where 
the  list  of  the  antediluvians  ends ;  but  the  genealogy  is  resumed 


CHAP.  I.]  THE   ANTEDILUVIAN    WORLD.  613 

again,  after  the  deluge,  with  Agros,  a  word  signifying  "  a  husband- 
man"— plainly  the  representative  of  Noah. 

28.  As  the  basis  of  the  Phoenician  system  of  idolatry,  this  pagan 
writer  has  evidently  antroduced  the  same  events  and  the  identical 
personages  mentioned  in  the  scripture  record.     We  indeed  know  of 
the  writings  of  Sanchoniatho  only  through  the  medium   of  their 
translation  into  Greek ;  but  the  original  signification  of  terms  has 
doubtless  been  retained  in  the  translation.     Thus  the  name  of  the 
first  man,  Protogonos,  signifies  "  first-born."     The  first  human  pair 
are  said  to  have  been  begotten  of  Wind  and  Night,  or  the  "  Spirit 
of  the  Wind,"  and  the  "  Chaos  of  Darkness  ;"  and  the  Arabic  version 
of  the  Bible  reads  that  "  a  mighty  wind  blew  upon  the  face  of  the 
waters,"  to  bring  order,  and  light,  and  life,  out  of  chaos  and  darkness. 

29.  Sanchoniatho  represents  Aion  as  first  plucking  fruit  from  trees 
for  food  :  plainly  alluding  to  the  transgression  of  Eve  in  eating  of 
the  forbidden  fruit.     The  account  of  Sanchoniathoj  down  through 
seven  generations  after  the  deluge,  although  involved  in  much  mysti- 
cism relating  to  the  worship  of  heavenly  bodies  and  deified  men,  bears 
a  striking  analogy  to  the  Bible  record,  showing  that  it  could  not  have 
been  wholly  the  result  of  mythological  fiction. 

30.  But  the  writings  ef  Berosus,  a  Chaldean  by  birth,  and  prince 
of  Belus  at  Babylon,  who  lived  in  the  time  of  Alexander  the  Great, 
are  of  still  deeper  interest,  as  confirmatory  of  the  truth  of  scripture 
history.     He  possessed  every  advantage  which  the  ancient  archives 
preserved  in  the  temple  of  Belus,  and  the  learning  and  traditions  of 
the  Chaldeans,  could  afford ;  and  his  works  were  held  in  the  highest 
repute  by  Josephus,  Eusebius,  Pliny,  and  other  writers.     Unfortu- 
nately, only  a  few  fragments  of  his  writings  are  preserved. 

31.  Berosus  gives  an  account  of  the  creation,  and  of  the  early 
ages  of  the  world,  corresponding,  in  a  very  striking  manner,  with  the 
Mosaic  record.     He  also  gives  a  list  of  ten  kings  who  reigned  in 
Chaldea  before  the  deluge,  and  records  ten  generations  of  men  after 
the  deluge — conformably  to  the  scripture  account  down  to  the  time  of 
Abraham.     The  name  of  the  first  king  given  by  Berosus,  corre- 
sponds in  meaning  with  that  of  one  of  the  antediluvian  patriarchs  of 
Sanchoniatho  ; — the  one  signifying  "  Artificer  of  light,  or  of  fire" 
and  the  other,  the  "  God  of  light,  or  of  fire;"  corresponding  with  the 
Vulcan  of  the  Greeks  and  Egyptians,  and,  in  point  of  chronology,  with 
the  Lamech  of  scripture. 

32.  The  most  ancient  of  the  gods  of  the  Chaldeans  was  the  same  as 


614  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [PART  III. 

the  Saturn  of  the  Romans,  and  the  Kronos  of  the  Greeks,  a  word 
which  appropriately  signifies  the  "  God  of  Time,"  or  the  "  Ancient  of 
Days,"  a  name  given  to  Jehovah  himself.  But  the  Greek  poets  and 
mythologists  appear  to  have  confounded  their  god  Kronos  with  the 
Noah  who  was  saved  from  the  deluge,  and  among  whose  three  sons 
the  earth  was  divided.  Carrying  out  the  mythological  fiction,  to  the 
three  sons  of  the  god  the  Greeks  ascribed  a  division  of  the  dominion  of 
the  universe.  To  Jupiter  (or  Japheth)  was  given  Heaven,  or  the 
Northern  regions :  the  sea,  or  Middle  regions,  was  assigned  to  Nep- 
tune, (or  Shem,)  and  Hell,  or  the  southern  regions,  to  Pluto,  (or  Ham,) 
— in  conformity  with  the  geography  of  the  Greeks,  placing  the  north 
pole  above,  and  the  south  pole  below,  the  horizon. 

33.  As  farther  illustrative  of  the  manner  in  which  scripture  his- 
tory is  often  found  interwoven  with  heathen  mythology,  it  may  be 
mentioned  that  Nimrod,  "  the  mighty  hunter  before  the  Lord,"  and 
the  founder  of  Babylon,  after  his  death  was  worshipped  as  a  god  by 
the  Chaldeans,  and  was  supposed  to  be  translated  into  the  constella- 
tion Orion,  attended  by  his  hounds,  and  still  pursuing  his  favorite 
game,  the  "  Great  Bear" — changed  into  a  constellation  also.     In 
Grecian  mythology  the  constellation  Orion  is  represented  as  a  war- 
rior of  gigantic  stature  wielding  a  sword.     The  Arabian  name  of  this 
constellation  signifies  "  giant,"  or  "  hero."    The  English  term  warrior 
is  almost  identical  in  form  and  pronunciation  with  the  Greek  oarion 
(oapiuv)  an  early  name  of  Orion.     Moreover,  in  an  ancient  Hindoo 
statue,  where  Nimrod,  or  Orion,  is  called  Bala  Rama,  from  Baal  or 
Belus,  he  is  represented  with  a  thick  cudgel  in  his  right  hand,  and 
his  shoulders  covered  with  the  skin  of  a  tiger ;  and  it  is  believed 
that  the  scripture  Nimrod,  the  Assyrian  Baal,  and  the  Hindoo  Balat 
were  but  the  prototype  of  the  Grecian  Hercules,  with  his  club  and 
lion's  skin.     Thus  the  true  scripture  history  of  that  "  mighty  hunter" 
Nimrod  has  given  rise  to  many  a  wild  legend  in  Hindoo,  Greek,  and 
Arabian  mythology t — giving  the  hero  a  renown  wider  than  his  fame 
while  living ;  and  when  Earth  could  not  sufficiently  honor  him,  he  is 
translated  to  the  Heavens,  where  he  still  shines  as  a  brilliant  constel- 
lation of  glories  near  the  southern  horizon. 

34.  But  among  the  numerous  and  wide-spread  traditions,  which, 
TRADITIONS  even  am^  *^e  gross  darkness  of  heathenism,  still  pre- 

OF  THE      serve  the  great  outlines  of  primitive  history,  and  corrob- 

DKLUGE.      orate  the  truth  of  the  scripture  narrative,  none  are  more 

satisfactory  than  those  which  relate  to  the  destruction  of  mankind  by  a 


CHAP.  I. J  THE  ANTEDILUVIAN    WORLD.  615 

universal  deluge.  There  has  scarcely  been  found  a  heathen  nation 
or  tribe,  in  all  the  wide  extent  of  the  eastern  hemisphere — among 
the  islands  of  the  sea,  or  throughout  our  own  vast  continent  from 
Greenland  to  Patagonia,  which  did  not  possess  some  traditionary 
record  of  this  closing  act  in  the  drama  of  the  antediluvian  world. 

35.  For  the  traditions  of  the  Asiatics  on  this  subject  we  again  re- 
fer to  the  Chaldean  historian  Berosus,  and  give  the  account  which 
he  compiled  from  the  archives  preserved  in  the  great  temple  of  the 
gods  of  the  Chaldeans.     "  In  the  reign  of  Xisuthrus,  the  last  of  the 
antediluvian  kings,"  says  Berosus,  "  the  great  deluge  came  upon  the 
earth.     Saturn,  (or  God,)  appeared  to  Xisuthrus  in  a  dream,  and 
told  him  that  on  the  fifteenth  day  of  the  month  Daesius  mankind 
should  be  destroyed  by  a  flood.     Therefore  he  commanded  him  to 
write  a  history  of  the  origin,  progress,  and  end  of  all  things,  and  to 
bury  the  writings  underground,  in  Sipparse,  the  city  of  the  sun.    Then 
he  ordered  him  to  build  a  ship,  and  to  enter  into  it  with  his  kindred 
and  friends,  and  also  to  store  the  vessel  with  provisions,  and  to  take 
into  it  fowls  and  four  footed  beasts ;  and  when  he  had  thus  provided 
everything,  if  he  should  be  asked  whither  he  intended  to  sail,  he  should 
say,  To  the  Gods,  to  pray  for  tJie  happiness  of  mankind. 

36.  "  Xisuthrus  did  not  disobey  the  divine  command,  but  built  a 
vessel  five  furlongs  in  length  and  two  furlongs  in  breadth ;  and  hav- 
ing got  all  things  in  readiness,  he  put  on  board  his  wife,  children, 
and  friends.     Then  the  flood  came  upon  the  earth  5  and  after  it  be- 
gan to  abate,  Xisuthrus  let  out  certain  birds,  which,  finding  no  food, 
nor  a  place  to  rest  upon,  returned  again  to  the  ship.     After  some 
days  he  let  out  the  birds  again,  but  they  came  back  to  the  ship  a 
second  time,  having  their  feet  daubed  with  mud  ;  but  being  let  out  a 
third  time,  they  returned  no  more  to  the  ship,  whereby  Xisuthrus 
understood  that  dry  land  had  appeared.     Then  he  opened  the  sides 
of  the  ship,  and  seeing  that  it  rested  on  a  certain  mountain,  he 
went  out  with  his  wife  and  daughter,  and  pilot ;  and  after  he  had 
worshipped,  and  built  an  altar,  and  sacrificed  to  the  Gods,  he,  and 
those  who  went  out  with  him,  disappeared.     But  they  who  had  stayed 
in  the  ship,  finding  that  Xisuthrus  and  his  companions  did  not  return, 
went  out  to  seek  them,  calling  them  aloud  by  name.     Xisuthrus, 
indeed,  was  seen  by  them  no  more  ;  but  his  voice  was  heard  issuing 
from  the  air,  and  commanding  them,  as  their  duty,  to  be  religious ; 
and  informing  them  that  he  himself,  on  account  of  his  piety,  was 
gone  from  them  to  dwell  with  the  Gods ;  and  that  his  wife,  daughter, 


616  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [PART  III. 

and  pilot,  were  partakers  of  the  same  honor.  He  told  them,  farther, 
that  they  should  go  again  to  Babylonia ;  and  that  it  was  ordained 
for  them  to  take  the  writings  from  Sipparae,  and  communicate  them  to 
mankind.  He  added  that  the  place  where  they  were  was  in  Armenia. 
When  they  heard  this  they  offered  sacrifice  to  the  Gods,  and  then 
went  to  Babylonia.  And  when  they  came  thither  they  dug  up  the 
writings  at  Sipparae,  built  many  cities,  created  temples,  and  rebuilt 
Babylon." 

37.  Such  is  the  Chaldean  account  of  the  deluge,  once  believed  in 
by  numerous  pagan  nations  throughout  a  large  portion  of  Central 
Asia.     If  we  pass  to  Greece,  we  find  there,  also,  some  faint  records  of 
the  same  great  event  of  primitive  history,  in  the  traditionary  accounts 
of  the  deluge  of  Deucalion.     The  fable  relates  that  when  Jupiter 
designed  to  destroy  the  brazen  race  of  men  on  account  of  their  iin 
piety,  Deucalion,  prince  of  Thessaly,  by  the  advice  of  his  father,  made 
himself  an  ark,  and,  putting  provisions  therein,  entered  it  with  his 
wife  Pyrrha.     Jupiter  then  poured  rain  from  heaven,  and  inundated 
the  greater  part  of  Greece,  so  that  all  the  people,  except  a  few  who 
escaped  to  the  lofty  mountains,  perished  in  the  waves.     Deucalion 
was  carried  along  the  sea  in  his  ark  or  vessel  during  nine  days  and 
nights,  until  he  reached  Mount  Parnassus.     By  this  time  the  rain 
had  ceased,  and  leaving  his  ark,  he  sacrificed  to  Jupiter,  who  sent  to 
him  Mercury,  the  messenger  of  the  Gods,  desiring  him  to  ask  what- 
ever he  wished.     His  request  was  to  have  the  earth  replenished  with 
men.     By  the  direction  of  the  oracle,  thereupon  he  and  his  wife 
threw  stones  behind  them,  and  those  which  Deucalion  cast  became 
men — those  thrown  by  Pyrrha  became  women.     Plutarch  says, ';  The 
early  mythologists  assert  that  a  dove,  let  fly  from  the  ark,  was  to 
Deucalion  a  sign  of  bad  weather  if  it  came  in  again — of  good  weather 
if  it  flew  away.     According  to  the  Latin  writers  the  deluge  over- 
spread the  whole  earth,  and  all  animal  life  perished  except  Deucalion 
and   Pyrrha,  who  were  conveyed  in  a  small  boat  to  the  summit  of 
Mount  Parnassus,  as  some  say;  but,  as  others  relate,  to  Mount  .ZEtna." 

38.  When  the  genius  of  Columbus  led  to  the  discovery  of  a  new 
world  across   the  wide  Atlantic,  even  there,  by  the  rude  Indian  in 
the  very  solitude  of  the  American  forests,   as  well   as  among  the 
semi-civilized  Mexicans  and  Peruvians,  where  the  Bible  was  never 
known,  nor  the  name  of  Jehovah  ever  uttered,  were  preserved  traces 
of  the  inspired  record  of  the  Jewish  lawgiver.     A  Mexican  tradition 
preserved  by  Clavigero,  Humboldt.  and  others,  relates  that,  at  the 


CHAP.  I]  THE   ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD.  617 

time  of  the  great  deluge,  Tezpi,  with  his  wife  and  children,  embarked 
in  a  calli  or  house,  taking  with  him  several  animals,  and  the  seeds  of 
different  fruits ;  and  that  when  the  waters  began  to  withdraw,  a  bird 
called  aura  was  sent  out,  which  remained  feeding  upon  carrion  ;  and 
that  other  birds  were  then  sent  out,  which  did  not  return,  except  the 
humming-bird,  which  brought  a  small  branch  in  its  mouth.  Another 
tradition  relating  to  the  building  of  the  great  Mexican  pyramid  at 
Cholula,  by  a  race  of  giants,  asserts  that  the  gods,  beholding  with 
wrath  the  attempts  to  build  an  edifice  whose  top  should  reach  the 
clouds,  hurled  fire  upon  the  pyramid,  by  which  numbers  of  the 
workmen  perished.  In  one  of  the  Mexican  picture  writings  is  a  de- 
lineation of  a  venerable  looking  man,  the  Mexican  Noah,  who,  with 
his  wife,  was  saved  in  a  canoe  at  the  time  of  the  great  inundation, 
and,  upon  the  retiring  of  the  waters  of  the  flood,  was  landed  upon  a 
mountain  called  Colhuacan.  Their  children  were  born  dumb ;  and 
different  languages  were  taught  them  by  a  dove  from  a  lofty  tree. 
The  wide-spread  Algonquin  nation,  extending  over  most  of  the 
country  eastward  of  the  Mississippi,  and  embracing  numerous  tribes 
speaking  different  languages,  preserved  a  tradition  of  the  original 
creation  of  the  earth  from  water,  and  of  a  subsequent  general  in- 
undation. The  Iroquois  tribes  of  New  York  likewise  had  a  tradition 
of  a  general  deluge,  but  from  which  they  supposed  that  no  human 
being  escaped ;  and  that,  in  order  to  repeople  the  earth,  beasts  were 
changed  into  men.  One  tribe  held  the  tradition,  not  only  of  a  gen- 
eral deluge,  but  also  of  an  age  of  fire,  which  destroyed  every  human 
being  except  one  man  and  one  woman,  who  were  saved  in  a  cavern. 

39.  The  Tamenacs,  a  nation  in  the  northern  part  of  South  America, 
say  that  their  progenitor,  Amalivica,  arrived  in  their  country  in  a 
bark  canoe  at  the  time  of  the  great  deluge,  which  is  called  the  age 
of  water.  This  tradition,  with  some  modifications,  was  current 
among  many  tribes ;  and  the  .name  of  Amalivica  was  found  spread 
over  a  region  of  more  than  forty  thousand  square  miles,  where  he 
was  termed  the  "  Father  of  mankind."  The  aboriginal  Chilians  say 
that  their  progenitor  escaped  from  the  deluge  by  ascending  a  high 
mountain,  which  they  still  point  out.  The  natives  of  New  Granada 
have  a  tradition  that  they  were  taught  to  clothe  themselves,  to  worship 
the  sun,  and  to  cultivate  the  earth,  by  an  old  man  with  a  long  flowing 
beard  ;  but  that  his  wife,  less  benevolent,  caused  the  valley  of  Bogota 
to  be  inundated,  by  which  all  the  natives  perished,  except  a  few  who 
were  saved  on  the  mountains. 


618  PHILOSOPHY   OF  HISTORY.  [PART  III. 

40.  These  traditions,  and  many  others  of  a  similar  character  that 
might  be  mentioned,  form  an  important  link  in  the  chain  of  testimo- 
ny which  goes  to  substantiate  the  authenticity  of  the  writings  of  the 
early  Jewish  historian  Moses.     To  prove  this  portion  of  the  Bible 
record  true,  is  a  point  gained  by  the  historian,  and  one  that  has  an 
important  bearing  on  the  philosophy  of  subsequent  history.     And 
with  reference  to  the  character  of  the  historical  portion  of  the  proof — 
the  only  portion  to  which  we  have  alluded, — we  may  safely  assert 
that  no  one  can  rationally  account  for  the  similarity  and  the  univer- 
sality of  these  traditionary  legends  of  a  universal  deluge,  but  by  the 
supposition  that  all  were  derived  from  one  and  the  same  original 
source — from  the  positive  knowledge  which  mankind  once  possessed, 
of  the  actual  drowning  of  a  wicked  world.     Early  dispersion  of  the 
primitive  families — the  formation  of  tribes — the  rise  of  distinct  na- 
tions, and  the  growth  of  different  languages,  would  pervert  the  stream 
of  history  from  its  legitimate  channel ;  and  while  the  traditions  of 
so  important  an  event  as  a  universal  deluge  would  be  preserved 
among  people  however  rude  and  barbarous,  they  would  naturally  be 
varied  in  detail  and  changed  in  locality,  as  we  find  them,  owing  to 
the  propensity  of  mankind  to  signalize  their  own  countries  and  their 
own  ancestors. 

41.  If  the  sceptic  assert  that  those  traditions  of  the  Old  World 
to  which  we  have  referred  were  derived  from  the  fabulous  religious 
books  of  the  Jews,  the  assumption  will  not,  assuredly,  account  for 
those,   equally  wonderful,  found  among  the  American  aborigines. 
We  behold  the  unlettered  tribes  of  a  vast  continent,  who  nave  lost 
all  knowledge  of  their  origin,  or  migration  hither,  preserving,  with  re- 
markable distinctness,  the  apparent  tradition  of  certain  events  which 
the  inspired  penman  tells  us  happened  in  the  early  ages  of  the  world's 
history.     We  readily  detect  in  several  of  these  traditions,  clouded 
though  they  are  by  fable,  a  striking  coincidence  with  the  scriptural 
accounts  of  the  creation  and  the  deluge,  while  in  others  we  think  we 
see  some  faint  memorials  of  the  destruction  of  the  "  cities  of  the 
plain"  by  "  fire  which  came  down  from  heaven,"  and  of  that  "  con- 
fusion of  tongues"  which  fell  upon  the  descendants  of  Noah  in  the 
plains  of  Shinar.     If  the  scriptural  account  of  the  deluge,  and  the 
saving  of  Noah  and  his  family,  be  only  a  "  delusive  fable,"  at  what 
time,  and  under  what  circumstances,  it  may  be  asked,  could  such  a 
fable  have  been  imposed  upon  the  world  for  a  fact,  and  with  such  im- 
pressive force  that  it  should  be  credited  as  true,  and  transmitted,  in 


CHAP.  I.]  THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD.  619 

many  languages,  through  different  nations,  and  successive  ages,  by 
oral  tradition  alone  ?  Those  who  can  admit  the  supposition  of  cre- 
dulity so  universal,  have  no  alternative  but  to  reject  the  evidence  de- 
rived from  all  human  experience,  and,  with  a  world  of  testimony 
weighing  against  them,  to  stand  forth  the  irrational  advocates  of 
infidel  unbelief. 

VIII. 

42.  "We  have  thus  passed,  very  cursorily,  over  the  most  prominent 
subjects  connected  with  the  history  of  the  antediluvian  world :  we 
have  called  the  attention  of  the  student  to  the  geological 

theory  of  the  antiquity  of  our  globe — the  nature  of  the  ^^LOGY 
six  days'  works  of  creation — the  unity  of  the  human  race 
— the  leading  facts  of  antediluvian  history  presented  in  the  Bible,  with 
some  of  the  collateral  testimony  corroborative  of  them — the  anal- 
ogies between  the  early  histories  of  all  nations,  showing  a  common 
origin  of  their  mythological  legends — and  the  traditionary  and  his- 
torical evidences  of  a  general  deluge.  We  might  here,  appropriate- 
ly, bring  this  chapter  to  a  close,  but  the  importance  of  establishing 
the  date  of  the  deluge,  reminds  us  that  this  is  a  fitting  opportunity 
to  call  the  attention  of  the  student  to  the  general  subject  of  ancient 
chronology. 

43.  One  of  the  greatest  difficulties  which  the  modern  critical  com- 
piler of  ancient  history  has  to  encounter,  is  that  of  deducing  from 
the  great  variety  of  dates  which  different  writers  have  assigned  to 
the  same  events,  a  system  of  chronology  that  shall  not  be  inconsist- 
ent with  the  best  lights  of  history,  and  that  shall,  at  the  same  time, 
harmonize  with  the  revelations  of  modern  science.     The  hope  of  en- 
tirely avoiding  errors  which  future  learning  and  research  may  not 
detect,  would  be  presumption ;  and  all  that  can  reasonably  be  re- 
quired of  the  historian  is,  that  he  shall  adopt  the  best  accredited 
chronology  of  his  predecessors,  with  such  corrections  as  later  investi- 
gation may  have  rendered  reasonable.     It  is  a  matter  of  much  re- 
gret, however,  that  while  the  antiquarian  researches  of  the  learned 
have  established  a  standard  of  ancient  chronology,  which,  by  the 
amendments  it  is  occasionally  receiving,  is  gradually  approximating 
nearer  and  nearer  to  truth  and  reason,  the  great  mass  of  modern 
compilers  of  ancient  history,  editors,  and  publishers,  still  blindly  ad- 
here to  some  of  the  old  systems  of  chronology,  which  have  long  been 
discarded  by  the  learned.     The  evidently  widely-erroneous  dates  of 


020 


PHILOSOPHY   OF    HISTORY. 


the  creation  and  the  deluge  that  are  still  retained  in  the  margins  of 
our  modern  Bibles,  and  in  our  histories,  are  cases  in  point,  showing 
the  tenacity  with  which  printed  and  venerated  error  is  adhered  to  by 
the  mass  of  mankind.  We  are  aware  that  most  people  have  been  led 
to  regard  everything  embraced  within  the  cover  of  a  Bible  as  inspired 
truth,  ignorant  that  nearly  the  whole  of  Bible  chronology,  not  con- 
tained in  the  text,  but  in  the  margin,  is  but  the  result  of  the  compu- 
tations of  fallible  men  like  themselves.  If  there  is  danger  that  the 
enunciation  of  the  truth  in  this  matter  will  weaken  some  innocent 
prejudices,  and  impair  a  slight  portion  of  the  veneration  with  which 
the  sacred  volume  has  been  regarded,  there  is  much  greater  danger, 
on  the  other  hand,  that  while  the  Bible  chronology  is  received  as  a 
portion  of  the  word  of  God,  its  irreconcilableness  with  modern  de- 
velopments in  science  will  furnish  the  sceptic  and  infidel  with  avail- 
able arguments  against  the  truth  of  Revelation  itself. 

44.  To  illustrate  the  chronological  difficulties  that  beset  the  path 
of  the  historical  inquirer  at  the  outset,  we  will  refer  to  some  of  the 
conflicting  dates  assigned  by  different  writers  to  a  few  important 
events  in  the  early  history  of  the  world.  The  marginal  date  given 
in  an  English  Bible  for  the  Creation,  (by  which  is  meant  the  creation 
of  Adam,)  4004  years  before  Christ,  and  which  is  taken  from  the 
chronological  system  of  Archbishop  Usher,  an  eminent  Irish  divine, 
is  only  one  among  some  three  hundred  different  computations  for  that 
epoch  : — the  highest  of  which,  that  of  the  celebrated  Swiss  historian, 
Von  Muller,  dates  that  event  6984  years  before  Christ ;  and  the  lowest, 
that  of  the  Jewish  Rabbi  Lip  man,  3616  before  Christ  5 — a  difference 
in  the  extremes  of  more  than  three  thousand  and  three  hundred  years. 
The  numerous  dates  assigned  for  the  Deluge,  a  more  important  histor- 
ical epoch,  are  almost  equally  conflicting,  and,  as  a  matter  of  some  in- 
terest as  well  as  curiosity,  we  compile  a  list  of  ten  of  the  most  prominent, 
with  the  authorities  for  each,  beginning  with  the  highest  computation : 


Septuagint  Version  of  the  Bible 3246  B.  C. 

Jackson,  (Antiquities  &  Chronology)  3170    « 
Dr.  Hales,  (a  celebrated  English  di- 
vine and  chronologist) 3155     " 

Josephus,  (the  Jewish  historian) ....  3146    " 
Persian  Computation 3103    " 


Samaritan  text  of  the  Bible 2998  B.  C. 

Playfair 2352    " 

Usher,  and  English  Bible 2348    " 

Hebrew  text  of  the  Bible 2288    " 

Vulgar  Jewish  Computation 2104    « 


45.  Here  we  find  a  difference  in  the  extremes  of  no  less  than 
eleven  hundred  and  forty-two  years ;  and  it  is  not  improbable  that 
subsequent  hieroglyphical  discoveries  in  Egypt,  will  yet  render  certain 


CHAP.  I]  THE   ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD.  621 

a  date  prior  to  any  here  given.  For  the  Exodus  of  the  Israelites 
from  Egypt  we  find  ten  prominent  dates  assigned  by  the  learned, 
ranging  from  1312  to  1686  B.  C., — differing,  in  the  extremes,  three 
hundred  and  seventy-four  years.  And  coming  down  to  a  later  period, 
where  there  are  seemingly  more  reliable  data,  we  find  similar  dis- 
crepancies. For  the  supposed  destruction  of  Troy  we  find  ten  promi- 
nent dates  assigned  by  different  writers — from  904  to  1270  B.  C. — 
a  difference  of  three  hundred  and  sixty-six  years  :  for  the  overthrow 
of  Nineveh  dates  varying  between  596  and  896  B.  C., — a  difference 
of  three  hundred  years  :  for  the  founding  of  Rome  six  dates,  varying 
from  627  to  753  B.  C., — a  difference  of  one  hundred  and  twenty-six 
years ;  and  even  for  the  nativity  of  the  Saviour  no  less  than  ten  dif- 
ferent years  have  been  assigned, — from  the  year  seven  before  the 
vulgar  era,  to  the  third  year  after. 

46.  It  may  be  doubted  by  many  that  the  dates  assigned  for  the 
Creation  (by  which  we  mean  the  creation  of  Adam,  the  first  of  the 
human  family)  and  the  deluge,  events  so  remote,  can  be  anything 
more  than  mere  conjecture ;  as  many  of  the  uninitiated  in  science 
doubt  the  ability  of  astronomers  to  calculate  the  distances  and  orbits 
of  the  planets ;  but,  fortunately  for  the  cause  of  historic  truth,  the 
proofs  in  the  former  case  are  much  more  easy  of  comprehension  to 
the  uneducated  than  in  the  latter.     And  in  the  first  place  we  will 
endeavor  to  show,  briefly,  why  the  common  era  of  the  deluge  is 
probably  erroneous,  and  the  necessity  of  assigning  that  event  to  a 
more  remote  epoch,  which,  at  the  same  time,  shall  not  conflict  with 
the  testimony  of  authentic  Revelation. 

47.  The  epoch  of  the  deluge  is  calculated  by  scripture  chronology 
backward  from  the  nativity  of  the  Saviour,  through  the  successive 
generations  of  the  human  family  as  they  are  recorded  in  the  Bible ; 
and  the  creation  of  Adam,  backward,  in  a  similar  manner,  from  the 
deluge.     If  the  successions  and  ages  of  the  several  generations  in 
this  chronological  chain  were  plain,  and  no  apprehension  existed  of 
interpolations  or  retrenchments  by  the  hand  of  man,  the  results 
would  be  easily  attained,  and  incontrovertible  ;  but  neither  of  these 
postulates  can  be  assumed.     Some  partial  links  in  the  chain  have  to 
be  supplied  by  human  calculation  :  yet  the  errors  that  might  thus 
accrue  would  doubtless  be  small ;  but,  as  if  to  obliterate  the  only 
reliable  landmarks,  and  throw  all  into  inextricable  confusion,  the 
several  versions  of  scripture  differ  considerably  in  their  chronological 
results ;  and  here  is  the  great  source  of  uncertainty  and  error. 


622  PHILOSOPHY   OF   HISTORY.  [PART  III. 

48.  In  the  time  of  Josephus,  the  first  century  after  Christ,  the 
sacred  scriptures  were  found  only  in  Hebrew  and  in  Greek — the 
latter,  called  the  Septuagint  version,  being  a  copy  of  the  former. 
From  the  Hebrew,  Josephus  translated  his  Jewish  Antiquities  into 
the  Greek  language  ;  at  which  time,  as  there  is  every  reason  to  be- 
lieve, the  genealogies  of  the  antediluvian  patriarchs,  and  of  the  de- 
scendants of  Noah,  were  the  same  in  the  Hebrew  as  in  the  Greek 
version  of  the  Bible,  with  both  of  which  the  computations  of  Josephus 
evidently  corresponded.     Subsequently,  however,  a  remarkable  dif- 
ference has  arisen  between  copies  of  the  Hebrew  and  of  the  Grecian 
text,  in  the  lengths  of  the  successive  generations,  amounting  to  at 
least  six  hundred  years  in  the  records  of  the  antediluvian  world,  and 
seven  hundred  in  the  subsequent  period. 

49.  When,  by  whom,  and  in  what  versions  of  the  scriptures,  the 
chronological  errors  were  introduced,  has  long  been  a  subject  of  in- 
vestigation with  the  learned ;  and  a  variety  of  evidence,  of  a  highly 
interesting  character,  has  at  length  been  adduced,  proving  that,  while 
the  Septuagint  has  remained  essentially  unchanged,  the  chronology 
of  the  Hebrew  text  has  been  perverted  at  different  times  by  the 
Jews,  that  the  prophecies  concerning  the  advent  of  the  Saviour  might 
not  appear  to  be  fulfilled,  and  that  the  reality  of  the  Christian  Mes- 
siah might  thereby  be  disproved.     The  chronology  of  Usher,  which 
was  adopted  in  the  margin  of  the  English  Bible  by  act  of  Parliament, 
is  based,  principally,  on  the  Jewish  systems  and  the  Hebrew  text, 
instead  of  the  Septuagint ;   but  it  has  been  relinquished  by  the 
ablest  chronologers  of  the  present  time,  principally  on  account  of  its 
irreconcilableness  with  the  rise  of  the  primitive  empires ; — the  As- 
syrian, the  Egyptian,  the  Indian,  and  the  Chinese — all  of  which  sug- 
gest earlier  dates  for  the  deluge. 

50.  Moreover,  recent  hieroglyphical  discoveries  in  Egypt  prove 
very  conclusively  that  the  deluge  must  have  occurred  many  centuries 
before  the  date  usually  assigned  to  it,  (2348  B.  C.,)  for  we  are  now 
able  to  trace  the  outlines  of  Egyptian  history  back  as  far  as  that 
period ;  but  even  at  that  time  the  Egyptian  monarchy  must  have 
been   already  old,  for  the  greatest  of  the  pyramids  was  then  in  ex- 
istence,— quarries  had  been  worked,  mines  explored,  the  arts  and 
sciences  cultivated,  and  tombs  had  been  quarried  in  the  rocks  for 
thousands  and  perhaps  millions  of  the  departed.     Dr.  Hales,  one  of 
the  ablest  of  modern  chronologists,  dates  the  era  of  the  creation  at 
5411  B.  C.,  and  of  the  deluge  at  the  year  3155 ;  but  it  is  not  im- 


CIIAP.  I]  THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD.  623 

probable  that  subsequent  researches  will  render  it  necessary  to  carry 
these  events  back  farther  still. 

5 1 .  While  some  of  the  conflicting  dates  which  we  have  enumerated 
still  remain  unsettled,  and  open  for  further  investigations  of  the 
learned,  others  have  become  fixed  almost  beyond  the  possibility  of 
error,  as  is  the  case  with  the  important  historical  epoch  of  the  nativity 
of  the  Saviour,  and  the  founding  of  Rome.     The  true  date  of  the 
birth  of  the  Saviour  is  determined  from  the  following  circumstances. 
From  scripture  we  learn  that  Christ  was  born  a  short  time  before 
the  close  of  the  reign  of  Herod  ;  and  the  death  of  Herod  is  calculated 
from  an  eclipse  of  the  moon,  which  is  incidentally  stated  by  Josephus 
to  have  occurred  a  few  days  before  that  event.     Chrysostom,  Petavius, 
Prideaux,  Play  fair,  &c.,  followed  by  Dr.  Hales  in  his  Analysis  of 
Chronology,  date  the  birth  of  the  Saviour  seven  hundred  and  forty- 
nine  years  after  the  founding  of  Rome,  or  four  years  earlier  than  the 
common  or  vulgar  era.  '*l*?  ' 

52.  Whether  Romulus,  the  attributed  founder  of  Rome,  be  a 
fabulous  personage  or  not,  there  must  have  been  some  event  handed 
down  by  tradition,  as  the  origin  of  the  city  ;  and  that  event  is  marked 
by  Cicero  and  Plutarch  as  having  occurred  on  a  day  when  there  was 
a  total  eclipse  of  the  sun.     Here  again  modern  astronomy  comes  to 
the  aid  of  history,  and,  tracing  back  the  sun's  pathway  through  the 
heavens,  finds  there  was  an  eclipse  of  the  sun  visible  at  Rome,  B.  C. 
July  5th,  753,  and  thus  establishes  the  era,  whether  real  or  fabulous 
it  matters  not,  to  which  early  tradition  refers  the  origin  of  the 
"  eternal  city,  Rome." 

53.  We  might  adduce  numerous  other  instances,  equally  interest- 
ing, in  which  the  light  of  astronomical  science,  as  far  reaching  into 
the  gloom  of  the  past  as  the  telescope,  its  handmaid,  into  the  regions 
of  space,  has  rendered  brilliant,  with  the  certainty  of  truth,  portions 
of  history  hitherto  enveloped  in  the  obscurity  of  gloom  and  con- 
jecture.    Who  would  have  thought  that  modern  astronomy  could 
have  anything  to  do  with  fixing  the  era  in  which  the  patriarch  Job 
lived  ?     It  is  known  that,  owing  to  a  small  annual  variation  in  the 
path  of  the  ecliptic,  the  sun's  place  among  the  constellations  of  the 
zodiac,  at  any  given  season  of  the  year,  is  now  greatly  different  from 
what  it  was  in  remote  ages.     Job  alludes  to  some  of  the  constella- 
tions in  such  a  manner  as  to  designate,  with  much  probability,  the 
postions,  relative  to  the  ecliptic,  which  some  of  them  occupied  in  his 
time ;  and  the  learned  chronologist,  Dr.  Hales,  professes  to  have  as- 


624  PHILOSOPHY   OF  HISTORY.  [PART  III 

certained,  by  a  very  interesting  astronomical  calculation  on  the  pre- 
cession of  the  equinoxes,  that  the  time  of  Job's  trials  was  in  the  year 
2337  B.  G;  or  eight  hundred  and  eighteen  years  after  the  deluge, 
and  one  hundred  and  eighty -four  years  before  the  birth  of  Abraham. 
54.  If  history  is  the  preserver  of  the  records  of  the  sciences,  the 
latter  often  repay  the  boon  by  verifying  the  annals  of  the  former ; — 
and  how  beautifully  do  the  examples  we  have  given  illustrate  the 
truth,  that  all  the  fragments  of  varied  knowledge  are  but 

"parts  of  one  stupendous  whole, 
Whose  body  Nature  is,  and  God  the  soul." 


IX. 

55.  In  closing  this  brief  sketch  of  antediluvian  history,  we  may 
well  linger  for  a  moment  to  cast  a  parting  glance  over  the  vast  field 
passed  so  rapidly  in  review  before  us. 

From  this  habitable  world  now  covered  with  verdure  and  filled 
with  life  and  beauty,  imagination,  directed  by  science,  carries  us  back 
through  the  long  vista  of  ages  unnumbered  and  almost  numberless, 
to  a  period  ere  the  fiat  of  the  Almighty  called  light  and  life  into 
being; — when  the  materials  of  our  globe,  probably  in  a  state  of 
vapor,  were  floating  in  darkness  in  the  "  vast  contiguity  of  space" 
now  lighted  up  by  the  sun,  and  moon,  and  worlds  of  our  planetary 
system.  In  the  first  stage  of  change,  this  mass  of  vapor,  gradually 
condensing,  becomes  a  melted  globe  of  fire ;  and  as  age  after  age 
passes  away,  the  surface,  cooling,  forms  a  crust,  ever  and  anon  broken 
by  the  gases  that  escape  from  the  burning  mass  below.  But  as 
myriads  of  years  roll  by,  the  crust  thickens  until  it  becomes  habit- 
able for  those  rude  orders  of  vegetable  and  animal  life  that  mark  the 
first  era  in  the  geological  history  of  our  globe.  Here  are  seen  the 
first  "  foot-prints  of  the  Creator  ;"  and  here  geology  begins  its  interest- 
ing record  of  life  and  death,  of  growth  and  decay.  But  race  after 
race  of  animal  and  vegetable  life  must  pass  away,  mountains  and  con- 
tinents be  thrown  up  by  internal  fires  from  the  beds  of  the  ocean, 
again  to  be  submerged,  and  to  rise  again,  and  again,  as  one  mighty  con- 
vulsion succeeds  another,  before  the  earth  shall  be  rendered  fit  for 
the  habitation  of  man. 

56.  The  second  portion  of  our  subject — the  history  of  the  antedi- 
luvian world  proper — embraces  a  period  of  more  than  two  thousand 
years, — extending  from  the  creation  of  man  to  the  deluge  ;  a  period 


CHAP.  II.]  THE   ANTEDILUVIAN   WORLD.  625 

nearly  as  long  as  that  which  intervened  between  the  deluge  and  the 
Christian  era.  For  the  history  of  the  human  race  during  this  long 
period,  we  have  only  a  few  pages  of  the  Bible,  but  authenticated,  in 
all  their  leading  features,  by  the  collateral  testimony  of  universal 
tradition.  In  vain  we  look  beyond  this  simple  record,  and  would 
seek  to  know  more — to  learn  something  of  the  extent,  and  the  num- 
bers, of  the  population  of  the  globe — the  kind  of  civilization* — and  the 
empires  that  arose  and  fell,  ere  the  deluge  swept  away  our  guilty  race, 
and  their  memorials  with  them.  Judging  from  what  the  Bible  tells 
us,  that  "  there  were  giants  in  those  days,"  and  that  men  lived  to  an 
age  of  several  hundred  years,  we  might  infer  that  everything  in  those 
early  times  was  on  a  scale  of  stupendous  magnitude ;  and  that  we 
are  a  pigmy  and  ephemeral  race  in  comparison  with  our  antediluvian 
fathers.  The  fabulous  portions  of  the  history  of  the  oldest  Asiatic 
nations — of  Egypt  and  of  Greece — suggest  the  same  comparison  : 
for  they  magnify  the  kings  of  their  early  dynasties  into  gods,  some 
of  whom  are  said  to  have  reigned  on  the  earth  a  thousand  years. 

57.  But  apart  from  uncertain  conjecture,  antediluvian  history  is  of 
exceeding  interest  as  being  the  evident  source  whence  the  heathen,  as 
well  as  the  Christian  world,  has  derived  its  knowledge  of  an  omnipo- 
tent Creator  ; — and  as  the  source  whence  paganism  has  derived  the 
materials  that  have  served  as  the  foundation  on  which  to  build  its 
own  systems  of  mythology.  And  thus  while  man  was  departing  wider 
and  wider  from  the  knowledge  of  the  true  God,  he  still  adhered  to 
the  great  principles  of  eternal  truth  which  the  God  whom  he  had 
forsaken  had  taught  him.  Those  great  traditionary  legends  which 
the  pride  and  impiety  of  a  heathen  world  had  set  up  in  opposition  to 
the  true  religion,  still  prove  to  be  diverging  rays  of  light  which 
centre  in  the  throne  of  the  Eternal.  Thus  God  has  made  the  tra- 
ditions of  the  heathen  to  confirm  his  own  revealed  Word,  and  the 
very  wickedness  of  man  to  praise  him. 


40 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [PART  III 


CHAPTER   II. 

EARLY  EGYPTIAN,  ASSYRIAN,  AND  BABYLONIAN  CIVILIZATION 

ANALYSTS.  1.  EXCLUSIVE  POLICY  OF  THK  EARLY  EGYPTIANS.  Our  earliest  information 
respecting  Egypt.  Dense  population.  CHARACTER  OF  THE  TESTIMONY  OF  HERODOTUS. — 2. 
The  THREE  GREAT  EGYPTIAN  DYNASTIES.  That  of  Saturn  and  his  successors.  Of  the  eight 
demi-gods.  Of  the  subsequent  kings.— 3.  The  first  period  wholly  fabulous.  The  second 
period. — 4.  Character  of  EGYPTIAN  HISTORY  FROM  MENES  TO  JOSEPH.  Our  knowledge  of  the 
condition  of  the  people  during  that  period.  Light  thrown  upon  the  subject  by  the  interpreta- 
tion of  the  hieroglyphics. 

5.  EGYPTIAN  HIEROGLYPHICS.  The  French  expedition  to  Egypt  in  1798.  The  Rosetta  tab- 
let.—6.  Construction  of  the  hieroglyphic  alphabet,  and  translation  of  the  hieroglyphics.— 7. 
Three-fold  character  of  the  hieroglyphic  writing.  Illustrations.  Supposed  manner  in  which 
the  changes  occurred.  Difficulty  of  interpretation.— 8.  Various  peculiarities  of  the  Egyptian 
system. — 9.  The  three  classes  of  the  hieroglyphic  writing, — hieroglyphic  proper,  hieretic,  and 
demotic. — 10.  The  hieroglyphics  in  the  Coptic  language.  Theological  and  historical  writings. 
—11.  Results  of  the  translations  of  the  hieroglyphics.— 12.  Confirmatory  of  portions  of  Manetho's 
history.  Manetho's  writings.  Their  character. — 13.  The  founding  of  the  pyramids. — 14.  Great  an- 
tiquity of  the  hieroglyphics  and  of  the  pyramids.— 15.  Both  in  existence  before  the  time  of  Moses. 

16.  Supposed  Ethiopian  origin  of  THE  EARLY  INHABITANTS  OF  EGYPT,  and  of  Egyptian  civ- 
ilization.— 17.  Supposed  antiquity  of  Ethiopian  civilization. — 18.  Asiatic  origin,  and  migration, 
of  the  Ethiopians.— 19.  The  opposing  theory.  Egyptians,  Ethiopians,  and  Hebrews,  probably 
fraternal  tribes. 

20.  DWELLINGS  AND  PUBLIC  EDIFICES  OF  THE  EGYPTIANS.  The  arch,  and  the  Greek  orders 
of  architecture. — 21.  Knowledge  obtained  from  EGYPTIAN  SCULPTURES  AND  PAINTINGS.  His- 
torical sculptures  found  at  Thebes. — 22.  Great  extent  and  variety  of  Egyptian  paintings  and 
sculptures.— 23.  The  painting  rude  but  durable.  Stationary  character  of  Egyptian  art.— 24. 
Sculptural  representations  of  dress,  musical  instruments,  &c.  The  Muses— of  Egyptian  origin. 
— 25.  ASTRONOMICAL  KNOWLEDGE  of  the  Egyptians. — 26.  Their  attainments  in  MECHANICAL 
SCIENCE.  Construction  of  the  pyramids.— 27.  The  ART  OF  WEAVING.— 28.  The  WORKING  OF 
METALS,  &c. — 29.  Manufacture  of  pottery,  glass-ware,  potash,  wine,  &c.  Embalming.  Chem- 
istry.—30.  Household  furniture,  musical  instruments,  tools  of  artisans,  &c.  Surveying.— 31. 
SCIENCE  OF  MEDICINE. — 32.  Advanced  state  of  civilization  shown  by  division  of  labor. — 33. 
Evidences  of  the  LITERARY  ATTAINMENTS  of  the  Egyptians. — 34.  DIVISION  INTO  CASTKS,  or 
tribes. — 35.  The  Egyptian  hierarchy — 36.  The  RELIGION  OF  THE  EGYPTIANS.  Animal  worship. 
— 37.  The  religious  temples  of  the  Egyptians. — 38.  General  reverence  for  certain  animals.  The 
bull  Apis. — 39.  Worship  of  crocodiles,  serpents,  and  cats. — 40.  Oracles,  and  gods,  of  the 
Egyptians. — 41.  Origin  of  animal  worship  among  the  Egyptians. — 42.  Symbolical  or  emblemat- 
ical character  of  the  religion  of  the  Egyptians. 

43.  Scantiness  of  the  MATERIALS  OF  ASSYRIAN  HISTORY.  Chronological  obscurity,  and  con- 
flicting accounts.  Scripture  testimony. — 44.  The  writings  of  Herodotus  and  Ctesias. — 45.  Gen- 
eral rejection  of  all  but  scripture  testimony.  Relations  which  Nineveh  and  Babylon  sustained 
to  each  other.  Our  knowledge  of  Nineveh.— 46.  Assyrian  history  from  Nimrod  to  Ninus. 
From  Ninus  to  Sardanapalus. — 47.  Conflicting  accounts  relative  to  Ninus  and  Semir'  amis — 48. 
Our  knowledge  of  ASSYRIAN  CIVILIZATION.  Babylon  a  century  before  the  time  of  Herodotus. 
Its  buildings,  streets,  temples,  &c.  Nothing  incredible  in  the  statements  of  Herodotus.— 49. 
Means  of  judging  of  the  civilization  of  the  Assyrians.  Their  acquaintance  with  the  higher  de- 
partments of  science.  Sculpture,  painting,  mechanics,  religious  opinions,  &c.  Chemical  art. 
Astronomy.— 50.  The  early  acquisition  of  habits  of  regular  industry.  How  obtained.  Natural 
tendencies  and  results  of  such  a  system.  Individual  degradation.  The  contrast  between 
Assyrian  and  Grecian  civilization. — 51.  CONCLUSION. 


]  EGYPTIAN  CIVILIZATION.  627 

I. 

1.  So  completely  did  Egyptian  jealousy  exclude  all  foreign  ves 
sels  from  the  mouths  of  the  Nile,  that  Egypt  remained 
a  perfect  terra  incognita  to  the  Greeks  until  the  reign    POUOY  OF 
of  Psammetichus,  (672—618  B.  C.,)  when  a  more  liberal   THB  EARLY 
policy  towards  foreigners  was  adopted.     Our  earliest  in- 
formation respecting  the  country  is  derived  from  Herodotus,  the 
father  of  Greek  historians,  who  visited  Egypt  in  the  latter  part  of 
the  fifth  century  before  the  Christian  era,  when  it  formed  part  of  one 
of  the  twenty  Persian  satrapies.     At  that  time  the  delta  was  full  of 
large  and  populous  cities  communicating  with  each  other  and  the 
Nile  by  a  net-work  of  canals  ;  and  the  priests,  in  describing  to  Herod- 
otus the  unrivalled  prosperity  which,  they  affirmed,  Egypt  enjoyed 
under  the  last  king  before  the  Persian  conquest,  said  there  were  then 
twenty  thousand  cities  in  the  country.     As  to  what  Herodotus  him- 
self saw,  in  both  Assyria  and  Egypt,  he  is  a  guide  per- 

'  /  1,1  i  CHARACTER 

tectly  trustworthy ;   but  what  he  and  others  relate  on  OF  THE  TES. 
the  authority  of  the  Chaldean   and  Egyptian   priests    TIMONY  OF 
alone,  especially  in  relation  to  early  Assyrian  and  Egypt- 
ian history  and  chronology,  is,  in  part,  to  be  discarded  as  wholly  fabu- 
lous, and  the  rest  to  be  taken  with  a  very  great  degree  of  abatement. 
Still  it  is  interesting  to  know  what  the  priests  themselves  taught, 
and  the  common  people,  at  least,  believed  on  these  subjects.     The 
fabulous  early  history  of  Greece  and  Rome  is  perhaps  less  absurdly 
extravagant,  but  no  more  authentic. 


II. 

2.  From  the  rude  fragments  of  Egyptian  annals  that  have  been 
handed  down  to  us  from  various  sources,  the  various  gov- 
ernments of  Egypt,  both  fabulous  and  real,  like  those       GRKAT 
of  the  oldest  countries  of  Asia,  may  be  divided  into  three    BOVPTIAH 
great  dynasties :   First,  the  mythological   rule   of  the 
gods  : — Second,  the  rule  of  demi-gods  ; — and  Third,  the  rule  of  men. 
Saturn,  or  Kronos,  and  his  successors,  comprising  the  twelve  prim- 
ary divinities,  who  are  said  to  have  reigned  during  a  period  of  nearly 
four  thousand  years,  are  supposed  by  many  to  refer  to  the  patriarchal 
generations  from  Adam  to  Noah,  as  recorded  in  the  fifth  chapter 
of  Genesis.     The  eight  demi-gods,  whose  rule  commenced  some  two 
hundred  years  or  more  after  the  flood,  and  who  are  said  to  have 


628  PHILOSOPHY   OF  HISTORY.  [PART  IIL 

reigned  in  Egypt  during  a  period  of  two  centuries,  are  supposed  to 
have  comprised  the  priestly  government  of  Misraim  and  his  success- 
ors, to  the  time  of  Menes,  when  the  rule  of  thirty-one  successive 
Egyptian  families  commenced,  embracing  three  hundred  and  seventy- 
eight  kings,  and  terminating  with  the  conquest  of  Egypt  by  Alex- 
ander, three  hundred  and  thirty-one  years  before  the  Christian  era. 

3.  Everything  relating  to  the  first  period,  or  dynasty,  is  bare  con- 
jecture, based  on  the  crudest  fables.     The  second  period,  although 
subsequent  to  the  deluge,  extends  so  far  back  into  primeval  antiquity, 
and  has  so  little  connection  with  the  Bible  record,  that  nought  but 
the  existence  of  Misraim   can  be   satisfactorily  determined.     The 
fact  of  the  existence,  however,  of  such  a  person,  who  early  settled  in 
Egypt,  is,  with  a  strong  degree  of  credibility,  gathered  from  the 
Bible,  supported  by  tradition  and  the  earliest  Egyptian  chronicles  ; 
but  whether  Misraim  be  the  same  as  Menes,  as  many  have  main- 
tained, or,  as  is  now  more  generally  believed,  a  priestly  ruler  who 
lived  some  hundreds  of  years  before  him,  is  still  a  matter  of  un- 
certainty among  the  most  learned  chronologists  and  antiquarians. 

4.  Of  the  reign  of  Menes,  and  of  subsequent  events  down  to  the 

time  when  Joseph  ruled  over  Egypt,  embracing  a  long 

HISTORY      but  indefinite  period,  we  have  nothing  sufficiently  reliable, 

FROM  MENES  either  in  the  names  of  kings,  the  order  of  their  succession, 

or  the  events  of  their  reigns,  to  deserve  the  appellation 
of  genuine  history;  and  what  has  been  written  on  these  subjects 
consists  of  a  mass  of  conflicting  opinions,  rather  than  of  statements  to 
which  the  authors  themselves  attached  any  great  degree  of  credibili- 
ty. Fortunately,  however,  we  have  information  more  reliable  and 
satisfactory,  and  of  a  character  highly  interesting,  concerning  the 
social  character  and  condition  of  the  people,  and  the  progress  they 
had  made  in  the  arts  of  civilized  life  ;  and  these  subjects  deserve  the 
greater  degree  of  attention  from  the  very  obscurity  that  rests  upon 
all  those  great  public  and  political  events  which  would  otherwise 
have  formed  the  principal  materials  of  Egyptian  history.  Recently 
much  light  has  been  thrown  upon  the  early  history  of  Egypt  by  the 
interpretation  of  the  hieroglyphics  inscribed  "on  the  monuments, 
tombs,  and  temples  of  that  country.  A  brief  account  of  the  discov- 
eries thus  made  will  appropriately  introduce  the  reader  to  the  evi- 
dences that  can  be  gathered  of  early  Egyptian  civilization. 


CHAP.  II]  EGYPTIAN  CIVILIZATION.  629 

III. 

5.  The  French  expedition  into  Egypt,  under  Bonaparte,  in  1798, 
accompanied  by  a  corps  of  artists,  naturalists,  and  antiquarians, 
brought  back  a  large  number  of  copies  of  the  hieroglyph-     TOTPTIAN 
ics  found  on  the  monuments  of  that  country,  and  thus      HIKRO- 
gave  a  new  stimulus  to  the  prosecution  of  hieroglyphical     OLYPHICS- 
science.     From  these  collections  alone,  however,  it  is  probable  that 
no  discoveries  of  the  real  character  of  the  hieroglyphics  would  have 
been  made ;  but  there  was  also  discovered,  near  Rosetta,  an  engraved 
tablet,  which  has  been  called  the  Rosetta  stone,  bearing  three  inscrip- 
tions ;  the  first,  in  the  Egyptian  hieroglyphics,  or  "  sacred  writing," 
but  partly  mutilated ;  the  second  in  a  different  style  of  Egyptian 
writing,  such  as  appears  to  have  been  used  by  the  common  people ; 
and  the  third  in  ancient  Greek.     This  stone  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
English,  and  is  now  in  the  British  museum  in  London.     The  Greek 
inscription  proved  to  be  a  translation  of  the  others ;  and  thus,  finally, 
a  key  was  found,  which  afforded  the  first  clue  to  the  deciphering  of 
the  long  lost  meaning  of  Egyptian  hieroglyphics. 

6.  But  although  the  greatest  scholars  of  the  age  directed  their  at- 
tention to  this  interesting  tablet,  yet  owing  to  the  exceedingly  com- 
plex system  of  the   Egyptian  writing,  and  the  circumstance  of  its 
being  in  the  ancient  Coptic  language,  it  was  many  years  before  much 
progress  was  made  in  the  construction  of  the  hieroglyphic  alphabet. 
The  honor  of  this  great  discovery  is  principally  due  to  a  learned 
Frenchman,  Champollion,  although  he  was  greatly  aided  by  the  labors 
of  Dr.  Young  of  England,  and  others  of  his  cotemporaries.     The 
great  discovery  of  Champollion  was  made  public  in  the  year  1822, 
since  which  time  nearly  all  the  known  Egyptian  hieroglyphics  have 
been  translated  into  the  languages  of  modern  Europe. 

7.  The  hieroglyphic  Egyptian  writing,  instead  of  being  composed, 
as  in  other  languages,  wholly  of  alphabetical  letters  expressing  ^ocal 
sounds,  is  found  to  be  of  a  three-fold  character,  pictorial,  symbolical, 
and  phonetic.     For  example  :   1st.  The  delineation  or  picture  of  an 
object  is  sometimes  designed  to  convey  an  idea  of  that  object,  and 
nothing  more ;  thus,  a  crescent  is  sometimes  used  to  represent  the 
moon,  and  stands  in  place  of  the  word  moon  ;  and,  in  the  same  man- 
ner, the  leaf  of  the  palm  is  used  to  represent  the  palm-tree.     2d.  The 
delineation  or  picture  of  an  object  is  sometimes  used  symbolically 
to  convey  to  the  mind  the  meaning  of  something  represented  by  it. 
Thus  the  crescent  is  also  sometimes  used  to  denote  a  month,  probably 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [PART  IIL 

because  the  Egyptian  month  was  originally  lunar  ;  and  the  leaf  of 
the  palm  to  denote  a  year,  probably  because  the  palm  was  believed 
to  put  forth  a  branch  every  month.  3d.  A  large  portion  of  the  hiero- 
glyphic characters  are  phonetic, — that  is,  they  are  letters  designed  to 
represent  vocal  sounds,  as  in  our  own  and  other  languages.  But 
even  these  phonetic  characters  are,  many  of  them,  pictures  of  well- 
known  objects ;  so  that,  apart  from  the  pictorial  and  symbolical  por- 
tions of  the  system,  the  phonetic  portion — that  is,  the  alphabet 
proper — consists  of  a  series  of  pictorial  representations  also,  which 
have  lost  their  original  pictorial  signification.  It  is  probable,  there- 
fore, that  the  Egyptian  system  of  writing  was,  originally,  like  the 
Mexican,  wholly  pictorial ; — that  many  of  the  pictorial  signs  or  rep- 
resentations, by  a  natural  transition,  were  afterwards  used  symbol- 
ically, and,  eventually,  phonetically,  thus  producing  the  three-fold 
system  as  we  now  find  it.  Here  then  is  the  first  dimculty  to  be  en- 
countered in  interpreting  Egyptian  hieroglyphics,  even  after  the  sys- 
tem is  understood :  for  it  must  be  ascertained  in  what  particular 
sense — pictorial,  symbolical,  or  phonetic — every  character  is  to  be 
taken  :  for  a  character  may  stand,  pictorially,  for  an  object,  or,  sym- 
bolically, for  something  associated  with  it,  or,  phonetically,  for  some 
sound  to  which  it  has  been  appropriated. 

8.  A  second  peculiarity  of  the  Egyptian  system  of  writing  is  the 
subjoining,  to  the  phonetic  name  of  an  object,  of  a  pictorial  repre- 
sentation of  the  object  denoted  by  the  name.     Thus,  to  the  names 
of  persons,  the  figure  of  a  man  is  subjoined  : — to  the  verb  "  to  dance," 
is  subjoined  the  representation  of  a  man  dancing.     A  third  peculiar- 
ity is,  that  most  of  the  elementary  vocal  sounds  have  more  than  one 
sign  ; — thus  forming,  in  reality,  several  different  alphabets.     Again, 
the  writing  is  sometimes  in  horizontal,  and  sometimes  in  perpendic- 
ular lines  :  sometimes  it  is  to  be  read  from  right  to  left,  and  some- 
times from  left  to  right ;  but  it  has  been  ascertained  that  the  begin- 
ning is  designated  by  the  direction  in  which  the  heads  of  the  animal 
figures  are  turned. 

9.  Moreover,  in  addition  to  the  three-fold  character  already  men- 
tioned, there  are  found  to  be  three  distinct  classes  of  hieroglyphical 
writing,  viz. :  first,  the  hieroglyphic  proper,  or  "  sacred  sculptured 
characters,"  probably  the  most  ancient  form,  found  principally  on 
the  monuments  :  2d,  the  hieratic,  derived  from  the  former,  with  such 
changes  as  were  necessary  to  adapt  the  stiff  and  angular  forms  of  the 
hieroglyphics  to  rapid  writing.     In  the  hieratic  form  many  of  the 


CHAP.  II.]  EGYPTIAN  CIVILIZATION,  631 

pictorial  and  symbolical  characters  of  the  sculptured  hieroglyphics 
are  dropped,  as  being  too  cumbersome  for  writing,  and  consequently 
the  phonetic  use  prevails.  The  hieratic  appears  to  have  been  in 
current  use  before  the  year  1500  B.  C.  3d.  After  the  Persian  con- 
quest, 525  B.  C.,  the  knowledge  of  the  hieroglyphic  and  hieratic  ap- 
pears to  have  been  confined  mostly  to  the  priests ;  and  a  new  form, 
called  the  demotic,  which  was  an  adaptation  of  the  hieratic  to  still 
more  expeditious  writing,  came  into  general  use.  It  may  be  regard- 
ed as  the  vulgar  idiom,  or  writing  of  the  people.  At  first  view  the 
hieroglyphic,  the  hieratic,  and  the  demotic,  appear  to  be  entirely  dif- 
ferent and  distinct  systems ;  but  a  close  examination  detects  the 
same  general  forms  pervading  all  of  them. 

10.  The  language  in  which  the  hieroglyphics  are  written  is  doubt- 
less an  ancient  form  of  the  Coptic,  of  which  the  more  modern  Coptic, 
which  has  long  ceased  to  be  spoken,  is  an  idiom ;  for  many  of  the 
hieroglyphic  words  are  not  found  in  the  known  vocabulary  of  the 
Coptic,  and  the  meaning  of  such  words  must  therefore  be  gathered 
from  the  context.     Much  of  the  hieroglyphic  literature  of  the  Egypt- 
ians is  of  a  theological  and  mystical  nature ;  and  here  the  obscurity 
of  the  subject  renders  interpretation  doubly  difficult ;  but  the  histor- 
ical writings  are  more  easily  read,  and  they  have  the  advantage  of 
being  illustrated,  in  most  cases,  by  pictorial  representations.     It  is 
by  no  means  surprising,  considering   all    the  peculiarities  of  the 
Egyptian  hieroglyphics,  that  no  clue  was  found  to  their  interpretation 
until  the  discovery  of  the  Rosetta  tablet ;  and  it  is  truly  wonderful 
that  so  much  has  since  been  accomplished,  as  we  have  evidence  of  in 
the  developments  recently  made  in  early  Egyptian  history. 

•  ••  .  .,,or»<  5  .H  ••'•;••»•«  !f-.i  .'.I  o;  .  i;i.~:  i>; -A'*}  Jfc»i$  *%'fo:^TK%!««JI  <H?I  -^jw^ri; 

IV. 

11.  The  results  of  the  translation  of  the  hieroglyphics  found  on 
Egyptian  monuments,  tombs,  temples,  &c.,  show  a  very  great  and 
undoubted  antiquity  of  the  Egyptian  nation,  and  prove  that  these 
same  hieroglyphics  (then  a  perfect  system)  were  in  general  use  in 
Egypt  as  far  back  at  least  as  the  time  of  the  erection  of  some  of  the 
early  pyramids — probably  two  thousand   three  hundred  years,  at 
least,  before  the  Christian  era ;  while  the  origin  of  the  art  is  lost  in 
those  distant  ages,  of  which  neither  history  nor  tradition  has  pre- 
served any  record. 

12.  The  Egyptian  hieroglyphics  go  far  towards  confirming  the 
veracity  of  certain  portions  of  ancient  chronicles  of  great  interest, 


PHILOSOPHY   OF  HISTORY.  [PART  IIL 

especially  the  latter  part  of  those  of  Manetho,  which  had  hitherto 
been  generally  rejected  by  the  learned.  This  Manetho  was  an 
Egyptian  priest  and  historian,  who  lived  in  the  third  century  before 
Christ.  He  wrote  a  history  of  Egypt,  in  which  he  gave  an  account 
of  the  country  from  the  earliest  times  down  to  his  own  day,  com- 
prising, subsequent  to  the  rule  of  the  gods  and  demi-gods,  a  list  of 
thirty-one  dynasties  and  three  hundred  and  seventy-eight  kings. 
Some,  without  wholly  rejecting  Manetho's  account,  have  supposed 
that  the  earlier  dynasties  were  fabulous  : — others,  that  they  reigned 
simultaneously  in  different  parts  of  Egypt ;  while  others  still,  taking 
the  entire  list  of  kings  in  consecutive  order,  and  the  chronology  of 
Manetho  without  abatement,  thus  extend  back  the  period  of  the 
founding  of  the  Egyptian  monarchy  more  than  five  thousand  years 
before  the  Christian  era.  Any  rational  view,  however,  that  can  be 
taken  of  scripture  chronology,  would  seem  to  forbid  this  extension  ; 
and  indeed  there  seems  to  be  little  reason  for  accepting  either  the 
number  of  Manetho.'s  kings  previous  to  the  sixteenth  dynasty,  proba- 
bly in  the  twenty-third  century  before  Christ,  or  the  length  of  their 
reigns.  But  it  is  surprising  that  the  monumental  records  found  in 
Egypt  within  the  last  few  years,  confirm  Manetho's  account,  up  to 
this  period,  in  a  most  extraordinary  manner  5  while  here  and  there 
scattered  fragments  on  ancient  monuments  give  the  names  of  some  of 
Manetho's  kings  prior  to  that  period  ;  but  as  the  list  is  not  complete 
there  is  nothing  to  confirm  the  earlier  portion  of  this  writer's  chronology. ' 
13.  The  name  of  the  founder  of  the  greatest  Egyptian  pyramid, 
and  the  supposed  date  of  its  erection,  prior  to  the  time  of  Abraham, 
are  gathered  from  a  mass  Of  concurring  testimony.  Manetho  at- 
tributes the  founding  of  the  great  pyramid  to  Suphis ;  Herodotus  to 
Cheops,  and  Eratosthenes  to  Saophis,  or  Shoopho,  three  names, 
which,  in  different  languages,  and  in  different  modes  of  spelling,  are 

1.  It  appears  highly  probable  that  Manetho  constructed  his  history,  or  at  least  the  earlier 
portions  of  it,  upon  a  regular  system  of  chronology — arranging  both  the  divine  history,  and  the 
human  dynasties  which  succeeded  it,  so  as  to  fill  up  an  exact  number  of  Sothiac  cycles,  that  is, 
periods  of  the  star  Sirius,  each  comprehending  one  thousand  four  hundred  and  sixty  Julian 
years,  equal  to  one  thousand  four  hundred  and  sixty-one  Egyptian  years.  Knowing  that  a 
Sothiac  period  ended  in  139  A.  D.,  and  of  course  began  in  1322  B.  C.,  we  flnd  the  third  pre- 
ceding Solhiac  period  must  have  begun  in  5702  B.  C.,  which  coincides  with  the  year  in  which 
Manetho  places  Menes,  the  first  human  king  of  Egypt.  Manetho  assigns  twenty-four  thousand 
eight  hundred  and  thirty-seven  years,  previous  to  Menes,  to  the  rule  of  the  gods  and  demi- 
gods ;  and  this  long  time  comprehends  exactly  seventeen  Sothiac  periods  of  one  thousand  four 
hundred  and  sixty-one  Egyptian  years  each. 

This  is  the  hypothesis  of  Boeckh,  a  recent  German  writer,  (1845,)  although,  in  order  to  produce 
these  results,  some  corrections  of  Manetho's  figures  have  been  found  necessary. 


CHAP.  IL]  EGYPTIAN  CIVILIZATION.  633 

reducible  to  the  same  as  the  Grecian  Cheops.  Thus  far,  historically, 
ancient  writers,  corroborated  by  Egyptian  traditions,  attribute  the 
founding  of  this  great  pyramid  to  the  same  individual.  Again,  in 
the  year  1837,  the  name  and  the  title  of  this  same  Cheops  or  Shoopho 
were  found  in  hieroglyphics,  in  the  quarrier's  marks  in  a  chamber  of 
the  great  pyramid,  evidently  placed  there  while  the  structure  was  in 
process  of  erection,  confirmatory  evidence  that  Shoopho  was  then 
ruling  monarch  of  Egypt. 

14.  The  name  of  Shoopho  has  also  been  found  among  the  ruins  of 
Thebes,  and  on  various  tablets  throughout  Egypt,  and  even  in  the 
vicinity  of  some  ancient  copper  mines  in  the  peninsula  of  Mount 
Sinai,  showing  that,  at  the  era  of  this  monarch's  reign,  and  at  the 
time  of  the  erection  of  the  largest  of  the  pyramids,  whenever  that  may 
have  been,  the  hieroglyphic  system  was  in  common  use  in  Egypt.    The 
exact  date  of  Shoopho's  reign  has  not  yet  been  ascertained,  but  he 
is  placed  by  Manetho  in  the  fourth  dynasty  of  Egyptian  kings ;  and 
it  is  conclusive  from  other  testimony  that  he  belonged  to  a  dynasty 
prior  to  the  sixteenth,  and  the  latter  is  supposed  to  have  commenced 
in  the  twenty-third1  century  before  Christ,  at  least  two  or  three  hun- 
dred years  before  the  time  of  Abraham.     According  to  Manetho, 
some  pyramids  were  erected  during  the  reign  of  the  fourth  king  of 
the  first  dynasty,  thus  carrying  back  the  antiquity  of  the  greatest  of 
those  works  of  art  to  a  date  nearly  five  thousand  years  ago. 

1 5.  Many  hundred  years,  therefore,  before  the  time  of  Moses,  the 
early  sacred   historian,  the  Egyptians  had  reared  those  pyramidal 
structures  to  which  modern  times  can  show  no  parallel.     Before  the 
time  of  Moses,  also,  a  perfect  system  of  writing  was  common  in  the 
land  of  Egypt,  which  strengthens  the  supposition  previously  advanced, 
that  the  history  of  events  prior  to  the  time  of  Moses,  as  gathered 
from  the  Pentateuch,  instead  of  having  been  dictated  by  immediate 
Revelation,  as  some  have  supposed,  was  a  compilation,  by  an  in- 
spired writer,  from  earlier  annals  or  records,  of  the  existence  of  which 
much  circumstantial  evidence  might  be  adduced. 

V. 

16.  Of  the  early  inhabitants  of  Egypt  little  can  be  learned  either 
from  tradition  or  history ;  and  conflicting  opinions  have 

been  entertained  of  the  origin  of  Egyptian  civilization.    By  INHABITANTS 
most  writers,  the  arts  and  sciences  known  in  Egypt  have    OF  EGYPT- 

a.  Gliddon's  Egypt.    Also  Kenrick'a  Egypt,  vol.  ii. 


634  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [Pxax  HI. 

been  traced  to  the  upper  valley  of  the  Nile,  the  country  anciently 
called  Ethiopia,  but  now  embraced  in  Nubia  and  Abyssinia.  Meroe, 
(Mer-o-we,)  the  capital  of  Ethiopia,  was  an  extensive  city,  which  is 
supposed  to  have  stood  on  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Nile,  a  little  north 
of  the  present  Shendy,  where  may  still  be  seen  the  ruins  of  a  few 
temples  and  other  edifices.  To  this  city  the  earliest  Egyptian  and 
Ethiopian  legends  trace  the  origin  of  Thebes,  and  other  cities  of 
Upper  Egypt ;  the  ruins  of  the  Ethiopian  temples  show  the  Egyptian 
style  of  architecture ;  the  Ethiopians,  according  to  ancient  writers, 
claimed  the  invention  of  the  arts  and  philosophy  of  Egypt ;  both 
nations  had  the  same  system  of  religion  ;  and  Ethiopian  princes  are 
known  to  have  occupied  the  throne  of  the  Pharaohs. 

17.  And  indeed,   could  the  annals  of  ancient  Ethiopia  be  now 
spread  before  us,  it  is  highly  probable  that  they  would  be  found  not 
inferior,  either  in  interest  or  importance,  to  those  of  Assyria  and 
Egypt.     There  is  little  doubt  that  Ethiopia  was  one  of  the  earliest 
seats  of  civilization ;  for  in  the  earliest  traditions  of  the  East  the 
Ethiopians  are  mentioned,  and  by  the  earliest  writers  they  are  placed 
in  the  first  ranks  of  knowledge  and  refinement.     At  a  very  remote 
period  they  carried  on  a  considerable  trade  with  the  people  of  southern 
Asia  ;  and  Isaiah  speaks  of  the  "  merchandise  of  Ethiopia"  in  a  man- 
ner that  renders  it  evident  that  the  Ethiopians  were,  in  his  day,  a 
highly  commercial  people. 

18.  By  those  who  believe  that  the  Egyptians  are  descended  from 
the  Ethiopians,  it  is  supposed  that  the  latter,  migrating,  at  an  early 
period,  westward  from  the  Euphrates,  reached  the  straits  of  Bab-el- 
mandeb,*  whence  they  passed  over  into  Africa,  and  settled  in  the 
higher  valleys  of  the  Nile,  and  there  founded  Meroe,  the  early  capi- 
tal of  Ethiopia.     A  confirmation  of  this  opinion  of  their  origin  is 
drawn  from  the  striking  resemblance  which  has  been  found  to  exist 
between  the  usages,  arts,  superstitions,  and  religion,  of  the  early 
Ethiopians  and  the  inhabitants  of  western  Asia. 

19.  Others,  on  the  contrary,  who  suppose  that  the  early  Egyptians 
migrated  directly  from  the  Euphrates  to  Egypt,  by  way  of  the  Isth- 
mus of  Suez,f  make  that  part  of  Ethiopia,  which  had  Meroe  for  its 
capital,  a  province  of  Egypt ;  but  whichever  theory  prevail,  the  early 

*  The  strait  of  Bab-el-mandeb,  (signifying,  literally,  the  gate  of  tears,)  unites  the  Red  Sea  with 
the  Indian  Ocean.  The  distance  across,  from  a  projecting  cape  on  the  Arabic  shore  to  the  op- 
posite coast,  ia  about  twenty  miles. 

t  The  Isthmus  of  Suez,  connecting  Asia  and  Africa,  is  a  sandy  waste,  between  the  Meditei 
ranean  and  the  northern  extremity  of  the  Red  Sea,  about  seventy  miles  across. 


CHAP.  II]  EGYPTIAN  CIVILIZATION.  635 

Ethiopians  and  Egyptians  were  undoubtedly  fraternal  tribes  of  the 
Caucasian  race ;  although  perhaps  the  former  were  a  shade  darker 
than  the  latter.  Neither,  however,  belonged  to  the  Negro  race.a 
The  Hebrews  were  a  people  of  fair  complexion,  and  yet  they  inter- 
married with  the  Egyptians;  for  Solomon  married  a  daughter  of 
Pharaoh,  and  Moses  married  the  daughter  of  an  Egyptian  priest ; 
and  these  events  are  recorded  without  any  intimation  that  the  nuptials 
were  between  those  of  different  races.  From  the  physical  character 
of  the  Egyptians,  as  learned  from  the  innumerable  skulls  gathered 
from  the  catacombs  of  Thebes,  no  evidence  has  been  adduced  that 
the  Egyptians  bore  any  considerable  resemblance  to  the  negro,  nor 
does  it  appear  that  they  differed  materially  from  Europeans. 

VI. 

20.  It  is  supposed  that  the  first  inhabitants  of  Egypt  dwelt  in 
rocky  caves,  found  in  great  numbers  in  the  mountain  ranges  on  both 
sides  of  the  Nile ;  that  when  the  natural  caverns  became 

7  <  DWELLINGS 

insufficient  for  the  growing  population,  artificial  ones  AND  PUBLIC 
were  formed  in  the  soft  limestone  ;  and  that,  as  the  skill  EDIFICES- 
of  the  workmen  increased,  harder  materials  were  used  for  the  public 
edifices,  and,  finally,  the  imperishable  granite,  of  which  the  temples 
and  palaces  were  constructed.  It  is  believed  also,  that  in  this  pro- 
cess can  be  traced  the  origin  and  principles  of  Egyptian  architecture. 
The  walls  and  columns  of  the  public  edifices  appear  to  have  been 
built  of  rude  rocks,  smoothed  only  on  the  surfaces  of  contact, — the 
pillars,  of  enormous  diameters,  resembling  the  rude  supports  of  the 
roofs  of  mines  and  quarries,  or  of  the  dwellings  of  the  people.  The 
walls  were  worked  into  shape  by  one  general  process,  after  their 
erection ;  and  the  column,  with  all  its  decorations,  was  finished  after 
it  was  set  up.  The  entrances  and  openings  of  these  buildings  were 
few ;  and  their  interiors  were  as  dark  and  gloomy  as  the  primitive 
caverns  themselves.  The  arch,  both  round  and  pointed,  an  invention 
which,  until  recently,  has  been  attributed  to  the  Greeks,  was  certain- 
ly known  to  the  Egyptians  as  early  as  the  fifteenth  century  before 
the  Christian  era.  Even  the  Greek  orders  of  architecture,  as  they 
are  called,  more  especially  the  Doric  and  Corinthian,  can  all  be 
traced  to  Egyptian  originals.  Doric  columns,  equalling  the  finest  to 
be  seen  in  Grecian  temples,  have  been  found  of  a  date  as  early  as  the 

a.  See  Gliddou's  Egypt.  Quotes  Morton's  "Crania  ^Egyptiaca."  See,  also,  Anthon's  Clas. 
Diet,  articles  iEgyptus  and  ^Ethiopia. 


636  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [PART  IIL 

reign  of  Osortasen  the  first,  who  is  believed  to  have  ruled  over  Egypt 
in  the  twenty-first  century  before  the  Christian  era,three  hundred  years 
before  Grecian  history  had  a  beginning.8-  The  very  name  of  this 
Egyptian  monarch  was  unknown  to  history  until  brought  to  light  by 
the  labors  of  Champollion  and  his  associates. 

21.  Of  the  state  of  the  arts  and  manufactures  among  the  early 
Egyptians,  of  their  history,  religion,  and  government,  and  of  the  do- 

s CULPTURES  mes^c  condition  and  usages  of  the  people,  much  informa- 
AND  tion  has  been  obtained  from  the  great  variety  of  paint- 

PAINTINGS.  -ngg  an(j  gcuiptures  found  in  the  temples,  and  in  the 
numerous  depositories  of  the  dead, — a  kind  of  testimony  far  more 
reliable  than  traditions,  or  the  vague  chronicles  of  the  early  his- 
torians. Amid  a  numerous  succession  of  halls  and  galleries  in  a 
ruined  Theban  palace  of  great  magnificence,  there  have  been  found 
elaborate  sculptures  exhibiting  the  conquests  of  an  Egyptian  sov- 
ereign, the  sacrifices  which  he  had  offered,  his  administration  of  jus- 
tice, and  other  acts  becoming  the  ruler  of  a  great  nation.  His  tomb 
was  adorned  with  astronomical  emblems  representing  the  number  of 
days  in  the  year,  the  changes  of  the  seasons,  and  the  motions  and 
periods  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  while  his  epitaph  proclaimed  :  "  I  am 
Osymandias,b  king  of  kings  :  if  any  one  desires  to  know  what  a 
prince  I  am,  and  where  I  lie,  let  him  excel  my  exploits." 

22.  But  paintings  and  sculptures  of  this  character  were  not  con- 
fined to  relations  of  the  deeds  of  princes  only ;  they  are  found  on 
the  tombs  of  citizens,  and  they  enter  into  details  of  the  private  lives 
of  the  people,  vividly  portraying  the  employments  and  amusements 
of  those  to  whom  they  refer,  and  figuring  the  forms  of  every  article 
of  furniture,  of  buildings  and  ships  and  carriages,  of  the  tools  of  arti- 
sans and  the  implements  of  husbandry,  and  of  everything,  in  short, 
pertaining  to  civilized  life.     To  these  sources  we  are  indebted  for 
much  of  the  reliable  information  we  possess  of  the  social  character 
of  the  Egyptians,  and  it  is  gratifying  to  know  that  this  monumental 
evidence  is  corroborated  by  the  descriptive  accounts,  so  far  as  they 
go,  of  Herodotus  and  other  early  writers. 

23.  The  paintings  of  the  Egyptians  were  indeed  rude,  showing 
little  knowledge  of  the  rules  of  perspective ;  but  in  the  durability  of 

a.  Of  the  three  principal  Grecian  orders  of  architecture,  the  Ionian  alone  has  not  been  found 
on  any  Egyptian  monument.    "  It  was  probably  of  Assyrian  origin,  as  it  has  been  found  in  the 
remains  of  Nineveh."— KenricWs  Egypt,  i.  215. 

b.  Jackson.  "  Antiquities  and  Chronology  of  the  Ancient  Kingdoms,"  ii.  p.  396-402,  supposes 
this  king  to  be  the  same  as  Sesostris.    See  also  Bale's  Chronology,  i.  p.  37. 


CHAP.  IL]  EGYPTIAN  CIVILIZATION.  637 

their  coloring  they  excelled  all  works  of  modern  art.  Colors  that 
are  supposed  to  have  been  in  existence  more  than  three  thousand 
years,  are  still  apparently  as  fresh  as  if  laid  on  but  an  hour  ago. 
The  Egyptians,  however,  like  the  Chinese,  appear  to  have  remained, 
from  the  earliest  period,  nearly  stationary  in  the  rules  of  painting  and 
sculpture.  Conformity  to  ancient  usages,  probably  sanctioned  and 
enforced  by  regulations  of  the  priesthood,  seems  to  have  fettered  the 
genius  of  Egyptian  artists  and  prevented  its  development. 

24.  On  one  of  the  sculptured  tablets  found  in  Egypt  were  repre- 
sented men,  women  and  children,  prisoners  of   war,  with  dresses 
similar  to  those  worn  by  the  most  ancient  Greeks, — and  one  of  the 
captives  bore  in  his  hand  a  Greek  lyre,  of  the  oldest  known  model. 
Other  tablets  exhibited  the  drilling  and  disciplining  of  soldiers,  the 
details  of  agricultural  occupations,  and  of  domestic  economy,  and  the 
labors  of  all  kinds  of  artisans  and  mechanics.     Games  of  amusement 
are  exhibited  similar  to  many  played  at  the  present  day  ;  and  several 
sculptures  have  been  found  representing  vocal  and  instrumental  con- 
certs, in  which  were  performers  on  the  flute  and  flageolet,  the  trumpet 
and  tamborine,  and  singers  of  both  sexes  assisting  with  their  voices. 
The  Muses,  personifications  of  the  inventive  powers  of  the  mind, 
were  long  believed  to  have  been  of  Grecian  origin ;  but  they  were 
known  in  Egypt  before  Greece  had  a  name  or  a  history. 

25.  The  astronomical  monuments  of  the  Egyptians  show  that  as 
early  as  the  eighteenth  dynasty,  perhaps  1600  B.  C.,  they  had  divid- 
ed the  ecliptic  into  twelve  parts  of  thirty  days  each  ;  and   ASTRONOMI. 
the  priests  appear  to  have  known,  at  an  early  period,        CAL 
nearly  the  true  length  of  the  solar  year,  although  they  KNOWLEDGE. 
did  not  apply  it  to  the  popular  calendar,  which  enumerated  three 
hundred  and  sixty -five  days  to  the  year,  and  omitted  the  intercala- 
tion of  one  day  in  four  years.     The  Egyptians  recorded  eclipses  with 
less  astronomical  accuracy  than  the  Chaldeans.     Whether  they  were 
able  to  calculate  their  recurrence,  or  not,  is  a  disputed  question.     It 
is  known  that  they  made  careful  observations  of  the  aspect  and  posi- 
tion of  the  heavenly  bodies ;  but  it  was  for  astrological  rather  than 
astronomical  purposes.     It  is  supposed  that  they  were  not  acquaint- 
ed with  the  precession  of  the  equinoxes,  which  was  a  discovery  of  the 
Greek  Hipparchus  ;  although  the  obliquity  of  the  ecliptic  was  known 
to  them.     The  position  of  the  pyramids,  exactly  facing  the  four 
cardinal  points,  shows  that  they  had  the  means  of  tracing  an  accurate 
meridian  line,  for  which,  however,  little  astronomical  knowledge  is 


638  PHILOSOPHY   OF  HISTOEY.  [PAET  IIL 

necessary.  In  the  Egyptian  paintings  and  sculptures,  no  representa- 
tions of  astronomical  instruments  have  been  found ; — and,  on  the 
whole,  the  Egyptians  appear  to  have  made  less  advance  in  astro- 
nomical science  than  has  generally  been  attributed  to  them. 

26.  Notwithstanding  the  erection  of  those  vast  structures,  the 
pyramids,  and  temples,  and  obelisks,  there  is  no  evidence  that  the 
Egyptians  had  made  any  great  attainments  in  mechanical  science,  or 

that  they  were  even  acquainted  with  all  the  mechanical 
Powers  now  known.  Simple  machinery,  combined  with 
an  unlimited  command  of  human  power,  might  have  ac- 
complished the  greatest  of  the  works  of  Egyptian  art.  Herod'  otus 
was  informed  by  the  Egyptian  priests  that  the  stones  of  the  pyramids 
were  elevated  from  one  layer  to  the  other  "  by  the  aid  of  machines 
constructed  of  short  pieces  of  wood,"  which  some  suppose  to  have 
been  the  lever,  and  others  the  pulley ;  but  it  does  not  appear  certain 
that  any  representations  of  the  pulley  have  been  found  among  the 
varied  pictures  of  early  Egyptian  life.a  Diodorus  suggests  the 
probable  construction  of  mounds  of  sand,  up  which  stones  were 
drawn.  This  supposition  derives  some  countenance  from  the  known 
process,  which  Pliny  describes,  of  elevating  the  architraves  of  the 
temple  of  Ephesus  over  bags  of  earth,  which  served  as  an  inclined 
plane. 

27.  Of  the  various  occupations  of  civil  life,  represented  in  the 
Egyptian  paintings,  the  most  common  is  that  of  weaving,  which  ap- 
pears to  have  been  the  employment  of  great  numbers  of 

WEAVING  *^e  Pe°P^e>  and  principally  of  the  men,  and  which  was 
carried  on  in  large  establishments  or  manufactories. 
Vestments  of  fine  linen  were  known  as  early,  certainly,  as  the  days 
of  Joseph,  who  made  presents  of  changes  of  raiment  to  his  brethren. 
The  mummies,  both  of  men  and  animals,  were  thickly  enveloped  in 
linen ;  so  that,  in  connection  with  what  was  worn  by  the  people,  the 
quantity  manufactured  must  have  been  surprising. 

28.  But  in  the  working  and  compounding  of  metals,  especially 

brass,  the  Egyptians  appear,  in  some  respects,  to  have 
excelled  the  moderns.     They  had  war  chariots  of  brass, 
or  bronze ;  and  swords,  bows,  and  arrows,  of  the  same 
material,  which  they  had  the  art  of  rendering  elastic,  like  steel,  and 

a.  "  A  pulley  from  an  Egyptian  tomb  is  preserved  in  the  Leyden  museum,  but  its  age  is  un- 
certain."— KenricVs  Egypt,  i.  228.  Layard's  Nineveh,  ii.  247J  Note,  referring  to  the  same  cir 
cumstance,  says,  "  The  pulley  was  known  to  the  Egyptians." 


CHAP.  IL]  EGYPTIAN  CIVILIZATION. 

of  enabling  them  to  resist  the  corroding  effects  of  the  atmosphere. 
Among  the  ruins  of  Thebes  have  been  found  gold  and  silver  banquet- 
ing cups,  tureens,  urns,  and  vases,  of  the  most  elegant  forms  and  ex- 
quisite workmanship.  To  such  a  pitch  of  refinement  was  the  work- 
ing of  the  precious  materials  carried  by  the  Egyptians,  that  the 
Greeks  even  did  not  excel  them,  nor  have  the  moderns  made  any 
great  improvements  on  these  antique  models. 

29.  In  the  manufacture  of  pottery  the  Egyptians  displayed  a  skill 
not  inferior  to  that  of  the  Greeks  ;  they  also  manufactured  white  and 
colored  glass,  from  which  they  made  artificial  gems  of  extraordinary 
beauty.     They  prepared  lime,  as  we  do,  by  burning  calcareous  stones; 
they  extracted  potash  from  cinders ;  they  made  wine,  vinegar,  and 
even  beer ;  while  their  method  of  embalming,  which  they  appeared 
disposed  to  shroud  in  great  mystery,  is  an  additional  confirmation  of 
their  chemical  knowledge.     It  was  also  probably  owing  to  the  great 
advances  made  in  the  knowledge   of  chemistry  and  physics,  from 
which  had  arisen  the  art  of  natural  magic,  that  the  necromancers  of 
Egypt  were  enabled  to  contend  so  successfully  with  Moses  as  to 
deceive  those  who  witnessed  their  juggling  experiments. 

30.  The  couches  of  the  Egyptians, — their  seats,  tripods,  baskets, 
&c.,  were  of  elegant  patterns  ;  their  musical  instruments  exceeded  in 
variety  those  of  modern  times ;  while  the  implements  employed  in 
the  various  trades,  having  been  imitated  by  the  Greeks,  were,  many 
of  them,  exceedingly  similar  to  those  employed  in  the  manufactories 
and  workshops  of  the  present  day.     Geometrical  surveying,  rendered 
necessary  by  the  destruction  of  the  landmarks  in  the  annual  inunda- 
tions of  the  Nile,  was  early  practiced  by  the  Egyptians ;  and  the 
science  of  astronomy  appears  to  have  been  cultivated  by  the  priests 
as  one  of  the  mysteries  of  their  religion. 

31.  The  science  of  medicine  received  so  much  attention  that,  in 
the  practice  of  the  art,  the  division  of  labor  appears  to  have  been 
carried  as  far  as  in  modern  times.     Herodotus  says  that 

one  physician  was  confined  to  the  study  and  management 

of  one  disease ;  that  some  attended  to  diseases  of  the 

eyes,  some  took  care  of  the  teeth,  and  others  were  conversant  with  all 

diseases  of  the  bowels,  while  many  attended  to  the  cure  of  maladies 

which  were  less  conspicuous.11 

32.  Division  of  labor  could  never  have  been  carried  to  this  extent 
among  any  other  than  a  refined  and  highly-civilized  people.     In  the 

a.  Herodotus,  ii.  84. 


640  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [PART  III 

infancy  of  society  every  man  employs  himself  in  all  the  departments 
of  industry  which  are  requisite  for  the  supply  of  his  immediate  wants. 
As  society  advances,  the  various  arts  and  professions  arise ;  with  the 
progress  of  refinement  these  undergo  various  subdivisions ;  but  it  is 
only  in  the  most  advanced  stages  of  civilization  that  the  division  is 
carried  to  its  ultimate  limits.  A  very  long  period  must  have  elapsed, 
after  medicine  had  become  a  separate  profession,  before  a  demand 
arose  for  that  diversity  of  practitioners  in  its  several  departments 
which  we  find  among  the  early  Egyptians. 

33.  It  is  evident,  not  only  that  the  ancient  Egyptians  possessed  a 
system  of  writing,  far  superior  to  the  picture  writing  of  the  Mexicans 

and  Peruvians  of  America,  but,  also,  that  they  had  books, 
ATTAINMENTS  an(^  collections  °f  them  in  libraries.  Over  the  moulder- 
ing doorway  of  a  Theban  temple,  supposed  to  have  been 
erected  during  the  reign  of  Rhamses  the  Great,  or  Sesostris,  about 
the  time  of  Moses,  was  found  the  inscription,  "  the  remedy  for  the 
soul."  Two  sculptured  deities  guarded  the  entrance  to  the  supposed 
Library,  over  one  of  which  was  inscribed  the  words  "  Lady  of  Let- 
ters" and  over  the  other  the  words  "  President  of  the  Library." 
Another  inscription,  among  the  Theban  ruins,  over  the  head  of  one 
of  these  deities,  the  Hermes  or  Mercury  of  the  Egyptians,  began, 
"  Discourse  of  the  Lord  of  the  divine  writings."  Several  works, 
once  attributed  to  Grecian  writers,  have  been  authenticated  as  of 
Egyptian  origin,  but  thousands  of  others  are  known  to  have  perished 
by  the  ravages  of  time. 

34.  An  important  institution  of  the  Egyptians,  and  one  that  ex- 
erted a  great  influence  on  the  national  character,  was  the  division  of 

the  people  into  various  castes  or  tribes,  the  members  of 
INTO^ASTES  wnicn>  by  the  laws  of  hereditary  descent,  were  obliged  to 

follow  the  trades  and  professions  of  their  fathers.  To 
this  system  may  be  attributed  the  remarkably  uniform  and  permanent 
character  of  the  nation — the  adherence  to  ancient  usages — and  the 
unvarying  servility  of  the  lower  orders  of  the  people,  who  had  neither 
the  ambition  nor  the  means  of  improving  their  condition.  The  two 
higher  classes  were  the  priests  and  the  military :  the  remainder  of 
the  community  was  divided  among  the  various  trades  and  professions, 
and  the  cultivators  of  the  soil  \  and  even  the  latter  had  many  subdi- 
visions. 

35.  In  the  early  periods  of  Egyptian  history  it  is  probable  that 
the  political  influence  of  the  priesthood  was  very  great;  but  the 


CHAP.  IL]  EGYPTIAN  CIVILIZATION.  641 

Egyptian  hierarchy  had  evidently  lost  much  of  its  power  and  splendor 
at  the  time  when  the  accounts  of  the  Greek  historians  were  written. 
Although  the  great  religious  temples  of  the  Egyptians  were  found 
only  in  the  several  large  cities  of  the  kingdom,  yet  the  sacerdotal 
order  appears  to  have  spread  over  the  whole  of  Egypt,  and  extensive 
domains  were  set  apart  for  its  support.  But  the  priests  were  not  de- 
voted, exclusively,  to  the  services  of  religion  :  on  the  contrary,  they 
formed  the  aristocracy  of  letters  :  they  were  astronomers,  architects, 
judges,  and  physicians  ;  and  had  charge  of  every  department  of 
science  and  learning.1 

36.  Various  opinions  of  the  real  characters  of  the  religion  of  the 
Egyptians  have  been  entertained.     There  are  not  wanting  evidences 
of  their  belief  in  one  Supreme  Being  ;  but  whatever  may     nEUGIOW 
have  been  the  views  of  the  more  intelligent  of  the  priests,      OF  TBE 
the  great  mass  of  the  people  appear  sunk  in  the  most  de-    * 
grading  species  of  idolatry.     Animal  worship,  supported  and  enforced 
by  law,  was  the  religion  of  the  State  ;  and  pompous  processions  were 
made,  and  munificent  temples  erected,  in  adoration  of  the  meanest 
reptiles.     Herodotus  asserts  that  all  the  beasts  of  Egypt,  both  the 
wild  and  the  domestic,  were  regarded  as  sacred. 

37.  Clemens,  one  of  the  early  Christians,  and  bishop  of  Rome, 
speaking  of  the  religious  temples  of  the  Egyptians,  says  :  "  The  walls 
shine  with  gold  and  silver,  and  with  amber,  and  sparkle  with  the 
various  gems  of  India  and  Ethiopia  ;  and  the  recesses  are  concealed 
by  splendid  curtains.     But  if  you  enter  the  penetralia,  and  inquire 
for  the  image  of  the  god  for  whose  sake  the  fane  was  built,  one  of  the 
attendants  on  the  temple  approaches  with  a  solemn  and  mysterious 
aspect,  and,  putting  aside  the  veil,  suffers  you  to  peep  in  and  take  a 
glimpse  of  the  divinity.     There  you  behold  a  snake,  a  crocodile,  or  a 
cat,  or  some  other  beast,  a  fitter  inhabitant  of  a  cavern  or  bog  than 
a  temple. 

38.  Each  district  in  Egypt  worshipped  some  particular  animal  ;  but 
some  species  were  held  in  great  reverence  by  the  whole  nation. 
These  were  the  ox,  the  dog,  and  the  cat,  the  hawk  and  the  ibis,  and 
certain  kinds  of  fish.     The  bull  Apis  was  worshipped  in  a  magnifi- 
cent temple  at  Memphis  ;  and  it  was  doubtless  owing  to  the  circum- 


1.  Heeren  supposes  that  the  priests  were  an  original,  civilized  tribe,  which,  migrating  from 
beyond  Meroe  in  Ethiopia,  established  inland  colonies  around  the  temples  founded  by  them, 
and  gradually  made  the  worship  of  their  gods  the  dominant  religion  in  Egypt.—  Heerenyt 
Manual  of  Ancient  Hist.,  p.  58. 

41 


642  PHILOSOPHY   OF   HISTORY.  [PART  III. 

stance  of  the  Israelites  having  acquired  many  of  the  religious  notions 
of  the  Egyptians,  that  a  golden  calf  was  erected  by  Aaron  in  the 
wilderness,  and  by  Jeroboam  in  Dan  and  Bethel. 

39.  In  one  district  crocodiles  were  sacred ;  and  one  of  the  species 
was  kept  in  a  temple,  where  it  was  waited  on  by  the  priests,  and 
worshipped  by  the  people  as  a  god.     At  Thebes  there  were  sacred 
serpents,  which,  when  dead,  were  buried  in  the  temple  of  Ammon. 
Herodotus  says  that  "  in  whatever  family  a  cat  happened  to  die, 
every  individual  cut  off  his  eyebrows  ;  but  on  the  death  of  a  dog 
they  shaved   their   heads   and   every  part  of   their  bodies ;"    and 
that  "  the  cats,  when  dead,  were  carried  to  sacred  buildings,  and 
after  being  salted  were  buried  in  the  city  of  Bubastis,  which  was 
sacred  to  the  Egyptian  Diana."8-     Confirmatory  of  this  statement,  im- 
mense catacombs  have  been  found  in  Egypt,  filled  with  the  mummies 
of  cats. 

40.  The   Egyptians  had  oracles  similar  to  those  of  Greece,  and 
Herodotus  asserts  that  the  latter  were  derived  from  the  former,  and 
that  in  Egypt  the  art  of  divination  had  been  in  use  from  the  remotest 
antiquity.     The  names  of  nearly  all  the  Grecian  gods  and  goddesses 
were  derived  from  the  Egyptian  mythology. 

41.  Of  the  origin  of  animal  worship  among  the  Egyptians,  and 
the  reasons  that  induced  an  intelligent  and  highly-civilized  people  to 
pay  divine  honors  to  irrational  brutes,  various  contradictory  opinion* 
have  been  entertained.     Some  have  supposed  that  gratitude  for  the 
benefits  conferred  by  animals  first  led  to  their  worship  ;  others,  that 
the  sacred  animals  were  worshipped  as  types  or  emblems  of  the 
heavenly  constellations;  others,  that  as  the  divinity  resides  in  all 
beings,  the  Egyptians  worshipped  him  wherever  found ;  but  others, 
with  more  reason,  trace  the  origin  of  animal  worship  to  those  re- 
ligious or  superstitious  feelings  common  to  man  in  the  rudest  state, 
and  which,  among  all  savage  tribes,  seek  for  particular  objects  of 
adoration.     It  is  probable  that,  in  Egypt,  as  among  all  the  uncivil- 
ized tribes  of  Central  Africa,  Fetichism,  or  the  worship  of  idols, 
early  prevailed ;  and  when  an  intelligent  class  of  priests  was  set 
apart  for  the  safe  keeping  of  the  objects  of  worship,  and  the  per- 
formance of  religious  rites,  it  would  be  natural  that  the  religion  of 
the  vulgar  should  become  intimately  connected  with  the  sciences 
cherished  by  the  sacerdotal  order. 

42.  Thus  the  animals  that  were  worshipped  as  gods  by  the  people, 

a.  Herodotus,  ii.  66,  67. 


CHAP.  II]  ASSYRIAN  CIVILIZATION.  643 

were  to  the  priests  merely  symbols  of  astronomical  science,  or  em- 
blems of  the  mysterious  works  of  nature.  It  was  thus  that  the  figures 
of  some  of  them  were  used  as  the  signs  of  the  zodiac  and  the  changes 
of  the  seasons, — that  the  goat  was  an  emblem  of  the  productive 
powers  of  nature, — the  Apis,  or  ox,  of  the  fertilizing  properties  of  the 
Nile, — that  the  leaf  of  the  palm,  owing  to  the  longevity  of  the  palm- 
tree,  was  a  type  of  age, — and  that  the^  onion,  from  its  concentric 
layers  or  pellicles,  was  viewed  as  an  image  of  the  universe.  Thus,  it 
appears  that,  upon  the  degrading  religion  of  the  people,  the  Egyptian 
priests  engrafted  the  mysteries  of  the  sciences,  and  established  a 
somewhat  refined  system  of  Pantheism,  or  general  worship  of  the 
powers  of  the  universe. 

VII. 

43.  Of  the   early  history  of  the  Assyrians,  which  is  embraced 
chiefly  in  that  of  the  two  great  cities  Nineveh  and  Babylon,  our  ma- 
terials are  more  scanty  than  those  which  can  be  gathered    MATERIAL8 
to  elucidate  the  history  of  Egypt.     Such  is  the  obscurity  OF  ASSYRIAN 
that  rests  upon  the  chronology  of  those  remote  periods,     HISTORY. 
and  so  conflicting  are  the  accounts,  both  of  the  names  of  the  Assyrian 
sovereigns,  and  the  actions  attributed  to  them,  that  the  whole  subject 
is  involved  in  the  greatest  uncertainty.     Of  the  founding  of  the  em- 
pire or  empires  of  Assyria  and  Babylon  we  have  scripture  testimony 
in  the  tenth,  eleventh,  and  twelfth  verses  of  the  tenth  chapter  of  Gen- 
esis ;  but  even  here  the  chronology  is  a  matter  of  doubt,  and  trans- 
lators are  divided  on  the  point  whether  Ashur  or  Nimrod  built 
Nineveh.1     The  Bible  gives  no  farther  account  of  the  Assyrian  em- 
pire until  the  seventh  and  eighth  centuries  before  Christ,  when  we 
learn  that  about  the  year  800  Jonah  was  sent  to  preach  against 
Nineveh,  the  capital  of  Assyria,  and  about  the  year  711  a  king  of 
Babylon  revolted  from  the  Assyrians  and  wrote  to  Hezekiah,  king 
of  Judah,  congratulating  him  on  his  recovery  from  sickness. 

44.  Next  to  the  Bible,  the  principal  sources  of  information  on  the 
subject  of  the  ancient  Assyrian  empire  are  the  writings  of  Herodotus 
and  Ctesias,  Greek  historians,  the  former  of  whom  wrote  in  the  fourth 
century  before  Christ,  and  the  latter  in  the  early  part  of  the  third. 
Herodotus  travelled  in  Persia,  and,  in  his  accounts  of  the  remains 
of  ancient  cities,  and  the  character  and  condition  of  the  people,  may 
be  relied  on ;  but  in  other  respects  he  has  been  accused  of  dealing  in 

1.  See  Note  1.,  p.  .18. 


644  PHILOSOPHY   OF  HISTORY.  [PART  III 

fable.  The  historian  Ctesias,  from  whom  nearly  all  subsequent  an- 
nalists and  geographers  have  drawn  their  materials,  resided  seventeen 
years  at  the  Persian  court,  during  which  time  he  composed  a  history 
of  Assyria  and  Persia  in  twenty-three  books  ;  but  only  fragments  of 
them  have  come  down  to  us.  Ctesias  states  that  he  had  access  to 
the  archives  of  the  Persian  empire,  and  he  gives  a  long  list  of  Baby- 
lonian and  Assyrian  kingft ;  but  he  is  discredited  by  many  later 
writers,  and  his  chronology,  certainly,  is  not  so  reconcilable  with  the 
Bible,  as  is  the  system  adopted  by  Herodotus. 

45.  Amidst  the  mass  of  conflicting  statements  and  opinions,  there- 
fore, relating  to  ancient  Assyria  and  Babylon,  it  is  difficult  to  select 
anything,  apart  from  the  Bible  record,  to  which  we  can  attach  the 
credit  of  authentic  history  ;  and  some  writers  have  rejected,  almost 
entirely,  all  other  than  Biblical  evidence,  as  fabulous  and  unsatisfac- 
tory.    Still  it  may  not  be  proper  to  pass  over  entirely  the  statements, 
conflicting  though  they  be,  of  profane  writers  ;  and  we  have  therefore 
given,  in  another  part  of  this  work,  a  brief  account  of  the  early 
Assyrian  and  Babylonian  empire  or  empires,  gathered  from  the  most 
accredited   histories.     Both  Nineveh  and  Babylon  were  Assyrian 
cities,  the  latter  being,  apparently,  in  some  sort  of  dependence  on  the 
former,  yet  governed  by  kings  or  chiefs  of  its  own,  and  having  a 
hereditary  order  of  priests  named  Chaldeans,  who  were  masters  of  all 
the  science  and  literature  of  the  country.     Respecting  Nineveh,  the 
greatest  of  the  Assyrian  cities,  we  have  no  good  information  from 
eye  witnesses ;  but  the  recent  researches  of  Layard  and  others  have 
gathered  from  its  ruins  a  valuable  collection  of  Assyrian  sculptures 
and  monuments  which   promise   much   information   in   respect   to 
Assyrian  art. 

46.  From  the  time  that  Nimrod  founded  the  Assyrian  or  Baby- 
lonian empire,  supposed  to  have  been  about  two  thousand  five  hun- 
dred and  sixty-six  years  before  Christ,  to  the  accession  of  Ninus, 
some  writers  allow  a  period  of  about  four  hundred  and  forty  years 
to  elapse,  during  which  time  they  state  that  Babylon  was  ruled  by 
two  successive  dynasties  of  Chaldean  and  Arab  kings,  embracing 
seven  of  the  former  and  six  of  the  latter,  whose  names  are  given  by 
Ctesias.     At  the  close  of  this  period  of  four  hundred  and  forty  years, 
Ninus,  an  Assyrian  prince,  is  supposed  to  have  conquered  Babylon, 
after  which  the  two  empires  remained  united,  under  the  successors 
of  Ninus,  until  the  reign  of  Sardanapalus,  when  occurred  the  revolt 
of  the  Medes  and  Babylonians,  which  terminated  in  a  final  separation 


CHAP.  II.]  ASSYRIAN  CIVILIZATION.  645 

of  the  monarchy  into  the  Babylonian  and  Assyro-Median  States, 
eight  hundred  and  twenty-one  years  before  the  Christian  era. 

47.  From  Ctesias  we  have  detailed  accounts  of  the  reigns  of  Ninue 
and  his  queen  and  successor  Semir'  amis,  but  they  wear  more  the 
garb  of  romance  than  of  genuine  history.     Both  are  said  to  have 
been  mighty  conquerors  whose  armies  numbered  millions  of  men.    It 
is  said  that  Semir'  amis  was  the  daughter  of  an  Assyrian  goddess, 
that  during  her  infancy  she  was  nourished  by  a  flock  of  pigeons,  and 
that,  instead  of  dying  the  death  of  mortals,  she  was  translated  from 
earth,  in  the  form  of  a  dove.     Moreover,  the  events  stated  by  Ctesias 
to  have  occurred  during  the  reign  of  Semir'  amis  have  been  attributed 
by  other  writers  to  different  reigns; — chronologers  cannot  agree, 
within  fifteen  hundred  years,  as  to  the  period  of  her  existence ;  and 
some  have  considered  such  a  personage  entirely  fabulous.     On  the 
whole,  the  accounts  derived  from   Ctesias  seem  entitled  to  little 
credit ;  and,  without  them,  an  impenetrable  cloud  of  darkness  hangs 
over  the  history  and  chronology  of  the  early  empires  of  Assyria  and 
Babylon. 

VIII. 

48.  Of  the  extent  and  character  of  early  Assyrian  civilization  we 
have  materials  for  a  more  accurate  estimate  in  the  accounts  of  eye- 
witnesses, although  written  during  its  decline,  and  in  the 
monuments  exhumed  from  the  earth  in  which  they  had  cl^%™*wV 
been  buried  for  ages.     From   the  valuable  particulars 

which  Herodotus,  speaking  from  his  own  observation,  gives  us  of 
Babylon,  we  may  judge  of  its  condition  a  century  earlier,  in  the  days 
of  its  full  splendor,  when, — traversed  in  the  middle  by  the  Euphrates, 
and  surrounded  by  walls  three  -hundred  feet  in  height,  seventy-five 
feet  in  thickness,  and  composing  a  square  of  which  each  side,  con- 
taining twenty-five  gates  of  brass,  was  nearly  fifteen  miles  in  length, 
— it  was  the  metropolis  of  a  powerful  empire,  "  the  glory  of  king- 
doms, and  the  beauty  of  the  Chaldees'  excellency."  Its  buildings, 
three  or  four  stories  high,  and  its  broad  and  straight  streets,  such  as 
were  unknown  in  Greece  at  that  period, — its  temple  of  Belus,  com- 
posed of  eight  solid  towers  built  one  above  the  other,  full  of  costly 
decorations  of  gold  and  silver,  and  its  royal  palace,  with  its  memor- 
able terraces  or  hanging  gardens,  were  well  calculated  to  fill  the 
Greek  writers  with  astonishment ;  but  we  have  no  good  reasons  for 
distrusting  the  general  accuracy  of  their  statements.  There  is  nothing 


646  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [PART  HI 

incredible  in  the  accounts  of  the  enormous  bulk  of  the  walls  and 
other  structures  of  Babylon,  when  we  consider  the  almost  unbounded 
fertility  of  the  valleys  of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates,  their  dense  popu- 
lation, the  convenience  and  abundance  of  building  materials,  and  the 
unlimited  command  of  labor  which  the  Assyrian  kings  are  supposed 
to  have  possessed.  The  pyramids  of  Egypt,  and  the  great  wall  of 
China,  the  latter  twenty-five  feet  high  and  twelve  hundred  miles  in 
length,  are  analogous  cases,  furnishing  results  quite  sufficient  to  make 
us  mistrustful  of  our  own  means  of  appreciation. 

49.  Of  Assyrian  civilization  we  may  say,  in  general  terms,  that  it 
was  such  as  was  inseparable  from  an  agricultural,  manufacturing, 
and  commercial  people  dwelling  mostly  in  cities,  and  cultivating  the 
arts  of  peaceful  life.     Calculate  the  wants,  natural  and  factitious,  and 
the  divisions  of  labor  requisite  to  supply  them,  in  such  a  state  of 
society,  and  whole  chapters  of  details  will  be  readily  suggested.     Of 
the  advance  made  by  the  Assyrians  in  the  higher  departments  of 
science,  with  the  exception  of  Astronomy,  we  know  little.     In  sculp- 
ture we  have  evidence,  in  recently-obtained  relics,  of  prevailing  ideas 
of  the  vast,  powerful,  mystical,  and  obscure,  in  religion  ;  but  far  in- 
ferior to  the  beautiful  and  sublime,  but  later  conceptions,  of  Grecian 
genius ;  while  in  finish  and  execution  the  infancy  of  the  art  among 
the  Assyrians  is  plainly  discernible.     Of  their  knowledge  of  painting, 
geometry,  and  mechanics,  and  of  their  religious  and  philosophical 
opinions,  we  know,  comparatively,  nothing.     Of  their  progress  in  the 
chemical  art  our  knowledge  is  confined  mostly  to  the  rich  dyes  of 
their  cotton  and  woollen  fabrics,  which  were  celebrated  throughout 
all  the  Eastern  regions.     At  a  very  early  period,  some  say  more 
than  two  thousand  years  before  the  Christian  era,  the  Chaldeans 
made  and  recorded  astronomical  observations ;  but  none  of  definite 
date  can  be  traced  higher  than  the  middle  of  the  eighth  century 
B.  C.     By  long-continued  observations  they  deduced  the  mean  daily 
motions  of  the  moon  with  a  degree  of  accuracy  which  differs  only  by 
four  seconds  from  modern  lunar  tables ;  and  Herodotus  affirms  that, 
"  as  to  the  pole  of  the  earth,  the  gnomon,a  and  the  division  of  the 
day  into  twelve  parts,  the  Greeks  received  them  from  the  Baby- 
lonians." 

50.  Both  Assyrian  and  Egyptian  civilization  exhibit,  on  a  vast 
scale,  the  acquisition  of  habits  of  regular  industry,  long  before  they 

a.  Probably  either  the  sun  dial,  or  a  style  erected  perpendicularly  to  the  horizon  in  order  to 
find  the  altitude  of  the  sun. 


CHAP.  II.]  ASSYRIAN   CIVILIZATION.  647 

had  acquired  any  footing  in  Europe ;  but  these  habits,  so  foreign  to 
the  natural  temper  of  man,  were  purchased  in  the  one  case  by  pros- 
trate obedience  to  despotic  rule,  and  in  the  other  by  the  no  less  odi- 
ous tyranny  of  a  consecrated  institution  of  caste.  Every  man's  mode 
of  life,  his  creed,  his  duties,  his  place  in  society,  were  fixed,  in  the 
one  case  by  political  and  in  the  other  by  religious  tyranny.  The 
natural  tendencies  of  such  a  system  were  towards  a  gross  kind  of  civ- 
ilization in  mass,  capable  of  the  most  stupendous  results  of  mere 
physical  labor,  but  at  the  same  time  opposed  to  great  national  ad- 
vancement, to  the  acquisition  of  any  high  mental  qualities,  and  the 
developments  of  individual  genius.  The  individual  man  was  degraded 
— lost  in  the  masses,  of  whom  he  formed  only  a  minute  fraction — his 
life  of  little  worth,  and  its  loss  seldom  or  never  felt  by  the  communi- 
ty. We  shall  find  the  strongly-marked  democratic  type  of  Grecian 
civilization  contrasting  favorably  with  this  in  its  character  and  ten- 
dencies :  we  shall  see  it  stimulating  to  action  the  will  and  the  reason, 
and,  by  elevating  the  individual  man,  and  giving  free  scope  to  indi- 
vidual impulse  and  energy,  furnishing,  in  the  glorious  consummations 
of  genius,  themes  of  admiration  to  all  succeeding  ages. 

IX. 

5 1 .  From  the  brief  view  that  we  have  taken  of  the  early  history  of 
mankind  after  the  deluge,  we  are  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  Egypt 
was  the  earliest,  most  intelligent,  and  most  powerful  of 

,1  ,    i  •         -i  /•  •        •  ••      i      ,    t>  i          i  CONCLUSION. 

the  great  kingdoms  or  antiquity,  and  that  trom  her  nave 
been  handed  down,  through  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  to  modern 
times,  many  of  the  arts  of  civilized  life;  but  that  Assyria  and  Babylon, 
and  perhaps  Ethiopia  also,  attained  a  degree  of  splendor  scarcely  infe- 
rior to  Egypt,  in  the  magnitude,  wealth,  and  magnificence  of  their  cities, 
and  the  commercial  industry  of  their  people.  Of  those  distant  ages, 
however,  after  all  our  researches,  we  can  obtain  only  a  very  imper- 
fect knowledge  ;  but  from  what  little  we  do  know  we  look  back  upon 
them  as  upon  a  world  of  buried  greatness,  while  the  few  memorials 
that  point  to  their  untold  treasures  of  opulence,  and  art,  and  power, 
overwhelm  us  with  unavailing  regret  that  so  much  of  the  history  of 
our  race  is  forever  buried  in  oblivion. 


M'+'t- 


648  PHILOSOPHY   OF    HISTOEY.  [PAET  III 


CHAPTER   III. 

CHARACTER  AND  EXTENT  OF  CIVILIZATION  DURING  THE 
FABULOUS  PERIOD  OF  GRECIAN  HISTORY. 

ANALYSIS.  1.  GRECIAN  MYTHOLOGY,  the  introduction  to  Grecian  history.  Its  Philo- 
sophical character. — 2.  Character  of  the  LEGENDS  OF  THE  HEROIC  AGE. — 3.  Hncertainty  of 
GRECIAN  CHRNOLOGY  prior  to  the  first  Olympiad.  Character  of  the  Laconian  chronology. — 4. 
INTERPRETATION  OF  THE  GRECIAN  FABLES. — 5.  Semi-historical  interpretation.  The  allegorical. 
The  latter  generally  to  be  preferred.  Both  inapplicable  in  certain  cases.  Examples  of  alle- 
gorical interpretation. — 6.  Personification  of  natural  powers  and  agents.  7.  The  Cecropian 
fable.— 8.  The  contest  between  Minerva  and  Neptune.— 9.  The  fable  of  Cran'  aus.— 10.  Of  the 
Egyptian  Dan' aus  and  his  daughters. — 11.  The  legend  of  Hercules, — allegorical  explanation. — 
12.  The  Egyptian  legend  of  Hercules.— 13.  Extent  of  the  legend  of  Hercules.  Views  of  Thirl- 
wall,  Clinton,  and  Grote. — 14.  Legend  of  the  Argonautic  expedition.  Different  interpretations. 
—15.  The  story  of  Helen  and  the  Trojan  war.  Views  of  Thirlwall.— 16.  Views  of  Grote.— 17. 
Character,  and  value,  of  the  Grecian  legends. 

18.  RELIGION  OF  THE  EARLY  GREEKS.  Great  number  and  variety  of  the  Grecian  deities. 
Foundation  of  this  religion. — 19.  The  gods  of  the  Greeks, — change  from  their  symbolical 
character.— 20.  The  merely  symbolical  character  of  the  gods  of  the  Egyptians  and  Asiatics. 
Causes  of  the  hideous  forms  of  some  of  their  deities.— 21.  Why  nothing  of  this  kind  existed 
among  the  Greeks.  Traces  of  the  symbolical  representation. — 22.  Personal  character  of  the 
gods. — 23.  BELIEF  IN  A  FUTURE  STATE.  The  souls  of  the  dead  in  Hades.  The  "  Islands  of  the 
Blessed."  Punishment  of  the  great  offenders. — 24.  Influence  of  Grecian  mythology  upon 
Grecian  art. 

25.  Early  GRECIAN  FORM  OF  GOVERNMENT.  Theclass  of  chiefs  or  nobles.— 26.  Powersof  the 
kings.  Their  pecuniary  advantages. — 27.  Laws.  Administration  of  justice. — 23.  GEOGRAPH- 
ICAL KNOWLEDGE  of  the  early  Greeks. — 29.  ASTRONOMY  AND  COMMERCE.  Naval  expeditions. — 
30.  DWELLINGS  AND  OCCUPATIONS  OF  THE  PEOPLE. — 31.  Homer's  representations. — 32.  MAN- 
NERS. Courtesies  and  friendships.— 33.  Enmities.  Conduct  in  war. — 34.  DOMESTIC  RELA- 
TIONS. Children  and  parents.  Marriage. — 35.  Treatment  of  women. 

36.  THE  ISRAELITES.  No  evidences,  from  the  hieroglyphics,  of  their  sojourn  in  Egypt. 
Supposed  reason. — 37.  Evidences  from  profane  authors.  The  name  Moses. — 38.  Confirmatory 
evidence  of  the  name  and  deeds  of  Moses. — 39.  Extract  from  Manetho.  Accounts  given  by 
Tacitus,  Diodorus,  and  others. — 40.  The  story  of  the  supply  of  quails. — 4!.  Conclusion  arrived 
at  from  these  circumstances. — 42.  Social  character,  and  condition,  &c.,  of  the  Israelites. — 43. 
Evidences  of  an  advanced  state  of  society  in  the  lifetime  of  Abraham  and  Isaac. — 44.  At  the 
period  of  the  Exodus. 

I. 

1.  The  world  of  fable,  far  back  in  the  shadowy  past  of  Grecian 

history,  opens  with  a  variety  of  strange  legends  of  gods  and  goddesses, 

who  were  anterior,  as  well  as  superior,  to  the  race  of 

MYTHOLOGY.  ^^^^'     Chaos,    Earth,   Ocean,    and   Heaven,    Night, 

Sleep,  Dreams,  and  Time,  personified,  as  well  as  Jupiter, 

Apollo,  Neptune,  Vulcan,  Juno,  Venus,  and  Minerva,  are  represent- 


CHAP.  Ill]  GRECIAN  CIVILIZATION.  649 

ed  by  the  Grecian  muse  as  marrying  and  intermarrying,  and  beget- 
ting sons  and  daughters,  some,  of  god-like  natures,  and  others,  min- 
gling forms  human  and  divine.  Grecian  mythology  is  the  Grecian  view 
of  the  Philosophy  of  Nature  ;  and  in  the  allegorical  legends  of  the 
gods,  natural  agents,  of  gigantic  powers,  are  represented  as  persons, 
possessing  the  attributes  of  free-will  and  conscious  agency,  and  in  a 
state  of  confusion  and  strife,  until  destroyed,  imprisoned,  or  reduced 
to  obedience,  by  the  overmastering  power  of  Jupiter,  who  finally  ac- 
quires supremacy  over  gods  and  men. 

2.  Growing  out  of,  and  interwoven  with,  the  Grecian  theogony, 
and  still  authenticated  by  the  Greek  muse  alone,  we  next  meet  with 
a  class  of  heroic  legends  and  genealogies,  furnishing  a     LEGEND8 
series  of  names  and  personal  adventures,  through  which      OF  THK 
the  Greek  looked  back  to  his  gods,  and  which  he  regard-  1IEROIC  AGK- 
ed  as  the  primitive  history  of  his  race.     In  this  primitive  history, 
extending  down  through  a  period  of  at  least  a  thousand  years  subse- 
quent to  the  supposed  founding  of  Argos,  it  is  impossible  to  dis- 
tinguish names  and  events,  real  and  historical,  from  fictitious  creations; 
and  much  that  was  deeply  seated  in  the  national  faith  and  feelings 
of  the  Greeks,  and  to  which  the  moderns  have  assigned  a  positive 
chronology,  is  found  to  rest  on  no  firmer  basis  than  the  songs  and 
traditionary  legends  of  bards  and  story-tellers. 

3.  The  whole  of  Grecian  chronology  prior  to  the  year  776  B.  C., 
the  date  of  the  first  recorded   Olympiad,1  consists  of  calculations 
founded  upon  the  fabulous  genealogies  of  kings,  heroes, 

and  demi-gods,  in  the  supposed  line  of  descent  from  some  CH^ONOU)QT 
remote  ancestor.     Thus,  Laconian  chronology,  which  is 
generally  taken  as  the  basis  of  the  whole,  is  traced  back  through  the 
Spartan  kings  to  Hercules — about  three  generations  being  reckoned 
to  a  century — a  computation  altogether  illusory,  and  as  doubtful  as 
the  reality  of  the  legendary  and  poetical  personages  thus  erected  into 
definite  historical  land-marks.* 

II. 

4.  As  the  Grecian  myths  or  fables,  from  the  earliest  assignable 

1.  An  Olympiad  was  a  period  of  four  years — the  space  of  time  which  intervened  between 
any  two  celebrations  of  the  Olympic  Games.  The  Olympiads  are  reckoned  from  the  year  776 
B.  C.,  in  which  year  Coroebus  was  victor  in  the  foot  race, — hence  culled  the  Olympiad  of 
Corcebus.  The  Olympic  Games  were  celebrated  before  this  period,  but  their  origin  is  unknown. 

a.  See  the  "  Application  of  Chronology  to  Grecian  Legends"  examined  :  Grote,  ii.  34-37. 


650  PHILOSOPHY  OF   HISTORY.  [PART  IH 

period  of  Grecian  history  down  to  a  period  subsequent  to  the   sup- 
posed   Trojan   war,    continually   confound    the   human 

INTERPRKTA-  ,       .          ,.     .  ,      ,        ,     .  .  . 

TIOX  OF  THE  and  tne  divine,  and  deal  in  the  most  incredible  narra- 
GBEOIAN     tions,  they  eventually  fell  into  discredit,  except  among 
the  multitude,  with  the  Greeks  themselves  ;  and  with  the 
philosophers  they  early  became  the  subjects  of  a  respectful  and  curious 
analysis,  which  has  continued  to  divide  the  opinions  of  the  learned 
to  the  present  day.     By  some,  the  principle  of  semi-historical  inter- 
pretation has  been  assumed  ;  and  by  others  the  allegorical. 

5.  The  semi-historical  interpretation,  leaving  out  of  the  fabulous 
legend  whatever  is  miraculous,  highly  colored,  or  extravagant,  retains 
only  a  series  of  credible  incidents  :  of  which  all  that  can  be  asserted 
is,  that  they  may  or  may  not  be  true — they  may  be  matters  of  fact, 
or  they  may  be  plausible  fiction.     The  allegorical  interpretation  rep- 
resents the  poetic  legends  as  conveying  to  the  early  Greeks,  religious, 
physical,  and  historical  knowledge,  under  the  veil  of  symbols  and  alle- 
gories.    Doubtless  both  modes  of  interpretation  are  partially  correct, 
and  will  apply  to  particular  cases ;  but  the  semi-historical  is  never 
to  be  adopted  unless  some  collateral  evidence  can  be  brought  to  its 
support.     In  the  legendary  accounts  of  the  founding  of  the  chief 
Grecian  cities,  and  even  of  the  Argonautic  expedition,  and  the  siege 
of  Troy,  it  will  be  found,  therefore,  that  we  can  place  little  or  no 
historical  reliance,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  many  of  these  fables 
contain  highly  interesting  and  intrinsic  evidence  of  their  allegorical 
character.     There  are  others,  doubtless,  the  special  product  of  the 
imagination  and  feelings — mere  fictions — radically  distinct  both  from 
genuine  history  and  philosophy,  that  cannot  be  broken  down  and  de- 
composed into  the  one,  nor  allegorized  into  the  other.a     A  few  ex- 
amples of  plausible  allegorical  interpretation,  together  with  the  reasons 
for  distrusting  the  semi-historical  view  of  some  of  the  more  import- 
ant and  commonly-received  heroic  legends,  will  serve  to  characterize 
more  truly  what  are  appropriately  styled  the  fabulous  and  uncertain 
periods  of  Grecian  history. 

6.  The  propensity  of  the  Greeks  to  personify  natural  powers  and 
agents  may  be  regarded  both  as  the  basis  of  their  religion  and  their 
legendary  history.     And  when  Earth,.  Ocean,  and  Heaven,  personi- 
fied, are  placed  at  the  beginning  of  celestial  beings,  it  is  not  wonder- 
ful that  rivers,  fountains,  and  other  natural  objects,  viewed  as  ration- 
al existences,  should  form  the  connecting  link  with  humanity.     Thus, 

a.  Grote,  i.  450. 


CHAP.  Ill]  GRECIAN  CIVILIZATION.  651 

by  a  figure  of  speech,  the  tributary  streams  and  fountains  may  be 
spoken  of  as  sons  and  daughters  of  Ocean ;  and  when  the  latter  was 
converted  into  a  god,  it  required  no  great  effort  of  the  Greek  imagi- 
nation to  select  from  his  numerous  progeny  here  and  there  one,  like 
Inachus,  of  sufficient  distinction  to  become  the  founder  of  a  Grecian 
State. 

7.  The  probable  origin  of  the  Cecropian  fable  exhibits  the  same 
personifying  propensity  of  the  Grecian  mind.     According  to  an  Attic 
legend,  the  form  of  Cecrops  was  half  human  and  half  serpent,  sup- 
posed to  denote  his  indigenous  nature ;  as  the  serpent  was  said  to  be 
"  a  child  of  the  earth."     The  name  Cecrops  has  also  been  reduced  to 
the  meaning  indigenous,  and  also  to  a  synonyme  of  the  name  of  an 
insect,  the  cicada,  which  the  vulgar  supposed  to  spring  spontaneously 
from  the  earth.     Cecrops  is   therefore  considered  by  some   to   be 
nothing  more  than  an  emblem  of  the  indigenous  cicada  itself,  con- 
verted by  the  poets  into  the  first  king  of  Athens.     This  supposition 
is  strengthened  by  the  names  •  of  three  of  the  daughters  of  the  fabled 
Cecrops, — Herse,  deiv,  Pandrosus,  all-dewy,  and  Agraulos,  a  field 
insect  sacred  to  Apollo. 

8.  Moreover,  in  the  contest  between  Minerva  and  Neptune,  in 
which  Cecrops  was  made  umpire,  has  been  recognized  an  account 
of  the  rivalry  that  subsisted  between  two  classes  of  the  people  of 
Attica, — the  one  maritime  and  commercial,  and  the  other  pastoral 
and  agricultural,  whose  occupations  were  typified,  the  former  by  the 
emblem  of  the  trident,  the  sceptre  of  the  god  of  the  seas,  and  the 
latter  by  that  of  the  olive,  the  symbol  of  peace.     The  victory  of 
Minerva  expresses  a  preponderance  of  the  peaceful  habits  of  pastoral 
and  agricultural  life,  and  aptly  denotes  the  condition  of  the  Athenian 
people  down  to  the  age  of  Themistocles. 

9.  Cran'  aus,  the  successor  of  Cecrops,  is  said  to  have  married 
Pedias,  and  the  issue  of  their  wedlock  was  Atthis.     Here  is  a  coinci- 
dence of  Greek  words,  woven  into  an  historical  myth,  which  affords 
a  plausible  explanation  of  the  allegorical  character  of  the  legend. 
Cran'  aus,  (xqavur]  yi],)  "  the  rocky  country,"  is  united  with  Pedias 
(IJsdias)  the  "country  of  the  plains;"  and  the  union  of  the  inhabit- 
ants of  the  hills  with  those  of  the  plains  forms  Attica,  or  Atthis. 
"  And  yet  a  hundred  histories  have  repeated  the  name  of  Cran'  aus 
as  a  king  of  Attica  !"a 

10.  The  origin  and  name  of  the  Egyptian  Dan' aus,  who  with  his 

a.  Anthon's  Clas.  Diet,  and  Wordsworth's  Greece. 


652  PHILOSOPHY   OF   HISTORY.  [PART  IIL 

fifty  daughters  is  said  to  have  fled  to  Greece,  and  to  have  founded  a 
colony  in  the  vicinity  of  Argos,  have  been  accounted  for  in  the  fol- 
lowing not  improbable  manner.  The  eastern  part  of  the  plain  of 
Argos  was  dry  and  barren.  The  word  dan'  os  signifies  dry, — whence 
perhaps  the  derivation  of  the  word  Dan'  ai,  often'  applied  to  the 
Greeks,  meaning  the  people  of  t/ie  thirsty  land  of  Argos.  The  per- 
sonification of  their  name  becomes  a  hero,  Dan'  aus.  Again, — 
springs  are  daughters  of  the  earth,  as  they  are  called  by  the  Arabs ; 
the  nymphs  of  the  springs  are  therefore  daughters  of  Dan'  aus,  that 
is,  of  the  thirsty  land  ;  and,  as  a  confirmation,  in  some  degree,  of  this 
view  of  the  legend,  the  names  of  four  of  the  daughters  of  Dan'  aus 
were  the  names  of  springs. 

1 1 .  One  of  the  most  important  and  widely  disseminated  of  the 
classic  legends  of  antiquity  is  that  of  the  hero-god  Hercules.     At 
first  view  nothing  can  be  more  monstrous,  more  at  variance  with 
every  principle  of  chronology,  and  more  replete  with  contradictions 
than  the  barren  legend  of  the  adventures  of  such  a  mortal  as  poetry 
represents  Hercules  to  have  been.     But  there  is  an  interesting  and 
not  improbable  philosophical  explanation  of  the  fable.     Hercules  is 
supposed  to  be  no   other  than  the  sun,  that  gives  light  and  life 
to  the  world  ;  and  his  twelve  labors  are  the  passage  of  that  luminary 
through  the  twelve  signs  of  the  zodiac.     Thus  viewed,  every  part  of 
the  legend  teems  with  animation  and  beauty,  and  is  marked  by  a 
pleasing  and  perfect  harmony.     The  god  of  day  commences  his  annual 
revolution  with  the  passage  into  the  constellation  Leo,  the  Lion,  in 
the  summer  solstice ;  and  in  the  language  of  poetry,  the  hero-god 
combats  a  fearful  lion  which  ravages  the  Nemean  plains.     Hence, 
too,  the  legend  that  the  Nemean  lion  had  fallen  from  the  skies.     In 
the  second  month  the  sun  enters  the  sign  Virgo,  when  the  constella- 
tion of  the  Hydra  sets, — the  second  monster  that  opposes  the  hero ; 
and  the  constellation  in  the  heavens  becomes  a  fearful  animal  on  the 
earth,  to  which  the  language  of  poetry  assigns  a  hundred  heads,  with 
the  power  of  reproduction  as  they  are  crushed  by  the  weapon  of  the 
hero.     In  this  manner  the  twelve  labors  of  Hercules  are  explained 
as  an  astronomical  allegory. 

12.  Herodotus  (ii.  42)  relates  the  following  Egyptian  legend  of 
Hercules,  which,  like  hundreds  of  others,  would  be  wholly  without 
meaning,  had  we  not  a  key  to  its  interpretation.     "  The  Egyptians 
say  that  Jupiter  Ammon  was  long  averse  to  the  solicitations  of  Her- 
cules to  see  his  person,  but  in  consequence  of  his  repeated  importuni- 


CHAP.  HI.]  GRECIAN  CIVILIZATION,  653 

ties,  the  god,  in  compliance,  used  the  following  artifice.  He  cut  off 
the  head  of  a  ram,  and  covering  himself  with  its  skin,  showed  him- 
self in  that  form  to  Hercules.  From  that  time  the  Thebans  esteemed 
the  ram  as  sacred,  and,  except  on  the  annual  festival  of  Jupiter, 
never  put  one  to  death.  On  this  solemnity  they  kill  a  ram,  and 
placing  its  skin  on  the  image  of  the  god,  they  introduce  before  it 
a  figure  of  Hercules."  "  Who,"  says  Heeren,  "  understands  this 
story  and  this  festival  from  the  mere  relation  ?  But  when  we  learn 
that  the  ram,  opening  the  Egyptian  year,  is  the  symbol  of  the  ap- 
proaching spring,  and  that  Hercules  is  the  sun  of  that  season  in  its 
full  power,  the  story,  as  well  as  the  festival,  is  explained  as  descrip- 
tive of  the  spring,  and  as  a  figurative  representation  of  the  season 
that  is  beginning." 

1 3.  But  we  have  not  room  to  pursue  this  subject  farther.    Similar 
illustrations  might  be  given  of  many  otherwise  unmeaning  legends 
of  the  gods.     Hercules  was  worshipped  as  the  sun,  under  a  variety 
of  names,  from  Ethiopia  to  Britain  and  Scythia,  and  from  Gibraltar 
(the  pillars  of  Hercules)  to  the  shores  of  Eastern  India.     Thirl  wall 
supposes  that  the  astronomical  part  of  the  legend  of  Hercules,  refer- 
ring to  his  twelve  labors,  may  have  been  borrowed  from  the  Phoeni- 
cians, and  that  other  exploits  attributed  to  him  may  have  had  some 
foundation   in   the   real    achievements  of  several   Grecian   heroes. 
Clinton,  in  his  able  work,  the  "  Fasti  Hellenici,"  ( Grecian  Annals,) 
considers  there  is  satisfactory  proof  that  Hercules  was  a  real  person ; 
but  Grote  refutes  this  position  with  arguments  which  appear  to  us 
unanswerable. 

14.  Of  the  Argonautic  expedition — long  believed,  even  by  the 
moderns,  to  rest  on  a  basis  of  accredited  history,  historical  criticism 
speaks  in  the  same  tone  of  distrust,  as  of  the  stories  of  Cecrops, 
Gran'  aus,  Dan'  aus,  and  Hercules.     The  early  legends  of  the  Argo- 
nauts differed  widely  from  each  other ;  and  there  are  no  means  of 
determining  what  the  original  story  was.     Not  only  are  the  various 
editions  of  it  full  of  the  unreal  and  the  marvellous,  but  the  chronol- 
ogy is  various ;  the  geography  of  the  places  visited  is  a  series  of  im- 
possibilities ;  and  there  is  not  a  particle  of  evidence  that  this  ancient 
tale  is  anything  more  than  a  legend  from  the  beginning.     Yet  it 
formed  a  part  of  the  national  faith  of  the  Greeks,  which  they  would 
never  relinquish ;    and  when    the  advanced   state  of  geographical 
knowledge,  and  improved  criticism,  had  dispelled  many  of  its  il- 
lusions, the  geographer  Strabo  hit  upon  a  saving  explanation,  which 


654  PHILOSOPHY   OF  HISTORY.  [PART  III. 

the  moderns  have  generally  adopted.  Making  a  compromise  with 
fiction,  he  supposed  the  golden  fleece  to  be  typical  of  the  great  wealth 
of  Kolchis,  and  the  voyage  of  the  Argonauts  to  have  been  a  plunder- 
ing expedition  to  that  country.  But  this,  as  well  as  all  other  semi- 
historical  interpretations  of  the  legend,  is  bare  supposition,  and 
nothing  more.  It  is  more  probable  that  the  story  has  no  particular 
facts  for  its  basis ;  and  the  monumentary  evidence  of  the  voyage,  scat- 
tered over  a  vast  region,  from  Italy  to  the  Arabian  Sea,  and  from 
Egypt  and  Lybia  to  the  German  Ocean,  go  far  to  prove  that  the 
legend  is  a  general  allegorical  representation  of  the  early  beginnings 
of  Grecian  commerce  with  the  surrounding  nations. 

15.  Concerning  the  story  of  Helen  and  the  Trojan  war,  "  the  most 
splendid  gem  in  the  Grecian  legends,"  we  shall  give  merely  the  re- 
sults of  the  investigations  of  the  ablest  of  modern  historians.     "  We 
conceive  it  necessary,"  says  Thirlwall,  "  to  admit  the  reality  of  the 
Trojan  war  as  a  general  fact,  but  beyond  this  we  scarcely  venture  to 
proceed  a  single  step.     We  find  it  impossible  to  adopt  the  poetical 
story  of  Helen,  partly  on  account  of  its  inherent  improbability,  and 
partly  because  we  are  convinced  that  Helen  is  a  merely  mythological 
person.  "a 

16.  "In  the  eyes  of  modern  inquiry,"  says  Grote,  "the  Trojan 
war  is  essentially  a  legend,  and  nothing  more.     If  we  are  asked 
whether  it  be  not  a  legend  embodying  portions  of  historical  matter, 
and  raised  upon  a  basis  of  truth — whether  there  may  not  really  have 
occurred,  at  the  foot  of  the  hill  of  Ilium,  a  war  purely  human  and 
political,  without  gods,  without  heroes,  without  Helen,  without  Ama- 
zons, without  Ethiopians  under  the  beautiful  son  of  Eos,  without  the 
wooden  horse,  without  the  characteristic  and  expressive  features  of 
the  old  epic  war — if  we  are  asked  whether  there  was  not  really  some 
such  historical  Trojan  war  as  this,  our  answer  must  be,  that  as  the 
possibility  of  it  cannot  be  denied,  so  neither  can  the  reality  of  it  be 
affirmed.'* 

17.  But  it  may  be  asked,  are  even  the  fabulous  records  of  the 
thousand  years  of  Grecian  history,  down  to  the  first  Olympiad,  from 
which  we  have  derived  so  many  of  our  cherished  ideas  of  classical 
antiquity,  to  be  now  thrown  aside  as  worthless  legendary  lore  ?     By 
no  means.     The  very  circumstances  which  render  the  Grecian  legends 
unreliable  as  historical  records,  enhance  their  value  as  unconscious 
expositors  of  real  life  ;  for  while  they  professedly  describe  the  past, 

a.  Thirlwall,  i.  80.  b.  Grote,  i.  321. 


.  IIL]  GRECIAN  CIVILIZATION.  655 

their  entire  drapery  of  circumstance,  character,  scenes,  thought,  and 
feeling,  is  necessarily  borrowed  from  the  surrounding  present.  The 
Grecian  legends,  the  spontaneous,  and  the  earliest  growth,  of  the 
Grecian  mind,  and  accepted  by  the  Greeks  as  serious  realities — are 
therefore  to  be  viewed  as  exponents  of  early  Grecian  philosophy — 
of  all  that  the  early  Greeks  believed,  and  felt,  and  conjectured  respect- 
ing the  character  and  attributes  of  the  gods  and  heroes,  and  respect- 
ing the  social  relations,  duties,  and  motives  of  mankind ;  and  not 
only  are  they  to  be  regarded  as  brilliant  creations  of  fancy,  but  they 
are  to  be  studied  as  instructive  pictures  of  life  and  manners,  and  as 
germs  of  thought  and  feeling,  which  have  given  to  Grecian  art  and 
literature  many  of  their  prominent  characteristics.  From  the  poems 
of  Homer,  Hesiod,  and  others,  who  gathered  the  floating  legends  into 
continuous  epics,  we  obtain  our  principal  knowledge  of  early  Grecian 
mythology  and  worship. 

III. 

18.  It  has  been  a  disputed  point  whether  the  Pelasgians,  from 
whom  the  Hellenes  derived  much  of  their  religion,  worshipped  only 
one  srod,  or  paid  adoration  to  numerous  deities.     The 

RELIGION  OK 

latter  supposition  seems  by  far  the  most  probable.  A  THE  EARLY 
spontaneous  religious  feeling,  unconnected  with  any  glim-  GREEKS- 
merings  of  traditional  revelation,  would  probably  arise  in  the  bosoms 
of  the  rudest  barbarians,  however  they  might  be  situated ;  but  the 
character  of  this  natural  religion  would  doubtless  be  varied  or  modi- 
fied by  the  circumstances  of  climate,  soil,  scenery,  and  mode  of  life. 
The  early  Greeks,  like  all  rude  uncultivated  tribes,  probably  asso- 
ciated their  earliest  religious  emotions  with  the  character  of  surround- 
ing objects,  and  ascribed  its  appropriate  deity  to  every  manifestation 
of  power  in  the  visible  universe.  Thus  they  had  nymphs  of  the 
forests,  rivers,  meadows,  and  fountains,  and  gods  and  goddesses  almost 
innumerable,*  some  terrestrial,  others  celestial,  according  to  the 
places  over  which  they  were  supposed  to  preside,  and  rising  in  im- 
portance in  proportion  to  the  powers  they  manifested.  The  founda- 
tion of  this  religion,  like  all  others,  was  a  belief  in  higher  existences, 
which  have  an  influence  over  the  destinies  of  mortals. 

19.  Tfib  gods  of  the  Greeks,  unlike  those  of  the  Egyptians,  and 
the  Eastern  world,  although  at  first  exclusively  of  physical  origin, 
became,  in  process  of  time,  something  more  than  mere  symbols  of 

•  Hesiod  computes  the  number  to  be  not  less  than  thirty  thousand. 


656  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [PART  HI. 

natural  objects  and  powers.  The  Grecian  gods  were  invariably  ex- 
hibited under  a  human  form  ;  and  as  the  symbolical  representations 
of  natural  powers  and  objects  were  gradually  dismissed  or  lost  sight 
of,  the  gods  became  possessed  of  the  whole  moral  nature  of  man, 
with  its  defects  and  excellences,  but  with  infinitely  higher  powers  and 
attributes,  and  a  form  more  ennobled  and  exalted,  and  generally  more 
beautiful. 

20.  But  among  the  Egyptians  and  the  Asiatics,  when  the  human 
form  was  attributed  to  the  gods  it  was  only  secondary,  employed  for 
the  purpose  of  exhibiting  the  objects  or  powers  symbolized  more 
clearly  to  the  senses.     Thus,  keeping  the  primary  design  in  view — 
the  symbolizing  of  nature — the  Egyptian  did  not  hesitate  to  worship 
animals  and  various  natural  objects,  and  to  unite,  in  the  representa- 
tions of  his  gods,  the  combined  forms  of  beasts  and  men, — often  a 
compound  of  all  that  was  terrible  and  hideous.     Thus  the  symbolical 
figure  of  the  Phyrgian  Diana,  identified  with  the  goddess  of  nature, 
denoted,  by  its  multitude  of  breasts,  the  fruitfulness  of  nature  ;  and  it 
was  for  similar  reasons  that  the  Hindoo  did  not  scruple  to  represent 
his  gods  with  twenty  heads  or  a  hundred  arms. 

21.  With  the  Greeks,  however,  nothing  of  this  kind  existed,  be- 
cause, so  far  back  as  we  can  trace  their  history,  the  Grecian  gods  had 
already  become  morally  accountable  persons  ;a    although  even   in 
Homer  we  can  detect  traces  of  the  symbolical  representation,  where 
Jupiter  represents  the  ether,  Juno  the  atmosphere,  and  Apollo  the 
sun.     In  the  more  perfect  system  of  Grecian  mythology,  however,  we 
observe  a  consciousness,  in  the  people  who  adopted  it,  of  a  general 
dependence  on  superior  moral  beings ;  and  although  Jupiter,  the  king 
of  all  the  gods,  was,  in  a  limited  sense,  the  expressed  personification 
of  certain  powers  of  the  natural  world,  and  was  called  the  lord  of  the 
upper  regions,  "  who  dwelt  on  the  summits  of  the  highest  mountains, 
gathered  the  clouds  about  him,  shook  the  air  with  his  thunder,  and 
wielded  the  lightning  as  the  instrument  of  his  wrath, "b  yet  he  was 
often  addressed  in  the  simple  abstract  sense  of  an  invisible,  over- 
ruling power  ;  and,  confirmatory  of  this,  the  Greek  name  of  the  deity 
signified,  simply,  god. 

22.  Although  the  gods  are  represented  by  the  Greek  poets  as  sub- 
ject to  the  passions  and  frailties  of  human  nature,  and,1(sometimes 
stained  with  crimes  of  the  blackest  dye,  yet  as  they  seemed  too  great, 
and  too  far  removed  from  earthly  affairs,  to  be  tried  by  the  rules  of 

a.  Heeren's  Pol.  of  the  Grecians,  p.  56.  b.  Thirlwall,  i.  p.  93. 


CHAP.  III.]  GRECIAN  CIVILIZATION.  657 

mortals,  so  they  were  not  believed  to  approve,  in  men,  of  the  vices  in 
which  they  themselves  were  accustomed  to  indulge.  They  were  never 
seriously  considered  as  examples  for  imitation,  but  were,  nevertheless, 
supposed  to  punish  gross  violations  of  justice  and  humanity,  and  to 
reward  the  brave  and  virtuous.  The  moral  sentiments  of  the 
Grecians,  therefore,  could  never  have  arisen  from  a  contemplation  of 
the  supposed  character  of  their  gods,  but  the  latter  rather  grew  out 
of  the  former ;  and  after  the  general  principles  of  virtuous  conduct 
had  become  established,  the  gods  were  supposed  to  enforce  them. 
But  although  the  favor  of  the  gods  was  believed  to  be  obtained  by 
a  life  of  virtue,  and  their  interposition  in  one's  behalf  by  worship  and 
sacrifice,  yet  so  subject  were  they  to  passion  and  frailty  that  the  most 
exalted  piety  could  not  always  save  a  hero  from  the  persecution  of  a 
god  whom  he  had  innocently  provoked. 

23.  The  Greeks  believed  in  a  future  state ;  but  during  the  heroic 
age  the  idea  of  retribution  appears  not  to  have  been  associated  with 
it,  except  in  the  cases  of  those  who  had  been  guilty  of  BELIEF  ^ 
direct  blasphemy,  or  other  gross  impiety,  against  the  A  FUTURE 
gods.  The  souls  of  the  dead  were  supposed  to  descend  STATB- 
to  the  realms  of  Hades,  where  they  remained,  joyless  phantoms,  the 
shadows  of  their  former  selves,  destitute  of  mental  vigor,  and,  like 
the  spectres  of  the  North  American  Indians,  pursuing,  with  dream- 
like vacancy,  the  empty  images  of  their  past  occupations  and  enjoy- 
ments. So  cheerless  is  the  twilight  of  the  nether  world  that  the 
ghost  of  Achilles  informs  Ulysses  that  it  would  rather  live  the  meanest 
hireling  on  earth,  than  be  doomed  to  continue  in  the  shades  below. 
Yet  a  few  of  the  favored  spirits,  transported  to  some  distant  islands 
of  the  Ocean  that  are  cooled  by  refreshing  breezes,  and  where  spring 
perpetual  reigns,  are  permitted  to  enjoy  a  better  destiny.  On  the 
other  hand,  those  great  offenders,  the  deriders  of  the  power  of  the 
gods,  plunged  into  an  abyss  deeper  than  Hades,  are  doomed  to  tor- 
ments of  unavailing  toil  and  perpetual  longings.a 

a.  See  Virgil,  JKneid  vi.  and  Odyssey  xi. ;  in  the  former  the  descent  of  ^Eneas,  and  in  the 
latter  of  Ulysses,  to  the  lower  world.  See,  also,  in  Anthon's  Classical  Dictionary,  the  articles 
Tantalus,  Sisyphus,  Tityus,  Ixion,  &c.  Tantalus,  placed  in  water  up  to  his  chin,  was  tormented 
with  unquenchable  thirst,  while  the  fruit  suspended  near  him  constantly  eluded  his  grasp. 
Sisyphus  was  engaged  in  rolling  a  huge  stone  up  a  hill ;  a  never-ending,  still  beginning  toil ; 
for,  as  soon  as  it  reached  the  summit,  it  rolled  down  again  into  the  plain.  Tityus  was  placed 
on  his  back,  while  a  vulture  constantly  fed  upon  his  liver  and  entrails,  which  grew  again  as 
fast  as  they  were  eaU-n.  Ixion  was  fastened,  with  brazen  bands,  to  an  ever-revolving  fiery 
wheel.  Only  once  do  we  read  that  these  torments  ceased,  and  that  was  when  the  musician 
Orpheus,  lyre  in  hand,  descended  to  the  lower  world  to  reclaim  his  beloved  Eurydice.  In  the 

42 


658  PHILOSOPHY  OF   HISTORY.  [PART  III. 

24.  The  moral  character  and  consequent  human  form  attributed 
to  the  Grecian  gods  exerted  an  important  influence  on  the  whole 
progress  of  Grecian  civilization.     Asiatic  and  Egyptian  artists  never 
tasked  themselves  to  produce  ideal  forms  of  beauty.     The  monstrous 
figures  often  given  their  gods,  in  accordance  with  the  symbolical  rep- 
resentations to  which  they  were  confined,  furnished  but  a  poor  school 
of  statuary  and  painting ;  and  this  is  the  prominent  reason  why,  in 
those  Eastern  nations,  so  little  progress  was  ever  made  in  the  fine 
arts.     The  Grecian  artist,  however,  looking  upon  his  gods  as  moral 
beings,  indued  with  human  forms,  was  called  to  contemplate  and  give 
expression  to  those  divine  attributes  which  distinguished  them  above 
mortals.     A  boundless  field  was  thus  opened  for  poetic  invention 
also,  which  was  early  cultivated  by  the  genius  of  a  Homer.     "  The 
sculptor  Phidias,"  says  Heeren,  "  found  in  Homer  the  idea  of  his 
Olympian  Jupiter;  and  the  most  sublime  image  in  human  shape, 
which  time  has  spared  us,  the  Apollo  of  the  Vatican,  may  be  traced  to 
the  same  origin."     Strike  from  the  Grecian  arts  of  painting,  poetry, 
and  sculpture,  that  which  they  derived  from  Grecian  mythology,  and 
but  a  few  naked  forms,  without  soul,  or  grace,  or  beauty,  would 
remain. 

IV. 

25.  The  form  of  government  that  prevailed  among  the  early 
Grecians,  especially  after  the  Pelasgic  race  had  yielded  to  the  more 

GRECIAN     warlike  and  adventurous  Hellenes,  was  evidently  that  of 
FORM  OF     the  kingly  order,  on  a  democratic  basis ;  although  it  is 
GOVERNMENT,  j^^fo  to  ascertain  the  precise  extent  of  the  royal  pre- 
rogatives.    In  all  the  Grecian  States  there  appears  to  have  been  a 
hereditary  class  of  chiefs  or  nobles,  distinguished  from  the  common 
freemen  by  titles  of  honor,  superior  wealth,  dignity,  valor,  and  noble 
birth,  which  latter  implied  no  less  than  a  descent  from  the  gods 
themselves,  to  whom  every  princely  house  seems  to  have  traced  its 
origin. 

26.  But  the  kings,  although  generally  hereditary,  were  not  always 
so,a  nor  were  they  absolute  monarch s ;  they  were  rather  the  most 
eminent  of  the  nobility, — the  first  among  their  equals — having  the 
command  in  war,  and  the  chief  seat  in  the  administration  of  justice  ,* 

beautiful  language  of  poetry,  at  the  music  of  his  "golden  shell"  Tantalus  forgot  his  thirst,  the 
•wheel  of  Ixion  stood  still,  and  Tityus  ceased  his  moauing. 

a.  "  Esteem  for  the  ruling  families  secured  to  them  the  government ;  but  their  power  waa 
not  strictly  hereditary."— Heeren's  Politics  of  Ancient  Greece,  p.  89. 


CHAP.  Ill]  GRECIAN   CIVILIZATION.  659 

and  their  authority  was  more  or  less  extended  in  proportion  to  the 
noble  qualities  they  possessed,  and,  particularly,  to  their  valor  in 
battle.a  Unless  distinguished  by  courage  and  strength,  kings  could 
not  even  command  in  war ;  and  during  peace  they  were  bound  to 
consult  the  people  in  all  important  matters.  Among  their  pecuniary 
advantages  were  the  profits  of  an  extensive  domain,  which  seems  to 
have  been  attached  to  the  royal  office,  and  not  to  have  been  the  private 
property  of  the  individual.  Thus  Homer  represents  Telemachus  as 
in  danger  not  only  of  losing  his  throne  by  the  adverse  choice  of  the 
people,  but,  also,  among  the  rights  of  the  crown,  the  domains  of 
Ulysses  his  father,  should  he  not  be  permitted  to  succeed  him.b 

27.  During  the  heroic  age  the  Greeks  appear  to  have  had  no  fixed 
laws  established  by  legislation.     Public  opinion  and  usage,  based  upon 
principles  of  natural  equity,  and  confirmed  and  expounded  by  judicial 
decisions,  were  the  only  sources  to  which  the  weak  and  injured  could 
look^for  protection  and  redress.     Private  differences  were  most  often 
settled  by  private  means ;  but  in  quarrels  which  threatened  to  dis- 
turb the  peace  of  community,  the  public  compelled  the  injured  party 
to  accept,  and  the  aggressor  to  pay,  the  compensation  established  by 
custom.     As  among  the  savage  tribes  of  America,  and  even  among 
our  early  Saxon  ancestors,  the  murderer  was  often  allowed  to  pay  a 
stipulated  price,  which  stayed  the  spirit  of  revenge,  and  was  received 
as  a  full  expiation  of  his  guilt.     The  mutual  dealings  of  the  several 
independent  Grecian  States  with  each  other  were  regulated  by  no  es- 
tablished principles,  and  international  law  can  hardly  be  said  to  have 
existed  at  this  early  period. 

28.  During  the  heroic  age  the  Greeks  seem  to  have  had  but  little 
knowledge  of  geography,  beyond  the  confines  of  Greece  and  its  islands, 
and  the  coasts  of  the  ^Egean  Sea.     The  habitable  world    GEOGRAPH. 
was  supposed  to  be  surrounded  by  an  ocean-like  river,        ICAL 
beyond  which  were  realms  of  darkness,  dreams,  and  death.  KNOWLEDGE- 
Within  the  hollow  earth,  however,  was  the  more  proper  abode  of  de- 
parted spirits;  and  still  lower  down,  as  far  below  earth  as  heaven 
was  above  it,  was  the  pit  of  Tartarus,  secured  by  its  iron  gates  and 
brazen  floor,  filled  with  eternal  gloom  and  darkness,  and  its  still  air 
unmoved  by  any  wind.     This  was  the  prison  house  of  the  gods,  or 
of  those  mortals,  of  more  than  mortal  power,  who  were  the  implaca- 
ble enemies  of  Jupiter. 

a.  Hceren's  Manual  Ancient  History,  p.  126. 

b.  See  the  Odyssey,  (Cowper's  Trans.)  xi.  207-223. 


660  PHILOSOPHY   OF  HISTORY.  [PART  IIL 

29.  The  astronomy  of  the  Greeks  appears  to  have  been  much  more 
limited  than  that  of  the  Egyptians  at  the  same  period,  and  little  ap- 

ASTRONOMY  plication  of  it  was  made  to  navigation.  Legitimate  com- 
AND  rnerce  appears  to  have  been  deemed  of  no  great  import- 
t  OOMMERCE-  ance  during  the  heroic  age.  The  largest  ships  of  the 
early  Greeks  were  slender,  half  decked  row-boats,  capable  of  carrying, 
at  most,  only  about  a  hundred  men,  and  having  a  movable  mast, 
which  was  hoisted  only  to  take  advantage  of  a  favorable  wind.  Most 
of  the  naval  expeditions  at  this  early  period  appear  to  have  been 
fitted  out  for  purposes  of  plunder ;  and  piracy  was  not  deemed  dis- 
honorable. When  Mentor  and  Telemachus  came  to  the  court  of 
Nestor,  that  prince,  after  entertaining  them  kindly,  asked  them, 
as  a  matter  of  curiosity,  whether  they  were  travellers  or  robbers  ! 

30.  The  Greeks,  unlike  most  of  the  Asiatic  nations,  never  dwelt  in 
tents,  and  were  never  a  wandering  people.     During  the  heroic  age 

Greece  was  a  populous  and  well-cultivated  country,  with 

DWELLINGS,  J  7 

AND  OCCUPA-  numerous  and  large  cities,  in  part  surrounded  with  walls, 
TIONS,  OF     an(j  having  gates  and  regular  streets ;    but   no   traces 

THE  PEOPLE. 

oi  pavements  appear.  Homer  describes  the  diiierent 
branches  of  agriculture,  and  the  various  labors  of  farming,  the  cul- 
ture of  the  grape,  and  the  duties  of  the  herdsmen.  The  weaving  of 
woollen  and  of  linen  fabrics,  and  perhaps  of  cotton  also,  was  the  chief 
occupation  of  the  women,  and,  as  in  Egypt,  among  the  Israelites,  was 
carried  to  a  high  degree  of  perfection. 

31.  Homer's  account  of  the  luxury  and  splendor  of  the  great, 
however, — the  dwellings,  clothing,  and  furniture  of  the  opulent,  and 
the  armor  of  his  heroes,  must  not  be  regarded  as  pictures  which 
represent  the  true  state  of  Grecian  art  at  this  period.     The  poet  may 
have  drawn  largely  upon  imagination  for  his  descriptions,  and  be- 
sides, many  of  the  manufactures  from  the  precious  metals  were  evi- 
dently of  foreign  origin.     Still,  many  ancient  remains  of  Grecian  art 
attest  the  general  fidelity  of  the  poet's  representations  of  the  magnifi- 
cence which  the  noble  and  affluent  loved  to  display. 

32.  The  manners  of  the  early  Grecians  presented  a  mixture  of  op- 
posing qualities,  such  as  we  might  expect  to  find  in  a  rude  but  chiv- 

-    alrous  age,  and  in  an  unsettled  state  of  society.    /Every 

MANNERS.  J  / 

stranger  was  looked  upon  either  as  an  enemy  or  a  guest : 
if  a  traveller  could  once  enter  a  princely  hall,  and  seat  himself  at 
the  hearth  of  the  opulent,  he  was  treated  at  least  with  respect,  and 
Lis  person  was  deemed  sacred.  As  a  motive  for  observing  the  laws 


CHAP.  Ill]  GRECIAN  CIVILIZATION.  661 

of  hospitality,  Homer  mentions  that  the  gods,  often  in  the  similitude 
of  strangers,  visit  the  abodes  of  men.a  4  The  many  instances  which 
Homer  relates  of  intimate  and  durable  friendships  contracted  not 
only  between  equals,  but  also  between  the  princely  and  their  inferiors, 
present  an  amiable  trait  of  Grecian  character  in  this  rude  age.  It 
was  not  uncommon  that  an  interchange  of  armor  between  two  heroes 
of  opposing  forces  ratified  a  contract  to  shun  each  other's  path  thence- 
forward in  battle.b 

33.  But  if  the  friendship  of  the  Greek  was  warm,  his  enmity  was 
fierce :  while  the  remembrance  of  an  injury  lasted,  his  resentment 
knew  no  bounds,  and  in  war  he  felt  no  pity  and  showed  no  mercy. 
In  battle,  quarter  seems  never  to  have  been  given  to  a  prostrate  foe, 
but  with  a  view  to  ransom  :c  indignities  were  often  offered  the  bodies 
of  the  dead  ;d  and  prisoners  were  sometimes  sacrificed6  to  the  shades 
of  those  who  had  fallen,  although  perhaps  this  was  not  authorized  by 
the  established  maxims  of  warfare.     But,  worst  of  all,  when  a  city  was 
captured,  all  the  males  capable  of  bearing  arms  were  put  to  death, 
and  the  women  and  children  were  carried  away  into  slavery. 

34.  In  the  domestic  relations  of  life  there  was  much  in  the  conduct 
of  the  Greeks   that  was   meritorious.     Children  were 

treated  with  affection,  and  great  care  was  bestowed  on 
their  education;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  respect 
which  they  showed  their  parents,  even  after  the  period  of  youth  and 
dependence,  approached  almost  to  veneration.  As  evidence  of  a  rude 
age,  however,  the  father  disposed  of  the  maiden's  hand  with  absolute 
authority ;  and  although  we  meet  with  many  models  of  conjugal  af- 
fection, as  in  the  noble  characters  of  Androm'ache  and  Penel'ope, 
yet  the  story  of  the  seduced  and  returning  Helen,  and  other  similar 
ones,  suggest  too  plainly  that  the  faithlessness  of  the  wife  was  not  re- 
garded as  an  offence  of  great  enormity. 

35.  The  relation  which  the  wife  sustained  in  the  family  was  not 
as  an  equal  of  the  husband.     $he  was  the  housewife,  and  nothing 
more ; — her  constant  employment,  weaving,  or  spinning,  or  superin- 
tending the  tasks  of  her  maidens.     Even  Homer  portrays  none  of 
those  elevated  feelings  of  love  which  result  from  a  higher  regard  for 


in  similitude  of  strangers  oft 


The  gods,  who  can  with  ease  all  shapes  assume, 
Repair  to  populous  cities,  where  they  mark 
The  outrageous  and  the  righteous  deeds  of  men." 

Odyssey,  xvii.  577. 

b.  AB  Glaucus  and  Diomede.    See  Iliad,  iv.  267,  (Cowper's  Trans.) 

c.  Wad,  xx.  556 :  xxi.  134,  &c.         d.  Iliad,  xxii.  429-451.        e.  Iliad,  xxiii.  217. 


THE 


662  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [PART  IIL 

the  female  sex.  "  That  love,"  says  Heeren,  "  and  that  regard,  are 
traits  peculiar  to  the  Germanic  nations ;  a  result  of  the  spirit  of 
gallantry,  which  was  a  leading  feature  in  the  character  of  chivalry, 
but  which  we  vainly  look  for  in  Greece.  Yet  here  the  Greek  stands 
between  the  East  and  the  West.  Although  he  was  never  wont  to 
revere  the  female  sex  as  beings  of  a  higher  order,  he  did  not,  like  the 
Asiatic,  imprison  them  by  troops  in  a  Harem.  "a 

V. 

36.  As  cotemporary  with  the  supposed  beginnings  of  Grecian 

history,  we  may  appropriately  advert,  in  this  connection, 
ISRAELITES  ^°  *^e  sojourn  °f tne  Israelites  in  Egypt,  their  exodus  from 

bondage,  and  the  character  of  their  early  civilization.13 
As  the  early  history  of  the  Israelites  is  connected  with  that  of 
Egypt,  we  naturally  look  to  Egyptian  annals  for  some  confirmation 
of  the  Mosaic  record;  but  here  we  are  doomed  to  disappointment; 
and  from  the  circumstance  that  the  hieroglyphic  sculptures  on  the 
monuments  of  Egypt  make  no  mention  of  the  sojourn  of  the  Israel- 
ites in  that  country,  some  have  thought,  either  that  the  historical 
importance  of  the  monuments  themselves  must  be  discredited,  or,  if 
they  are  to  be  deemed  reliable  testimony,  that  an  argument  would 
be  based  on  their  silence  in  this  particular,  against  the  verity  of  the 
Hebrew  record  of  the  Egyptian  bondage,  and  the  exodus  of  the 
Jews.  But  this  silence  is  not  at  all  remarkable,  and  is  easily  ex- 
plained, in  perfect  consistency  with  Egyptian  and  Jewish  history.  In 
the  first  place,  the  monuments  belong  almost  exclusively  to  Upper 
Egypt ;  and  it  is  not  certain  that  a  separate  dynasty  of  Egyptian 
kings  did  not  rule,  at  this  period,  over  the  Lower  country,  in  which 
the  Israelites  resided.0  In  the  second  place,  it  would  be  an  unheard 
of  thing  that  a  nation  should  erect  monuments  to  commemorate  its 
losses  and  calamities — such  as  befel  the  Egyptians  in  their  dealings 
with  the  people  of  Israel.  Those  deeds  alone,  which  are  thought  to 
redound  to  the  honor  of  a  country,  are  hewn  in  stone. 

37.  But  although  we  have  no  direct  authentic  evidences  from  pro- 
fane history  of  the  sojourn  of  the  Israelites  in  Egypt,  a  circumstance 

a.  Heeren's  Pol.  of  An.  Greece,  p.  95.  b.  See,  also,  pp.  17  and  39. 

c.  Heeren,  (Man.  of  An.  Hist.,  p.  61,)  and  some  other  writers,  suppose  that  the  shepherd 
kings  ruled  over  Lower  Egypt  at  the  time  of  the  Exodus  of  the  Jews.  When  the  two  princi- 
pal divisions  of  Egypt  were  not  under  the  same  government  Thebes  was  the  capital  of  Upper 
Egypt,  and  Memphis  of  Lower  Egypt.  The  Pharaoh  who  drove  out  the  Israelites  resided  at 
Memphis. 


CHAP.  III.]  JEWISH  HISTORY.  663 

that  renders  this  but  little  surprising  is  that  we  have  scarcely  any 
reliable  details  of  Egyptian  history  itself  during  this  early  period. 
Notwithstanding,  in  profane  authors  some  accounts  remain,  wrecks 
of  more  ancient  records,  in  which  it  is  believed  some  traces  of  the 
real  history  of  the  exodus  of  the  Israelites  are  still  visible.  The 
name  Moses,  which  signifies,  in  the  Hebrew  roots,  saved  a  or  anoint- 
ed, is  evidently  of  Egyptian  origin,  and  is  recognized  in  many  Egypt- 
ian proper  names,  where  it  means  begotten,  or  regenerated,  as  in  the 
name  of  the  king  Thotmes  or  Thotmoses,  begotten  of  the  god  Thoth. 

38.  Many  writers  on  Jewish  and  Egyptian  antiquities,  who  had 
access  to  records  now  lost,  confirm  the  name  and  the  deeds  of  Moses. 
Artapanus,  in  a  work  concerning  the  Jews,  relates  that  a  queen  of 
Egypt,  having  no  children,  adopted  and  "  brought  up  a  child  of  the 
Jews,  and  named  it  Moyses.'"     Chseremon,  a  philosopher  and  his- 
torian of  Alexandria,  who  lived  in  the  time  of  Nero,  wrote  a  book  on 
the  antiquities  of  Egypt,  in  which  he  states  that  when  the  Jews  were 
expelled  from  Egypt,  their  leaders  "  were  two  guides,  called  Moyses 
and  Josephus,  the  latter  of  whom  was  a  sacred  scribe."     Among  the 
fragments  of  Manetho,  preserved  by  Josephus,  and  which  the  latter 
believes  to  refer  to  the  Israelites,  is  one  relating  that  an  Egyptian 
king,  Amenophis,  whose  reign,  according  to  the  interpretation  of  the 
hieroglyphics,  appears  to  have  been  cotemporary  with  the  time  of 
Moses,  collected  all  lepers  and  impure  persons,  and  set  them  to  work 
in  stone  quarries  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  Nile — that  a  leader  of 
these  people  gave  them  ordinances  chiefly  characterized  by  their  op- 
position to  Egyptian  rites;  and  that  they  were  ultimately  driven 
out  of  the  land,  and  pursued  through  the  desert  to  the  borders  of 
Syria  or  Palestine. 

39.  The  following  is  the  closing  paragraph  of  this  extract  from 
Manetho.     "  It  is  said  also  that  the  priest  who  ordained  their  polity 
and  laws  was  by  birth  of  Heliopolis,  (or  On,)  and  his  name  Osarsiph, 
from  Osiris,  the  god  of  Heliopolis ;  but  that  when  he  went  over  to 
these  people  his  name  was  changed,  and  he  was  called  Moyses.r^ 
Another  author,  quoted  by  Josephus,  makes  much  mention  of  the 
leprosy  of  the  people,  and  of  a  determined  suppression  of  idolatry. 
Tacitus  repeats  the  same  story,c  which  he  purports  to  have  gathered 
from  numerous  consenting  authorities ;  and  he  farther  states  that  the 
swine,  being  subject  to  maladies  of  the  skin,  is  for  that  reason  un- 

a.  See  Exodus,  ii.  10. 

b.  Josephua  against  Apion,  i.  26.  c.  Tacitus  Hist^  v.  3. 


664  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [PART  III. 

touched  by  the  Israelites.  Diodorus  has  preserved  a  traditional 
account  from  certain  tribes  of  western  Arabia,  that,  "  on  occasion 
of  a  great  ebb  of  the  waters  of  the  Red  Sea,  a  certain  part  of  it  was 
turned  into  land,  the  water  removing  to  the  opposite  quarter,  and 
the  dry  ground  at  bottom  appearing,  but  that  a  great  flood  coming 
restored  the  bay  to  its  former  state." 

40.  Even  the  supply  of  quails,  by  which  the  children  of  Israel 
were  supported  in  the  wilderness,  is  preserved  in  a  broken  tale  of 
Diodorus,  who  received  it  from  the  Egyptians,  from  whom  alone  he 
had  sought  information.     He  relates  that  an  Ethiopian  king,  who  in 
early  times  conquered  and  ruled  over  Egypt,  sent  all  convicted  crimi- 
nals to  the  extremities  of  the  desert,  where  they  founded  a  city; 
"  and  that  in  this  unfortuante  situation,  and  with  bitter  water,  they 
invented  a  way  of  obtaining  a  livelihood.     They  cut  reeds,  split 
them,  and  made  lines  which  they  set  up  along  shore  for  many  stadia, 
and  so  they  caught  quails  enough  to  live  on,  for  these  birds  came  in 
great  flocks  from  the  sea."     The  inaccuracies  of  this  and  other  stories 
concerning  the  Israelites  are  not  to  be  wondered  at  when  we  reflect 
that  sixteen  hundred  years  had  elapsed  between  the  Exodus  and 
Diodorus.     It  should  also  be  remarked  that  these  facts  are  treated 
as  extraordinary,  and  out  of  the  common  course  of  nature — as  really 
miraculous — and  this  is  why  they  were  thought  worth  recording  ;  for 
it  will  not  be  credible  that  the  Egyptians  should  be  at  the  pains  to 
chronicle,  in  their  sacred  annals,  circumstances  foreign  to  themselves, 
and  of  no  substantial  meaning,  power,  or  import. a 

41.  From  these  circumstances  there  appears  little  doubt  that  the 
Egyptian  historians,  however  much  they  might  disfigure  and  conceal, 
did  notice  the  servitude  and  the  escape  of  the  Israelites ;  and  thus 
sacred  and  profane  history,  springing  from  separate  fountains,  and 
flowing  in  separate  streams,  unite  in  certain  particulars  to  prove  that 
the  miracles  of  the   Exodus  are  real  events.      Moreover,   in  the 
language  of  an  able  writer,  "  the  Mosaic  record,  independent  of  its 
religious  sanction,  has  as  high  claim  to  the  character  of  authenticity 
and  credibility  as  any  ancient  document ;  and  he  who  would  reject 
it  would  not  merely  expose  his  own  sincerity  as  a  believer  in  revealed 
religion,  but  his  judgment  as  a  philosophical  historian."** 

42.  Of  the  social  character  and  condition  of  the  people  of  Israel, 
and  the  arts  and  sciences  known  to  thejn  at  this  early  period,  the 
Bible  furnishes  much  satisfactory  information ;  while,  from  the  cir- 

a.  Cockayne's  Civil  History  of  the  Jews,  p.  21.  b.  Quarterly  Review,  vol.  43,  p.  141. 


CHAP.  Ill]  JEWISH  HISTORY.  665 

cumstance  of  the  long  sojourn  of  the  Israelites  in  Egypt,  we  are 
warranted  in  ascribing  to  them  nearly  the  same  degree  of  civiliza- 
tion to  which  the  people  of  that  country  had  attained ;  for  "  Moses," 
we  are  informed,  "  was  learned  in  all  the  wisdom  of  the  Egyptians.  "a 

43.  Even  in  Abraham's  lifetime  we  read  of  the  purchase  of  a  cave 
for  sepulture,  and  current  money  of  the  merchant  paid  for  it — ear- 
rings, and  bracelets  of  goldb — jewels  of  silver  and  of  gold,  and  precious 
things0 — a  veil  for  the  womend — digging  wells6 — and  slavery/    In 
Isaac's  lifetime  mention  is  made  of  sowing  the  land  ;&  and  in  Jacob's 
history  we  read  of  mercantile  exchange  in  spicery,  balm,  and  myrrhh 
— sheep-shearing' — a    signet) — musical  instrumentsk — images1 — and 
ships."1     After  the  exodus  the  Israelites  appear  to  have  possessed  a 
greater  knowledge  of  the  arts,  which  they  doubtless  obtained  in  Egypt. 
Among  the  offerings  which  they  were  commanded  to  bring  for  the 
construction  of  the  ark  of  the  tabernacle11  were  articles  of  gold,  and 
silver,  and  brass — oil  for  light — spices  for  anointing  oil,  and  for 
sweet  incense — onyx  stones,  and  stones  to  be  set  in  the  ephod  and  in 
the  breastplate. 

44.  The  construction  of  the  ark  itself,  with  its  mercy  seat  and 
cherubim,  its  dishes  and  their  covers,  and  the  candlestick  with  its 
shaft  and  branches,  knops  and  flowers,  all  of  pure  gold ;  together 
with  the  blue,  purple,  and  scarlet  curtains,  with  the  loops  and  taches 
of  gold  to  couple  them  together, — the  breastplate  engraved  with  the 
names  of  the  twelve  tribes,0  and  the  plate  on  the  mitre  of  the  high 
priest,  inscribed  HOLINESS  TO  THE  LORD,? — all  show  an  advanced 
condition  of  society  at  the  period  of  the  exodus,  and  a  connection 
between  the  arts  practiced  by  the  Israelites,  and  those  known,  from 
other  sources,  to  have  been  in  the  possession  of  the  Egyptians,  thus 
again  exhibiting  the  agreeable  evidence  of  sacred  and  profane  history 
confirming  each  other. 

a.  Acts,  vii.  22.  b.  Gen.  xxiv.  22.  c.  xxiv.  53.  d.  xxiv.  65.  e.  xxi.  30 ;  xxvi.  15.  f.  xxi. 
10;  xxiv.  35.  g.  xxvi.  12.  h.  xxxvii.  25.  i.  xxxviii.  12.  j.  xxxviii.  18;  Exod.,  xxxix.  6,  14. 
k.  Gen.,  xxxi.  27.  1.  xxxi.  19.  m.  xlix.  13.  n.  Exod.,  xxxv.  o.  Exod.,  xxxix.  14.  p.  xxxiz. 
30. 


666  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  t  [PART  HL 


CHAPTER   IV. 

CHARACTER  AND  EXTENT  OF  CIVILIZATION  DURING  THE 
UNCERTAIN  PERIOD  OF  GRECIAN  HISTORY. 

ANALYSIS.  1.  CHANGES  IN  GRECIAN  POLITICS  after  the  Trojan  war. — 2.  The  three  causes 
assigned  for  them. — 3.  Political  effects  of  the  Trojan  war. — 4.  Of  the  great  migrations  spoken 
of.  Effects  upon  the  power  of  the  Dorian  princes. — 5.  Mutual  influences  of  the  colonies  and 
parent  States. — 6.  The  democratic  loniaus.  Power,  prosperity,  and  independence,  of  the 
colonies.  Tendencies  to  democracy.— 7.  Growth  of  free  principles  in  the  parent  States. 
Growth  of  freedom  in  colonies. — 8.  Gradual  change  in  political  principles.  Political  history 
of  Athens.  Aristocracy  and  oligarchy.  (Greek  sense  of  the  word  tyranny") — 9.  Gradations 
from  oligarchy  or  aristocracy  to  democracy. — 10.  Diversity  in  the  modes  of  exercising  political 
rights.  Checks  against  abuses  of  power  by  the  people. — 11.  Accountability  of  magistrates. — 
12.  Qualifications  of  electors.  The  strife  between  oligarchy  and  democracy. — 13.  Eligibility 
to  office.  Gradual  encroachments  upon  the  restrictive  laws.— 14.  Municipal  character  of  the 
Grecian  constitutions. — 15.  Security  of  person  and  property.  Effects  of  frequent  political  com- 
motions.— 16.  Great  range  of  Grecian  politics.  Practical  knowledge  to  be  derived  from  the 
Grecian  experiments  in  government. 

17.  Natural  causes  of  union  and  disunion  among  the  Greeks.  NATIONAL  COUNCILS. — 18. 
Origin,  composition,  and  meetings,  of  the  Amphictyonic  council.— 19.  Its  objects  and  tendencies. 
Its  peaceful  character.  Its  chief  functions. — 20.  Want  of  power  to  enforce  its  decrees.  Causes 
that  often  rendered  its  efforts  at  peace  unavailing.  Its  decline. 

21.  PUBLIC  FESTIVALS.  The  four  principal  ones.  Open  to  all  Greeks. — 22.  Origin,  revival, 
and  superintendence,  of  the  Olympic  games. — 23.  Their  immediate  object.  Their  various  ex- 
ercises. Compared  with  the  tournaments,  and  Roman  and  Spaniah  sports. — 24.  Rewards  of  the 
victors. — 25.  National  influences  of  the  games.  Appearance, of  Olympia  at  the  season  of  Cue 
festival.— 26.  Their  influence  over  the  physical  education  of  the  Grecians. 

27.  PERIOD  or  GRECIAN  COLONIZATION.  Colonies  in  Asia  Minor,  the  islands  of  the  -^Egean, 
Sicily,  and  Italy.— 28.  The  Grecian- Cyrenaica.  Trade  with  Spain.  The  Phoenicians. 

29.  PROGRESS  OF  ARTS  AND  LITERATURE.  Wealth  and  refinement  of  the  lonians.  Archi- 
tecture and  sculpture. — 30.  Early  poetical  compositions  of  the  Greeks.  Poetry  and  music 
among  the  Dorians  and  lonians  respectively.  Songs  at  the  banquets  of  the  great.— 31.  The 
first  Grecian  prose  compositions.  Lateness  of  historical  compositions.  Early,  dawn  of  Grecian 
philosophy.— 32.  The  Ionian  school  of  philosophy.  The  theory  of  Thales.— 33.  Theories  of 
Anaxim'  enes  and  Heraclitus.— 34.  Diog'  enes  the  Cretan.  Anaximan'  der.  Anaxag'  oras.— 
35.  Character  and  tendency  of  the  theory  of  the  latter. — 36.  Grecian  philosophy  intimately 
connected  with  Grecian  politics.  Commencement  of  the  contest  between  philosophy  and  the 
popular  religion. — 37.  The  Eleatic  and  Pythagorean  schools.  Character  of  the  former. — 38. 
History  of  Pythag' oras.  Discoveries  made  by  him.  His  astronomical  doctrine. — 39.  Numbers, 
the  basis  of  his  system.  His  views  of  the  deity.  Doctrine  of  metempsychosis. — 40.  General 
character  and  influence  of  his  system.  The  society  established  by  him  at  Crotona.— -Jl.  Its 
forcible  dissolution.  Subsequent  dissemination,  and  influence,  of  the  doctrines  of  Pythag'  oras. 

42.  THE  ELEUSINIAN  MYSTERIES. — 43.  Their  character.  Their  wide  range.  Their  tendency, 
in  relation  to  the  popular  character  of  the  religion  of  the  Greeks.— 44.  Our  knowledge  of  these 
rites.  The  nine  days  of  their  celebration.— 45.  The  initiation  of  candidates  ;— admission  into 
the  vestibule  of  the  temple ;  the  cave  of  Spleen  and  Despair ; — the  august  fane  of  the  goddess. 
— 46.  Commencement,  and  character,  of  the  revelations ;— ghostly  apparitions ;— the  infernal 
regions.— 47.  The  twelve  Celestial  duties.  The  lesser  inhabitants  of  Olympus.  Explanation  of 
the  types  of  the  festivities.  Extract  from  the  ^neid.— 48.  Effects  of  the  revelations  of  the 
hierophant. — 49.  Their  oracular  character.  The  powerful  influence  of  the  Eleusinian  Mysteries. 
The  general  estimation  in  which  they  were  held.  Socrates,  Nero,  and  Valentinian.  Sup- 
pression of  the  Mysteries  by  Theodosius,  A.  D.  390. 


CHAP.  IV.]  GRECIAN  POLITICS.  667 

I. 

1.  During  the  first  few  centuries  succeeding  the  period  of  the  sup- 
posed Trojan  war,  a  gradual  change  is  observable  in  the  political 
history  of  the  Grecian  States,  the  results  of  which  were   CHANOES  IN 
an  abandonment  of  much  of  the  kingly  authority  which     GRECIAN 
prevailed  during  the  heroic  age,  and  the  origin  and  gen-     roLITICS- 
eral  prevalence,  at  first  of  aristocracies,  or  the  rule  of  the  few,  and 
finally  of  republican  forms  of  government,  which  latter  decided  the 
whole  future  character  of  the  public  life  of  the  Grecians.     The  gen- 
eral history  of  these  changes,  and  of  the  causes  which  produced  them, 
and  a  delineation  of  the  most  prominent  characteristics  of  the  con- 
stitutions of  the  Grecian  States,  are  all  that  can  be  attempted  on 
the  subject  of  the  Grecian  forms  of  government,  and  indeed  nearly 
all  that  is  practicable  in  the  history  of  political  events  that  occurred 
before  Greece  had  an  historian,  and  when  tradition  was  the  only 
authority. 

2.  The  three  causes,  more  prominent  than  the  rest,  which  are 
assigned  by  most  writers  for  the  overthrow  of  the  early  system  of 
kingly  authority  in  the  Grecian  States,  and  the  final  adoption  of 
democratic  forms  of  government,  are,  first,  the  more  enlarged  views 
occasioned  by  the  supposed  Trojan  war,  and  the  dissensions  which 
followed  the  return  of  those  engaged  in  it ;  second,  the  great  con- 
vulsions which  attended  the  Thessalian,  Boeotian,  and  Dorian  migra- 
tions ;  and  thirdly,  the  free  principles  which  intercourse  and  trade 
with  the  Grecian  colonies  naturally  engendered. 

3.  The  Trojan  war,  if  we  may  credit  the  statements  of  the  early 
Grecian  writers,  cut  off  the  principal  members  of  many  of  the  ruling 
families  in  Greece  ;  and  domestic  dissensions,  which  arose  during  the 
war,  are  said  to  have  occasioned  the  expulsion,  from  their  thrones, 
of  many  others  on  their  return  ;  while  the  authority  of  others  still, 
who  survived  the  disasters,  was  inevitably  weakened  by  the  general 
wreck  of  regal  power  around  them,  and  the  more  enlarged  views 
which  their  subjects  had  acquired  by  a  knowledge  of  foreign  lands. 

4.  The  great  migrations  of  which  we  have  spoken,  by  breaking  up 
the  old  foundations  of  society,  contributed  still  more  effectually  to 
the  same  end.     The  old  dynasties  were  destroyed  or  dislodged,  and 
the  cities  and  strongholds  which  formed  the  main  supports  of  their 
power  were  seized  by  strangers,  and  a  tribe,  till  then  the  weakest, 
became  the  most  powerful  of  the  Hellenes  ;  and  although  the  Dori- 


668  PHILOSOPHY   OF  HISTORY.  [PAET  IIL 

ans  had  generally  been  accustomed  to  kingly  government,  yet  the 
power  of  the  princes  was  weakened  by  the  change  of  circumstances 
which  arose  from  a  migration  to  a  new  country,  where  they  were  con- 
stantly reminded,  by  new  dangers,  of  the  obligations  they  owed  to 
their  companions  in  arms,  and  obliged  to  guard,  with  additional 
care,  against  any  abuses  of  authority  which  might  disturb  the  domes- 
tic quiet.  When  dangers  from  abroad  threaten,  the  principle  of  self- 
preservation  alone  often  prompts  the  greatest  tyrants  to  strive  to 
regain,  by  concessions  of  privilege,  the  lost  affections  of  their  people. 

5.  But  the  mutual  influences  of  the  Grecian  colonies  and  the  parent 
States,  tended,  more  than  any  other  single  cause,  to  change  the  politi- 
cal condition  of  the  Grecians.     Whether  the  migrations  of  the  Greek 
colonists  were  generally  occasioned,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Asiatic  settle- 
ments, by  conquests,  like  those  of  the   Thessalian,  Boaotian,  and 
Dorian  encroachments,  which  drove  so  many  from  their  homes  to 
seek  an  asylum  in  foreign  lands ;  or  whether  they  were  generally  un- 
dertaken, as  we  know  they  were  in  some  instances,  with  the  approba- 
tion and  encouragement  of  the  States  from  which  they  issued,  with 
the  motive,  on  the  part  of  the  latter,  to  relieve  themselves  of  a  super- 
fluous population,  or  of  discontented  and  turbulent  spirits ;  there  was 
seldom  any  feeling  of  dependence  on  the  one  side,  and  little   or  no 
claim  of  authority  on  the  other. 

6.  Scarcely  had  the  lonians  established  themselves  on  the  coast 
of  Asia  Minor,  when  they  shook  off  the  authority  of  the  princes  who 
conducted  them  to  their  new  settlements,  and  established  a  form  of 
government  more   democratic   than    any  which  then   subsisted   in 
Greece.     In  process  of  time  many  of  the  colonies  became  more  pow- 
erful than  their  parent  States ;  and  with  the  rapid  progress  of  mer- 
cantile industry  and  maritime  discovery,  on  which  their  prosperity 
greatly  depended,  a  spirit  of  independence  grew  up  among  the  com- 
monalty, highly  unfavorable  to  monarchical  rule,  or  the  permanence 
of  aristocratical  ascendency ;  and  accordingly  we  find  that,  within  a 
few  generations  after  the  first  settlements  in  the  colonies,  the  mon- 
archical forms  of  government  had  generally  given  way  to  aristocracies, 
or  the  rule  of  the  nobility,  which  latter,  in  turn,  were  ere  long  made 
to  yield  to  the  more  liberal  institutions  of  democracy. 

7.  With  the  extension  of  commercial  enterprise,  these  events  ex- 
erted an  influence  on  the  parent  States,  and  encouraged  the  growth 
of  free  principles  there.      "  Freedom,"  says  an  eloquent  author,* 

a.  Heeren,  Politics  of  Ancient  Greece,  p.  103. 


CHAP.  Ill]  GRECIAN  POLITICS.  669 

"  ripens  in  colonies.  Ancient  usage  cannot  be  preserved,  cannot 
altogether  be  renewed,  as  at  home.  The  former  bonds  of  attachment 
to  the  soil,  and  ancient  customs,  are  broken  by  the  voyage ;  the 
spirit  feels  itself  to  be  more  free  in  the  new  country ;  new  strength 
is  required  for  the  necessary  exertions ;  and  those  exertions  are  ani- 
mated by  success.  Where  every  man  lives  by  the  labor  of  his  hands, 
equality  arises,  even  if  it  did  not  exist  before.  Each  day  is  fraught 
with  new  experience ;  the  necessity  of  common  defence  is  more  felt 
in  lands  where  the  new  settlers  find  ancient  inhabitants  desirous  of 
being  free  from  them.  Need  we  wonder,  then,  if  the  authority  of 
the  founders  of  the  Grecian  colonies,  even  where  it  had  originally 
existed,  soon  gave  way  to  liberty  ?" 

8.  But  the  change  in  political  principles  was  gradual,  and  attend- 
ed with  similar  domestic  convulsions,  and  transfers  of  power  from 
one  to  the  few,  and  finally  to  the  many,  both  in  the  parent  States 
and  in  the  colonies.  As  at  Athens,  monarchy,  in  most  instances,  was 
gradually  abolished  by  slow  successive  steps,  first  by  taking  away  its 
title,  and  substituting  that  of  archon,  or  chief  magistrate,  a  term  less 
offensive  than  that  of  tyrant,  which  was  applied  to  an  irresponsible 
ruler ;  next,  making  the  office  of  chief  ruler  elective,  first  in  one 
family,  then  in  more ;  first  for  life,  then  for  a  term  of  years ;  and, 
finally,  dividing  its  power  among  several  of  the  nobility,  thus  form- 
ing an  aristocracy  or  oligarchy.  Between  these  terms,  however,  the 
Greeks  made  a  distinction,  using  the  former,  as  far  as  can  now  be 
learned,  to  denote  the  form  of  government  in  which  the  ruling  few, 
whether  governing  by  acknowledged  hereditary  right,  or  by  election, 
were  distinguished  from  the  multitude  by  illustrious  birth,  hereditary 
wealth,  and  personal  merit ;  whose  rule  commanded  the  respect  of 
the  people,  and  was  directed,  ostensibly  at  least,  to  the  promotion  of 
the  public  welfare ;  whereas  an  oligarchy  was  a  degenerate  species 
of  aristocracy,  the  rule  of  a  usurping  faction,  in  which  private 
aims  predominated,  and  which  directed  its  measures  chiefly  to  the 
preservation  of  its  power,  to  the  exclusion  from  its  body  of  all  such 
as  would  not  primarily  subserve  its  own  selfish  interests.  In  the 
Greek  sense,  an  oligarchy  was  to  aristocracy,  what  a  tyranny8-  was  to 
monarchy. 

a.  The  moderns  have  attached  to  the  word  tyranny  a  meaning  which  did  not  enter  into  its 
original  definition.  A  tyranny,  in  the  Greek  sense  of  the  word,  was  the  irresponsible  rule  of 
a  single  person,  not  founded  on  hereditary  right,  nor  on  a  free  election.  It  was  power  acquired 
by  violence,  and  it  did  not  change  its  character  or  name  when  transmitted  through  several 
generations.  According  to  Greek  notions,  and  the  usage  of  Greek  historians,  a  mild  and 


670  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [PART  lit 

9.  In  looking  at  the  many  separate  Grecian  communities,  we  ob- 
serve that  the  gradations  from  oligarchy  or  aristocracy  to  democracy 
were  numerous.     In  none  of  the  States  did  either  the  oligarchy  or 
the  democracy  include  the  servile  caste  or  Helots,  while  in  but  few 
of  them  were  foreigners  ever  admitted  to  the  rights  of  citizenship  ; 
so  that  the  form  of  government  is  to  be  determined  by  the  circum- 
stance, whether  the  sovereign  power  was  exercised  by  a  part  or  by 
all  of  the  freemen.     When  political  rights  had  ceased  to  be  the  in- 
heritance of  certain  families,  democracy  began  its  existence,  even 
though  the  great  mass  of  the  commonality  was  still  excluded  from 
the  exercise  of  political  rights  by  their  poverty,  a  barrier  not  deemed 
insurmountable,  as  the  poorest  might  aspire  to  the  highest  offices,  by 
obtaining   the    requisite   qualifications.      As   political   rights   were 
brought  within  the  reach  of  a  more  numerous  class,  democracy  was 
extended,  but,  in  the  Greek  sense  of  the  term,  it  was  not  complete, 
until  every  attribute  of  sovereignty  might  be  conferred  upon  merit 
alone,  without  respect  to  rank  or  property. 

10.  Among  the  Greeks,  there  was  an  almost  infinite  diversity  in 
the  modes  of  exercising  political  rights.     The  modern  representative 
system  was  almost  wholly  unknown,  except  in  the  formation  of  con- 
federacies ;  and  yet,  in  perhaps  none  of  the  States  were  the  most  im- 
portant public  matters  discussed  and  decided  in  the  general  assembly 
of  the  whole  people.     The  consequences  of  such  a  legislation  would 
have  been  none  other  than  the  rule  of  the  populace ;  and  the  means 
used  to  guard  against  the  dangers  to  be  apprehended  from  this  source 
were  various.     The  most  important  business  was  often  transacted  in 
smaller  and  more  select  divisions,  before  the  commons  came  to  vote 
upon  it  5  the  subjects  to  be  brought  before   them  were  generally 
limited  by  the  constitution ;  sometimes  the  decisions  of  the  general 
assembly  were  subject  to  the  revision  of  a  select  body  of  elders,  and 
a  reference  back  again  for  reconsideration  ;  but,  more  frequently,  all 
business  which  was  to  come  before  the  commons  was  so  far  prepared 
in  some  other  and  smaller  deliberative  assembly,  that  nothing  re- 
mained for  the  commons  but  to  accept  or  reject  the  measures  pro- 
posed.    Such  were  the  various  and  necessary  checks  against  abuses 
of  power  by  the  people. 

11.  But  besides  the  general  assemblies  of  the  people,  and  the 

beneficent  tyranny  is  an  expression  which  involves  no  contradiction.  See  ThirlwM^  i.  J59. 
"The  Grecians  connected  with  this  word  the  idea  of  an  illegitimate,  but  not  necessarily  of  a 
cruel  government."— Heeren.  Pol.  of  Jin.  Greece,  p.  182. 


CHAP.  IV.]  GRECIAN  POLITICS.  671 

smaller  advisory  assemblies,  or  senates,  which  latter  were  differently 
constituted  in  different  States,  there  were  magistrates  for  executing 
the  laws,  aud  transacting  other  important  business.  Under  the  aris- 
tocracies or  oligarchies,  the  higher  magistrates,  although  often  elect- 
ive, frequently  held  their  situations  for  life,  and  without  any  consti- 
tutional accountability  to  the  people ;  but,  under  the  republican 
systems,  annual  elections  were  generally  held,  and  every  magistrate 
was  required  to  reader  a  strict  account  of  his  administration,  at  the 
close  of  his  office.  He  who  did  not  thus  recognize  the  sovereignty 
of  the  people  became  what  the  Greeks  called  a  tyrant. 

12.  The  qualifications  of  electors  of  magistrates  varied  in  differ- 
ent States,  as  sometimes  all  classes,  and,  at  others,  particular  ones 
only,  took  part  in  the  elections.     The  right  of  voting  in  the  choice 
of  a  magistrate  was  justly  regarded  as  an  important  part  of  the  free- 
dom of  a  citizen ;  and  one  of  the  chief  characteristics  of  a  perfect 
democracy  was  the  admission  of  all  citizens  to  vote,  as  in  Athens, 
and  in  some  other  cities.     Where  the  government  verged  from  a 
democracy  towards  an  oligarchy,  there  it  was  the  constant  endeavor 
of  the  few,  by  various  restrictions,  to  exclude  the  great  mass  of  the 
people  from  any  share  in  the  elections.     Where  this  attempt  was 
successful,  a   second  step  often   followed,  and    the   oligarchy  was 
rendered  complete  when  the  magistrates  usurped  the  power  of  filling 
vacant  places  in  their  board,  and  refused  any  accountability  to  the 
people.     Such  usurpations  were  often,  and,  very  naturally,  followed 
by  revolutions. 

13.  At  the  first,  in  the  republican  States  of  Greece,  individuals  of 
the  lower  orders  were  not  eligible  to  the  higher  magistracies ;  but 
seldom  could  the  principle  long  be  maintained.     Poverty  was  gen- 
erally made  the  rule  of  exclusion,  on  the  ground  that  those  who  have 
the  most  of  worldly  goods  at  stake,  are  the  most  deeply  interested  in 
a  just  administration  of  government,   and  the  support  of  existing 
forms,  and  that  they  have  the  most  to  fear  from  revolutionary  changes. 
The  graduation  was  also  originally  made  on  landed  property  ex- 
clusively.    But  as  the  State  became  more  flourishing  and  powerful, 
and  trade,  and  commerce,  and  the  arts  arose,  those  classed  as  the 
lower  orders  began  to  emerge  from  their  original  obscurity,  and  con- 
cessions were  demanded  and  obtained  for  talent  and  worth  ;  and  the 
old  distinctions  being  once  broken  in  upon,  it  often  became  necessary  to 
abolish  the  restrictive  laws.     This  change  was  sometimes  more  gradual, 
nowever,  than  might  at  first  be  expected,  because,  as  the  offices  were 


672  PHILOSOPHY   OF   HISTORY.  [PART  III. 

not  lucrative,  but,  on  the  contrary,  were  generally  attended  with  con- 
siderable expense,  the  poor  were  often  obliged,  of  their  own  accord, 
to  keep  aloof  from  them. 

14.  But  still  the  reader  would  form  an  erroneous,  and  very  im- 
perfect idea  of  Grecian  history,  and  of  the  nature  and  worth  of  the 
Grecian  governments,  were  he  not  reminded  that  the  Grecian  States, 
with  but  few  exceptions,  were  cities,  with  small  contiguous  districts, 
and  that  their  constitutions,  being  only  forms  of  municipal  or  city 
government,  had  few  things  in  common  with  the  large  empires  of 
modern  times.     Often  the  districts  into  which  Greece  was  geograph- 
ically divided  contained  several  independent  cities ;   although  it  is 
true  that  the  two  most  important  of  these  divisions,  Attica  and  La- 
conia,  formed  the  territories  of  their  two  leading  cities  only,  Athens 
and  Sparta.     In  Boeotia,  however,  the  cities  of  Thebes  and  Platsea 
formed  rival  republics ;  and  the  consequences  of  a  want  of  union 
among  the  chief  Boeotian  cities  are  known  to  history.     The  territo- 
ries of  the  Grecian  cities  often  embraced  only  a  few  square  miles, 
and  yet  their  prosperity  seemed  to  depend  but  little  on  this  circum- 
stance, for  Corinth,  one  of  the  smallest  of  the  Grecian  States,  rose  to 
an  eminent  degree  of  opulence  and  power. 

15.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  comparative  worth  of  the  Grecian 
constitutions,  we  are  forcibly  reminded,  that,  amid  all  the  glory  and 
renown  for  which  Grecian  history  is  so  justly  celebrated,  security  of 
person  and  property,  the  primary  object  of  government,  was  but  im- 
perfectly attained.     The   frequent   political   storms    to   which   the 
Grecian  States  were  exposed,  although  affording  to  the  master  spirits 
the  noblest  spheres  of  action,  and  exciting  that  constant  mental  ac- 
tivity which  leads  to  great  achievements,  left  little  room  for  that 
tranquillity  so  necessary  for  the  improvement  of  the  domestic  con 
dition  of  the  people.     Everything  was  done  for  the  State  ;  and  with 
and  through  the  State  only  the  individual  lived  and  acted.     Political, 
rather  than  domestic  life,  was  the  life  of  the  Grecians. 

16.  There  has  been  nothing,  in  modern  times,  comparable  to  the 
great  range  which  Grecian  politics,  in  all  their  variety,  embraced. 
Of  the  hundreds  of  Grecian  cities,  scattered  over  a  very  small  extent 
of  territory,  and  embracing  kindred  people,  the  constitutions  of  no 
two  were  exactly  alike,  and  there  were  none  which,  at  some  period, 
had  not  changed  their  forms  or  principles.     What  diversity  of  political 
ideas  must  thus  have  been  awakened  !     But  the  Greeks  needed  the 
art  of  printing  to  put  them  in  circulation,  and  to  produce  the  results 


CHAP.  IV.J  NATIONAL  COUNCILS.  673 

which  a  more  general  combination  of  them  would  have  effected.  Still, 
the  amount  of  practical  knowledge  which  the  Grecian  experiments  in 
government  elicited,  has  been  of  incalculable  benefit  to  mankind ; 
and  Grecian  history  and  Grecian  politics  will  long  continue  to  form 
one  of  the  must  useful  studies  of  modern  statesmen  and  politicians. 

II. 

17.  The  natural  causes  which  tended  to  unite  the  Greeks  in  a 
common  brotherhood  or  confederacy,  were  a  common  language  and  a 
common  religion,  while  those  which  tended  to  keep  them 

asunder  were  the  natural  geographical  divisions  of  their 
country,  and  the  nearly  equal  distributions  of  strength, 
by  which  the  principal  tribes  were  enabled  to  preserve  their  mutual 
independence.  The  necessity  of  some  more  special  bond  of  union 
than  language  and  religion  supplied,  probably  led,  at  an  early  period, 
to  the  formation  of  friendly  associations  or  national  councils,  for 
remedying  some  of  the  many  evils  of  disunion,  and  for  the  regulation 
of  mutual  intercourse  between  kindred  tribes.  Such  were  the  several 
associations  known  by  the  name  of  Amphictyonies,  and,  more  es- 
pecially, the  one,  more  famous  than  the  rest,  which,  by  way  of  dis- 
tinction, was  called  the  Amphictyonic  council. 

18.  This  is  said  to  have  been  instituted  by  Amphic'  tyon,  a  son  of 
Deucalion,  king  of  Thessaly  ;  but  probably  this  was  a  merely  fictitious 
person,  invented  to  account  for  the  origin  of  the  institution  attributed 
to  him.     The  council  is  said  to  have  been  composed,  originally,  of 
deputies  from  twelve  tribes  or  nations,11  two  from  each  tribe  ;  but  as 
independent  States  or  cities  grew  up  in  the  original  divisions,  each 
of  these  also  was  entitled  to  two  deputies;  and'no  State,  however  pow- 
erful, not  even  Laconia  nor  Attica,  was  entitled  to  more.     The  Am- 
phictyon'  ic  council  met  twice  every  yea.?,  in  the  spring  at  Delphi, 
and  in  the  autumn  at  Anthela,*  a  pillage  at  the  distance  of  a  few 
miles  from  Thermopylae. 

19.  The  original  objects  of  ^ne  council,  so  far  as  they  can  be 
learned,  were  praiseworthy  ;  -dn(j  although  its  ordinary  functions  were 
chiefly  connected  with  reli>ion)  yet  it  had  a  tendency  to  produce  the 

•  Anthela  was  a  small  to^  at  the  south-eastern  extremity  of  Thessaly,  and  near  the  mouth 
of  the  river  Asopua.  (^ap  No.  j.) 

a.  The  twelve  trib-^  8eem  to  nave  ^^  thft  Thessalians,  Boeotians,  Dorians,  lonians,  Perrhoe- 
bians,  Locrians,  'Alaean9j  phthiotians,  or  Achseans  of  Phthia,  Melians,  Phocians,  and  Dolopiam. 
Arcadia,  Elis,  ^cnajai  ^Etolia,  and  Acarnania,  never  belonged  to  the  confederacy. 

43 


674  PHILOSOPHY   OF  HISTORY.  [PAET  IIL 

happiest  political  effects.  Its  stated  and  frequent  meetings,  being 
attended  by  a  large  concourse  of  people  from  the  different  States, 
continually  reminded  the  Grecians  of  their  common  origin,  of  the 
similarity  of  their  language,  religion,  government  and  manners,  and 
of  the  earnest  desire  of  the  institutors  of  the  council  to  join  the  dif- 
ferent tribes  in  amity  with  one  another.  To  impress  friendly  senti- 
ments more  strongly  on  the  members  of  the  council,  every  individual 
was  required  to  swear  that  he  would  never  assist  in  utterly  destroying 
an  Amphictyon'  ic  city,  nor  in  turning  aside  the  streams  which  sup- 
plied it  with  water.  Still  the  council  had  no  right  of  interference 
between  members  of  the  league  in  ordinary  wars  between  them,  nor 
the  power  to  act  as  a  confederacy  against  foreign  enemies.  Its  chief 
functions  were  to  guard  the  temple  of  Delphi  and  the  interests  of 
religion,  and  to  restrain,  by  advice  and  counsel,  all  undue  violence 
of  hostility  among  Amphictyon'  ic  States. 

20.  Still  the  political  objects  of  the  council  were  scarcely  ever  at- 
tained, for  it  had  no  power,  in  itself,  to  enforce  its  decrees,  and  it  was 
only  in  cases  where   the  interests  of  religion,  connected  with  the 
Delphic  sanctuary,  were  concerned,  that  it  could  safely  reckon  on 
general  cooperation  from  all  the  Greeks.     Schemes  of  conquest  and 
ambition,  or  the  jealousies  of  contending  States,  usually  rendered 
its  efforts  at  peace  unavailing, — an  additional  illustration  of  the  truth 
that  the  wisest  and  most  salutary  institutions  are  often  unable  to 
counteract  the  effects  of  the  follies  and  vices  of  men.     After  the 
Greeks  had  lost  their  independence,  the  council  had  scarcely  any 
other  employment  than  the  superintendence  of  the  temple  at  Delphi, 
and  it  probably  ceased  to  exist  when  the  Delphic  oracle  lost  its  in- 
fluence, a  considerable  time  before  the  reign  of  Constantine  the  Great. 

III. 

21.  The  public  festivals  of  the  Grecians  had,  in  reality,  more 
claims  to  be  considered  national  institutions,  than  the  council  which 

we  have  just  described.  The  Greeks  exhibited  a  passion- 
ate  f°ndness  f°r  festivals  and  games,  which  were  occa- 
sionally celebrated  in  every'  State  for  the  amusement  of 
the  inhabitants.  These,  however,  were  far  less  interesting  than  the 
four  great  public  games,  which  were,  the  Pythian,  at  Delphos,  sacred 
to  Apollo ;  the  Isthmian,  at  Corinth,  to  Neptun^ ;  the  Nemean,  at 
Nemea,*  in  Ar'golis,  to  Hercules;  and  the  01yi^Pic>  at  Olym'- 

*  JVemeo,  noted  in  mythical  history  as  having  been  the  scene  of  the  first  la'bor  of  Hercules, 


CHAP.  IV.]  PUBLIC   FESTIVALS,  675 

pia,*  in  E'  lis,  to  Jupiter.  These  games  or  festivals,  though  celebrated 
within  particular  districts,  were  not  peculiar  to  any  tribe,  but  were 
open  to  all  true  Grecians  who  could  prove  their  Hellenic  origin. 
The  most  important  of  these  was  the  Olympic  ;  an  account  of  which 
involves  many  principles  common  to  all  the  others. 

22.  The  origin  of  the  Olympic  games  is  involved  in  obscurity ;  and 
although  it  appears  that,  during  the  heroic  age,  some  Grecian  chiefs 
had  celebrated  their  victories  at  Olyrn'  pia,  yet  it  was  not  till  the 
age  of  Lycurgus  that  the  games  were  brought  under  certain  rules, 
and  performed  at  stated  times.     At  that  period  a  prince  of  E'  lis,  in 
concert  with  the  Spartan  lawgiver,  and  with  the  sanction  of  the 
Delphic  oracle,  caused  the  games  to  be  revived  in  honor  of  Jupiter, 
and  to  be  celebrated  every  fifth  year  at  Olym'pia,  ordaining  a  peri- 
odical suspension  of  hostilities  during  their  continuance,  to  enable 
every  Greek  to  attend  them  without  hinderance  or  danger.     Their 
superintendence  was  intrusted,  principally,  to  the  people  of  E'lis, 
and  the  judges  took  an  oath,  in  presence  of  a  statue  of  Jupiter,  that, 
in  adjudging  the  prizes,  they  would  be  regulated  solely  by  a  regard 
to  justice. 

23.  The  immediate  object  of  the  Olympic  games  was  the  exhibition 
of  various  trials  of  strength  and  skill.     At  first  the  foot-race  was  the 
only  exercise  admitted  ;  but  in  process  of  time  the  games  were  multi- 
plied, so  as  to  embrace  almost  every  mode  of  displaying  bodily  activity, 
including  running,  wrestling,  boxing,  leaping,  pitching  the  discus  or 
quoit,  throwing  the  javelin,  and  chariot-races.     Women  were  forbid- 
den, under  pain  of  death,  to  be  present  at  the  games.     In  this  par- 
ticular alone  the  Grecian  spectacles  sustain  an  unfavorable  compari- 
son with  the  European  tournaments  of  the  middle  ages  ;  but  in  their 
general  purity,  innocence,  and  humanity,  they  were  infinitely  in  ad- 
vance of  the  barbarous  and  bloody  sports  of  a  Roman  or  Spanish 
amphitheatre. 

24.  The  rewards  bestowed  on  the  victors  were  almost  exclusively 
honorary.     In  the  moment  of  victory  the  acclamations  of  the  multi- 
tude proclaimed  the  prowess  or  skill  of  the  conquerors  ;  branches  of 

and  famous  for  the  games  celebrated  in  the  neighboring  grove  of  Molorchus,  was  twelve  miles 
south-west  from  Corinth,  and  ten  north-east  from  Argos.  The  site  of  the  ancient  town  is  still 
marked  by  a  lew  ruins, — among  which  are  fragments  of  a  temple  of  Jupiter,  and  a  few  blocks 
of  stone,  and  broken  Doric  pillars.  (Map  No.  I. ) 

*  Olym'  pia  was  not  a  city,  but  a  collection  of  temples,  altars,  and  other  structures,  on  th« 
northern  bank  of  the  river  Alpheus  in  Elis,  and  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  spot  where 
the  Olympic  games  were  celebrated.  Only  a  few  vestiges  of  the  numerous  buildings,  statues, 
temples,  altars,  &c.,  which  once  marked  the  spot,  are  now  to  be  seen.  (Map  No.  I.) 


676  PHILOSOPHY  OF   HISTORY.  [PAST  IIL 

palm  were  then  put  into  their  hands ;  and  at  the  conclusion  of  the 
games  they  were  summoned  before  the  judges,  who  placed  crowns  of 
olive  on  their  heads.  They  were  then  separately  conducted  through 
the  assembly  by  a  herald,  who  proclaimed  their  names,  and  those  of 
their  parents,  and  their  country.  On  the  return  of  the  victor  to  his 
native  country  a  part  of  the  walls  of  the  city  in  which  he  resided  was 
often  thrown  down  to  admit  his  entrance,  and  he  was  afterwards  en- 
titled to  a  distinguished  place  in  all  festivals  and  games,  and  was 
thought  to  have  conferred  the  highest  honor  on  his  country. 

25.  The  Olympic  and  other  games  possessed  little  or  no  efficacy 
as  a  bond  of  national  union,  because  the  opportunities  which  they 
presented  for  confederate  purposes  were  neglected ;  and  it  appears 
that   the   periodical   interruption   of   hostilities,   although    in   par- 
ticular instances  it  might  postpone  the  effusion  of  blood,  did  not  at 
all  allay  the  animosity  of  warring  tribes.     The  games  did  produce 
a  decided  effect,  however,  in  forming  the  national  character.     As 
foreigners  were  excluded  from  them,  they  served  to  strengthen,  in 
the  mind  of  the  Grecian,  the  feelings  which  bound  him  to  his  country, 
and  thus  kept  alive  his  national  pride  ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  they 
ministered  to  the  selfish  passions  of  rival  cities,  each  of  which  felt 
its  honor  concerned  in  the  success  of  its  champion.     At  the  season 
of  the  games  Olym'pia  presented  the  appearance  of  an  extensive 
modern  fair,  being  visited  by  a  vast  multitude  from  all  parts  of 
Greece,  who  brought  their  productions  of  manual  labor  for  exhibition 
and  exchange.     Literary  works  were  not  unfrequently  read  there ; 
and  inventions  in  the  arts,  and  discoveries  in  science,  were  there  pro- 
mulgated, so  that  these  assemblies  served  some  of  the  purposes  of 
the  modern  press  in  the  communication  of  thought,  and  the  more 
equable  diffusion  of  knowledge. 

26.  The  games  exerted  an  important  influence  over  the  physical 
education  of  the  Grecians,  as  victory  in  them  could  not  be  gained  by 
any  occasional  effort,  but  only  after  a  long  course  of  training  and 
discipline.     Those  who  designed  to  engage  in  the  contests  knew  that 
success  could  be  obtained  only  by  those  who  were  inured  to  hardship, 
who  had  long  been  accustomed  to  practice  athletic  exercises,  and  who 
habitually  abstained  from  every  pleasure  which  has  a  tendency  to 
debilitate  the  constitution,  and  lessen  the  power  of  exertion.     This 
kind  of  physical  education,  begun  in  infancy,  was  the  most  attended 
to  by  the  Spartans,  but  was  common  throughout  all  Grecian  tribes. 
It  was  one  of  the  secrets  of  that  eminence  of  the  Greeks  in  war, 


CHAP  IV.]  GRECIAN  COLONIZATION.  677 

which  no  other  nation  ever  surpassed.  In  those  ancient  times,  be- 
fore the  use  of  fire  arms,  battles  were  decided  by  the  physical  strength 
and  agility  of  the  combatants,  or,  in  other  words,  by  their  perfection 
in  the  very  exercises  practiced  in  the  Grecian  games,  and  taught  as 
a  part  of  the  education  of  the  people.  The  Greeks  boasted  that 
each  of  their  armies  was  equal  to  one  of  ten  times  the  number  of 
barbarians ;  and  Herod'  otus  asserts  that  the  individuals  who  con- 
tributed the  most  to  the  victories  obtained  over  the  Persians,  were 
those  who  had  the  most  frequently  won  the  palm  of  victory  at 
Olym'  pia.  It  was  not  uncommon  to  find  the  greatest  literary  at- 
tainments combined  with  the  greatest  physical  strength  and  prowess. 
And  if  a  portion  of  the  physical  training  practiced  by  the  Grecians 
were  introduced  into  our  modern  systems  of  education,  health,  vigor, 
and  energy,  both  of  body  and  mind,  would  be  increased,  and  the 
physical  character  of  the  people  greatly  improved. 

IV. 

27.  What  is  called  the  Uncertain  Perioda  of  Grecian  history,  is 
important,  as  embracing  the  age  of  Grecian  colonization,  and  of  the 
extension  of  the  commerce  of  the  Grecians  to  nearly  all 

the  coasts  of  the  Mediterranean.     Of  the  jiEolian,  Ionian,     GRECIAN 
and  Dorian  colonies,  on  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor,  and  in      COLONI- 
the  islands  of  the  ^Egean  Sea,  we  have  already  spoken. 
The  beautiful  and  fertile  island  of  Rhodes,  peopled  by  Grecians 
during  the  century  next  after  the  Trojan  war,  became,  in  turn,  the 
founder  of  other  Greek  colonies  on  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor.     In 
the  seventh  century  Sicily  and  Lower  Italy  were  explored,  and  in 
the  former  Messina,  Syracuse,  and  Agrigen'  turn,  were  founded  by 
Grecians  ;  and,  half  a  century  later,  on  the  coasts  of  the  latter  arose 
the  rival  cities  Crotona  and  Syb'  aris,  of  Achaean  origin  ;  and  on  the 
Gulf  of  Tarentum  appeared  the  city  of  that  name,  founded,  or  re- 
peopled,  by  Laconians.     Such  was  the  spread  of  Grecian  cities  along 
the  Italian  coasts  that  Lower  Italy  received  the  name  of  Magna 
Graecia. 

28.  In  the  latter  part  of  the  seventh  century  we  find  one  of  the 
Grecian  islands  sending  an  expedition  to  the  African  coast ;  and  in 
the  now  desolate  Barca,  notwithstanding  the  hostility  of  the  Libyans, 
who  received  aid  from  Egypt,  the  Greek  dominion  was  firmly  estab- 
lished in  the  delightful  Gyrene,  the  capital  of  the  Grecian  Cyrenaica. 

a.  See  Chapter  ili.,  p.  43. 


678  PHILOSOPHY   OF   HISTORY.  [PART  IIL 

The  Greeks  even  passed  the  pillars  of  Hercules,  and  traded  with 
Tartes'  sus,  supposed  by  some  to  have  been  the  Tarshish  of  Scripture, 
a  city  of  southern  Spain  at  the  mouth  of  the  Baetis,  now  the  Guadal- 
quiver,  with  which  the  Phoenicians  at  the  same  time  carried  on  an  ad- 
vantageous commerce.  It  appears  to  have  been  seldom,  however,  that 
the  Greeks  came  in  contact  with  the  Phoenician  navigators  ;  at  least, 
there  was  no  rivalry  between  them  at  this  period ;  and  in  all  the  ac- 
counts that  we  have  of  the  trade  of  the  commercial  cities  of  Corinth 
and  Athens,  no  mention  is  made  of  any  intercourse  with  the  Phoeni- 
cians. About  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century  the  knowledge  and 
commerce  of  the  Egyptians  were  first  opened  to  the  Greeks  by  the 
chance  landing  of  a  piratical  band  on  the  Egyptian  coast. 

V. 

29.  The  progress  of  the  arts  and  literature  of  the  Grecians  is  in- 
PROGRESS  OF  timatety  connected  with  the  rise  of  the  Grecian  colonies, 

ARTS  AND  the  widening  commerce  and  intercourse  of  the  Greeks 
rEE'  with  other  nations,  and  the  general  advance  of  public 
and  private  prosperity.  In  the  Ionian  confederacy  of  Asia  Minor 
the  increase  of  wealth  and  refinement  appears  to  have  been  far  more 
rapid  than  in  the  mother  country.  In  the  magnitude  and  splendor 
of  their  public  buildings,  and  in  the  arts  which  adorned  them,  the 
lonians  proudly  vied  with  Sicyon  and  Corinth,  Argos,  Athens,  and 
Lacedse'  mon.  The  three  famed  orders  of  Grecian  architecture — 
the  Doric,  the  Ionian,  and  the  Corinthian — arose  during  this  period ; 
and  before  the  Persian  wars  had  commenced,  the  branch  of  sculpture 
termed  statuary  had  attained  nearly  the  summit  of  its  perfection, 
the  beau-ideal  of  which,  the  final  union  of  truth  and  beauty,  was  to 
be  realized  in  the  school  of  Phidias. 

30.  The  earliest  written  compositions  of  the  Grecians,  of  which 
tradition  or  history  has  preserved  any  record,  were  poetical ;  a  cir- 
cumstance which,  noticed  in  other  nations  also,  has  led  to  the  asser- 
tion that  poetry  is,  preeminently,  the  language  of  nature.     Among 
the  Greeks,  the  legends  and  genealogies  of  their  heroes  and  gods  sup- 
plied, at  an  early  period,  appropriate  materials  for  poetical  com- 
position,  in  which  the  names  of  Homer  and  Hesiod' first  appear  con- 
spicuous.    With  the  spread  of  commerce,  the  changes  in  government, 
the  increase  of  luxury,  and  new  discoveries  and  inventions  in  the 
arts,  the  occasions,  subjects,  and  forms  of  poetry,  were  rapidly  mul- 
tiplied.    Among  the  Dorians,  poetry  and  music,  which  were  general- 


CHAP.  IV.]  GRECIAN  PHILOSOPHY.  679 

ly  combined,  were  made,  by  the  law-givers,  prominent  instruments 
of  the  religious,  martial,  and  political  education  of  the  people  ;  while 
in  the  Ionian  and  JEolian  States  they  expressed  more  of  the  thoughts 
and  feelings  of  individuals,  and  were  adapted  to  recreation  and 
amusement,  rather  than  instruction.  The  aid  of  song  was  called  in 
to  enliven  and  adorn  the  banquets  of  the  great,  public  assemblies,  the 
Olympic  and  other  games ;  and  scarcely  a  social  or  public  gathering 
could  be  mentioned  that  would  not  have  appeared,  to  the  ardent 
Grecians,  cold  and  spiritless  without  this  accompaniment. 

31.  The  first  Grecian  prose  compositions,  so  far  as  we  can  now 
learn,  appeared  in  the  early  part  of  the  sixth  century,  and  were  either 
mythological,  or  collections  of  the  local  legends,  whether  sacred  or 
•profane,  of  particular  districts.     The  importance  and  the  practical 
uses  of  genuine  history  were  neither  known  nor  suspected  until  after 
the  Persian  wars.     Grecian  philosophy,  or  a  connected 
investigation  of  causes  and  effects,  had  an  earlier  dawn,  P^LOSOPHT 
and  was  coeval  with  the  poetical  compositions  attributed 

to  Hesiod,  although  in  the  sixth  century  it  first  began  to  be  sepa- 
rated from  poetry  and  religion,  and  to  be  cultivated  by  men  who 
were  neither  bards,  priests,  nor  seers.  "  This  is  the  era  when  the 
practical  maxims  and  precepts  of  the  seven  Grecian  sages  began  to 
be  collected  by  the  chroniclers,  and  disseminated  among  the  people.  V 

32.  Among  these  sages  originated  several  of  the  early  schools  of 
Grecian  Philosophy,  the  eldest  of  which,  called  the  Ionian,  because 
its  most  prominent  teachers  and  disciples  were  natives  of  Ionia,  was 
founded  by  Thales  of  Miletus,  about  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century 
before  Christ.     The  wealth  which  he  inherited,  together  with  his 
discoveries  in  astronomy  and  geometry,  raised  him  to  distinction 
among  his  countrymen,  and  prepared  them  to  receive  with  favor  his 
philosophical  speculations.     In  the  investigation  of  natural  causes 
and  effects,  he  taught,  as  a  distinguishing  tenet  of  his  philosophy,  that 
water,  or  some  other  fluid,  was  the  primary  element  of  all  things ;  a 
theory  which  probably  arose  from  observations  on  the  uses  of  moist- 
ure in  the  nourishment  of  animal  and  vegetable  life. 

33.  A  similar  process  of  reasoning  led  Anaxim'  enes  of  Miletus, 
half  a  century  later,  to  substitute  air  in  the  place  of  the  liquid  ele- 
ment of  Thales ;  as  in  respiration  it  is  the  supporter  of  life,  that 
which  animates  all  beings,  which  encompasses,  and  appeared  to  him 
to  sustain,  the  earth,  and  all  the  heavenly  bodies.     By  analogical 
reasoning,  also,  Heraclitus  of  Ephesus,  surnamed  "  the  naturalist,"  was 


680  PHILOSOPHY   OF    HISTORY.  [PART  III. 

led  to  regard  the  supposed  basis  of  fire,  or  flame,  as  the  fundamental 
principle  of  all  things,  both  spiritual  and  material.  To  the  unseen 
vital  element  of  fire,  (not  its  outward  semblance,)  he  attributed 
wisdom  and  intelligence  ;  and  to  its  opposite  extremes  or  tendencies, 
whereby  it  is  made  to  pass  from  want  to  gratification,  and  from  grati- 
fication to  want,  like  the  vibrations  of  a  pendulum,  he  ascribed  the 
phenomena  of  life  and  death. 

34.  Diog'  enes  the  Cretan,  in  carrying  out  the  analogies  of  Anaxim'- 
enes,  was  led  to  regard  the  universe  as  issuing  from  an  intelligent 
principle — a  rational  as  well  as  sensitive  soul — but  without  recogniz- 
ing any  distinction  between  matter  and  mind.     Anaximan'  der,  who 
first  taught  philosophy  in  a  public  school  at  Miletus,  conceived  the 
primitive  state  of  the  universe  to  have  been  a  vast  chaos  or  infinity,' 
containing  the  elements  from  which  the  world  was  constructed  by  in- 
herent or  self-moving  processes  of  separation  and  combination.     This 
hypothesis,  however,  appears  to  have  been  treated  with  neglect  for  a 
century,  when  it  was  revived  by  Anaxag'  oras,  also  an  Ionian  Greek, 
who,  combining  it  with  the  doctrines  of  Diog'  enes,  taught  that  there 
exists  one  supreme  mind,  distinct  from  the  chaos  to  which  it  im- 
parted motion,  form,  and  order. 

35.  The  pantheistic  systems  of  Thales  and  Heraclitus  admitted, 
in  accordance  with  the  fictions  of  the  received  mythology,  that  the 
universe   is   full  of  gods ;    whereas   the  doctrine  of  Anaxag'  oras 
would  lead  4o  the  belief  of  but  one  god.     Hence-  he  was  accused  of 
impiety,  and  driven  into  exile  for  denying  the  gods.     Some  previous 
philosophers  had  taught  that  the  heavenly  bodies  are  globular  .col- 
lections of  fire  and  vapor,  animated  by  portions  of  the   divinity, 
whereas  Anaxag'  oras  regarded  them  as  consisting  of  earthy  particles, 
like  the  materials  of  our  own  planet.     He  gave  allegorical  explana- 
tions of  the  names  of  the  Grecian  gods,  and  struck  a  blow  at  the 
popular  religion  by  attributing  to  natural  causes  what,  in  sacrificial 
rites,  had  hitherto  been  regarded  as  miraculous  indications. 

36.  Such  is  a  brief  history  of  the  principles  of  the  Ionian  school 
of  philosophy — of  the  Grecian  mind — in  its  early  progress  of  devel- 
opment.    The  subject  has  an  interesting  connection  with  Grecian 
politics  also.     As  auguries,  omens,  and  prodigies,  exercised  a  great 
influence  on  the  public  affairs  of  the  Grecians,  a  philosophical  expla- 
nation of  natural  phenomena,  which  was  one  business  of  the  Greek 
philosophers,  had  a  tendency  to  diminish  the  respect  for  the  popular 
religion  in  the  eyes  of  the  multitude,  and  to  leave  the  minds  of  rulers 


CHAP.  IV.]  GRECIAN  PHILOSOPHY.  681 

and  statesmen  open  to  the  influences  of  reason,  to  the  rejection  of  the 
follies  of  superstition.  The  doctrines  taught  by  Anaxag'  oras  were 
the  commencement  of  the  contest  between  philosophy  and  the  popular 
religion.  The  varying  consequences  of  the  struggle  appear  through- 
out all  subsequent  Grecian  history. 

37.  While  philosophy  was  cultivated  in  Ionia,  two  widely  different 
schools  arose,  the  Eleatic  and  the  Pythagorean,  in  the  western  Greek 
colonies  of  Lower  Italy.     Xenoph'  anes,  a  native  of  Ionia,  was  the 
founder  of  the  former,  and  Py  thag'  oras  of  Samos,*  of  the  latter.    The 
Eleatic  philosophy  began  where  the  Ionian  ended,  with  the  admission 
of  a  supreme   intelligence,  eternal  and  incorporeal,  pervading  all 
things,  bearing  no  resemblance  to  human  nature,  either  in  body  or 
mind,  but  of  the  same  essence  with  the  universe  itself,  and,  like  it, 
spherical  in  form.     Xenoph'  anes  openly  rejected  the  popular  super- 
stitions about  the  gods,  and  paid  much  attention  to  the  cultivation  of 
the  natural  sciences. 

38.  Pythag'  oras,  after  visiting  Phoenicia,  and  passing  more  than 
twenty  years  among  the  priests  of  Egypt,  is  said  by  some  to  have 
visited  Persia  and  Babylon,  where  he  made  himself  acquainted  with 
all  the  learning  and  philosophy  of  the  East.     .Returning  to  Samos, 
he  next  visited  nearly  all  the  Grecian  States,  and  finally,  passing 
over  into  Italy,  and  settling  at  Crotona,  established  there  his  school 
of  philosophy,  being  the  first  Grecian  who  assumed  the  title  of  a 
philosopher.      Pythag'  oras   made   some   important   discoveries    in 
geometry,  music,  and  astronomy.     The  demonstration  of  the  forty- 
seventh  proposition  of  Euclid  is  attributed  to  him.     He  also  discov- 
ered the  chords  in  music,  whicji  led  him  to  conceive  that  the  planets, 
striking  upon  the  ether  through  which  they  move  in  their  celestial 
orbits,  produce  harmonious  sounds,  varying  according  to  the  differ- 
ence of  the  magnitudes,  velocities,  and  relative  distances  of  the 
planets,  in  a  manner  corresponding  to  the  proportion  of  the  notes  in 
a  musical  scale.     Hence  the  "music  of  the  spheres."     From  what 
can  be  gathered  of  the  astronomical  doctrine  of  Pythag'  oras  it  has 
been  inferred  that  he  was  possessed  of  the  true  idea  of  the  solar  sys- 

*  Samos  lies  adjadtat  to  the  Ionian  coast  of  Asia  Minor,  from  which  it  is  separated  by  a 
narrow  strait  only  twl  miles  across.  It  is  about  thirty  miles  in  length  from  east  to  west,  and 
about  eight  or  nine  in  mean  breadth.  In  antiquity  it  was  celebrated  for  ita  extraordinary  fer- 
tility ;  and  the  walls  still  exist  which  were  built  to  form  the  sides  of  the  mountains  into  ter- 
races, for  the  purpose  of  facilitating  their  culture.  It  is  still  the  most  productive  island  of  the 
Archipelago,  although  its  inhabitants  have  been  reduced  to  a  miserable  state  by  the  brutalizing 
sway  of  the  Turks.  (Map  No.  III.) 


682  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [PART  III. 

tern,  which  was  revived  by  Coper' nicus,  and  fully  established  by 
Newton. 

39.  Owing  to  the  predilection  of  Pythag'oras  for  mathematical 
investigations,  he  appears  to  have  made  numbers  the  basis  of  his 
system  of  natural  philosophy — the  representatives  of  the  essence  and 
properties  of  all  things — and  indeed  the  materials  or  elements  in  the 
construction  of  the  universe ;  but  whether  in  the  term  numbers  he 
included  the  idea  of  material  particles  or  atoms,  the  basis  of  the 
modern  atomic  theory,  is  doubtful.     With  respect  to  God,  Pythag'- 
oras appears  to  have  taught  that  he  is  the  universal,  ever-existent 
mind,  the  first  principle  of  the  universe,  the  source  and  cause  of  all 
animal  life  and  motion,  in  substance  similar  to  light,  in  nature  like 
truth,  incapable  of  pain,  invisible,  incorruptible,  and  only  to  be  com- 
prehended by  the  mind.     His  doctrine  approached  near  to  the  mod- 
ern  system   of  pantheism — the  doctrine  that  the  universe  is  god. 
Pythag'  oras  taught  the  doctrine  of  metempsychosis,  or  the  transmi- 
gration of  souls  through  different  bodies,  an  idea  which  he  probably 
derived  from  the  Egyptians ;  and  he  professed  to  preserve  a  distinct 
remembrance  of  several  states  of  existence  through  which  his  soul 
had  passed. 

40.  On  the  whole,  the  system  of  Pythag'  oras,  with  some  excel- 
lencies, contained  many  gross  absurdities  and  superstitions,  which 
were  dignified  with  the  name  of  philosophy,  and  which  exerted  a  per- 
nicious innnence  over  the  opinions  of  many  succeeding  ages.     The 
society  which  Pythag'  oras  established  at  Crotona  was  mostly  of  a 
secret  character,  embracing  not  only  a  philosophical  school,  but  also 
a  religious  brotherhood,  and  a  political  association.     A  mystical  kind 
of  religion  was  doubtless  the  main  bond  of  union  among  his  followers. 
Their  political  opinions  were  in  the  main  aristocratical,  but,  never- 
theless, they  professed  to  aim  at  establishing  the  dominion  of  wisdom 
and  virtue,  under  whatever  form  of  government  they  might  be  found. 

41.  How  far  the  society  at  Crotona  was  perverted  to  political 
purposes,  is  unknown ;  but  its  very  secresy,  leaving  room  for  sus- 
picions of  sinister  designs,  was  one  of  the  causes  of  its  forcible  dis- 
solution.    Arraying  itself  on  the  side  of  aristocracy,  during  a  pub- 
lic commotion  the  house  in  which  the  Pythagorean  If  had  assembled 
was  set  on  fire,  and  those  who  did  not  perish  in  the  tumult  only 
found  safety  in  exile.     The  unity  of  the  society  was  at  an  end.  but 
the  doctrines  of  the  Pythagoreans  survived,  and  being  disseminated 
throughout  Greece  by  the  exiles,  and  engrafted  upon  the  Eleusinian 


CHAP.  IV.]  ELEUSINIAN  MYSTERIES.  683 

mysteries,  they  exerted  an  extensive  influence  in  religion  and  phi- 
losophy, and  contributed  to  the  education  of  many  individuals  who 
afterwards  became  distinguished  for  their  political  eminence.  Other 
schools  of  philosophy  scarcely  less  important  than  those  we  have  al- 
luded to,  arose  after  the  Persian  wars,  but  the  limits  of  the  present 
work  forbid  a  detailed  account  of  their  principles. 

VI. 

42.  In  addition  to  the  instruction,  public  and  private,  which  the 
philosophers  gave  in  their  various  systems,  and  the  public  worship 
offered  to  the  gods  by  sacrifices  and  other  religious  cere-        Tj(^ 
monies,  there  were,  among  the  Greeks,  important  na-  ELEUSINIAN 
tional  institutions  of  a  secret  character,  which,  open  only   J 

to  the  initiated,  combined  the  mysteries  of  both  philosophy  and  re- 
ligion. The  most  celebrated  of  these,  the  great  festival  of  Eleusinia, 
sacred  to  Ceres  and  Proserpine,  was  observed  every  fourth  year  in 
different  parts  of  Greece,  but  more  particularly  by  the  people  of 
Athens  every  fifth  year  at  Eleusis  in  Attica. 

43.  The  Mysteries,  as  the  Eleusmian  festival  was  often  called  by 
way  of  eminence,  avowedly  based  on  the  fabulous  wanderings  of  the 
goddess  Ceres  in  search  of  her  daughter  Proserpine,  were  religious 
and  philosophical  rites,  doubtless  original^-  intended  to  convey  to 
the  initiated  the  hidden  meaning  of  the  one  allegory  of  the  fabled 
goddess — the  mysteries  of  vegetation.     Afterwards  they  took  a  wider 
range,  and  embraced  the  whole  system  of  Grecian  mythology.     They 
did  not,  as  some  have  supposed,  throw  discredit  upon  the  popular 
religious  belief  of  the  times ;  for  while  the  goddess  of  grain  and 
harvests  was  disrobed  of  her  celestial  character,  and  resolved  into 
the  vivifying  powers  of  heat,  rain,  air,  and  sunlight,  acting  upon  the 
seed  sown  in  the  earth,  the  atheistic  tendency  to  a  disbelief  in  the 
gods  was  checked  by  deifying  anew  these  natural  agents,  and,  with 
their  mysterious  attributes,  reconstructing  the  "  form  divine"  which 
the  Greek  fansy  pictured  as  a  fitting  representation  of  those  sup- 
posed spiritual  powers  at  work  in  the  vast  laboratory  of  nature.     If 
the  material  theology  was  debased  by  the  revelation  of  the  mysteries, 
the  spiritual  and  philosophical  was  exalted.     The  gods,  therefore, 
which  were  the  immediate  objects  of  Grecian  worship,  were  merely 
the  palpable  images  of  impalpable  spiritual  realities — the  medium 
through  which  the  votaries  of  Eleusinia  held  communion  with  NATURE. 

44.  What  is  known  of  the  sacred  rites  performed  at  Eleusis,  has 


684  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [PART  III 

been  gathered  from  occasional  incidental  allusions  found  in  the  pages 
of  nearly  all  the  classic  authorities ;  and  although  the  penalty  of  a 
sudden  and  ignominious  death  impended  over  any  one  who  divulged 
these  symbolic  ceremonies,  yet  sufficient  is  now  known  to  describe  them 
with  much  minuteness  of  detail.  They  occupied  nine  days,  from  the 
15th  to  the  23d  of  September  inclusive, — -the  first  being  the  day  on 
which  the  worshippers  merely  collected  together — the  second  that  on 
which  they  purified  themselves  by  bathing  in  the  sea — the  third  the  day 
of  sacrifices — the  fourth  the  day  of  offerings  to  the  goddess — the  fifth 
the  day  of  torches,  when  the  multitude  roamed  over  the  meadows  at 
night&ll,  carrying  flambeaus  in  imitation  of  Ceres  searching  for  her 
daughter — the  sixth  the  day  of  Bacchus,  the  god  of  Vintage — the 
seventh  the  day  of  athletic  pastimes — the  eighth  the  day  devoted 
to  the  lesser  mysteries  and  celestial  revelations — and  the  ninth  the 
day  of  libations,  closing  with  the  discordant  shouts  of  the  worship- 
pers.81 

45.  At  Athens,  applicants  for  initiation,  having  twelve  months  pre- 
viously assisted  at  the  lesser  mysteries  at  Agrse,  and  having  purified 
themselves,  and  offered  the  requisite  sacrifice  to  Ceres,  were  examined 
by  four  curators  appointed  by  the  government,  and  presided  over  by 
the  chie-f  of  the  nine  archons.  Crowned  with  myrtle,  in  the  hours  of 
darkness  the  successful  candidates  were  ushered,  by  a  choir  of  maid- 
ens robed  in  white  and  their  brows  cinctured  with  garlands,  through 
the  holy  grove,  and  admitted  into  the  vestibule  of  the  mystical  temple, 
a  gigantic  building  dedicated  to  Eleusinia.  As  the  worshipper  passed 
the  threshold  he  found  himself  enveloped  in  darkness,  while  a  voice 
warned  him  not  to  advance  unless  his  body  were  cleansed,  and  his 
mind  divested  of  all  carnal  affections.  Proceeding  a  little  farther  a 
dim  light  enabled  him  to  distinguish,  though  with  difficulty,  the 
character  of  the  place  : — he  was  in  the  cave  of  Spleen  and  Despair — 
the  cave  dedicated  to  the  darker  and  meaner  passions  of  humanity. 
As  he  groped  his  way  onward  through  the  dank  cavern,  the  most 
loathsome  reptiles  glided  along  the  walls,  spectral, objects  flitted 
around  him,  and  the  air  was  rent  with  unearthly  yells.  Each  ad- 
venturer strove  to  conquer  the  dismay  excited  by  these  preternatural 
sounds  and  distracting  illusions,  when  suddenly  the  walls  of  the  cav- 

a.  For  the  materials  of  our  descriptive  account  of  the  rites  of  Eleusis  we  are  greatly  indebted 
to  a  valuable  article  on  the  "  Eleusinian  Mysteries,"  in  Blackwood's  Magaz^e  of  February 
1853,  to  which  the  reader  is  referred  for  a  fuller  account,  and  for  authorities  for  "  every  inci- 
dent—even the  smallest  particular." 


CHAP.  IV.]  ELEUSINIAN  MYSTERIES.  685 

era  burst  asunder,  and  he  found  himself  in  the  august  fane  of  the 
goddess — a  vast  and  magnificent  temple,  whose  lofty  dome  was 
strewn  with  stars  and  constellations  of  burnished  copper.  Amid  a 
crowd  of  worshippers,  and  inferior  officials,  he  recognized  the  high 
functionaries  of  the  festival — the  sacred  torch-bearer,  the  herald,  the 
altar-priest,  and  hierophant,  or  revealer  of  mysteries — all  suitably 
habited  in  dresses  of  mystic  import,  and  the  latter  enveloped  in  a 
costume  as  gorgeous  as  the  coronation  robes  of  an  emperor. 

46.  The  magnificence  of  the  temple,  lit  up  for  a  moment  by  the 
flames  of  the  sacrificial  pile,  was  as  suddenly  lost  to  the  view,  for  in- 
stantaneously the  light  disappeared,  and  the  whole  was  involved  in 
impenetrable  obscurity.  Then  was  heard  the  solemn  voice  of  the 
hierophant  raised  in  supplication  to  the  gods;  and  the  revelations 
commenced.  A  roaring  noise  seemed  to  shake  the  building  to  its 
foundations  ;  the  marble  pavement  quaked,  and  many  of  the  worship- 
pers, in  an  extremity  of  dread,  were  thrown  down  by  the  heavy  un- 
dulations. Suddenly  the  din  was  hushed,  and  a  lull  profound  as 
death  succeeded.  After  a  momentary  pause  the  hideous  roaring  was 
renewed ;  the  thunder  crashed  above  the  heads  of  the  multitude ;  at 
one  instant  gleams  of  lightning  dazzled  the  eyes ;  at  another,  every- 
thing was  buried  in  a  gloom  deeper  than  midnight.  Amid  yells  and 
bowlings  like  those  of  demons,  ghostly  apparitions  startled  the  be- 
holders : — first  a  band  of  monster  Centaurs  ;  then  the  fierce  brothers 
Briareus  and  Gryges,  each  with  a  hundred  arms ;  now  the  avenging 
Eumen'  ides ;  now  the  Gorgons  dire,  and  their  guards,  the  hoary- 
haired  Grraise ;  now  three-headed  Cer'  berus ;  Chimera  vomiting 
flames,  and  Min'  otaur  trampling  the  earth  in  a  rage  of  madness  and 
ferocity.  Fearful  as  were  these  scenes,  others  more  awful  followed. 
Far  down  in  the  depths  of  a  yawning  chasm,  the  dread  secrets  of  the 
infernal  regions  were  unfolded.  The  sluggish  waters  of  Phleg'  ethon 
were  seen  beating,  with  measured  cadence,  against  the  palace  of  the 
god  of  Hades, — the  boatman  Charon  ferrying  the  dead  across  the 
Stygian  river, — Rhadaman'  thus  seated  on  his  throne  of  judgment, — 
grizzly  phantoms  flitting  through  the  murky  atmosphere, — and,  last- 
ly, the  assembled  deities  of  hell,  in  whose  midst  frowned  the  relent- 
less and  forbidding  visage  of  Pluto.  With  this  final  revelation  of 
horrors  the  abyss  was  slowly  shrouded  from  view,  the  thunder  again 
resounded  through  the  heavens,  and  at  the  voice  of  the  hierophant 
the  gloom  of  a  tempestuous  night  was  instantly  succeeded  by  the 
lustre  of  refulgent  day. 


686  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [PAET  HI. 

47.  It  was  then  that  the  chief  mysteries  of  Ceres  were  revealed 
to  her  votaries ;  and  in  the  midst  of  a  divine  radiance  the  twelve 
Celestial  deities  passed  before  them ; — Jupiter  crowned  with  olive 
boughs ;  Apollo,  with  pencils  of  light ;  Neptune,  with  anemones ; 
Mars,  with  a  golden  helmet  5  Mercury,  with  a  winged  cap  and  sandals ; 
Vulcan,  with  dishevelled  ringlets  ;  Juno,  attended  by  her  cuckoo 
and  peacocks ;  Minerva,  by  her  owl  and  dragon ;  Diana,  by  her 
greyhound  ;  Ceres,  by  a  dolphin  ;  Venus,  by  a  sparrow  ;  and  Vesta, 
bearing  the  palladium  as  her  talisman.  Next  came  a  procession  of 
the  lesser  inhabitants  of  Olympus — Oreads  from  the  mountains ; 
Naiads  from  the  streams ;  Bacchus,  with  his  train  of  revellers ;  winged 
Cupid,  with  h>s  bow  and  arrows  ;  and  Aurora,  blushing  with  the  tints 
of  the  morning ;  together  with  the  -rest  of  tbe  "  infinite  variety"  of 
the  "  Pagan  host,"  in  superb  and  bewildering  confusion.  A  repre- 
sentation of  the  story  of  Ceres  and  Proserpine  closed  the  sacred  fes- 
tival of  Eleusis,  after  which  the  hierophant  ascended  a  rostrum  in 
front  of  the  statue  of  the  goddess,  and  opening  the  sacred  volume 
Petroma,  read  from  the  stone  tablets  an  explanation  of  the  types  of 
the  festivities, — in  language  probably  not  unlike  that  which  Virgil 
puts  into  the  mouth  of  Auchises,  in  the  sixth  book  of  the  .ZEneid, 
and  which  may  be  regarded'  as  a  condensed  definition  of  the  secrets 
of  Eleusis  and  the  creed  of  Pythagoras.  The  sixth  book  of  the 
JEneid  is  believed  to  represent,  moreover,  several  of  the  scenes  of  the 
mysteries.  In  the  following  language  Anchises  answers  the  inquiries 
of  his  god-like  son  : 

"  Know  first  that  heav'n,  and  earth's  contracted  frame, 
And  flowing  waters,  and  the  starry  flame, 
And  both  the  radiant  lights,  one  common  soul 
Inspires  and  feeds — and  animates  the  whole. 
This  active  mind,  infused  through  all  the  space, 
Unites  and  mingles  with  the  mighty  mass. 
Hence  men  and  beasts  the  breath  of  life  obtain, 
And  birds  of  air,  and  monsters  of  the  main. 
Th'  ethereal  vigor  is  in  all  the  same  ; 
And  ev'ry  soul  is  fill'd  with  equal  flame — 
As  much  as  earthy  limbs,  and  gross  allay 
Of  mortal  members  subject  to  decay, 
Blunt  not  the  beams  of  heav'n  and  edge  of  day. 
From  this  coarse  mixture  of  terrestrial  parts, 
Desire  and  fear  by  turns  possess  their  hearts, 
And  grief  and  joy :  nor  can  the  grovelling  mind, 
In  the  dark  dungeon  of  the  limbs  confined, 
Assert  the  native  skies,  or  own  its  heav'nly  kind: 
Nor  death  itself  can  wholly  wash  their  stains ; 
But  long-contracted  filth  ev'n  in  the  soul  remains. 


CHAP.  IV.]  ELEUSINIAN   MYSTERIES.  687 

The  relics  of  invet'rate  vice  they  wear ; 

And  spots  of  sin  obscene  in  ev'ry  face  appear 

For  this  are  various  penances  enjoin'd  ; 

And  some  are  hung  to  bleach  upon  the  wind, 

Some  plunged  in  waters,  others  purged  in  fires, 

Till  all  the  dregs  are  drain'd,  and  all  the  rust  expires. 

All  have  their  manes,  and  their  manes  bear : 

The  few,  so  cleansed,  to  these  abodes  repair, 

And  breathe,  in  ample  fields,  the  soft  Elysian  air. 

Then  are  they  happy,  when  by  length  of  time 

The  scurf  is  worn  away  of  each  committed  crime ; 

No  speck  is  left  of  their  habitual  stains ; 

But  the  pure  ether  of  the  soul  remains. 

But,  when  a  thousand  rolling  years  are  past, 

(So  long  their  punishments  and  penance  last,) 

Whole  droves  of  minds  are,  by  the  driving  god, 

Compell'd  to  drink  the  deep  Lethean  flood, 

In  large  forgetful  draughts  to  steep  the  cares 

Of  their  past  labors  and  their  irksome  years, 

That,  unrememb'ring  of  its  former  pain, 

The  soul  may  suffer  mortal  flesh  again."a 

48.  We  can  conceive  of  the  effect  which  the  revelations  of  the 
hierophant  produced  upon  the  mixed  assemblage  whose  minds  were 
stimulated  by  the  marvellous  ordeal  through  which  they  had  just 
passed,  as  he  resolved  the  mythological  legends  into  the  varied  opera- 
tions of  Nature's  laws,  and  explained  the  divine  nature  of  the  soul 
or  spirit,  its  union  with  the  body  in  a  probationary  existence,  its  de- 
generacy by  association  with  material  organs,  its  need  of  purification, 
its  immortality,  and  its  final  destiny.     With  what  rapture  they  lis- 
tened, as  the  mysteries  became  transparent  under  their  scrutiny  ;  how 
their  bosoms  glowed  with  enthusiam  for  the  pursuits  of  philosophy, 
and  the  cause  of  their  religion ;  how  their  minds  must  have  expand- 
ed with  the  acquisition  of  these  "  hidden  treasures  of  wisdom  and 
happiness  !" 

49.  But  while  the  hierophant  explained  the  glowing  fables  of 
Grecian  mythology  as  allegorical  representations  of  the  mysteries  of 
Nature,  it  is  supposed  that  his  words  were  sufficiently  oracular  to 
admit  of  being  interpreted  by  the  worshipper  in  accordance  with  the 
system  of  philosophy  which  he  himself  had  embraced.     Thus  one 
saw,  in  the  sacred  rites,  confirmation  of  one  creed,  and  others,  of 
another ;  but  all  bowed  in  reverence  before  them,  as  enshrining  the 
august  mysteries  of  religion  and  philosophy.     Celebrated,  under  a 
veil  of  secresy,  with  extraordinary  pomp  and  solemnity,  they  exerted 
a  powerful  influence  over  a  people  so  susceptible  as  the  ancient 

a.  Virgil's  JEncid,  vi.  724-751 :  Dryden's  Trans,  vi.  980-1020. 


688  PHILOSOPHY   OF  HISTORY.  [PART  III. 

Greeks,  who  abandoned  themselves,  with  the  most  ardent  enthusiasm, 
to  the  exquisite  seductions  of  their  polytheistic  mythology.  Of  so 
holy  a  character  were  the  Eleusinian  rites  deemed,  that,  although  they 
were  open  to  both  sexes,  and  all  classes  among  the  citizens,  all  crimi- 
nals, helots,  and  necromancers,  were  excluded  from  them,  while  the 
initiated  who  abstained  from  their  periodical  observance  were  re- 
garded as  having  incurred  the  displeasure  of  the  gods,  and  as  being 
doomed,  hereafter,  to  eternal  darkness  and  abasement.  The  charge 
against  Socrates,  of  having  neglected  the  holy  ordeal  of  initiation, 
was  construed  as  evidence  of  irreverence  and  impiety  towards  the 
gods  ;  and  when  the  imperious  and  lawless  Nero  visited  Greece,  such 
was  the  awe  with  which  the  sacred  rites  of  Eleusis  inspired  him,  that 
he  was  deterred  from  joining  in  them,  from  a  consciousness  of  his  own 
blood-stained  character ;  and  such  was  the  sway  which,  at  a  later 
period,  these  festivities  continued  to  exert  over  the  people,  that  the 
emperor  Valentinian  was  forced  to  permit  their  continuance  in  Greece, 
after  he  had  prohibited  elsewhere  all  nocturnal  sacrifices.  For  sev- 
enteen centuries  and  a-half,  reckoning  from  their  supposed  introduc- 
tion into  Attica  by  Eumolpus,  in  1356  B.  C.,  they  maintianed  their 
influence  and  authority.  It  was  in  the  time  of  Theodosius  that  the 
Christian  world  rose  up  against  them,  and  the  fathers  of  the  Church 
declared  that  "  every  mode  of  polytheism  conducts  its  deluded  vota- 
ries, through  the  paths  of  error,  to  the  abyss  of  eternal  perdition. "a 
It  was  then  that  the  emperor  propounded  to  the  Roman  senate  the 
important  question,  "  whether  the  worship  of  Jupiter,  or  that  of 
Christ,  should  be  the  religion  of  the  empire  ?"a  A  formal  renuncia- 
tion of  the  pagan  mythology  followed  ;  a  royal  edict  declared  that  no 
one  should  presume,  "  in  any  city,  or  in  any  place,  to  worship  an  in- 
animate idol,  by  the  sacrifice  of  a  guiltless  victim  ;"d  the  temples  of 
the  gods  were  thrown  down,  or  converted  into  Christian  churches ; 
and  the  mystical  rites  of  Eleusis  gave  place  to  the  simplicity  of 
gospel  truths,  and  the  mild  religion  of  the  Redeemer. 

a.  Gibbon's  Decline  and  Fall,  ch.  xxviii. 


CHAP.  V.]  GLORY  AND  FALL  OF  GREECE.  689 

CHAPTER    V. 

THE  GLORY  AND  THE  FALL  OF  GREECE. 

ANALYSIS.  1.  The  CLOSING  PERIOD  OF  GRECIAN  HISTORY.  General  character  of  tlie 
Grecian  domestic  wars,  &c.— 2.  Other  events  submitted  for  our  contemplation.— 3.  Ordinary 
compends  of  Grecian  history.  Object  of  the  present  chapter. 

4.  THE  PERSIAN  WARS.— 5.  BATTLE  or  PLAT*'  A.  Situation  of  the  opposing  forces.— 6.  Ad- 
vance of  the  Persians.— 7.  Trying  situation  of  the  Spartans.  Sacrifices.— 8.  Favorable  tokens. 
The  Spartan  phalanx  prepares  for  battle.  The  battle-ground.— 9.  The  battle.— 10.  Mardoniua— 
his  fall— defeat  and  flight  of  the  Persians.— 1 1.  The  Athenians  carry  the  Persian  intrenchmente. 
Prodigious  slaughter  of  the  Persians.— 12.  The  conquered  treasure.  The  contrast.— 13.  Op- 
posing traits  of  Persian  and  Grecian  character. 

14.  IMPORTANCE  OF  THE  PERSIAN  OVERTHROW.— 15.  The  rising  greatness  of  Greece.— 16. 
Effect  of  the  Persian  defeat  upon  the  East. 

17.  THE  AGE  or  PEDICLES.  Extract  from  Alison.— 18.  Themistocles  and  Cim«n.  Pericles 
and  Phidias.  (The  Olympian  Jupiter.) — 19,  and  20.  The  grace  and  elegance  of  the  Athenian 
edifices  of  the  time  of  Pericles.— 21.  The  liberality  of  the  people. 

22.  Inquiry  into  the  origin  and  overthrow  of  the  monuments  of  Grecian  genius.    FULL  DK- 

VKLOPMKNT  OF  THE  DEMOCRATIC  CHARACTER  OF  GRECIAN    INSTITUTIONS.      Early  Union  of  ad- 

ministralive  and  judicial  powers.  Their  separation  in  the  time  of  Pericles.  Dikast  juries. 
References  to  arbitrators.  The  judicature  popularized. — 23.  Collision  of  parties,  and  triumph 
of  the  reformers. — 24.  The  making  and  the  repealing  of  laws.  Abridged  powers  of  the  Ecclesia. 
The  business  of  ordinary  legislation  intrusted  to  the  Monothetse.  The  power  of  indicting  the 
proposers  of  new  laws.  Abuse  of  this  power. — 25.  Mode  of  affixing  penalties.  Check  against 
its  abuse.  The  study  of  these  laws. — 20.  Consummation  of  the  Athenian  democracy.  Leading 
object  in  the  institution  of  the  dikasteries.  They  furnish  examples  of  the  workings  of  jury 
trial.  The  jury  system  in  England — compared  with  that  in  Athens. 

27.  Causes  that  led  to  the  especial  CULTIVATION  OF  RHETORIC  AND  ORATORY.  The  good  not 
without  its  attendant  evil. — 2-S.  Oratory  little  known  in  Greece  before  the  time  of  Pericles. 
Eloquence  of  Pericles.— 29.  The  golden  age  of  Grecian  eloquence.  Athens  bears  the  palm. 
Lysias,  Isocrates,  ^Eschine?,  and  Demosthenes.  Hume's  view  of  the  style  of  Demosthenes. — 
30.  The  true  character  of  his  eloquence.— 31.  The  secret  of  his  power  and  influence. 

32.  HISTORIANS,  POETS,  AND  PHILOSOPHERS,  of  the  age  of  Pericles. — 33.  THE  DRAMA.  Its 
development  marks  the  age  of  Pericles.  ^Eschylus,  Sophocles,  and  Euripides. — 34.  Transitions 
of  tragedy  in  the  hands  of  its  three  masters.— 35.  Influence  of  the  drama  over  the  Athenians. 
— 36.  COMEDY.  Its  character  and  effects. — 37.  THE  RESULT.  The  age  of  Grecian  glory  was 
the  era  of  democratic  institutions. 

38.  CAUSES  OF  THE  DOWNFALL  OF  ATHENS.  Character  of  the  Athenian  confederacy. 
Despotic  rule  of  Athens  over  her  allies.  Athens  appropriates  the  common  treasury  to  her  own 
uses.— 39.  Her  political  power  based  on  credit.  Unwise  policy  of  depending  on  foreign  re- 
sources.—40.  Extensive  judicial  powers  assumed  by  the  popular  assembly. — 41.  Evils  arising 
therefrom.  Ungrateful  treatment  of  illustrious  citizens. — 42.  Want  of  public  and  private  vir- 
tue. Evils  arising  from  the  want  of  a  principle  of  universal  justice  like  that  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion. Conclusion. 

I. 

1 .  The  general  impression  produced  on  the  mind  of  the  reader 
by  a  cursory  perusal  of  the  closing  chapters  of  Grecian  history — ex- 
tending from  the  opening  of  the  first  war  with  Persia,  in  the  year 

44 


690  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [PART  III. 

490  B.  C.,  to  the  reduction  of  Greece  to  a  Roman  province,  146 

B.  C.j  and  embracing  a  period  of  three  hundred  and  forty 

PERIOD  OF    f°ur  years — is  doubtless  that  of  a  confused  series  of  domes- 

GRECIAN     tic  wars  and  revolutions,  origniating  in  the  jealousies  and 

ambition  of  rival  States,  sanguinary  in   their  progress, 

and  destructive  to  all  parties  in  their  final  results  and  tendencies. 

Such  is,  indeed,  the  general  character  we  must  ascribe  to  the  several 

Peloponnesian  wars,  which  almost  exhausted  the  power  and  resources 

of  the  most  prominent  Grecian  States — to  the  Sacred  War,  which 

led  to  the  subjection  of  Greece  to  the  sway  of  Macedon — and  to  the 

petty  jealousies  growing  out  of  Achaean  influence,  and  the  dissensions 

sown  by  Macedonian  ambition,  which  led  to  the  final  overthrow  of 

Grecian  liberty,  and  the  reduction  of  Greece  to  a  province  of  the 

Roman  empire. 

2.  Apart,  however,  from  the  uniformly  disastrous  effects  of  the 
follies,   crimes,  and  absurdities,  which  engendered  these  domestic 
wars,  we  find  here,  submitted  for  our  contemplation,  the  grand  specta- 
cle of  the  Persian  contest,  involving  the  vain  struggle  of  barbarism 
against  civilization — the  glories  of  Thermopylae,  Mar'athon,  Sal'- 
amis,  and  Platse'  a — the  expedition  of  Cyrus,  and  the  famous  "  Re- 
treat of  the  Ten  Thousand" — the  brilliant  career  of  the  conquering 
Alexander — the  inroad  of  the  Celts — the  last  struggle  of  Pyrr'  hus — 
and  the  vain  effort  of  Achaia,  in  her  prime,  to  stem  the  fatal  tide  of 
Grecian  corruption. 

3.  The  limits  of  ordinary  compends  of  General  History  forbid 
anything  more  than  outline  sketches,  or  general  views,  of  the  public 
life  of  the  Grecians,  in  which  beauty  of  coloring  of  necessity  gives 
place  to  simplicity  of  narrative  and  brevity  of  detail, — in  which  is 
scarcely  detected  the  philosophy  of  the  causes  that  were  fast  hurry- 
ing on  Greece  to  her  destiny — and  in  which  little  is  seen  of  the  do- 
mestic condition  and  social  character  of  the  Grecian  people.     We 
purpose,  therefore,  to  return  to  a  few  of  the  more  prominent  events 
of  Grecian  history,  that  we  may  place  some  of  their  most  interesting 
peculiarities  in  a  clearer  light  before  the  reader — to  examine,  but  with 
brevity,  the  philosophy  of  causes  and  effects, — and  to  lift  the  veil 
which  hides  from  view  the  under-current  of  social  life. 

II. 

4.  What  may  properly  be  called  the  closing  period  of  Grecian 
history  opens  with  the  commencement  of  the  Persian  wars, — brought 


CHAP.  V.]  GLORY  AND  FALL  OF  GREECE.  691 

on  by  the  blind  ambition  of  Darius — continued,  through  the  vain- 
glory of  Xerxes  and  his  successor — and  ending  in  the        THK 
humiliation   of    the   greatest    empire    the  world    then      PERSIAN 
contained.     The  Greeks,  united  by  a  sense  of  common       WARS- 
dangers,  victorious  abroad,  and  sedulously  cultivating  learning  and 
the  arts  at  home,  might  well  regard  the  latter  years  of  the  Persian 
wars,  and  the  subsequent  administration  of  Pericles  at  Athens,  as 
the  period  of  their  greatest  glory. 

5.  We  have  spoken  briefly  of  the  heroic  struggle  of  the  Spartan 
Leon'  idas  and  his  countrymen  at  Thermop'  ylse,  and  of  the  Athenians 
under  Miltiades  at  Mar'  athon.   We  give,  from  an  eloquent 

writer,  the  following  description  of  the  battle  of  Platae'  a,  BATTLE/OF 
both  for  the  sake  of  its  beauty,  and  to  show  the  effect 
of  the  religion  of  the  Greeks  upon  the  military  character  of  the  people. 
Mardonius,  the  Persian  general,  left  at  the  head  of  three  hundred 
thousand  men  to  complete  the  conquest  of  Greece  after  the  inglorious 
flight  of  Xerxes  across  the  Hellespont,  had  advanced  to  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Platae'  a,  when  he  encountered  that  part  of  the  Grecian 
army  composed  mostly  of  Spartans,  commanded  by  Pausanias,  and 
numbering  about  fifty  thousand  men.  The  Athenians  had  previously 
fallen  back  to  a  more  secure  position,  where  the  entire  army  had 
been  ordered  to  concentrate,  and  Pausanias  and  his  Spartans  had 
but  just  commenced  the  retrograde  movement  when  the  Persians 
made  their  appearance. 

6.  "  As  the  troops  of  Mardonius  advanced,  the  rest  of  the  Persian 
armament,  deeming  the  task  was  now  not  to  fight  but  to  pursue, 
raised  their  standards  and  poured  forward   tumultuously,  without 
discipline  or  order.     Pausanias,  pressed  by  the  Persian  line,  lost  no 
time  in  sending  to  the  Athenians  for  succor.     But  when  the  latter 
were  on  their  march  with  the  required  aid,  they  were  suddenly  in- 
tercepted by  the  Greeks  in  the  Persian  service,  and  cut  off  from  the 
rescue  of  the  Spartans. 

7.  u  The  Spartans  beheld  themselves  thus  unsupported  with  consid- 
erable alarm.     Committing  himself  to  the  gods,  Pausanias  ordained  a 
solemn  sacrifice,  his  whole  army  awaiting  the  result,  while  the  shafts 
of  the  Persian  bowmen  poured  on  them  near  and  fast.     But  the 
entrails  presented  discouraging  omens,  and  the  sacrifice  was  again 
renewed.     Meanwhile  the  Spartans  evinced  their  characteristic  fortir 
tude  and  discipline — not  one  man  stirring  from  his  ranks  until  the 
auguries  should  assume  a  more  favoring  aspect ;  all  harassed,  and 


692  PHILOSOPHY   OF  HISTORY.  [PART  IIL 

some  wounded,  by  the  Persian  arrows,  they  yet,  seeking  protection 
only  beneath  their  broad  bucklers,  waited  with  a  stern  patience  the 
time  of  their  leader  and  of  Heaven.  Then  fell  Gallic'  rates,  the 
stateliest  and  strongest  soldier  in  the  whole  army,  lamenting,  not 
death,  but  that  his  sword  was  as  yet  undrawn  against  the  invader. 

8.  "  And  still  sacrifice  after  sacrifice  seemed  to  forbid  the  battle, 
when  Pausanias,  lifting  his  eyes  that  streamed  with  tears  to  the 
temple  of  Juno  that  stood  hard  by,  supplicated  the  goddess,  that  if 
the  fates  forbade  the  Greeks  to  conquer,  they  might  at  least  fall  like 
warriors.     And  while  uttering  this  prayer,  the  tokens  waited  for  be- 
came suddenly  visible  in  the  victims,  and  the  augurs  announced  the 
promise  of  coming  victory.     Therewith  the  order  of  battle  ran  in- 
stantly through  the  army,  and,  to  use   the  poetical  comparison  of 
Plutarch,  the  Spartan  phalanx  suddenly  stood  forth  in  its  strength, 
like  some  fierce  animal — erecting   its  bristles,   and   preparing   its 
vengeance  for  the  foe.     The  ground,  broken  in  many  steep  and  pre- 
cipitous ridges,  and  intersected  by  the  Asopus,  whose  sluggish  stream 
winds  over  a  broad  and  rushy  bed,  was  unfavorable  to  the  movements 
of  cavalry,  and  the  Persian  foot  advanced  therefore  on  the  Greeks. 

9.  "  Di^awn  up  in  their  massive  phalanx,  the  Lacedsemonians  pre- 
sented an  almost  impenetrable  body — sweeping  slowly  on,  compact 
and  serried — while  the  hot  and  undisciplined  valor  of  the  Persians, 
more  fortunate  in  the  skirmish  than  the  battle,  broke  itself  in  a  thou- 
sand waves  upon  that  moving  rock.     Pouring  on  in  small  numbers 
at  a  time,  they  fell  fast  round   the  progress  of  the  Greeks — their 
armor  slight  against  the  strong  pikes  of  Sparta — their  courage  with- 
out skill — their  numbers  without  discipline ;  still  they  fought  gallant- 
ly, even  when  on  the  ground  seizing  the  pikes  with  their  naked 
hands,  and  with  the  wonderful  agility  which  still  characterizes  the 
Oriental  swordsmen,  springing  to  their  feet,  and  regaining  their  arms, 
when  seemingly  overcome  ;  wresting  away  their  enemies'  shields,  and 
grappling  with  them  desperately  hand  to  hand. 

10.  "  Foremost  of  a  band  of  a  thousand  chosen   Persians,  con- 
spicuous by  his  white  charger,  and  still  more  by  his  daring  valor, 
rode  Mardonius,  directing  the  attack — fiercer  wherever  his  armor 
blazed.     Inspired  by  his  presence,  the  Persians  fought  worthily  of 
their  warlike  fame,  and,  even  in  falling,  thinned  the  Spartan  ranks. 
At  length  the  rash  but  gallant  leader  of  the  Asiatic  armies  received 
a  mortal  wound — his  skull  was  crushed  in  by  a  stone  from  the  hand 
of  a  Spartan.     His  chosen  band,  the  boast  of  the  army,  fell  fighting 


CHAP.  V.]  GLORY  AND  FALL  OF  GREECE.  693 

around  him,  but  his  death  was  the  general  signal  of  defeat  and  flight. 
Encumbered  by  their  long  robes,  and  pressed  by  the  relentless  con- 
querors, the  Persians  fled  in  disorder  towards  their  camp,  which  was 
secured  by  wooden  entrenchments,  by  gates,  and  towers,  and  walls. 
Here,  fortifying  themselves  as  they  best  might,  they  contended  suc- 
cessfully, and  with  advantage,  against  the  Lacedaemonians,  who  were 
ill  skilled  in  assault  and  siege. 

11."  Meanwhile  the  Athenians  obtained  the  victory  on  the  plains 
over  the  Greeks  of  Mardonius,  and  now  joined  the  Spartans  at  the 
camp.  The  Athenians  are  said  to  have  been  better  skilled  in  the 
art  of  siege  than  the  Spartans ;  yet  at  that  time  their  experience 
could  scarcely  have  been  greater.  The  Athenians  were  at  all 
times,  however,  of  a  more  impetuous  temper;  and  the  men  who  had 
*  run  to  the  charge'  at  Marathon,  were  not  to  be  baffled  by  the  des- 
perate remnant  of  their  ancient  foe.  They  scaled  the  walls — they 
effected  a  breach  through  which  the  Tegeans  were  the  first  to  rush — 
the  Greeks  poured  fast  and  fierce  into  the  camp.  Appalled,  dismayed, 
stupefied  by  the  suddenness  and  greatness  of  their  loss,  the  Persians  no 
longer  sustained  their  fame — they  dispersed  in  all  directions,  falling, 
as  they  fled,  with  a  prodigious  slaughter,  so  that  out  of  that  mighty 
armament  scarce  three  thousand  effected  an  escape.  "a 

12.  Another  writer  remarks  that  "  the  treasure  found  in  the  camp 
of  the  Persians  on  this  occasion  was  immense  :  the  furniture  of  the 
tents  glittered  with  gold  and  silver ;  and  vessels  of  the  same  metals 
were  seen  scattered  about  for  ordinary  use,  and  piled  up  in  wagons." 
"  Pausanias,  when  he  entered  the  tent  of  Mardonius,  and  saw  the 
rich  hangings,  the  soft  carpets,  the  couches  and  tables  shining  with 
gold  and  silver,  ordered  the  Persian  slaves  to  prepare  a  banquet,  such 
as  they  were  used  to  set  out  for  their  master.     When  it  was  spread 
he  bade  his  Helots  set  by  its  side  the  simple  fare  of  his  own  ordinary 
meal,  and  then  invited  the  Greek  officers  to  mark  the  folly  of  the 
barbarian,  who,  with  such  instruments  of  luxury  at  his  command,  had 
come  to  rob  the  Greeks  of  their  scanty  store.  "b 

1 3.  In  the  foregoing  we  detect  some  of  the  prominent  traits  of  Persian 
and  of  Grecian  character,  by  which  we  are  enabled  to  discover  the  causes 
that,  during  a  struggle  of  half  a  century,  brought  defeat  and  humilia- 
tion upon  one  nation,  and  gave  victory  to  the  other.     On  the  side 
of  Persia  was  the  vain  boast  of  numbers — the  tinsel  of  display — with 
all  the  glitter,  "  pomp,  and  circumstance  of  war,"  but  none  of  that 

a.  Bulwer'a  Athens.  b.  Thirlwall's  Greece,  i.  280. 


694  PHILOSOPHY   OF   HISTORY.  [PART  III. 

moral  power  which  an  army  derives  from  an  enlightened  confidence 
in  its  own  strength  and  resources.  On  the  side  of  the  Greeks  were 
the  undaunted  courage,  stern  purpose,  and  firm  resolve,  which  arose 
from  religious  faith  and  disciplined  valor. 

III. 

14.  But  the  final  overthrow  of  the  Persian  hosts  on  the  battle 
ground  of  PlataB'a  has  an  importance  infinitely  beyond  that  of  the 

brilliant  spectacle  of  the  contest,  the  numbers  of  the  slain, 
OF  THE  or  tne  deliverance  of  the  Greeks  from  immediate  danger. 
PERSIAN  Perhaps  no  other  event  in  ancient  history  has  been  so 

OVERTHROW.  .,  /.  -,       .  i  i     i 

momentous  in  its  consequences ;  for  what  would  have 
been  the  condition  of  Greece,  had  barbarian  arms  prevailed  against 
her,  and  had  she  then  become  a  province  of  the  Persian  empire  ? 
The  greatness  which  she  subsequently  attained,  and  the  glory  and 
renown  with  which  she  has  filled  the  earth,  would  never  have  had  an 
existence.  As  applicable  to  this  subject  we  subjoin  the  following 
reflections  from  the  author  previously  quoted. 

15.  "  When  the  deluge  of  the  Persian  arms  rolled  back  to  its 
eastern  bed,  and  the  world  was  once  more  comparatively  at  rest,  the 
continent  of  Greece  rose  visibly  and  majestically  above  the  rest  of 
the  civilized  earth.     Afar  in  the  Latiau  plains  the  infant  State  of 
Rome  was  silently  and  obscurely  struggling  into  strength  against  the 
neighboring  and  petty  States  in  which  the  old  Etrurian  civilization 
was  rapidly  passing  into  decay.     The  genius  of  Gaul  and  Germany, 
yet  unredeemed  from  barbarism,  lay  scarce  known,  save  where  colo- 
nized by  Greeks,  in  the  gloom  of  its  woods  and  wastes. 

16.  "  The  ambition  of  Persia,  still  the  great  monarchy  of  the  world, 
was  permanently  checked  and  crippled  ;  the  strength  of  generations 
had  been  wasted,  and  the  immense  extent  of  the  empire  only  served 
yet  more  to  sustain  the  general  peace,  from  the  exhaustion  of  its 
forces.     The  defeat  of  Xerxes  paralyzed  the  East.     Thus  Greece  was 
left  secure,  and  at  liberty  to  enjoy  the  tranquillity  it  had  acquired, 
and  to  direct  to  the  arts  of  peace  the  novel  and  amazing  energies 
which  had  been  prompted  by  the  dangers,  and  exalted  by  the  vic- 
tories, of  war." 

IV. 

17.  With  the  close  of  the  Persian  contest  properly  begins  what 
has  been  termed  the  "  Age  of  Pericles,"  the  era  of  Athenian  great- 


CHAP.  V.]  GLORY    AND   FALL   OF   GREECE.  695 

ness,  when  Athens,  hitherto  inferior  in  magnitude  and  political  im- 
portance among  the  Grecian  States,  having  won  the  high- 
est martial  honors,  suddenly  took  the  lead,  not  less  in  0/ptERfci!L 
intellectual  progress  and  peaceful  glories,  than  in  politi- 
cal ascendency.  "  Nowhere  else,"  remarks  a  late  writer,  "  is  to  be 
found  a  State  so  small  in  its  origin,  and  yet  so  great  in  its  progress ; 
so  contracted  in  its  territory,  and  yet  so  gigantic  in  its  achievements ; 
so  limited  in  numbers,  and  yet  so  immortal  in  genius.  Its  domin- 
ions on  the  continent  of  Greece  did  not  exceed  an  English  county : 
its  free  inhabitants  never  amounted  to  thirty  thousand  citizens — and 
yet  these  inconsiderable  numbers  have  filled  the  world  with  their  re- 
nown :  poetry,  philosophy,  architecture,  sculpture,  tragedy,  comedy, 
geometry,  physics,  history,  politics,  almost  date  their  origin  from 
Athenian  genius ;  and  the  monuments  of  art  with  which  they  have 
overspread  the  world  still  form  the  standard  of  taste  in  every  civilized 
nation  on  earth."a 

18.  Themistocles  and  Cimon  had  restored  to  Athens  all  that  of 
which  Xerxes  had  despoiled  it, — the  former  having  rebuilt  its  ruins, 
and  the  latter  having  given  to  its  public  buildings  a  degree  of  mag- 
nificence previously  unknown ;  but  Pericles  surpassed  them  both. 
The  treasury  of  the  State,  filled  by  the  tribute  wrung  from  allied  or 
conquered  cities,  was  placed  at  his  disposal,  and  he  knew  no  limit  to 
expenditure  but  the  popular  will,  which,  fortunately  for  the  glories 
of  Grecian  art,  kept  pace  with  the  vast  conceptions  of  the  master  de- 
signer. Most  of  those  famous  structures,  previously  described,b  which 
crowned  the  Athenian  Acropolis,  or  surrounded  its  base,  were  either 
built,  or  adorned,  by  the  direction  of  Pericles,  under  the  superintend- 
ence of  the  sculptor  Phid'  ias.  The  Parthenon,  the  Odeum,  the  gold 
and  ivory  statue  of  the  goddess  Minerva,  and  the  Olympian  Jupiter* 

•  This  famous  statue,  being  sixty  feet  high,  and  made  of  gold  and  ivory,  was  constructed 
by  Phid'  ias  at  the  request  of  the  Eleans,  and  placed  in  the  temple  of  the  god  at  Olympia.  It 
was  such  a  prodigy  of  art  that  it  wus  thought,  by  the  ancients,  worthy  to  be  reckoned  among 
the  seven  wonders  of  the  world.  No  subsequent  artists  had  the  presumption  even  to  imagine 
that  they  could  imitate  it. 

The  god  was  represented  as  sitting  on  his  throne :  in  the  right  hand  he  held  a  figure  of  Vic- 
tory, also  made  of  gold  and  ivory— in  bis  left  a  sceptre  beautifully  adorned  with  all  kinds  of 
metals,  and  having  on  the  top  of  it  a  golden  eagle.  His  brows  were  encircled  with  a  crown, 
made  to  resemble  leaves  of  olive ;  his  robe  was  of  massive  gold,  curiously  adorned  with  various 
figures  of  animals,  and  lilies.  The  sandals  too  were  of  gold.  The  throne  was  inlaid  with  all 
kinds  of  precious  materials — ebony,  ivory,  and  gems,  «nd  was  adorned  with  sculptures  of  ex- 
quisite beauty.  Quinctillian  said  of  this  statue  that  u  the  beauty  of  it  seemed  to  improve  the 
religion  of  the  beholders,  xo  much  did  the  work  express  the  majesty  of  the  god."  When 

a.  Alison,  in  BlackvoocTs  Magazine,  July  1837.  b.  See  p.  566. 


696  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [PART  III 

— the  latter  two  the  workmanship  of  the  famous  sculptor  himself, 
were  alone  sufficient  to  immortalize  the  "  Age  of  Pericles."  But  not 
to  Pericles  and  the  artists  alone  be  the  honor :  it  is  to  be  shared  by 
the  people,  whose  love  of  the  sublime  and  beautiful  encouraged  them. 
The  following  eloquent  extract  will  convey  to  the  reader  a  vivid  idea 
of  the  unrivalled  grace  and  elegance  of  the  Athenian  edifices  of  the 
time  of  Pericles. 

19.  "  Then  rapidly  progressed  those  glorious  fabrics  which  seemed, 
as  Plutarch  gracefully  expresses  it,  endowed  with  the  bloom  of  a 
perennial  youth.      Still  the  houses  of  private  citizens  remained  simple 
and  unadorned ;   still  were  the  streets  narrow  and  irregular ;  and 
even  centuries  afterwards,  a  stranger  entering  Athens  would  not  at 
first  have  recognized  the  claims  of  the  mistress  of  Grecian  art.     But  to 
the  homeliness  of  her  common  thoroughfares  and  private  mansions, 
the  magnificence  of  her  public  edifices  now  made  a  dazzling  contrast. 
The  Acropolis  that  towered  above  the  homes  and  thoroughfares  of 
men — a  spot  too  sacred  for  human  habitation — became,  to   use  a 
proverbial  phrase,  '  a  city  of  the  gods.'     The  citizen  was  everywhere 
to  be  reminded  of  the  majesty  of  the  STATE — his  patriotism  was  to 
be  increased  by  the  pride  in  her  beauty — his  taste  to  be  elevated  by 
the  spectacle  of  her  splendor. 

20.  "  Thus  flocked  to  Athens  all  who,  throughout  Greece,  were 
eminent  in  art.     Sculptors  and  architects  vied  with  each  other  in 
adorning  the  young  empress  of  the  seas  :  then  rose  the  masterpieces 
of  Phid'ias,  of  Gallic' rates,  of  Menes'icles,  which,  either  in  their 
broken  remains,  or  in  the  feeble  copies  of  imitators  less  inspired,  still 
command  so   intense  a  wonder,  and  furnish    models  so  immortal. 
And  if,  so  to  speak,  their  bones  and  relics  excite  our  awe  and  envy, 
as  testifying  of  a  lovelier  and  grander  race,  which  the  deluge  of  time 
has  swept  away,  what,  in  that  day,  must  have  been  their  brilliant 
effect — unmutilated  in  their  fair  proportions — fresh  in  all  their  linea- 
ments and  hues  ?     For  their  beauty  was  not  limited  to  the  symmetry 
of  arch  and  column,  nor  their  materials  confined  to  the  marbles  of 
Pentel'  licus  and  Paros.     Even  the  exterior  of  the  temples  glowed 
with  the  richest  harmony  of  colors,  and  was  decorated  with  the  purest 
gold  ;  an  atmosphere  peculiarly  favorable  both  to  the  display  and  the 

PhitT  ias  wa*  asked  whence  he  had  derived  the  idea  of  this  his  grandest  effort,  he  replied  by 
repeating  the  well-known  passage  in  Homer's  Iliad,  where  Jupiter  is  represented  as  causing 
Olympus  to  tremble  on  its  base  by  the  mere  movement  of  his  sable  brow.  The  Olympian 
Jupiter  was  the  last  and  greatest  of  the  works  of  Phid'  ias. 


CHAP.  V.]  GLORY  AND  FALL  OF  G&EECE.  697 

preservation  of  art,  permitted  to  external  pediments  and  friezes  all  the 
minuteness  of  ornament — all  the  brilliancy  of  colors  : — such  as  in  the 
interior  of  Italian  churches  may  yet  be  seen — vitiated,  in  the  last,  by 
a  gaudy  and  barbarous  taste. 

21.  "Nor  did  the  Athenians  spare  any  cost  upon  the  works  that 
were,  like  the  tombs  and  tripods  of  their  heroes,  to  be  the  monuments 
of  a  nation  to  distant  ages,  and  to  transmit  the  most  irrefragable 
proof  '  that  the  power  of  ancient  Greece  was  not  an  idle  legend.' 
The  whole  democracy  were  animated  with  the  passion  of  Pericles ; 
and  when  Phid'  ias  recommended  marble  as  a  cheaper  material  than 
ivory  for  the  great  statue  of  Minerva,  it  was  for  that  reason  that 
ivory  was  preferred  by  the  unanimous  voice  of  the  assembly.     Thus, 
whether  it  were  extravagance  or  munificence,  the  blame  in  one  case, 
the  admiration  in  another,  rests  not  more  with  the  minister  than  the 
populace.     It  was,  indeed,  the  great  characteristic  of  those  works, 
that  they  were  entirely  the  creations  of  the  people  :  without   the 
people  Pericles  could  not  have  built  a  temple,  nor  engaged  a  sculptor. 
The  miracles  of  that  day  resulted  from  the  enthusiasm  of  a  population 
yet  young — full  of  the  first  ardor  for  the  beautiful — -dedicating  to 
the  State,  as  to  a  mistress,  the  trophies  honorably  won,  or  the  treas- 
ures injuriously  extorted — and  uniting  the  resources  of  a  nation 
with  the  energy  of  an  individual,  because  the  toil,  the  cost,  were 
borne  by  those  who  succeeded  to  the  enjoyment  and  arrogated  the 
glory." 

V. 

22.  As  we  contemplate  the  beauty  of  some  vast  edifice,  harmonious 
in  its  proportions,  perfect  in  all  its  adaptations,  and  towering  above 
us  in  majestic  grandeur,  wisdom  forbids  us  to  overlook  the  creative 
energies  on  which  all  its  glory  rests — the  resources  that  sustained 
it,  the  original  conception,  the  planning  of  the  designer,  the  toil  of 
the  artisans,  and  the  gradual  development  of  the  results  of  their  com- 
bined labors.     So,  while  we  contemplate  the  unrivalled  monuments 
of  Grecian  genius,  long  since  passed  away,  a  wise  political 
philosophy  requires  us  to  examine,  also,  into  the  circum-    OPMKNT  OF 
stances  which  gave  them  origin,  and  the  causes  of  their    THK  DKM°- 
final  destruction.     The  age  of  Pericles — that  of  Grecian    BACTEa  OF 
glory — was  also  that  in  which  the  democratic  character  GRECIAN  IN- 
of  Grecian  institutions  received  its  fullest  development  in 

the  important  departments  of  judicature,  legislation,  and  administration 
In  the  early  history  of  Athens  the  distinction  between  administrative 


698  PHILOSOPHY  OF   HISTORY.  [PAET  III 

and  judicial  powers  was  almost  unknown ;  for  the  Athenian  magistrates 
were  not  only  executive  but  judicial  officers  also — deciding  disputes  and 
inflicting  punishments — and  of  the  same  mixed  nature  were  the  functions 
of  the  Areop'  agus  and  of  the  senate  of  Five  Hundred — an  accummu- 
lation,  in  the  same  hands,  of  powers  that  must  have  often  led  to  cor- 
ruption and  oppression.  The  reform  party  headed  by  Pericles  trans- 
ferred the  judicial  power  to  numerous  dikasts,  or  panels  of  jurors, 
selected  from  the  citizens,  six  thousand  of  whom,  forming  what  was 
called  the  Heliaea,  were  annually  drawn  by  lot,  and  then  distributed 
into  panels  of  five  hundred  members  each ;  and  to  these  panels,  paid 
by  the  State,  and  each  presided  over  by  a  magistrate,  judicial  causes 
were  submitted  by  lot ;  so  that  no  one  knew  beforehand  which  jury 
was  to  try  any  particular  case.  References  of  private  causes  to  arbi- 
trators appointed  by  law,  or  chosen  by  mutual  consent  of  parties, 
were  also  common — each  of  the  parties  having  the  right  to  appeal  to 
the  public  jury.  The  senate  of  the  Areop'  agus,  the  senate  of  Five 
Hundred,  archons,  and  other  magistrates,  were  stripped  of  nearly  all 
their  judicial  functions ;  the  laws  were  brought  down  from  the 
Acropolis,  where  justice  had  been  previously  administered,  to  the 
neighborhood  of  the  market  place,  where  *the  dikasteries  sat ;  and 
thus  was  the  judicature  popularized,  and  democracy  enthroned  in  the 
tribunals  of  justice. 

23.  The  popular  triumph  was  not  obtained  without  a  fierce  col- 
lision of  parties ;  for  the  State  was  divided  between  reformers  and 
conservatives, — the   latter  composing  the  oligarchical    party,   ever 
tenacious  of  power,  and  unscrupulous  of  the  means  of  preserving  it. 
When  Pericles  proposed  the  connection  of  Athens  and  the  Piraeus 
by  the  Long  Walls,  the  same  party  did  not  scruple  to  invoke  foreign 
aid  for  the  overthrow  of  the  democracy  ;  but  the  latter  triumphed  in 
all  its  measures,  and,  under  its  rule,  Athens,  guided  by  the  genius 
of  Pericles,  attained  the  maximum  of  her  power  and  glory. 

24.  By  the  reforms  of  Pericles,  the  making  and  the  repealing  of 
laws — subjects  which  have  called  forth  so  much  declamatory  effort  to 
the  disparagement  of  popular  legislation — were  placed  under  peculiar 
solemnities  and  guarantees,  which  in  a  great  measure  removed  the 
dangers  of  hasty  and  unwise   decisions.     The   Ecclesia,  or  public 
assembly  of  the  whole  people,  was  no  longer,  as  in  the  days  of  Solon, 
intrusted  with  the  power  of  either  passing  or  repealing  any  law  of 
general  application ; — it  could  only  pass  laws  affecting  individual 
cases ;  and  to  a  magisterial  court  of  sworn  jurors  called  nomothetae, 


CHAP.  V.]  GLORY   AND  FALL  OF  GREECE.  699 

numbering  from  two  hundred  to  a  thousand,  and  selected  from  the 
Heliaea,  was  intrusted  the  business  of  ordinary  legislation.  Early 
in  each  year,  at  a  public  assembly  of  the  people,  the  laws  were  sub- 
mitted for  approval  or  rejection  :  at  a  later  period,  the  laws  which 
the  assembly,  or  private  citizens,  desired  to  have  repealed,  together 
with  propositions  of  new  laws,  were  brought  before  the  court  of  the 
nomothetse.  Public  advocates  were  also  named  to  defend  the  laws 
attacked,  and  the  decision  of  the  court  was  final  during  the  year  of  its 
jurisdiction.  As  an  important  additional  security  both  to  the  public 
assembly  and  the  nomothetee,  against  being  entrapped  into  illegal 
decisions,  if  any  new  measure  contravening  previous  legislation  was 
passed,  the  proposer  of  it  was  liable  to  indictment  and  punishment ; 
for  it  was  his  duty  to  give  formal  notice  of  the  contradiction,  and  to 
propose  a  repeal  of  the  preexisting  law,  that  contradictory  statutes 
might  not  at  the  same  time  be  in  operation.  The  law  permitting 
such  an  indictment  doubtless  deterred  those  not  thoroughly  con- 
versant with  past  legislation,  from  originating  new  propositions,  but 
it  was  ere  long  grossly  abused,  and  made  the  instrument  of  personal 
and  party  enmity  j  for,  at  a  later  period,  we  find  the  mover  of  a  new  law 
compelled  to  defend  himself,  not  only  against  the  charge  of  a  formal 
contradiction  of  laws,  but  also  against  that  of  alleged  mischiefs  in 
the  law  passed  by  his  agency — a  perversion  which  Pericles  never  an- 
ticipated. 

25.  A  peculiar,  not  to  say  ingenious,  mode  of  affixing  penalties 
was  adopted.  If  the  accused  were  found  guilty  by  the  dikast  jury, 
the  accuser  first  named  a  given  amount  of  punishment — it  might  be 
a  fine,  imprisonment,  banishment,  or  death — then  a  lighter  punish- 
ment was  proposed  by  the  accused  himself;  and  the  jury  was  bound 
to  choose  the  one  or  the  other  without  any  modification.  It  was 
thus  the  interest  of  the  accuser  not  to  name  a  punishment  too  severe, 
lest  its  very  severity  should  cause  its  rejection ;  and  the  interest  of 
the  accused  not  to  name  one  too  mild,  lest  the  jury  should  select  the 
other.  This  was  a  common  mode  of  determining  the  penalty  under 
the  Athenian  laws.  As  a  check  against  its  abuse,  if  the  verdict  of 
guilty ^lid  not  receive  the  suffrages  of  at  least  one-fifth  of  the  jury, 
then  the  accuser  himself  was  liable  to  a  heavy  fine.  Such  were  the 
safeguards,  enacted  in  a  truly  conservative  spirit,  which  Pericles  and 
his  co-reformers  threw  round  the  measures  of  legislation,  and  the  ad- 
ministration of  justice.  From  the  study  of  these  laws  and  their  results 
— from  the  ingenuity  displayed  in  their  enactment,  and  the  ingenuity 


700  PHILOSOPHY  OF   HISTORY.  [PART  IIL 

which  still  found  the  means  of  perverting  them  to  the  purposes  of 
individual  and  party  animosity — modern  legislators  may  gather  much 
political  wisdom. 

26.  The  establishment  of  the  popular  juries  or  paid  dikasteries, 
and  of  the  legislative  assembly  of  the  nomothetae,  often  erroneously 
attributed  to  Solon,a  was  the  consummation  of  the  Athenian  democ- 
racy— the  culminating  point  towards  which  the  efforts  of  the  liberal 
party  had  long  been  tending.     The  leading  object  in  the  institution 
of  the  dikasteries  was  to  guard  against  that  corruption  which  was  a 
prevalent  vice  among  wealthy  members  of  the  aristocracy,  who  were 
not  only  often  insubordinate  to  the  magistrates,  but  who  freely  resorted 
to  intimidation  and  bribery  to  promote  selfish  and  party  ends.     All 
history,  until  a  recent  period,  shows  how  difficult  it  has  been  to  make 
rich  and  powerful  criminals  effectively  amenable  to  justice.     But 
the  dikasteries  of  Pericles,  owing  to  the  number  of  those  who  com- 
posed them,  their  secret  suffrage,  and  the  impossibility  of  knowing 
beforehand  who  would  sit  in  any  particular  case,  seem  as  far  removed 
as  possible  from  corruption  and  intimidation.     They  furnish  examples 
of  the  workings  of  jury  trial  in  its  broadest  scale,  and  exhibit,  in  ex- 
aggerated proportions,  both  the  excellencies  and  the  defects  of  the 
jury  system.     In  England,  during  a  long  period,  the  jury,  justly 
called  the  palladium  of  English  liberties,  was  kept  in  subordination 
to  the  government — its  members  liable  to  be  fined  and  imprisoned 
for  rendering  a  verdict  contrary  to  the  dictation  of  the  judge — but  in 
ancient  Athens,  more   than   two   thousand  years   ago,   the  system 
started  forth  at  once  in  its  full  maturity,  the  jury  being  judge  of  the 
law  and  the  testimony,  and  without  being  bound  by  the  precedents 
of  former  decisions. 

VI. 

27.  There  were  no  professional  advocates  among  the  Athenians ; 
but  plaintiffs  and  defendants  might  come  before  the  jury  with  speeches 

prepared  by  others,  or  with  friends  to  speak  for  them. 

CULTIVATION  . 

OF  RHET-     A  certain  power  or  speech  therefore  became  necessary, 
ORIC  AND     not  oniy  for  politicians,  but  also  for  private  citizens  to 

ORATORY.  .,.',..', 

vindicate  their  rights,  or  repel  accusations  in  a  court 
of  justice.  Accordingly,  the  age  of  Pericles  was  that  in  which  style 
and  speech  began  to  be  assiduously  cultivated ;  we  begin  to  hear  of 
the  rhetorician  and  the  sophist  as  persons  of  influence  and  celebrity ; 

a.  Grote,  v.  381. 


CHAP.  V.]  GLORY  AND  FALL  OF  GREECE,  701 

and  the  composers  of  written  speeches  to  be  delivered  by  others 
began  to  multiply,  and  to  acquire  an  importance  previously  unknown. 
Yet  while  these  circumstances  stimulated  to  the  highest  developments 
of  Grecian  genius  in  the  art  of  oratory,  the  good  was  not  without  its 
attendant  evil ;  for  at  a  time  when  the  citizen  pleaded  his  own  cause 
before  the  dikastery,  the  rhetorician  was  viewed  by  many  with  jealousy, 
as  imparting  to  those  who  were  rich  enough  to  buy  it,  "a  peculiar 
skill  in  the  common  weapons,  which  made  them  seem  like  fencing 
masters,  or  professional  swordsmen,  amidst  a  society  of  untrained 
duellists."*  A  similar  objection,  however,  might  be  made  to  almost 
any  useful  attainment ;  but  it  only  exemplifies  the  truth  of  the  adage, 
that  "  Knowledge  is  power." 

28.  Eloquence  or  oratory,  which  Cicero  calls  "  the  friend  of  peace 
and  the  companion  of  tranquillity,  requiring  for  her  cradle  a  com- 
monwealth already  well  established  and  flourishing,"  was  scarcely 
known  in  Greece  before  the  time  of  Pericles,  when  it  suddenly  arose 
in  Athens  to  a  great  height  of  perfection.     Pericles  himself,  whose 
great  aim  was  to  sway  the  assemblies  of  the  people  to  his  will,  culti- 
vated oratory  with  such  application  and  success,  that  the  poets  of  his 
day  said  of  him,  that  on  some  occasions  the  goddess  of  persuasion, 
with  all  her  charms,  seemed  to  dwell  on  his  lips,  and  that  on  others 
his  discourse  had  all  the  vehemence  of  thunder  to  move  the  souls  of 
his  hearers.     It  was  said  of  Pericles  that  whenever  he  was  to  speak 
in  public  such  was  his  solicitude  that  he  first  addressed  a  prayer  to 
the  gods  "  That  not  a  word  might  escape  him  unsuitable  to  the 
occasion ;" — and  it  was  the  power  of  eloquence  that  enabled  him, 
'during  forty  years,  to  maintain  the  most  unbounded  influence  over 
the  inconstant  and  capricious  Athenians,  who  were  the  most  jealous 
of  their  liberties  of  any  people  in  the  world. 

29.  The  golden  age  of  Grecian  eloquence  is  embraced  in  a  period 
of  a  hundred  and  thirty  years,  reckoning  from  the  time  of  Pericles; 
and  during  this  period  Athens  bore  the  palm  alone  ;  for  there  were 
neither  Spartan,  Argive,  Corinthian,  nor  Theban  orators,  to  contest 
the  honor  with  her.     Of  the  many  eminent  Athenian  orators,  the 
most  distinguished  were  Lysias,  Isocrates,  jEschines,  and  Demosthe- 
nes.    The  first  was  admired  for  the  perspicuity,  purity,  sweetness, 
and  delicacy  of  his  style.     He  seldom  spoke  in  public,  but  composed 
orations  and  pleadings  for  others.     IsOcrates  opened  a  school  for  the 
instruction  of  youth  in  eloquence,  and  was  equally  esteemed  for  the 

a.  Grote,  v.  404. 


702  PHILOSOPHY   OF    HISTORY.  [PART  III 

excellence  of  his  compositions,  and  his  success  in  teaching  others.  His 
style  was  more  smooth,  flowing,  elegant,  and  adorned,  than  that  of 
Lysias,  his  thoughts  more  lively  and  delicate — ever  exhibiting  a 
great  love  of  virtue,  and  respect  for  religion.  The  style  of  j^Eschines, 
the  rival  of  Demosthenes,  was  distinguished  for  its  delicacy,  ease, 
order,  clearness,  and  precision  ;  that  of  Demosthenes  for  its  variety, 
earnestness,  power,  fervor,  rapidity,  and  passion,  all  exemplified  in 
plain  unornamented  language,  and  a  strain  of  close,  business-like 
reasoning.  "  His  style,"  as  Hume  observes,  "  is  rapid  harmony  ad- 
justed to  the  sense  ;  vehement  reasoning,  without  any  appearance  of 
art ;  disdain,  anger,  boldness,  and  freedom,  involved  in  a  continued 
strain  of  argument."  The  true  character  of  the  eloquence  of  De- 
mosthenes is  happily  summed  up  in  the  following  extract : 

30.  "  The  question  has  often  been  raised  as  to  the  secret  of  the 
success  of  Demosthenes.     How  is  it  that  he  attained  to  his  astonish- 
ing preeminence  ?     How  is  it  that,  in  a  faculty  which  is  common  to 
the  whole  species,  that  of  communicating  our  thoughts  and  feelings 
in  language,  the  palm  is  conceded  to  him  alone  by  the  unanimous 
and  willing  consent  of  all  nations  and  ages  ?     And  this  universal 
approbation  will  appear  the  more  extraordinary  to  a  reader  who  for 
the  first  time  peruses  his  unrivalled  orations.     They  do  not  exhibit 
any  of  that  ostentatious  declamation  on  which  loosely  hangs  the 
fame  of  so  many  pretenders  to  eloquence.     There  appears  no  deep 
reflection  to  indicate  a  more  than  ordinary  penetration,  or  any  phi- 
losophical remarks  to  prove  the  extent  of  his  acquaintance  with  the 
great  moral  writers  of  his  country.    He  affects  no  learning,  and  he  dis- 
plays none.     He  aims  at  no  elegance  ;  he  seeks  no  glaring  ornaments ; 
he  rarely  touches  the  heart  with  a  soft  or  melting  appeal,  and  when  he 
does  it  is  only  with  an  effect  in  which  a  third-rate  artist  would  have 
surpassed  him.     He  had  no  wit,  no  humor,  no  vivacity,  in  our  accept- 
ance of  these  terms,  qualities  which  contribute  so  much  to  the  forma- 
tion of  a  modern  orator.     He  wanted  all  these  undeniable  attributes 
of  eloquence,  and  yet  who  rivals  him  ? 

31.  "  The  secret  of  his  power  is  simple  ;  it  lies  essentially  in  this, 
that  his  political  principles  were  interwoven  with  his  very  spirit ; 
they  were  not  assumed  to  serve  an  interested  purpose,  to  be  laid  aside 
when  he  descended  from  the  rostrum,  and  resumed  when  he  sought 
to  accomplish  an  object.     No  ;  they  were  deeply  seated  in  his  heart, 
and  emanated  from  its  profoundest  depth.     The  more  his  country 
was  environed   by  dangers,  the   more   steady  was   his   resolution. 


CHAP  V.]  GLORY  AND  FALL  OF  GREECE.  703 

Nothing  ever  impaired  the  truth  and  integrity  of  his  feelings,  or 
weakened  his  generous  conviction.  It  was  his  undeviating  firmness, 
his  disdain  of  all  compromise,  that  made  him  the  first  of  statesmen 
and  orators ;  in  this  lay  the  substance  of  his  power,  the  primary 
foundation  of  his  superiority  ;  the  rest  was  merely  secondary.  The 
mystery  of  his  mighty  influence,  then,  lay  in  his  HONESTY  ;  and  it  is 
this  that  gave  warmth  and  tone  to  his  feelings,  an  energy  to  his 
language,  and  an  impression  to  his  manner,  before  which  every  im- 
putation of  sincerity  must  have  immediately  vanished. "a 

VII. 

32.  Of  the  historians,  poets,  and  philosophers,  who  adorned  the 
brightest  period  of  Grecian  history,  our  limits  forbid  us  to  speak  in 
detail,  but  among  them  are  names  that  will  ever  be 

HISTORIANS, 

cherished  and  venerated,  while  genius  and  worth  continue    POETS,  AXD 
to  be  held  in  admiration.     Among  historians  may  be     PHILOSO- 
mentioned,  as  most  conspicuous,  the  names  of  Herod' - 
otus,  Thucyd'ides,  Xen'ophon,  and  Polyb'ius;   among  poets  and 
dramatists,  JEs'  chylus,  Soph'  ocles,  and  Eurip'  ides  ;  and  among  phi- 
losophers, Socrates,  Plato,  and  Aristotle,  besides  those  previously  men- 
tioned in  a  former  chapter.     Volumes  would  be  requisite  to  describe 
the  character  and  works  of  these  writers,  and  to  convey  a  just  view 
of  the  indebtedness  of  the  moderns  to  the  lights  which  they  kindled. 

33.  We  should,  however,  omit  one  of   the  marked  features  of 
Athenian  life,  did  we  not  notice  the  drama — not  merely 

as  an  element  in  the  political  character  of  the  Athenians,  DJ[AMA 
but  also  as  a  picture  of  society,  and  an  expositor  of  the 
Athenian  mind  in  the  departments  of  politics,  religion,  and  philoso- 
phy. The  great  development  of  Grecian  dramatic  genius,  never  be- 
fore nor  since  equalled  by  any  people,  also  marks  the  age  of  Pericles, 
and  the  ascendency  of  the  Athenian  democracy.  The  first  who 
rendered  the  tragic  drama  illustrious  was  jEs'  chylus,  who  had  fought 
with  distinguished  valor  in  the  combats  of  Mar'  athon  and  Sal'  amis, 
and  had  afterwards  served  with  the  Athenian  troops  at  Platse'  a.  He 
therefore  flourished  at  the  exact  period  when  the  freedom  of  Greece, 
rescued  from  foreign  enemies,  was  exulting  in  its  first  strength  ;  and 
his  writings  are  characteristic  of  the  boldness  and  vigor  of  the  age. 
Soph'  ocles,  one  of  the  generals  of  the  Athenian  armament  against 
Samos  in  the  year  440  B.  C.,  succeeded  him  ;  and  Eurip' ides,  a  co- 

a.  Sketch  of  Demosthenes  in  Anthon's  Clas.  Diet. 


704  PHILOSOPHY   OF  HISTORY.  [PART  TIL 

temporary  of  Soph'  odes,  was  the  last  of  the  three  great  masters  of 
the  drama — the  three  being  embraced  within  the  period  of  a  single 
century. 

34.  It  is  curious  to  observe  the  transitions  through  which  tragedy 
passed  in  this  short  period,  and  in  the  hands  of  its  three  masters. 
Each  borrows  his  subjects  from  the  legendary  world,  but  differs  from 
his  predecessor  in  the  manner  of  handling  them.     In  jffis'  chylus  the 
sterner  passions  alone  are  appealed  to,  and  in  language  replete  with 
bold  metaphor  and  gigantic  hyperbole :  Venus,  and  her  inspirations, 
are  excluded  :  the  charms  of  love  are  unknown  ;  but  the  gods — vast, 
majestic,  in  shadowy  outline,  and  in  the  awful  sublimity  of  power, 
pass  before  and  awe  the  beholder.     That  deep  reverence  of  the  gods, 
and  love  of  the  heroic,  which  characterized  the  Greeks  at  this  period, 
are  everywhere  conspicuous   in   the   tragedies   of  JEs' chylus.     In 
Soph7  ocles  we  find  a  greater  range  of  emotions — figures  more  dis- 
tinctly seen,  a  more  expanded  dialogue,  simplicity  of  speech  mixed 
with  rhetorical  declamation,  and  the  highest  degree  of  poetic  beauty. 
In  Eurip'  ides,  rhetoric  becomes  still  more  prominent,  the  legendary 
characters  assume  more  the  garb  of  humanity,  the  tender  sentiments 
— love,  pity,  compassion — are  invoked,  the  reason  is  appealed  to, 
and  an  air  of  exquisite  delicacy  and  refinement  embellishes  the  whole. 
Soph' ocles  and  Eurip 'ides  exhibit  greater  familarity,  than  is  found 
in  their  predecessor,  with  the  art  of  rhetoric,  the  debates  of  poli- 
ticians, and  the  contests  of  litigants  before  the  dikasteries, — a  modi- 
fication of  the  tragic  drama  in  strict  accordance  with  the  increasing 
popular  character  of  Athenian  institutions. 

35.  To  estimate  the  influence  which  the  drama  exerted  over  the 
Athenians,  we  must  reflect  that,  in  the  time  of  Pericles,  a  largo 
number  of  tragedies  was  presented  on  the  Athenian  stage  every  year ; 
that  it  was  rare  to  repeat  any  one  a  second  time ;  that  the  theatre 
of  Bacchus,  in  which  they  were  represented,  was  capable  of  accom- 
modating thirty  thousand  persons ;  that,  as  religious  observances, 
they  formed  part  of  the  civil  establishment ;  and  that  admission  to 
them  was,  virtually,  free  to  every  Athenian  citizen.     If  we  conceive 
of  the  entire  population  of  a  large  city  listening  almost  daily  to 
those  immortal  compositions  whose  beauty  first  stamped  tragedy  as 
a  separate  department  of  poetry,  we  shall  be  satisfied  that  so  powerful 
poetic  influences  were  never  brought  to  act  upon  any  other  people  ; 
and  that  the  tastes,  the  sentiments,  and  the  intellectual  standard  of 


CHAP.  V.]  GLORY  AND  FALL  OF   GREECE.  705 

the  Athenians,  must  have  been  sensibly  improved  and  exalted  by 
such  lessons.* 

36.  Comedy,  of  later  growth  than  tragedy,  arose  out  of  the  full 
license  which  was  given,  in  the  festive  procession  in  honor  of  the  god 
Bacchus,  of  scoffing  at  any  one  present.     In  the  time  of  Pericles 
comedy  became  an  important  agent  and  partisan  in  the  political  warfare 
of  Athens.     Cotemporary  men  and  subjects  were  freely  dealt  with  on 
the  stage,  and,  often,  under  their  real  names ;  and  in  one  of  the 
comedies  of  Cratinus,  Cimon,  the  rival  of  Pericles,  is  highly  eulogized, 
while  the  latter  is  bitterly  derided.     With  unmeasured  and  unsparing 
license,  comedy  attacked,  under  the  veil  of  satire,  institutions,  poli- 
ticians, philosophers,  poets,  private  citizens  by  name,  and  even  the 
gods  also ;  and  not  only  did  it  expose  all  that  was  really  ludicrous 
or  contemptible,  but  often,  with  an  excess  of  profligacy,  cast  scorn 
and  derision  on  that  which  was  innocent,. or  even  meritorious.     While 
such  license  was  tolerated,  we  need  not  wonder  at  the  excess  of 
bitter  personality  which  characterizes  Athenian  literature  generally. 

37.  In  this  closing  sketch  of  the  age  of  Grecian  glory  we  again 
advert  to  the  fact  that  it  was  democratic  Athens  that  was  the  light 
and  the  eye  of  Greece,  and  that  nearly  all  the  great  men  whose 
names  we  have  mentioned  in  this  connection,  were  either  Athenian 
born,  or  nurtured  in  her  schools  of  learning.     It  has  been  common 
for  a  class  of  modern  writers  to  deny  to  democratic  institutions  that 
enlightened  public  spirit,  and  fostering  regard  for  individual  worth, 
which  are  requisite  to  call  forth  the  brightest  conceptions  of  genius, 
and  to  attain  the  highest  perfection  of  art.     We  cannot  here  enter 
upon  an  argument  in  favor  of  democratic  influences,  but  we  satisfac- 
torily point  to  democratic  Atliens,  surrounded  by  a  halo  of  greatness, 
and  shining  with  no  borrowed  lustre, — proving,  if  it  prove  no  more, 
that  taste,  and  genius,  and  art,  are  not  incompatible  with  republican 
simplicity. 

VIII. 

38.  Having  thus  considered  the  bright  and  favorable  points  of 
Athenian  character,  our  attention  is  next  called  to  the  dark  shades 
in  the  picture,  by  an  inquiry  into  the  causes  of  the  brief 

tenure  of  existence  which  democratic  Athens  enjoyed;      OF  THE 
for  the  glory  and  renown  with  which  she  has  filled  the    DOWNFALL 
earth  were  the  products  of  a  single  century.b     While 

a.  Grote,  viii.  322. 

b.  In  reality,  less  than  a  century  ;  for,  reckoning  from  the  great  defeat  of  the  Persians  in  the 

45 


706  PHILOSOPHY   OF  HISTORY.  [PART  ILL 

some  have  traced  her  downfall  to  causes  merely  political,  and  to  the 
outward  circumstances  by  which  she  was  surrounded,  others,  enter- 
taining monarchical  principles  of  government,  have  attributed  it  to 
what  they  call  the  disorganizing  tendency  of  democratic  institutions — 
the  consuming  fever  and  exhausting  violence  of  democratic  activity. 
We  shall  best  explain  our  views  on  this  subject  by  first  noticing  some 
of  the  political  errors  of  the  Athenians,  and  some  of  the  defects  in 
their  constitution. 

39.  In  the  time  of  Pericles  the  Athenians  were  at  the  head  of  a 
large  confederacy,  which  had  been  originally  formed  by  the  free  con- 
sent of  all  parties ;  but  the  federal  league  had  been  gradually  con- 
verted into  an  empire,  over  which  Athens  ruled  with  the  authority 
of  a  despot.     Maintaining  that  none  of  the  members  had  a  right  to 
endanger  the  safety  of  the  league  by  withdrawing  from  it,  she  had 
repressed,  by  force,  several  attempts  at  disuriion ;  and,  to  preserve 
her  power,  had  proceeded  to  the  extremity  of  treating  as  subjects  all 
her  allies,  which  were  mostly  small  cities  or  islands.     In  return  for 
the  protection  which  she   afforded  them,   she  demanded   a  heavy 
tribute — took  the  common  treasury,  which  had  been  originally  es- 
tablished at  Delos,  under  her  own  care,  and  denied  any  accountability 
for  its  expenditure,  speciously  alleging  that  the  savings  of  her  prudence, 
or  the  earnings  of  her  valor,  might  be  justly  appropriated  to  her 
own  uses.     It  was  the  treasure  thus  obtained — wrested  from  un- 
willing allies — that  supported  much  of  the  luxury  of  the  Athenians; 
and  it  was  to  the  same  extortions  of  injustice,  that  the  edifices  with 
which  Pericles  adorned  the  metropolis  owed  their  existence. 

40.  The  secret  of  the  decay  of  that  political  ascendency  which 
Athens  had  attained,  is  to  be  found  in  the  unsubstantial  nature  of 
her  power.     Her  political  greatness  arose  mostly  from  artificial  and 
moral  causes,  rather  than  natural  resources,  and  was  based  on  credit, 
which  the  first  calamity  was  ever  liable  to  destroy.     Thus  when  her 
arms  met  with  a  reverse  in  Sicily,  her  injured  allies,  no  longer  in- 
timidated by  her  power,  deserted  her  in  the  hour  of  need ;  and  again, 
the  loss  of  her  navy  at  Aigos-Potamos  occasioned  a  still  greater  de- 

battle  of  Platae'a,  479  B.  C.,  to  the  disastrous  overthrow  of  the  Athenians  before  Syracuse,  413 
B.  C.,  we  have  a  period  of  only  sixty-six  years  ;  and  it  was  during  this  period  that  the  noblest  of 
the  Athenian  edifices  were  built, — that  poetry,  painting,  sculpture,  architecture,  oratory,  history, 
philosophy,  &c.,  attained  their  greatest  eminence  throughout  Greece,  while  Athens  was  the 
centre  of  their  glory.  Within  the  century  following  the  battle  of  Platee'  a,  we  find,  among 
others  liltle  less  distinguished,  the  following  names  of  eminent  Grecians— Herod'  otns,  Thucyd'- 
ides,  Xen'ophon,  Ma'  chylus,  Soph' ocles,  Eurip'ides,  Cimon,  Pericles,  Socrates,  Plato, 
Aristotle,  and  Demosthenes,— a  more  brilliant  galaxy  than  any  other  century  has  witnessed. 


CHAP.  V.]  GLORY  AND  FALL  OF  GREECE.  707 

fection  from  her,  and  a  general  dissolution  of  the  empire  over  which 
she  had  exercised  her  sway.  In  prosperity  there  were  others  to 
second  her  ambition,  and  add  to  her  energies ;  but  in  adversity  she 
was  compelled  to  stand  alone.  "  Dependence  upon  other  resources 
than  the  native  population,"  remarks  a  writer  previously  quoted, 
"  has  been  a  main  cause  of  the  destruction  of  despotisms ;  and 
it  cannot  fail,  sooner  or  later,  to  be  equally  pernicious  to  the  re- 
publics that  trust  to  it.  The  resources  of  taxation  confined  to  free- 
men and  natives  are  almost  incalculable ;  the  resources  of  tribute 
wrung  from  foreigners  and  dependents  are  sternly  limited  and  ter- 
ribly precarious — they  rot  away  the  true  spirit  of  industry  in  the 
people  that  demand  the  impost — they  implant  ineradicable  hatred  in 
the  States  that  concede  it."a  A  wise  political  lesson  whose  truth  is 
enforced  by  the  history  of  all  ages. 

41.  A  most  pernicious  evil  in  the  Athenian  constitution  was  the 
frequent  assumption  of  the  highest  judicial  powers  by  the  public  as- 
sembly of  all  the  citizens.     While  the  jurisdiction  of  the  court  of  the 
Areop'agus  was  mostly  confined  to  charges  of  maiming,  poisoning, 
and  murder, — and  of  the  dikast  juries  to  civil  cases  between  indi- 
viduals,— a  multitude  of  undefined  cases,  affecting  more  particularly 
the  interests  of  the  State,  or  in  which  the  State  was  represented  as 
the  injured  party,  could  be  brought  for  final  adjudication  before  the 
people   themselves,  in  the  public  assembly  of  the  ecclesia.     This 
assembly,  on  the  principle,  doubtless,  that  vox  populi  est  vox  dei, — 
that  "  the  voice  of  the  people  is  the  voice  of  God" — and  that  the 
people  can  do  no  wrong,  taking  upon  itself  the  highest  judicial  func- 
tions in  cases  aflfecting  the  lives  of  the  most  noted  citizens,  exercised 
a  kind  of  chancery  jurisdiction,  in  which  forms  of  law  were  supposed 
to  yield  to  the  plain  demands  of  justice. 

42.  The  prominent  evil  arising  from  the  judicial  character  of  the 
assembly  was  that  the  most  worthy  citizens  were  often  arraigned  be- 
fore an  impatient  and  turbulent  populace, — liable  to  be  swayed  by 
caprice  and  prejudice,  by  party-spirit  and  the  eloquence  of  individ- 
uals,— and  seldom  possessing  the  wisdom,  or  exercising  the  candor, 
due  to  justice.     The  numbers  of  such  a  jury  prevented  all  responsi- 
bility, and  where  corruption  feared  not  detection,  the  great  and  the 
wealthy  could  too  often  purchase  freedom,  or  soften  the  rigors  of  law, 
while  the  chances  were  decidedly  against  the  poor  man,  especially  if 
he  had  to  contend  against  wealthy  and  influential  accusers.     That 

a.  Bulwer's  Athens. 


708  PHILOSOPHY  OF   HISTORY.  [PAST  III 

which  was  designed  as  a  regulator  of  the  workings  of  the  constitution 
thus  became,  eventually,  the  destroyer  of  its  equilibrium ;  and,  by 
the  fickleness  of  its  measures,  the  corruption  to  which  it  was  exposed, 
and  the  frequent  injustice  of  its  decrees,  hastened  the  downfall  of  the 
State.  The  black  ingratitude  with  which  the  Athenians  treated  their 
most  illustrious  citizens — Themistocles,  Aristides,  Oimon,  Socrates, 
and  a  host  of  others — shows  the  exceeding  error  of  their  legislators  in 
converting  a  popular  assembly  into  a  tribunal  for  the  dispensation 
of  justice.* 

43.  But  aside  from  the  political  errors  and  constitutional  defects 
already  mentioned,  there  was  a  still  greater  and  all-pervading  evil, 
which  lay  at  the  root  of  all  others,  and  was  the  mighty  engine  that 
hurried  Athens  onward  to  her  ruin.  We  allude  to  the  want  of  that 
public  and  private  virtue  which  is  based  on  the  religion  of  Christian- 
ity ;  without  which,  democratic  institutions  never  had  and  never  can 
have  any  lasting  security.  The  crude  and  corrupt  religion  of  the 
Grecians,  however  it  might  tend  to  arouse  martial  heroism,  infuse 
poetic  inspiration,  and  foster  artistic  genius,  had  little  tendency,  in 
itself,  to  promote  individual  virtue  ;  for  the  characters  of  the  Grecian 
gods  were  stained  with  the  darkest  crimes ;  and  where  philosophy 

a.  The  unhappy  fate  of  Miltiades,  the  hero  of  Marathon,  has  often  been  cited  in  proof  of  the 
assertion  that  "  republics  are  fickle  and  ungrateful."  Athens  has  indeed  much  to  answer  for 
on  the  score  of  ingratitude ;  but  the  republican  system  is  not  to  be  held  responsible  for  those 
defects  in  the  Athenian  constitution  out  of  which  the  evil  arose ;  and  in  the  case  of  Miltiades, 
which  is  often  referred  to  in  this  connection,  we  think  it  will  be  found  that  the  Athenians  were 
not  greatly  in  the  wrong. 

The  behavior  of  Miltiades  at  Marathon  was  indeed  highly  meritorious,  and  for  it  he  received 
the  plaudits  of  an  admiring  people ;  but,  grown  giddy  with  praise,  he  seems  to  have  lost  his 
patriotism  and  prudence;  and,  availing  himself  of  his  unbounded  popularity,  he  solicits  and 
obtains  of  the  Athenians  the  command  of  an  expedition  whose  destination  was  known  to  him- 
self alone :— assuring  them  of  the  honorableness  of  the  enterprise,  and  promising  to  enrich  the 
public  coffers  with  a  vast  amount  of  booty.  Much  treasure  was  spent,  and  lives  were  lost,  and, 
through  the  seeming  incapacity  or  treachery  of  the  commander,  the  expedition  terminated  in 
disaster  and  disgrace.  A  rapid  and  decisive  change  now  takes  place  in  the  popular  estimation 
of  Miltiades.  His  motives  and  objects  are  inquired  into ;  and  it  is  found  that  private  resent- 
ment against  a  prominent  citizen  of  Paros  was  the  motive  of  the  expedition,  while  the  project 
was  in  itself  unprincipled,  and  dishonorable  to  the  Athenian  people,  as  the  Parians  had  not 
taken  part  with  the  Persians  in  the  war.  The  popular  resentment  against  Miltiades  is  aggra- 
vated by  the  idea  of  undeserved  admiration  and  misplaced  confidence  ;  and  the  recent  favorite 
is  impeached  as  worthy  of  death.  Gratitude  for  previous  services  does  not  exempt  him  from 
punishment,  but  it  is  an  extenuating  circumstance  that  mitigates  the  penalty ;  and  a  fine,  not 
unreasonably  heavy,  is  imposed  upon  him.  The  death  of  Miltiades,  it  must  be  recollected, 
which  occurs  so  opportunely  to  excite  our  sympathy,  arose  not  from  the  trial  nor  the  fine,  but 
from  the  wound  which  he  received,  not  in  battle,  but  in  a  fall,  on  a  night  visit  of  doubtful 
propriety. 

From  all  the  circumstances  we  are  therefore  led  to  conclude  that  the  case  of  Miltiades 
illustrates  neither  the  fickleness  nor  the  ingratitude  of  the  Athenians,  but  rather,  for  once  at 
least,  the  inflexible  sternness  of  Athenian  justice,  tempered  by  mercy. 


CHAP.  V.]  GLORY  AND  FALL  OF  GREECE.  709 

inculcated  the  practice  of  virtue,  it  wai  mostly  from  considerations 
of  worldly  policy — the  creature  of  circumstances.  There  was  no 
principle  of  universal  justice  like  that  of  the  Christian  religion,  on 
which  the  laws  were  based,  society  organized,  and  by  which  individual 
conduct  was  regulated.  This  evil  is  far  greater  in  a  democracy  than 
in  an  oligarchy  or  a  monarchy ;  for  in  the  former  a  corrupt  people, 
being  themselves  the  rulers,  will  produce  a  corrupt  administration  of 
the  wisest  laws, — and  corruption  is  but  another  name  for  weakness 
and  decay ;  while  in  a  monarchy  the  people  may  long  remain  igno- 
rant and  vicious  without  thereby  seriously  affecting  the  principles  or 
policy  of  the  government.  Throughout  all  Grecian  history  we  ob- 
serve, both  among  rulers  and  people,  with  some  noble  exceptions,  a 
disregard  of  the  principles  of  universal  justice — and  the  Athenians 
even  sent  into  banishment  one  of  their  worthiest  citizens,  apparently 
from  envy  that  the  universal  rectitude  of  his  conduct  had  gained  for 
him  the  appellation  of  "  The  Just."  We  find,  then,  an  abundance  of 
causes  to  account  for  the  premature  decay  of  Athenian  greatness, 
without  attributing  it,  as  Mr.  Alison  has  done,  to  "  the  violence  of 
the  fever  which  in  republican  States  exhausts  the  strength  and  wears 
out  the  energies  of  the  people. "a 

a.  See  Blackwootfs  Magazine.    Review  of  Bulwer's  Athens,  July  1837. 


710  PHILOSOPHY  OF   HISTORY. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

THE  FIRST  PERIOD  OF  ROMAN  HISTORY :  FROM  THE  FOUNDING 
OF  ROME  TO  THE  CONQUESTS  OF  GREECE  AND  CARTHAGE. 

ANALYSIS.  1.  AUTHENTICITY  OF  EARLY  ROMAN  HISTORY.  What  criticism  has  shown  in 
relation  thereto.— 2.  Artificial  chronology  of  early  history.  Early  Roman  chronology.— 3. 
Why  the  narrative  of  early  Roman  history  is  not  reliable.  Sources  of  early  Roman  history. — 
4.  Legendary  poems,  &c. 

5.  HISTORY  OF  REGAL  ROME.  Early  inhabitants  of  Italy.  Legend  of  ^Eneas.  The  Latins. 
Alban  Rome.  Common  name  of  the  early  Roman  kings.— 6.  Primary  causes  of  the  rapid 
growth  of  the  Alban  colony.  Character  of  the  population.— 7.  Probable  origin  of  the  Sabine 
legend.  Increase  of  population  by  conquests  and  alliances. — 8.  Rome  evidently  conquered  by 
the  Sabines.  Sabine  institutions  predominant.  Titus  Tatius. — 9.  The  Sabino-Roman  dynasty. 
Improbabilities  respecting  it.  The  supposed  Alban  war. — 10.  Tarquin  and  the  Etruscans. 
Etruscan  civilization. — 11.  The  supposition  that  Tarquin  conquered  Rome.  Causes  of  the 
murder  of  the  first  Tarquin.  Servius,  and  Tarquin  the  Proud.— 12.  Additional  improbabilities 
in  the  commonly-received  history  of  Regal  Rome.  All  that  we  certainly  know  of  this  portion 
of  Roman  ni  story. 

13.  RESULTS  OF  CRITICISM.  The  belief  which  it  still  leaves  to  us :— the  founding  of  the 
city — the  Sabines — the  Albans. — 14.  The  beautiful  episodes  of  Livy — why  worthy  of  our  con- 
sideration.— 15.  The  historians  Niebuhr  and  Ferguson.  Circumstances  which  show  the  early 
greatness  of  Rome  under  the  kings. 

16.  CONSTITUTIONAL  HISTORY  OF  EARLY  ROME.  Importance  of  a  knowledge  of  the  ma- 
terials of  Roman  society.— 17.  The  three  tribes  into  which  the  Romans  were  divided.— 18.  Di- 
vision of  the  tribes  into  curia.  The  gentes  or  houses. — 19.  The  gentes  the  original  citizens,  or 
Patricians.  The  relation  of  clientsMp—ZQ.  Origin  of  the  Plebeians.  In  early  times  not  citi- 
zens. Their  struggles  with  the  Patricians. — 21.  The  Roman  senate.  Its  supposed  origin. — 22. 
The  Comitia  Curiata,  or  general  assembly  of  the  people.— 23.  The  Roman  king :— his  powers 
and  revenues. — 24.  First  division  of  the  Plebeians  into  tribes.— 25.  Farther  efforts  of  Servius  to 
elevate  the  Plebeians.— 26.  New  military  organization  of  the  people.  The  assembly  of  the 
centuries.  The  institutions  of  Servius  not  fully  carried  into  effect. 

27.  PLEBEIAN  AND  PATRICIAN  CONTESTS,  after  the  downfall  of  royalty.  Increasing  power  of 
the  Patricians.— 28.  Plebeian  secession.  Office  of  the  tribunes.— 29.  Relative  situation  of 
Patricians  and  Plebeians  at  the  time  of  the  conquest  of  Greece.  Great  power  ultimately  ac- 
quired by  the  tribunes. — 30.  Complete  development  of  the  constitution.  Subsequent  legisla- 
tive enactments.  Relation  of  the  provinces  to  the  city.  Guarantees  for  the  perpetuity  of  the 
constitution. 

31.  RELIGIOUS  NOTIONS  of  the  Romans. — 32.  The  Roman  ceremonial  law.  The  priesthood. 
Images  of  the  gods.  Growing  indifference  to  the  ceremonies  of  religion. 

33.  MODE  OF  LIVING— SOCIAL  CONDITION,  &c.,  UNDER  THE  KINGS.  Agriculture  and  conc- 
merce.— 34.  Domestic  life.  Evidences  of  the  rudeness  of  the  age — 35.  Money  and  coinage. 
Relative  value  of  copper  and  iron.  Artistic  genius  of  the  Romans. — 36.  Early  language  of 
Rome.  Late  origin  of  Roman  literature.  Poetry  and  History. 

I. 

1.  Almost  down  to  the  beginning  of  the  present  century,  early 
Roman  history,  as  transmitted  by  Livy,  was  received  without  any 
doubt  as  to  its  authenticity;  but  criticism  has  since  shown  both 


CHAP.  VI.]  EARLY  ROMAN  HISTORY.  711 

that  the  chronology  of  the  early  Roman  annals  is  highly  uncertain, 
and  that  many  of  the  glowing  pictures  which  adorn  the 

*    xi  i       -n  °.  T         i  •    i      i  AUTHENTICI- 

pages  ot  the  early  Roman  writers,  and  which  have  been  TY  OF  KARLY 
unhesitatingly  copied  as  authentic  by  modern  historians,      KOMAN 
are  but  fictions  of  a  traditionary  and  poetic  age. 

2.  In  the  Indian,  Egyptian,  and  Babylonian  eras,  we  find  large 
spaces  of  time  divided  according  to  certain  arithmetical  proportions, 
showing  that  they  are  artificial  arrangements  to  which  history  has 
been  arbitrarily  adapted.     The  same  also  occurs  in  early  Roman 
history,  down  to  the  burning  of  the  city  by  the  Gauls.     For  this 
period  three  hundred  and  sixty  years  are  assumed  by  the  earliest 
Roman  historians,  two-thirds  of  which  number,  or  two  hundred  and 
forty  years,  are  allotted  to  the  seven  kings,  and  the  remaining  third, 
or  one  hundred  and  twenty  years,  to  the  commonwealth.     Again,  the 
middle  of  the  reign  of  the  fourth  king,  Ancus  Martius,  the  era 
assigned  for  the  creation  of  the  plebeian  order  by  the  establishment 
of  the  common  law  of  the  plebeians,  and  the  first  plebeian  estate  in 
lands,  falls  in  the  middle  of  the  first  division ;  so  that  each  of  the 
three  divisions  of  early  Roman   history  contains   just  ten   times 
twelve  years ;.  and  no  one  can  doubt  that  this  is  an  arbitrary  chro- 
nology.    Other  instances  of  arithmetical  proportions  being  made  the 
basis  of  historical  divisions  might  be  mentioned.     The  results  of  the 
critical  investigations  of  the  learned  Niebuhr  show  that  the  chronol- 
ogy of  the  Roman  kings,  with  the  exception,  perhaps,  of  the  last,  is 
an  invention  of  later  times,  and  that  even  down  to  the  Gallic  con- 
quest Roman  chronology  is  made  up  from  unreliable  materials. 

3.  Of  the  detailed  narrative  also,  of  early  Roman  history,  criti- 
cism compels  us  to  reject  much  that  was  once  deemed  authentic.     It 
was  the  custom  of  the  Roman  pontiffs,  from  very  early  times,  to 
record  on  whited  tablets  the  principal  events  of  each  year,  such  as 
the  names  of  the  magistrates,  wars,  treaties,  &c. ;  but  they  appear 
never  to  have  entered  into  details ;  and  even  these  pontificial  annals 
were  almost  wholly  lost,  as  Livy  asserts,  in  the  burning  of  Rome  by 
the  Gauls.     A  few  barren  family  genealogies  probably  escaped  the 
general  ruin ;  and  these,  with  the  few  meagre  records  that  had  been 
preserved,  or  that  were  correctly  restored  from  memory,  appear  to 
be  almost  the  only  genuine  sources  of  Roman  history  before  the  Gallic 
conquest,  and  even  these  did  not  extend  back  to  the  times  of  the 
kings.     From  what  source  then,  we  may  ask,  did  Livy  derive  the 
minute  details,  which  he  has  given,  of  events  prior  to  the  burning  of 


712  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [PART  III. 

Rome  ?  Doubtless,  we  answer,  mostly  from  poetic  lays,  which  arose 
from  traditionary  legends,  like  those  of  the  Grecian  heroes  and  demi- 
gods. 

4.  Thus  there  was  a  variety  of  legends,  some  Grecian  and  others 
Roman,  concerning  the  founding  of  Rome  ;  and  in  the  commonly-re- 
ceived Roman  legend  of  Romulus  Niebuhr  has  pointed  out  what 
portions  formed  part  of  an  ancient  heroic  poem,  and  what  were  the 
additions  of  later  times.     So,  also,  nearly  all  of  what  is  called  the 
history  of  the  Roman  kings  has  been  resolved  into  a  prose  narrative 
from  ancient  legendary  poems  that  were  transmitted  from  generation 
to  generatioi),  and  often  rehearsed,  to  the  sound  of  music,  at  the 
banquets  of  the  great.     Of  the  degree  of  credit  that  should  be  at- 
tached to  the  claims  of  such  legends  to  historical  authenticity  we 
need  not  speak.     They  may  indeed  rest,  for  the  most  part,  on  a  his- 
torical basis,  but  where  the  reality  ends,   and  fiction  begins,  will 
probably  never  be  known. 

II. 

5.  All  we  know  of  the  early  inhabitants  of  central  and  western 
Italy,  who  were  subsequently  gathered  into  the  community  of  Regal 

Rome,  confirms  the  belief  that  among  them  was  a  stock 
OF  REGAL  of  Pelasgic  origin,  nearly  akin  to  the  Trojans  ;  and  it  is 
ROME.  no^  jmprobable  that  early  Pelasgic  migrations  from  the 
coast  of  Troy  to  Sicily  and  Italy  generated  the  poetical  legend  of 
^Eneas  fleeing  from  the  destruction  of  Ilium,  and  bearing  his  house- 
hold gods  and  religious  worship  to  the  "  fair  Ausonian  shore."  The 
Latins — inhabitants  of  Latiurn — may  have  been,  in  part,  descendants 
of  this  Pelasgic  race.  According  to  the  accounts  which  the  later 
Romans  believed,  a  colony  from  the  Latin  town  of  Alba  established 
itself  on  the  Palatine,  one  of  the  seven  hills  of  Rome.  The  leaders 
of  the  supposed  colony  were  called  Remus  and^jRomus  or  Romulus, — 
names  evidently  derived  from  that  of  Rome  itself,  and,  probably, 
like  the  Egyptian  name  Pharaoh,  simply  a  gathering,  into  one  appel- 
lation, of  the  kings  or  captains  who,  for  an  indefinite  period,  exer- 
cised government  there.8- 

6.  The  rapid  growth  of  the  Alban  colony,  in  which  all  writers 
agree,  may  be  attributed,  primarily,  to  the  adoption  of  the  Greek 
custom  of  consecrating  a  spot  within  the  walls  as  an  asylum  to  fugi- 
tives from  the  surrounding  people.     A  knowledge  of  this  policy 

a.  Newman's  Regal  Rome,  p.  40. 


CHAP.  VI]  EARLY   ROMAN  HISTORY.  713 

illustrates  the  whole  history  of  Regal  Rome.  During  the  wars  and 
commotions  incident  to  an  early  stage  of  society,  great  numbers  of 
refugees  sought  protection  and  a  home  within  the  walls  of  this  bandit 
tribe ;  for  Alban  Rome  was  evidently  a  robber  city ;  one  which, 
like  the  petty  cities  of  early  Greece,  practiced  piracy  to  wards  foreign 
cities,  and  gloried  in  the  successful  daring  of  its  warriors ; — a  kind 
of  political  morality  that  has  been  propagated  to  a  late  age,  but  de- 
veloped on  so  broad  a  scale  that  its  true  character  is  often  concealed 
under  false  names  of  national  glory. 

7.  The  mass  of  those  who  nocked  to  Rome  must  have  been  males ; 
and  it  is  not  unlikely  that  they  resorted  to  violent  means  for  carry- 
ing off  young  women  from  the  neighboring  tribes.     This — not  a  single 
act,  perpetrated  at  the  festival  of  the  Consualia,  but  a  custom  per- 
severed in  for  a  series  of  years,  and  probably  under  successive  kings — 
might  well  be  resented  by  the  injured  parties ;  and  nothing  more 
natural  than  that  the  traditions  of  this  stormy  period  of  Alban  Rome 
should  grow  into  the  well-told  Sabine  legend.     As  a  community  that 
looked  to  warlike  achievements  for  prosperity  and  power  would  seek 
to  increase  its  population  by  every  available  means,  not  only  were 
the  conquered  inhabitants  of  neighboring  towns  transferred  in  mass 
to  Rome,  where  they  received  only  the  partial  rights  of  citizenship, 
but  foreigners  were  admitted  by  treaty  stipulations — their  chieftains 
being  incorporated  into  the  patrician  aristocracy,  and  their  followers 
into  the  ranks  of  the  plebeians. 

8.  The  Sabines,  also  a  warlike  people,  of  simple  tastes  and  rustic 
manners,  by  whatever  cause  stimulated,  brought  their  arms  against 
Alban  Rome ;  and  although  no  details  of  the  war  can  be  received  as 
historical,  it  is  evident  that  Rome,  virtually  conquered  by  them,  re- 
ceived an  entirely  new  character,  and  that  Sabine  institutions — the 
senate,  with  its  forms  and  regulations — the  division  of  the  patrician 
Quirites  into  thirty  curiae,  and  of  the  whole  population  into  tribes — 
the  system  of  clientage — and  the  precepts  and  ceremonies  of  re- 
ligion— then  became  the  groundwork  of  the  State.     The  pretended 
joint  reign  of  Titus  Tatius  with  the  Latin  king  seems  to  be  a  legend 
adapted  to  veil  the  Sabine  conquest. 

9.  The  continuous  story  of  the  reigns  of  Numa  Pompilius,  Tullus 
Hostilius,  and  Aucus  Martius — three  elective  monarchs  forming  the 
Sabino-Roman  dynasty,  and  filling  an  entire  century  of  Regal  Rome 
with  continued  military  triumphs — is  highly  improbable  ;  exciting  a 
suspicion  that  the  names  of  those  kings  only  are  preserved  who  were 


714  PHILOSOPHY   OF  HISTORY.  [PAKT  IIL 

remembered  with  pride  by  the  later  Romans.  The  known  fact  that 
numerous  Albans  became  citizens  and  even  senators  at  Rome,  in- 
clines us  to  distrust  Livy's  otherwise  improbable  story  of  the  Alban 
war,  and  to  believe  that,  either  on  the  breaking  up  of  Alban  society 
by  internal  seditions,  a  powerful  Alban  party  coalesced  with  the  Ro- 
mans, or  that  the  Alban  war  is  wholly  a  fiction,  as  regarded  by 
Niebuhr,  who  conjectures  that  the  ancient  Latins  were  the  enemy 
that  destroyed  Alba  and  possessed  her  territory. 

10.  The  name  of  Tarquin  the  Elder  as  fifth  king  of  Rome,  a  sup- 
posed prince  of  Etruscan  origin,  but  of  remote  Corinthian  parentage, 
brings  us  to  an  acquaintance  with  the  Etruscans,  then  a  people  evi- 
dently in  the  declining  stage  of  their  civilization.     Before  Rome  ex- 
isted as  a  city,  the  Etruscan  dominion,  coeval  with  the  era  of  Phoe- 
nicia and  of  Egypt,  appears  to  have  embraced  all  central  Italy.    The 
remains  of  Etruscan  civilization  point  to  an  Eastern  origin.     The 
Etruscan  alpbabet  was  a  G-reek  modification  of  the  Phoenician  ;  and 
Herodotus  assures  us  that  the  Lydians  believed  the  Etruscans  to  be 
their  kinsmen.     But  whatever  may  have  been  the  origin  of  the 
Etruscans,  and  their  relations  with  foreign  States,  we  can  have  no 
doubt  of  their  high  cultivation.     "  The  internal  history  of  Etruria," 
says  a  modern  writer ,a  "  is  written  on  the  mighty  walls  of  her  cities, 
and  on  other  architectural  monuments ;  on  her  roads,  her  sewers,  her 
tunnels ;  but,  above  all,  in  her  sepulchres.     It  is  to  be  read  on 
graven  rocks,  and  on  the  painted  walls  of  tombs.     But  its  chief 
chronicles  are  inscribed  on  sarcophagi  and  cinerary  urns,  on  vases 
and  goblets,  on  mirrors  and  other  articles  of  bronze,  and  a  thousand 
et  cetera  of  personal  adornment,  and  of  domestic  utensils  and  weapons 
of  war — all  found  within  the  tombs  of  a  people  long  passed  away." 
Although  the  Etruscan  alphabet  has  been  perfectly  deciphered,  the 
language  is  wholly  unintelligible  to  us. 

11.  The  advance  of  the   Etruscan   Tarquin,  &  foreigner,  to  the 
throne,  and  the  great  increase  of  wealth  and  power  observable  in  his 
reign,  have  given  rise  to  the  suspicion  that  Tarquin  was,  strictly,  a 
conqueror  of  Rome — a  circumstance  which  Roman  vanity  would  have 
spared  no  pains  to  conceal ;  but  this  theory  would  be  a  deviation 
from  the  outline  which  the  Romans  believed ;  and  there  seems  no 
real  necessity  for  adopting  it.     The  supposed  murder  of  the  first 
Tarquin,  who  Jiad  been  the  patron  of  the  lower  classes,  is  with  much 
plausibility  referred  to  a  conspiracy  of  the  patrician  nobility  to  re- 

a.  Dennis.    Etruria,  vol.  i.  p.  23. 


CHAP.  VI.]  EARLY   ROMAN  HISTORY.  715 

cover  their  lost  supremacy ;  but  the  accession  of  Servius  defeated 
their  plans.  With  the  latter,  constitutional  monarchy  fell.  Tarquin 
the  Proud,  an  energetic  and  politic  ruler,  appeared  to  be  firmly  seat- 
ed on  the  throne ;  but  he  had  not  the  affections  of  the  people,  and  a 
private  crime  of  one  of  his  sons  easily  caused  his  downfall. 

12.  The  history  of  liegal  Rome  gives  us  only  seven  kings  (three 
of  whom  perished  by  a  violent  death,  and  the  last  of  whom  was  ex- 
pelled) for  a  period  of  two  hundred  and  forty  years ;  or  an  average 
of  about  thirty-five  years  to  a  reign ;  whereas  fifteen  years,  or  less, 
to  a  reign,  and  a  list  of  at  least  sixteen  kings,  would  be  a  more 
plausible  statement.      Moreover,   the   great   changes   which   Rome 
passed  through,  from  the  time  of  the  Sabine  conquest  to  that  of  the 
first  Tarquin,  embracing  only  three  reigns — a  change  from  the  state 
of  a  rude  robber  tribe  to. one  of  so  great  wealth  and  advancement  in 
the  arts  as  to  lead  to  the  founding  of  the  temple  of  Jupiter  on  the 
capitol,  and  the  construction  of  the  famous  subterranean  drains — are 
alone  sufficient  to  divest  the  commonly-received  chronology  of  this 
period  of  all  claims  to  authenticity.     Of  the  public  events  themselves, 
it  has  been  stated  by  a  recent  writer,  that  all  we  certainly  know 
seems  to  be  comprehended  in  two  sentences  :  "first,  that  the  Sabine 
and  Roman  nobility  became  effectually  blended  into  one  State  and 
one  race,  with  one  Sabine  religion ;  and,  secondly,  that  Rome  went 
on  prospering,  and  acquiring  masses  of  Latin  subjects  and  citizens."8- 

III. 

N  :'i  !    •  l  fc<>r?l  -rT't'to     'ft'        '     >'V    (' -M'I{W  !*••»'  »•  ';*•'{'  •  ^Li  '<*rfo*»-?N."  U'f 

13.  But  notwithstanding  these    strictures,  which  just   criticism 
compels  us  to  adopt,  and  although  any  date  that  might  be  assigned 

for  the  founding  of  Rome  itself  would  be  an  arbitrary  as- 
^iTicTsjT  sumption,  it  does  not  alter  the  fact  that  Rome  had  a  be- 
ginning that  was  once  known,  and  that  the  Palatine  hill, 
where  Romulus  is  fabled  to  have  seen  the  omen  of  the  twelve 
vultures,  was  the  site  of  the  original  city,  as  all  traditions,  and  the 
earliest  monuments,  agree.  Although  the  story  of  the  Sabine  women 
may  be  a  fiction,  it  must  still  be  true  that  the  Sabines  became,  at  one 
time,  an  element  in  the  population  of  Rome ;  and  although  we  can- 
not assert  that  we  have  good  evidence  that  the  Horatii  saved  their 
country,  nor  that  it  is  certain,  with  respect  to  them  and  the  Curiatii, 
which  belonged  to  Rome  and  which  to  Alba,  yet  we  still  believe  that 

a.  Newman's  Regal  Rome,  p.  180. 


716  PHILOSOPHY  OF   HISTORY.  [PART  III. 

the  inhabitants  of  the  latter  city  were  in  some  way  incorporated 
with  those  of  its  more  powerful  rival. 

14.  The  valor  of  Horatius  Codes,  and  the  fortitude  of  Mu'tius 
Scsev'ola — the  exquisite  story  of  Lucretia — the  heart-stirring  legend 
of  Corioli — the  virtue  of  Cincinnatus — and  the  deliverance  of  Rome 
by  Camil'  lus,  may  all  be  pure  inventions,  introduced  to  adorn  the 
meagre  details  of  history ;  yet  these  and  similar  beautiful  episodes 
of  Livy  form  the  most  attractive  and  captivating  parts  of  early  Ro- 
man history,  and,  as  such,  will  continue  to  be  read  and  admired,  not- 
withstanding the  distrust  that  criticism  would  throw  upon  them.    It 
is  sufficient  that  they  were  believed  by  the  Romans  themselves,  and 
that  the  examples  of  patriotic  devotion,  individual  heroism,  and  ex- 
alted virtue,  portrayed  in  them,  helped  to  form  the  national  charac- 
ter, to  make  them  subjects  worthy  of  our  consideration,  and  to  entitle 
them  to  a  notice  in  every  modern  compend  of  Roman  history. 

15.  But  although  Niebuhr  and  his  cotemporaries  have  overthrown 
much  of  the  long- accredited  early  history  of  Rome,  they  have  built 
up  more  than  they  have  destroyed,  by  establishing  on  a  firm  basis 
many  things  which  the  scepticism  of  others  had  rejected.     Thus, 
while  Ferguson,  professing  that  he  could  find  no  firm  historic  ground 
until  events  began  to  be  noted  by  cotemporary  annalists,  about  the 
time  of  the  second  Punic  war,  began  the  details  of  his  Roman  his- 
tory at  that  period,  Niebuhr  has  clearly  shown  that  even  in  the 
annals  of  the  kings  all  is  not  fiction,  although  the  chronology  is  un- 
certain.    The  great  subterranean  drains,  or  sewers,  of  Rome,  universal- 
ly attributed  to  the  Tarquins,  which,  after  a  lapse  of  two  thousand  five 
hundred  years,  remain  to  this  day  without  a  stone  displaced,  still  per- 
forming their  destined  service,  plainly  attest  the  greatness  of  Rome  un- 
der the  kings,  for  they  cannot  be  referred  to  a  later  age.     The  treaty 
with  Carthage  also,  in  the  first  year  of  the  republic,  which  Polybius 
translated  from  the  original  brazen  tablets  still  existing  in  the  capitol 
in  his  time,  and  from  a  language  even  then  nearly  obsolete,  but  which 
tablets  Livy  overlooked  or  disregarded,  further  divulges  the  secret 
of  the  early  greatness  of  Rome  under  the  kings,  and  of  her  subse- 
quent fall  in  the  early  period  of  the  commonwealth ; — a  secret  which 
the  later  Romans  were  anxious  to  keep  concealed,  as  if  it  had  been 
a  blot  on  the  honor  of  their  republican  ancestors. 

IV. 

16.  A  clear  understanding  of  the  nature  of  the  Roman  govern- 


CHAP.  YI]  EARLY   ROMAN  HISTORY.  717 

merit,  and  of  the  causes  of  the  various  changes  through  which  it 
passed,  cannot  be  obtained  without  a  knowledge  of  the     OONSTITU- 
materials  of  early  Roman  society,  as  exhibited  in  the  TIONAL  HIS- 
social  and  political  divisions,  classes,  or  orders,  of  the       EARLY 
people.     The  origin,  character,  and  mutual  relations,  of      ROME. 
these  several  classes,  which  lie  at  the  basis  of  the  political  history  of 
Rome,  therefore  demand  of  us,  in  this  place,  at  least  a  brief  expla- 
nation.    The  character  of  the  constitutional  history  of  the  early  Ro- 
mans is  better  known  than  the  times  and  circumstances  of  its  origin. 

17.  Romulus,  who  was  regarded  by  the  Romans  as  the  author  of 
the  groundwork  of  their  political  constitution,  is  said  to  have  divided 
the  people  into  three  tribes,  called  the  Ramnenses,  Titienses,  and 
Luceres,  each  of  which  had,  in  many  particulars,  a  distinct  political 
and  religious  organization  of  its  own.     The  Ramnenses,  or  people  of 
Romulus,  were  probably  the  founders  of  Rome ;  and  the  Titienses 
were  doubtless  the  Sabines,  who,  under  their  king  Titus   Tatius, 
united  with  the  Romans.     The  origin  of  the  tribo  of  Luceres  is  not 
so  clear,  but  it  is  generally  believed  that  it  was  a  body  of  Etruscans 
who  were  early  admitted  into  the  confederacy,  perhaps  in  the  time 
of  the  first  Tarquin ;  as  a  number  of  institutions  and  religious  rites 
of  the  Romans  were  evidently  of  Etruscan  origin.     Among  many 
ancient  nations  the  practice  of  dividing  a  people  into  several  tribes, 
according  to  their  origin,  was  common ;  and  the  same  custom  may 
be  traced  among  all  the  great  nations  of  the  North  American  Aborig- 
ines.4 ,  ;  ,fi 

18.  Besides  this  division  of  the  early  Romans  into  three  tribes, 
each  tribe  was  divided,  for  political  purposes,  into  ten  curies  or 
classes,  thirty  in  all,  and  each  curia  had  its  separate  priest,  religious 
rites,  civil  duties,  and  place  of  assembly.     The  number  of  the  Roman 
curiae  ever  remained  the  same,  while  at  later  periods  that  of  the 
tribes  was  greatly  increased.     Each   curia  also  contained  a  num- 
ber of  gentes,  or  houses,  which  may,  not  inappropriately,  be  com- 
pared to  the  clans  of  many  ruder  nations.     It  is  thought  by  Niebuhr 
that  there  were  ten  of  these  clans  in  each  curia,  and  therefore  three 
hundred  in  the  whole  Roman  State.     Originally  each  of  these  houses 
or  clans  was  probably  made  up  of  families  united  by  ties  of  consan- 

a.  The  Huron,  the  Iroquois,  and  the  Delaware  tribes,  were  each  divided  into  three  clans ;  the 
Sioux  into  two ;  the  Shawneea  into  four ;  and  the  Chippewas  into  a  larger  number.  An  im- 
portant regulation  of  these  divisions  was  that  no  man  could  marry  in  his  own  c/aw,  and  that 
every  child  belonged  to  the  clan  of  its  mother ;— the  undoubted  object  of  which  was  to  check 
a  natural  tendency  towards  a  subdivision  of  the  nation  into  independent  communities. 


718  PHILOSOPHY   OF  HISTORY.  [PART  IIL 

guinity,  but  in  process  of  time  artificial  bonds  appear  to  have  suc- 
ceeded to  those  of  family  relationship,  and  families  of  strangers  be- 
came united,  under  a  common  name,  in  the  same  clan  or  brother- 
hood :  thus  we  find  that  the  Cornelian  gens,  or  clan,  contained  the 
Scipios  and  the  Syllas. 

19.  These  gentes,  families,  or  clans,  whatever  may  have  been  their 
number,  which  made  up  the  thirty  curise  or  classes,  were  the  original 
citizens  of  Rome,  that  is,  the  patricians,  in  whom  all  political  rights 
were  originally  vested.     But  to  the  families  which  composed  each 
clan  there  was  attached,  from  the  earliest  period  of  Roman  history, 
a  class  of  dependents  called  clients,  who  are  supposed  to  have  been 
the  original  inhabitants  of  the  country,  reduced  by  the  Romans  to  a 
kind  of  feudatory  subjection,  somewhat  like  the  vassalage  of  the 
Saxon  serfs  under  their  Norman  conquerors,  but  still  retaining  some 
rights  of  citizenship,  as  we  find  they  had  votes  in  the  comitia  of  the 
centuries,  even  before  the  decemvirate.     The  person  to  whom  a  client 
was  attached  was  denominated  the  patron  of  the  latter,  and  the  re- 
lation existing  between  them,  and  which  descended  from  father  to 
son,  was  deemed  one  of  peculiar  sanctity,  involving  hereditary  rights 
and  duties  of  a  highly  important  character.     Paternal  instruction 
and  advice,  and  protection,  both  in  public  and  private  affairs,  were 
sacred  duties  of  a  patron  to  his  clients ;  and  the  latter,  in  return, 
were  bound  to  be  dutiful  and  obedient  to  their  patrons, — to  promote 
their  honor,  to  help  defray  their  taxes,  to  accompany  them  in  war, 
and  to  pay  their  ransom  if  they  should  fall  into  the  hands  of  the 
enemy.     The  relation  of  clientship  was  wholly  of  a  private  nature, 
and  was  regulated  by  the  ecclesiastical,  and  not  by  the  civil  law.    The 
clients  were  subject  to  their  patrons,  and  not  to  the  State,  and  they 
can  scarcely  be  said  to  have  formed  any  part  of  the  body  politic. 
Slaves  were  a  class  differing  widely  from  the  clients,  embracing  such 
as  had  been  reduced  to  servitude  by  being  taken  in  war  with  arms  in 
their  hands,  or  who  had  been  purchased  from  foreign  countries. 

20.  It  remains  to  give  an  account  of  the  origin  and  character  of 
the  plebeians — the  commonalty  of  Rome.     This  was  a  population 
which  grew  up  after  the  first  establishment  of  the  government,  and 
the  division  into  tribes,  curiaB,  and  gentes.     Occasionally  the  bondage 
of  slaves  expired,  or  they  were  emancipated,  with  their  owner's  con- 
sent, or  by  extinction  of  his  family,  and  then  they  remained  subject  to 
the  laws  as  freemen,  but  possessed  no  political  privileges.     Such  was 
the  situation  of  strangers  also,  who  came  to  reside  in  the  land  ;  and 


CHAP.  VI]  EARLY   ROMAN  HISTORY.  719 

also  of  the  inhabitants  of  neighboring  conquered  districts,  who  be- 
came subject  to  the  Roman  laws  without  obtaining  the  franchises  of 
Roman  citizens.  The  freemen  thus  incorporated  with  the  State  con- 
stituted the  Roman  commonalty.  This  inferior  population  embraced 
all  classes,  high  and  low,  rich  and  poor,  in  the  conquered  districts, 
and  beyond  the  limits  of  the  city  of  Rome — had  their  own  municipal 
regulations,  and,  as  freemen,  fought  in  the  armies  of  what  was  now 
their  common  country.  But  in  early  times  they  could  not  vote,  nor 
exercise  any  political  rights  whatever,  nor  take  any  part  in  the  gov- 
ernment, for  they  belonged  to  no  patrician  gens  or  family,  nor  could 
they  intermarry  with  one, — they  belonged  to  no  curia  nor  tribe,  and 
thus  forming  no  part  of  the  body  politic,  could  not  be  deemed 
citizens.51  It  was  the  struggle  of  this  body,  first  for  protection,  and 
the  rights  of  citizenship,  and  next  for  political  power  in  the  admin- 
istration of  the  government,  that  so  often  shook  Rome  to  its  founda- 
tions, but  which  still  preserved  the  republic,  during  the  long  period 
of  the  commonwealth,  against  the  ascendency  of  a  hateful  oligarchy. 
Such  were  the  several  classes  which  formed  the  early  population  of 
Rome.  The  distinctions  between  them  are  highly  important  to  a 
right  view  of  the  constitution, — of  the  successive  changes,  and  of  the 
long-continued  struggle  between  the  Patrician  and  Plebeian  orders. 

21.  At  the  time  of  the  supposed  organization  of  the  Roman  gov- 
ernment under  Romulus,  the  whole  Roman  people  appear  to  have 
been  included  in  the  tribe  of  the  Rainnenses,  from  whose  ten  curiae 
or  classes  a  senate  of  one  hundred  members  was  chosen,  which  was 
the  supreme  legislative  council  of  the  nation.  But  when  the  Sabines 
united  with  the  Romans,  forming  the  second  tribe,  called  the  Titienses, 
the  senate  was  increased  to  two  hundred,  and,  not  long  after  the 
Luceres  had  been  added,  the  senatorial  body  was  enlarged  to  three 
hundred,  at  which  number  it  remained  unaltered  for  many  centuries. 
The  Luceres,  who  were  called  the  Lesser  Families  of  the  State,  in 
distinction  from  those  of  the  other  two  tribes,  who  were  called  the 
Greater  Families,  were  long  held  in  some  degree  of  subserviency  to 
their  elder  brethren.  The  Roman  senate,  whose  number,  it  is  sup- 
posed, originally  corresponded  with  the  number  of  gentes  or  fami- 
lies in  the  thirty  curiae,  was  not  an  arbitrary  institution  of  the  first 

a.  By  most  writers  the  clients  have  been  confounded  with  the  plebeians.  (See  works  on 
Roman  Antiquities,  &c.;  Niebuhr  says  that  even  Dionysius  "was  led  aatray  by  the  delusion 
that  the  clients  «nd  plebeians  were  the  same  body."  (See  Niebuhr,  i.  280 ;  also  Arnold's 
Rome,  i.  32.)  Nevertheless,  Newman,  (Regal  Rome,  p.  8J,)  says  a  large  part  of  the  plebeians 
'*  were  related,  as  clients,  to  particular  patrician  families." 


720  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [PART  lit 

kings,  for  a  similar  council  was  found  in  all  the  independent  cities 
of  civilized  nations  on  the  coasts  of  the  Mediterranean.  It  is  more 
probable  that  the  heads  of  the  families,  or  clans,  which  united  to  form 
the  early  Roman  State,  chose  one  from  their  number  to  preside  over 
their  council,  or  to  execute  its  decrees,  and  that  the  king  was  the 
creature  of  this  senate  of  elders.  The  senate  was  a  deliberative  and 
advisory  assembly,  convened  by  the  king,  who  brought  before  it  the 
subjects  for  discussion,  and  who  might  elect  into  its  body  whom- 
soever he  pleased,  although  it  was  required  that  an  equal  number  of 
senators  should  be  taken  from  each  tribe. 

22.  The  general  assembly  of  the  thirty  curias,  (comitia  curiata,) 
called  in  early  times  the  assembly  of  the  people,  although  it  did  not 
embrace  the  plebeians,  was  also  an  important  branch  of  the  govern- 
ment, in  some  respects  superior  even  to  the  senate.    In  its  organization 
the  aristocratic  principle  prevailed.     The  votes  in  each  curia  appear 
to  have  been  taken  by  families,  and  not  by  individuals,*  and  when 
the  opinion  of  each  curia  had  been  ascertained  by  the  majority  of 
votes  in  it,  its  individual  vote  was  given  in  the  general  assembly  of 
all  the  curias.     It  was  the  general  assembly  of  the  curias  that  elected 
the  king,  and  although,  beyond  this,  the  assembly  could  not  originate 
any  measure  whatever,  yet  in  the  acceptance  or  rejection  of  laws  its 
decision  was  final. 

23.  The  government  of  early  Rome  was  strictly  a  limited  and 
elective  monarchy,  but  the  power  of  the  king  was  as  varied  and  ill- 
defined  as  in  the  feudal  monarchies  of  the  middle  ages.     While  the 
king  was  the  highest  magistrate,  the  absolute  commander  in  war,  the 
chief  judge,  and  high  priest,  of  the  nation,  he  shared  the  govern- 
ment with  the  senate,  and  the  general  assembly  of  the  curias ;  over 
the  plebeians  or  commons  only,  who  were  not  at  this  early  period 
deemed  citizens,  his  power  was  absolute ;  but  every  citizen,  that  is, 
every  person  belonging  to  a  patrician  family,  might  appeal  from  the 
king,  or  his  judges,  to  the  sentence  of  his  peers.     The  revenues  of 
the  king  were  derived  from  his  share  of  the  public  land,  and  from 
his  portion  of  the  booty  taken  in  war. 

24.  The  early  Romans  were  a  military  community,  and  as  their 
territory  became  enlarged  by  the  conquest  of  the  surrounding  people, 
the  proportionate  numbers  of  the  plebeian  class  increased,  for  con- 
quest did  not  add  to  the  citizens  of  the  State.     The  first  successful 
attempt  to  invest  the  plebeian  part  of  the  population  with  any  share 

a.  Niebuhr,  i.  169-170.    Contra,  Schmitz  Rome,  p.  62. 


CHAP.  VI.]  EARLY  ROMAN  HISTORY.  721 

in  political  rights,  was  attributed  by  the  Romans  themselves  to  their 
sixth  king,  Servius  Tullius;  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
changes  in  the  constitution  attributed  to  him,  rest  on  a  historical 
basis,  although  it  may  not  be  so  certain  that  Servius  was  the  author 
of  them.  It  ia  related  that  Servius,  although  acknowledged  king  by 
the  seriate,  was  unwelcome  to  the  assembly  of  the  curiae,  and  that  in 
order  to  maintain  his  power  he  sought  to  create  a  new  order  of  citi- 
zens out  of  the  large  mass  of  inhabitants  of  Rome  who  as  yet  had 
no  political  existence,  although  they  were  freemen,  and,  in  many  in- 
stances, wealthy,  and  of  noble  origin.  Servius  first  divided  the 
plebeians,  or  commons,  into  thirty  tribes,  classing  them  in  local  di- 
visions, and  allowing  them  assemblies,  (comitia  tributa,)  and  officers, 
for  the  settlement  of  their  own  affairs,  similar  to  those  of  the  curiae 

25.  Still  the  curise,  regarding  themselves  as  forming,  exclusively, 
the  Roman,  people,  were  not  willing  to  concede  any  of  the  higher 
political  rights  to  the  new  order  ;  but  the  numbers  of  the  latter  en- 
abled Servius  to  attain  the  end  sought  by  other  means,  and  to  give 
to  the  plebeians  a  decided  preponderance  in  the  general  military 
assembly  of  the  nation,  by  new  divisions  which  he  made,  and  by 
which  he  rendered  the  military  services  of  the  commons  more  import- 
ant than  those  of  the  patricians.     In  the  relation  of  soldiers,  ar- 
rayed in  the  same  army,  and  fighting  under  the  same  standard,  both 
classes  could  feel  that  they  belonged  to  one  common  country ;  and 
the  dangers  of  war  would  be  likely  to  soften,  at  least,  those  preju- 
dices which  had  raised  so  strong  a  barrier  between  them.a 

26.  In  the  new  military  organization  of  the  people,  Servius  divided 
the  whole  population  into  one  hundred  and  ninety-three  centuries, 
the  first  eighteen  of  which,  called  equestrian  centuries,  were  to  furnish 
the  cavalry  force  in  war,  and  the  remainder  the  infantry,  and  in  the 
great  assembly  of  the  centuries,  (comitia  centuriata,)  each  division 
had  one  vote.     Here  patricians  and  plebeians  met   on  a  footing 
of  equality,  being  embraced  in  the  same  century  when  their  property 
qualifications  were  equal.     To  the  assembly  of  the  centuries  Servius 
transferred,  from  that  of  the  curiae,  the  election  of  the  higher  magis- 
trates, the  decision  upon  peace  and  war,  and  upon  legislative  meas- 
ures which  originated  in  the  senate,  while  to  the  assembly  of  the 

a.  "  For  he  to-day  who  sheds  his  blood  with  me 
Shall  be  my  brother :  be  he  ne'er  so  vile, 
rhis  day  shall  better  his  condition." 

SHAKSPEARK.     Henry  V. 

46 


722  PHILOSOPHY   OF  HISTORY.  [PART  IIL 

curise  was  given  the  power  of  sanctioning  or  rejecting  the  measures 
which  had  been  passed  by  the  centuries.  But  the  institutions  attrib- 
uted to  Servius  were  never  firmly  established,  owing  to  the  tyranny 
of  his  successor  ;  yet  they  contained  the  germs  of  the  future  equality 
between  the  patricians  and  plebeians,  and  were  long  after  referred  to 
by  the  latter  as  an  exposition  of  their  manifest  rights. 

V. 

27.  Immediately  after  the  downfall  of  royalty,  the  commons,  court- 
ed by  those  patrician  families  that  had  united  against  Tarquin,  shared 

in  the  advantages  of  the  revolution,  and  regained  some 
AND        °f  the  rights  of  which  the  last  king  had  deprived  them ; 
PATRICIAN    kut  within  a  few  years  they  were  reduced  to  such  pov- 
erty, and  general  distress,  by  the  disasters  of  war,  and 
the  oppressions  of  the  patricians,  that  they  were  almost  ready  to 
forego  the  exercise  of  all  political  rights,  if  they  could  merely  obtain 
protection  from  personal  injuries.     Their  general  poverty  deprived 
them  of  their  former  power  in  the  assembly  of  the  centuries ;  the 
curise  acquired  the  supreme  control ;  and  the  government  gradually 
centered  more  and  more  in  the  hands  of  the  patricians,  and  ere  long 
became,  instead  of  a  free  commonwealth,  an  exclusive  and  tyrannical 
aristocracy. 

28.  It  was  in  this  situation  of  affairs,  fifteen  years  after  the  ex- 
pulsion of  the  Tarquins,  that  the  commons,  driven  to   despair  by 
their  sufferings,  and  resolving  to  endure  their  degraded  state  no 
longer,  sought  relief  by  withdrawing  from  Rome,  with  the  intention 
of  forming  a  new  city  of  their  own.     But  the  patricians,  like  the 
Egyptians  in  a  similar  case,  were  unwilling  to  let  the  people  go,  and, 
by  complying  with  their  very  limited  demands,  induced  them  to  re- 
turn, and  thus  prevented  the  dissolution  of  the  Roman  nation.     As 
there  were  two  chief  officers  of  the  patricians,  called  consuls,  so  the 
plebeians  were  henceforth  to  be  allowed  two  officers,  soon  after  in- 
creased to  five,  called  tribunes,  who  were  to  watch  over  the  interests 
of  the  commonalty,  with  power  to  protect  its  members,  both  indi- 
vidually and  collectively,  against  every  aggression  upon  their  rights. 
Through  these  organs  the  people  could  make  themselves  heard  and 
respected,  and  thus  they  acquired  the  first  element  of  freedom,  and 
began  to  look  forward  to  the  time  when  they  might  share  with  the 
patricians  in  all  the  benefits  and  honors  of  their  common  country. 

29.  After  the  description  that  we  have  given  of  the  tribes  and 


CHAP.  VI]  EARLY  ROMAN  HISTORY.  723 

classes  into  which  the  Roman  population  was  divided,  the  true  char- 
acter of  the  government  will  be  easily  understood,  and  the  struggles 
between  the  patrician  and  plebeian  orders,  as  described  in  the  first 
chapter  of  Roman  history,  will  be  better  appreciated.  It  would  be 
needless  to  detail  here  those  struggles,  and  their  results,  anew.  Suf- 
fice it  to  say,  that,  at  the  period  of  the  conquest  of  Greece  and  the 
fall  of  Carthage,  many  patrician  families  had  become  extinct,  and  the 
old  patrician  ascendency  had  passed  away,  while  a  new  aristocracy 
of  distinguished  plebeian  families  had  not  only  grown  into  power,  but 
had  become  as  exclusive  and  as  oppressive  to  the  poorer  classes  as 
the  power  which  it  had  in  part  supplanted.  The  distinctions  between 
patricians  and  plebeians  had  ceased  to  be  of  any  political  import- 
ance. In  the  senate  the  plebeians  far  exceeded  the  patricians ;  and 
the  tribuneship  had  so  entirely  changed  its  original  character  that 
the  tribunes,  instead  of  being  merely  the  protectors  of  the  oppressed 
of  the  commonalty,  wielded  a  power  even  greater  than  that  of  the 
consuls. 

30.  As  an  evidence  that  the  constitution  had  now  attained  its  com- 
plete development,  we  observe  afterwards,  during  the  existence  of 
the  republic,  neither  the  springing  up  of  any  new  powers,  nor  the 
creation  of  any  new  branches  of  government ;  but  all  legislative  en- 
actments henceforth  become  disciplinary,  sanatory,  or  restrictive,  in 
their  character,  designed  to  regulate  the  workings  of  the  system  that 
had  already  been  perfected.     As  the  government  was  republican,  the 
healthful  workings  of  the  constitution  depended,  indeed,  upon  the 
virtue,  intelligence,  and  patriotism  of  the  citizens ;  but  it  must  be 
borne  in  mind  that  the  Roman  constitution  was  framed  for  a  single 
city, — that  all  the  powers  of  government  were  centered  in  Rome 
itself,  and  that  the  numerous  provinces,  States,  and  cities,  over  which 
the  Roman  dominion  extended,  stood  to  Rome  in  the  relation  of 
subjects  to  their  sovereign.     So  long,  therefore,  as  the  Roman  senate 
remained  true  to  the  trust  reposed  in  it,  it  mattered  less  what  waa 
the  moral  and  intellectual  condition  of  the  people,  than  under -a  pure 
democracy,  where  every  freeman  helps  to  give  character  to  the  gov- 
ernment of  which  he  forms  a  part.     It  was  only  while  the  city  of 
Rome  retained  its  republican  virtues  that  there  could  be  any  guar- 
antee for  the  perpetuity  of  the  constitution 

'•£-$/  "jutnl '' iiwu'jaiij  9tm&  'nii  '  .    ''„,;, 

VI. 

31.  The  religious  notions  of  the  Romans  were  very  similar  to 


724  PHILOSOPHY   OF   HISTORY.  [PART  III. 

those  of  the  Grecians,  from  whom  they  were,  evidently,  in  great  part 
borrowed.      Even    before    the   founding   of   Rome   the 
Rj«moNsS    ^"rec^an  mythology  appears  to  have  gained  a  footing 
among  the  Etruscans,  who  were,  perhaps,  like  the  Greeks, 
of  Pelasgic  origin.     Not  only  were  the  same  deities  venerated  by  the 
Greeks  and  the  Romans,  but  both  people  connected  similar  mythical 
legends  with  the  histories  of  their  gods.     It  is  believed  that  the 
science  of  the  Roman  augurs  and  haruspices,  whose  business  it  was 
to  pierce  into  the  future,  and  reveal  the  will  of  the  gods,  by  the  ex- 
planation of  signs,  omens,   and   prodigies,  was   derived  from  the 
Etruscans ;  and  that  from  the  same  source  came  that  belief  in  the 
punishment  of  the  wicked  after  death,  to  which  Polybius  ascribes  so 
strong  a  moral  influence  over  the  minds  of  the  Romans,  even  in  hia 
own  days.a 

3.2,  The  Roman  ceremonial  law,  whose  origin  is,  attributed  to  the 
virtuous  Numa,  formed  perhaps  a  less  complicated  system  than  the 
Grecian  ;  nor  had  the  Romans  any  oracles,  like  those  of  Dodona  and 
Delphos,  which  exerted  so  great  an  influence  over  the  public  life  of 
the  Grecians.  The  Roman  priesthood  never  formed  an  order  dis- 
tinct from  the  other  citizens,  but  the  priests  were  usually  chosen 
from  the  most  honorable  men  of  the  State,  and  often  held  their 
offices  for  stated  periods  only,  although  the  high  priest,  (pontifex 
vfyaximus)  who  was  the  supreme  judge  and  arbiter  in  all  religious 
matters,  was  chosen  for  life.  The  religion  of  the  Romans,  like  that 
of  the  Greeks,  was  paganism,  in  its  most  extensive  application ;  but 
idolatry,  or  the  worship  of  idols  or  images,  can  hardly  be  said  to 
have  formed  a  part  of  it ;  and  it  was  not  until  long  after  the  reign 
of  Numa,  the  founder  of  the  Roman  religion,  that  any  images  of  the 
gods  were  seen  in  Rome.  Although  the  auspices  continued  to  be 
consulted  down  to  a  period  later  than  the  Christian  era,  yet  even  in 
the  times  of  the  Punic  wars  many  persons  regarded  them  as  mere 
forms ;  and  in  the  days  of  Cicero  the  ceremonies  of  religion  were 
generally  viewed  with  indifference,  and  sometimes  treated  with 

ridicule. 

VII. 

33.  Of  the  modes  of  living,  social  condition,  and  arts  of  the  Ro- 
mans under  the  kings,  nearly  all  that  we  profess  to  know  is  gathered, 
like  the  civil  and  political  history  of  the  same  period,  from  tra- 
ditionary legends.  If  the  accounts  that  are  given  of  the  laws  and  in- 

a.  Arnold's  Rome,  i.  51. 


CHAP.  VI.]  EARLY  ROMAN  HISTORY. 

Btitntions  of  Servius,  and  the  numbers  of  the  population,  are  to  be- 
itoDK  OK     lieved,  the  Romans  had  already  become  chfthged,  under 
LIVING,     their   sixth   king,  from  a  rude    shepherd    tribe,  to  ah 
CONDITION,   agricultural  people ;  and  at  the  time  of  the  treaty  with 
*c-         Carthage,  in  the  first  year  of  the  republic,  they  appear 
to  have  been  engaged  in  active  foreign  trade  with  Sicily,  Sardinia, 
and  the  northern  coast  of  Africa.     As  in  Judea  under  the  reign  of 
Solomon,  so  it  is  probable  that  in  Rome  foreign  commerce  was  con- 
ducted principally  by  the  government  for  its  own  benefit ;  and  that 
while  it  was  partially  open  to  the  patricians,  agriculture  and  the 
handicraft  trades  forthed  the  principal  occupation  of  the  plebeian 
orders.     In  later  times,  however,  no  occupation  was  deemed  by  the 
Romans  more  honorable  than   agriculture,  and  the  highest  praise 
that  could  be  bestowed  upon  a  man  was,  that  he  was  a  good  husband- 
man and  father. 

34.  The  domestic  life  of  the  early  Romans,  before  the  introduction 
of  foreign  luxuries  had  corrupted  the  tastes  and  morals  of  the  people, 
was  of  the  simplest  kind,  greatly  resembling  that  which  prevailed  in 
Europe  during  the  early  part  of  the  Middle  Ages.    Thus,  the  virtues  of 
the  chaste  Lucretia,  who  was  the  wife  of  a  Roman  nobleman,  and  who 
was  found  spinning  with  her  maidens,  are  represented  by  Livy  as  con- 
sisting in  her  domestic  and  industrious  habits,  while  the  idle  and 
luxurious  life  of  others  is  mentioned  with  disapprobation.     But  the 
rudeness  of  the  age  is  shown  in  the  circumstance  that  the  usages  of 
the  Romans  paid  but  little  respect  to  women,  who,  by  the  old  Roman 
law,  at  all  times  of  their  lives,  and  under  all  circumstances,  were 
obliged  to  be  under  guardianship,  and,  without  their  guardian's  sanc- 
tion, could  contract  no  obligation  of  legal  validity.     The  power  of  a 
father  over  his  children  was  almost  unlimited,  for  not  only  might  he 
scourge  and  imprison  them  at  will,  and  reduce  them  to  slavery,  but, 
in  certain  cases,  put  them  to  death  by  any  punishment  he  chose. 

35.  Among  the  early  Romans,  and  throughout  middle  Italy,  cattle, 
and  masses  of  copper,  appear  to  have  been  the  common  medium  of 
exchange,  the  copper  being  rendered  more  fusible  by  an  admixture 
of  zinc  or  tin.     The  first  coinage  is  attributed  to  Servius  Tullius, 
who  is  said  to  have  stamped  the  rude  copper,  in  lumps  of  about  a 
pound  weight,  with  the  figure  of  some  animal.     Silver  coins  were 
first  issued  at  Rome  in  the  third  century  before  Christ.    In  the  times 
of  the  kings,  copper,  or  brass,  appears  to  have  been  procurable  at  a 
lower  rate  than  iron,  as  not  only  shields,  but  the  better  household 


726  PHILOSOPHY  OF   HISTORY.  [PAKT  IIL 

utensils  were  made  of  it,  and  it  was  not  until  the  time  of  the  Gallic 
invasion  that  the  increased  value  of  copper  had  caused  iron  to  be 
generally  introduced  for  military  purposes.  That  artistic  genius 
which  distinguished  the  early  Greeks  was  wanting  in  the  Roman 
character  ;  and  the  works  of  art,  whether  of  architecture  or  sculpture, 
executed  under  the  later  kings,  are  attributed  to  the  Etruscans,  who 
were  the  early  instructors  of  their  future  conquerors. 

36.  The  language  of  Borne  under  the  kings,  a  few  specimens  of 
which  have  been  preserved,  required  to  be  interpreted  to  the  Romans 
of  Cicero's  time,  and  the  meaning  of  many  words  had  even  then  been 
wholly  lost.  At  the  beginning  of  the  commonwealth,  which  was  long 
after  the  times  of  Hesiod  and  Homer,  and  twenty  years  before  the 
battle  of  Marathon,  when  the  age  of  Greek  heroic  poetry  was  long 
since  past,  there  had  not  appeared  in  Rome  a  single  writer,  whether 
poet  or  historian,  whose  name  has  been  preserved  to  us.  As  yet 
Roman  literature  had  not  a  beginning,  and  its  origin  is  attributed  to 
early  intercourse  with  the  Greeks,  long,  however,  before  the  Grecian 
conquest.  Soon  after  the  first  Punic  war  the  forms  of  Grecian 
poetry  were  imitated  in  the  Latin  language,  and  the  first  cotemporary 
history  written  by  a  Roman  was  that  of  the  first  Punic  war,  in  a 
metrical  form,  by  Neevius,  from  whom  Virgil  is  said  to  have  borrowed 
the  plan  of  the  first  books  of  the  ^Eneid  ;  and  immediately  after  this 
there  were  several  Romans  who  wrote  the  history  of  their  country  in 
the  Greek  language  ;  but  it  was  not  until  Grecian  literature  was  fast 
dying  away  that  the  Roman  began  to  thrive  with  vigor.  It  was  but 
a  short  time  before  the  conquest  of  Greece  and  the  fall  of  Carthage 
that  Roman  historians  began  to  write  the  history  of  their  country  in 
Latin  prose ;  and  among  the  first,  and  the  most  important  of  these 
writers,  was  Cato  the  Elder,  who  was  the  first  author  that  attempted 
to  fix  the  era  of  the  founding  of  Rome. 


CHAP.  VIL]  THE  ROMAN   REPUBLIC.  727 


CHAPTER    VII. 

THE  SECOND  PERIOD  OF  ROMAN  HISTORY :— EXTENDING 

FROM  THE  CONQUESTS  OF  GREECE  AND  CARTHAGE 

TO  THE  CHRISTIAN  ERA. 

ANALYSIS.  1.  Character  of  the  First  Period  of  Roman  History.  POLITICAL  CHARACTER 
or  THE  CLOSING  PERIOD  OF  THE  REPUBLIC.— 2.  Character  of  the  events  known  as  the  "  Dis- 
sensions of  the  Gracchi."  Increasing  political  power  of  the  wealthy.— 3.  Effects  of  the  wealth 
flowing  in  from  the  conquered  provinces.  The  collectors  of  taxes.  General  political  corrup- 
tion.—4.  The  elections  in  the  times  of  Marius,  and  Sylla,  &c.  Growing  degeneracy  of  the  con- 
suls, tribunes,  and  senate. — 5.  The  downward  tendency  arrested  by  the-  Empire. 

6.  MORAL  AND  SOCIAL  CONDITION  OF  THK  PEOPLE.  General  demoralization  in  the  times  of 
the  civil  wars.  Depravity  of  the  city  populace. — 7.  Changes  observable  in  the  country.  Neglect 
of  Agriculture.  P.ublic  donations  to  the  poor. 

8.  ROMAN  LITERATURE.  The  Golden  Age  of  Roman  Literature.  General  prevalence  of  the 
Latin  language.  Grecian  teachers.  Philosophy.— 9.  Cicero's  influence.  Obstacles  to  the  culti- 
vation of  oratory.  Historians.  Poets.  Character  of  Roman  poetry,  and  of  Roman  literature 
generally. 

10.  THE  ARTS.  Public  buildings,  architecture,  &c.— 11.  No  superior  native  artists.  Passion 
for  works  of  art.  Roman  amateurs,  &c. 

12.  Other  nations  during  the  closing  period  of  the  Roman  Republic.  History  of  Judea. 
The  birth  of  the  Saviour.— 13.  THE  HISTORICAL  PROPHECIES.— 14.  Early  prophetic  declarations. 
— 15.  The  most  important  of  these.  Nebuchadnezzar's  dreams,  and  Daniel's  visions.  Their  in- 
terpretation.— 15.  The  First  Kingdom  : — the  Babylonian.— 17.  The  Second  Kingdom : — the  Medo- 
Persian.— 18.  The  Third  Kingdom :— the  Macedo-Grecian.— 19.  The  Fourth  Kingdom  .-—the 
Roman  Dominion.— 10.  The  Fifth  Kingdom :— the  Kingdom  of  the  Most  High.— 21.  Supposed 
prophetic  references  to  Papal  Rome. — 22.  Prophecies  relating  to  the  Jews.  The  Reformation. 
— 23.  The  eleventh  chapter  of  Daniel.  Bishop  Newton  and  Dr.  Hales. — 24.  Prophecies  relating 
to  the  Messiah.— 25.  Magnitude  and  importance  of  the  subject  of  the  Prophecies. 

I. 

1.  The  first  period  of  Roman  history  is  marked  by  a  long-continued 
and  eventually  successful  struggle  of  the  plebeian  commonalty,  against 
a  patrician  aristocracy,  for  protection,  prerogative,  and  power ;  a 
struggle  in  which  the  Roman  people  were  divided  by  supposed  dis- 
tinctions of  birth,  and  in  which  separate  orders  of  men  contended  for 
general  principles,  but  with  little  partiality  for  individual  interests, 
or  jealousy  of  personal  distinctions.  The  second  period 

*  ,       POLITICAL 

of  Roman  history,  extending   from    the   conquests  of  CHARACTER 
Greece  and  Carthage  to  the  Christian  era,  is  marked  by      OF  THE 
the  appearance  of  new  parties,  which  take  the  place  of     PERIOD 
the  old  ones, — in  which  the  old  distinctions  founded  on      OF  THE 
pretensions  of  birth  disappear,  and  an  aristocracy  of 
wealth  gathers  to  itself  all  the  honors  and  emoluments  of  offioa, 


728  PHILOSOPHY   OF   HISTORY.  [PAET  III. 

giving  rise  to  the  contests  of  individuals  for  power,  and  the  formation 
of  separate  political  factions,  and  leading,  eventually,  to  the  establish- 
ment of  a  monarchy  on  the  ruins  of  the  republic. 

2.  The  revolution  by  which  the  constitution  of  the  republic  was 
overthrown,  received  its  first  development  in  the  failure  of  the  noble 
attempt  of  the  Gracchi  to  restore  to  society  a  middle  class  of  citizens 
which  might  serve  as  an  adjusting  balance  to  the  evils  arising  from 
the  usurpations  of  the  rich,  and  the  growing  debasement  and  venality 
of  the  poor.     The  failure  of  that  attempt  widened  the  breach  between 
the  two  classes,  although  as  yet  the  people  scarcely  perceived  that 
two  classes  existed,  as  by  the  various  mutations  of  wealth  the  citi- 
zens were  constantly  passing  from  one  to  the   other.     Yet  in  the 
latter  period  of  the  republic  few  but  the  wealthy,  or  those  befriended 
by  them,  could  rise  to  political  distinction,  because  few  others  could 
command  the  influence  of  those  who  directed  the  suffrages  of  the 
populace. 

3.  The  immense  wealth  that  flowed  in  from  the  conquered  prov- 
inces became,  ifa  its  collection  and  disbursement,  a  powerful  engine 
of  corruption.     Cicero,  in  his  orations  against  Verres,  the  praetorian 
governor  of  Sicily,  draws  a  faithful  picture  of  what  most  of  the 
governors  of  provinces  were  in  his  time  ;  and  he  asserts  that  the  rob- 
bery, plunder,  and  extortion  of  which   they  were  guilty,  and  which 
were  often  connived  at  by  their  superiors,  were  more  desolating  in 
their  effects  than  the  march  of  a  conquering  army.     As  there  was  a 
host  of  officers  required  to  collect  the  tribute  of  the  conquered  prov- 
inces, which  was  let  out  to  the  highest  bidders,  and  as  great  fortunes 
were  often  made  by  the  cruelty,  oppression,  and  fraud,  of  the  collect- 
ors, such  offices  were  eagerly  coveted,  and  were  bestowed  as  the  re- 
wards of  political  patronage.     Hence  the  most  influential  and  ener- 
getic among  the  poor,  who  aspired  to  become  leaders,  looked  for 
escape  from  immediate  evils  to  the  possibility  of  sudden  acquisitions 
of  wealth  by  the  attainment  of  a  subordinate  post  in  the  government 
of  some  petty  province  or  city,  instead  of  directing  their  efforts  to 
reform  the  laws  and  correct  the  perversions  of  justice ;  while  the 
mass  of  the  populace  was  led  away  by  the  allurements  held  out  by 
factious  demagogues,  who  first  labored  to  corrupt  those  whom  they 
meant  afterwards  to  enslave. 

4.  In  the  times  of  Marius,  and  Sylla,  Caesar,  Crassus,  and  Pompey, 
the  elections,  which  were  often  scenes  of  tumult  and  riot,  were  carried 
by  open  and  undisguised  bribery  :  in  the  public  assemblies  free  dis 


CHAP.  VIL]  THE  ROMAN  REPUBLIC.  729 

cussion  gave  place  to  violence  :  the  tribunes,  elected  originally  as  the 
guardians  of  the  people's  rights,  losing  all  zeal  for  the  public  good 
in  the  strife  for  personal  aggrandizement,  either  became  the  leaders 
of  factions,  or  sold  their  influence  to  those  who  could  pay  them  the 
highest :  the  consulship  became  the  reward  of  military  usurpers ; 
and  even  the  senate,  once  so  dignified  and  virtuous  as  to  be  regarded 
by  the  people  with  almost  sacred  awe,  sunk  low  in  political  and  moral 
debasement  by  its  servile  dependence  upon  the  will  of  the  popular 
leaders. 

5.  In  this  state  of  general  corruption  and  degeneracy,  while  the 
victorious  arras  of  the  republic  were  rapidly  extending  the  limits  of 
the  Roman  dominion,  Rome  herself,  a  prey  to  intrigue  and  faction, 
was  fast  losing  the  power  to  control  the  mighty  empire  which  she  had 
gathered  around  her ;  and  the  republic  was  already  breaking  to  pieces, 
when  the  downward  tendency  of  affairs  was  arrested  by  the  only 
remedy  that  could  save  degenerate  Rome — the  triumph  of  one  of 
her  military  leaders  over  all  his  competitors,  and  the  placing  of  su- 
preme power  in  the  hands  of  one  individual.     It  was  then  that  civil 
strife  was  hushed,  peace  restored,  and  the  bonds  of  union  renewed, 
under  the  sovereignty  of  Augustus.     A  monarchy  was  the  greatest 
boon  that  Heaven  could  bestow  upon  the  Roman  people,  as  it  was 
the  only  one  which,  in  their  degeneracy,  they  were  fitted  to  enjoy. 

" '  '.,....  i   ..*!.      •(••>!»    -»r''rj--n       'it  •\<    «      i\i    '  *    -I    *' ^     •i  ii»?'» 

II. 

6.  The  foregoing  sketch  of  the  political  character  of  the  Roman 
people  in  the  last  days  of  the  republic,  will  convey  some  idea  of  their 
moral  and  social  condition  during  the  same  period.    Gen- 

,.    .  .  .  1-1        MORAL  AND 

eral  political  corruption  is  inseparably  connected  with  BOCIAL  CON- 
general  depravity  in  private  life ;  and  accordingly  we    DITION  OF 
find   that  the  people  who  tolerated  the   butcheries  of 
Marius  and  Sylla,  and  the  proscriptions  of  Antony,  Lepidus,  and 
Octavius,  were  sunk  in  demoralization  to  an  extreme  degree.     In 
the  city  of  Rome,  which  had  no  efficient  police  until  the  time  of 
Augustus,  the  regulations  that  were  made  to  preserve  the  public 
safety  and  decency  were  violated  with  impunity ;  robbery,  murder, 
perjury,  forgery,  and  like  crimes,  were  of  every-day  occurrence  5  a 
general  licentiousness  prevailed ;  the  Roman  nobles,  avaricious  and 
effeminate,  and  immersed  in  luxuries  and  sensual  pleasures,  gave 
themselves  little  concern  about  the  public  welfare  so  long  as  they 
could  purchase  security  for  the  enjoyment  of  the  fruit  of  their  ex* 


730  PHILOSOPHY  OF   HISTORY.  [PART  IIL 

tortions,  while  an  ignorant  and  depraved  populace  was  easily  con- 
verted by  its  leaders,  the  hirelings  of  reckless  aspirants  to  power, 
into  ready  instruments  of  violence  and  bloodshed. 

7.  Passing  from  the  city  to  the  country,  we  find  that  the  numerous 
small  but  thrifty  farmers  of  a  former  period  had  given  place  to  large 
landed  proprietors,  whose  estates  were  for  the  most  part  used  as 
pastures,  and  tended  by  gangs  of  slaves.     The  late  wars  had  reduced 
large  districts  almost  to  a  wilderness  state  ;  and  agriculture,  once 
the  pride  and  glory  of  the  Roman  people,  had  become  so  neglected 
that  Italy,  one  of  the  most  fertile  countries  of  Europe,  was  depend- 
ent upon  neighboring  States,  or  on  its  provinces,  for  its  annual  sup- 
plies of  corn.     Donations  of  corn  and  meat  were  often  made  to  the 
poor  of  the  cities,  and  of  Rome  in  particular,  from  the  public  treas- 
ury ;  and  sometimes  these  were  given  by  wealthy  private  individuals, 
who  added  free  theatrical  representations,  games,  and  amusements, 
as  the  readiest  mode  of  courting  the  favor  of  the  populace. 

III. 

8.  In  literature  and  the  arts  the  Romans  had  made  considerable 

progress  since  the  conquest  of  Greece,  but  they  seldom 
LITERATURE  e(lua^e(^  tne  Grecian  models,  from  which  they  almost 

universally  copied ;  and,  moreover,  Roman  literature,  a 
plant  of  hot-bed  culture  rather  than  of  natural  growth,  quickly 
reached  its  maturity,  and  was  of  correspondingly  short  duration. 
The  golden  age  of  Roman  literature  was  embraced  within  a  period 
of  less  than  a  single  century — from  the  death  of  Sylla  to  that  of 
Augustus.  At  this  time  the  Latin  language  was  understood,  and 
generally  spoken,  throughout  Italy  and  the  neighboring  islands,  in 
most  of  Spain  and  in  the  south  of  G-aul, — countries  that  derived  their 
civilization  from  the  Romans ;  but  the  language  of  the  eastern  provin- 
cials, in  Greece  and  Asia,  was  never  supplanted  by  it,  although,  through- 
out the  Roman  dominions,  persons  of  rank  and  education  thought  it 
necessary  to  become  acquainted. with  the  Latin.  On  the  other  hand, 
Rome  itself  swarmed  with  Greek  rhetoricians  and  philosophers,  who 
gave  instruction  in  the  schools  in  their  native  tongue,  while  the  sons 
of  many  of  the  Roman  nobility  were  sent  to  Athens  to  complete  their 
education  under  the  ablest  Grecian  teachers.  There  were  no  distinct 
schools  of  philosophy  peculiar  to  the  Romans,  nor  was  philosophy 
with  them  a  favorite  study  until  the  time  of  Cicero,  who  first  made  his 
countrymen  acquainted  with  the  speculations  of  the  Grecian  sages. 


CHAP.  VIL]  THE  ROMAN  REPUBLIC.  731 

9.  Cicero,  whose  orations  are  the  most  perfect  specimens  of  Latin 
prose  composition  extant,  did  more  than  any  other  man  to  bring  the 
language  to  its  perfection,  and  his  younger  co temporaries  who  grew 
up  around  him  received  the  stamp  of  his  genius.     But  as  oratory  is 
best  cultivated  by  free  public  speaking  in  popular  assemblages,  so 
when  the  Roman  forum  became  silent,  and  political  assemblages  of 
the  people  were  discouraged  under  the  emperors,  oratory  lost  its  in- 
fluence, and  was  neglected,  and  written  prose  composition  declined 
with  it.     Among  the  historians  of  this  age,  the  most  prominent  arc 
Caesar,  who  wrote  Commentaries  on  his  Gallic  wars ;  Sallust,  who 
wrote  an  account  of  the  conspiracy  of  Catiline,  and  a  history  of  the 
Jugurthine  war ;  and  Livy,  the  author  of  a  voluminous  history  of 
his  country,  and  who  enjoys  the  reputation  of  being  the  greatest  of 
Roman  historians.     Among  poets  may  be  mentioned  the  names  of 
Catullus,  Virgil,   Horace,  and  Ovid,  who  form  a  brilliant  galaxy 
of  poetic  genius,  and  all  of  whom  lived  in  the  century  immediately 
preceding  the  Christian  era ;  but  still  their  poetry  is  an  imitation  of  the 
Greek,  and  in  great  part  a  translation  of  the  Greek  forms  into  Latin. 
On  the  whole,  Roman  literature  bears  throughout  the  clearest  evi- 
dence of  having  been  formed  on  Grecian  models,  except  in  the  single 
department  of  prose   composition   as  applied  to   oratory,  in  which 
Cicero  shines  as  the  greatest  master  the  world  has  ever  seen. 

IV. 

10.  The  public  buildings  of  the  Romans  in  the  last  age  of  the  re- 
public began  to  exhibit  the  influences  of  Grecian  taste  and  art,  which, 
however,   were   greatly   extended   under   the    reign    of 
Augustus  ;  and  it  was  not  altogether  a  vain  boast  of  that 
monarch  that  he  found  Rome  a  city  of  bricks,  and  left  it  a  city  of 
marble.     Augustus  was  the  first  who  introduced  among  the  Romans 
the  use  of  marble  in  building ;  yet  but  few  remains  of  the  edifices  of 
his  time  exist,  and  the  architectural  works  for  which  Rome  is  so  justly 
celebrated  belong  mostly  to  the  first  century  after  Christ,  an  era  more 
than  five  hundred  years  later  than  the  Grecian  age  of  Pericles. 

11.  In  the  time  of  the  republic,  Rome  produced  no  native  artists 
of  eminence,  yet  after  the  eastern  conquests  in  Greece,  Asia  Minor, 
Syria,  and  Egypt,  such  a  passion  for  works,  of  art  prevailed  among 
the  Romans  as  to  lead  to  the  most  disgraceful  robberies  of  statues, 
paintings,  vases,  and  other  movable  articles  of  ornament,  which  were 
conveyed  to  Italy  in  great  numbers ;  and  not  only  were  the  public 


732  PHILOSOPHY  OF   HISTORY.  [PART  III 

places  of  Rome  adorned  with  these  plundered  treasures,  but  the 
private  dwellings  of  the  great,  also,  were  lavishly  stocked  with  them. 
There  were  many  Roman  amateurs,  but  few  artists ;  and  as  the  arts 
that  were  prized  most  highly  were  of  foreign  origin,  introduced  when 
already  in  their  perfection,  and  cultivated  by  the  wealthy  few  for 
ostentation  and  display,  they  produced  none  of  their  legitimate  re- 
fining and  ennobling  effects  upon  the  mind,  and  exerted  little  or  no 
influence  in  checking  the  growing  degeneracy  of  the  people. 

«',V*  Y. 

*****  12.  Turning  from  Roman  history  to  seek  after 
the  cotemporary  history  of  other  nations  during  the  closing  period 
of  the  republic,  we  find  but  little  to  reward  our  researches,  for,  at 
the  close  of  that  period,  nearly  all  the  nations  of  the  known  world 
were  embraced  within  the  Roman  dominion,  and  their  separate  an- 
nals, immediately  previous  to  the  events  which  led  to  their  subjugation, 
are  little  known,  and  their  history  afterwards,  as  Roman  provinces, 
is  of  little  importance.  Of  all  the  States  of  the  East,  to  Judea 
alone,  whose  history  we  have  traced,  briefly,  down  to  the  time  when 
the  Romans  began  to  interfere  in  the  national  councils,  we  still  turn 
with  interest,  for  in  Judea  that  important  event  occurred — the  ap- 
pearance of  the  long-promised  Messiah,  which  marks  the  transition 
from  the  history  of  ancient  to  that  of  modern  times — from  the  pagan 
to  the  Christian  world.  Of  the  vast  influences  of  that  event  upon 
man's  moral  and  intellectual  being  as  a  member  of  society  we  have 
not  room  here  to  speak,  but  those  who  recognize  in  it  that  divine 
agency  which  all  Christendom,  as  distinguished  from  Judaism  and 
Paganism,  attributes  to  it,  cannot  fail  to  admit,  in  its  widest  accepta- 
tion, that  God  governs  the  affairs  of  inen. 

13.  Connected  with  the  subject  of  God's  overruling  agency,  and 
THE         the  establishment  of  his  spiritual  kingdom  on  the  earth 

HISTORICAL  through  the  mediation  of  his  son  the  Saviour,  the  Prince 
IKS  of  Peace,  there  is  a  portion  of  history  of  exceeding  interest 
to  the  Christian  student,  which  cannot  be  gathered  from  the  pages 
of  profane  writers  alone.  We  allude  to  the  historical  prajrfiecies 
contained  in  the  Old  Testament,  a  subject  of  historical  importance 
that  cannot  in  justice  be  passed  over,  but  which  we  have  omitted  to 
the  present  time,  that  we  might  present  a  connected,  though  brief, 
view  of  it  here. 

14.  As  far  back  as  the  days  of  the  Jewish  patriarchs,  the  dawn  of 


CHAP.  VII]  HISTORICAL  PROPHECIES.  733 

Christendom  was  announced,  in  the  promise  of  the  Messiah ;  and 
almost  before  the  authentic  annals  of  profane  history  have  a  begin- 
ning, the  Almighty  had  opened,  in  prophetic  visions,  to  his  servants, 
a  view  of  the  future,  and  shown  them  the  rise,  progress,  decay,  and 
dissolution,  of  the  mighty  kingdoms  of  the  heathen  world  that  were 
to  fill  the  earth,  successively,  with  their  renown,  and  then  pass  away 
and  give  place  to  the  kingdom  of  the  Most  High,  that  was  to  em- 
brace the  whole  earth  within  its  dominion.  It  cannot  be  other  than 
a  study  of  deep  interest  to  the  candid  inquirer  after  truth,  to  exam- 
ine the  prophecies  which  disclose  such  important  events,  known  to 
God  alone,  and  to  trace  out  their  remarkable  fulfilment  as  recorded 
on  the  pages  of  history. 

15.  Among  the  most  important  of  these  prophetic  declarations 
are  those  of  .the  prophet  Daniel,  one  of  the  Jews  whom  Nebuchad- 
nezzar carried  away  captive  to  Babylon  nearly  six  hundred  years 
before  the  Christian  era.     They  are  embraced,  mostly,  in  the  inter 
pretation  of  the  famous  dream  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  and  in  four  cor- 
responding visions  of  the  prophet,  all  of  which  are  designed  to  illus- 
trate and  explain  the  same  events.    Nebuchadnezzar,  in  his  dream,  saw 
a  compound  image  of  gold,  silver,  brass,  and  iron,  which  the  prophet 
Daniel,  professing  to  speak  from  inspiration  of  the  Most  High,  in- 
terprets to  denote  four  successive  kingdoms  of  the  earth,  whose  un- 
expired  history  he  gives  in  considerable   detail ;  and  in  the  first 
vision  of  Daniel  the  same  four  kingdoms  are  represented  by  four  wild 
beasts  rising  from  the  sea,  (Dan.  ii.  and  vii.  2,  3.)     Let  us  examine 
the  dream  and  the  visions,  and  see  if  history  verifies  the  interpreta- 
tion thereof. 

1 6.  THE  FIRST  KINGDOM.     The  head  of  the  compound  image  which 
Nebuchadnezzar  saw  was  of  gold,  and  Daniel  declared  that  this  head 
of  gold  represented  "  the  first  kingdom,  or  that  of  the  Babylonians," 
of  which  Nebuchadnezzar  was  then  monarch.     In  the  first  vision  of  the 
prophet  the  same  kingdom  is  represented  by  "  the  first  beast,  which 
resembled  a  lion  with  eagle's  wings," — expressing  the  fierceness  and 
rapidity  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  the  founder  of  the  Babylonian  empire. 
Jeremiah  had  before  represented  him  as  a  "  lion  from  the  north,  that 
should  make  Judea  desolate,"  ( Jer.  iv.  6,  7,)  and  as  "  an  eagle  spread- 
ing his  wings  of  destruction  over  Moab;"  (Jer.  xlviii.  40;)  and 
Ezekiel  as  a  "  great  eagle,  long  winged,  and  full  of  feathers,"  (Ezek. 
xvii.  3  and  12;)  but  at  the  time  of  Daniel's  vision  "  its  wings  were 
plucked,"   for  its  career  was  checked  by  the  victorious  arms  and  en- 


734  PHILOSOPHY   OF   HISTORY.  [PART  III. 

croachinents  of  Cyrus  the  Persian.  It  might  be  alleged  that  this 
interpretation  of  the  "  head  of  gold,"  as  being  symbolical  of  a  king- 
dom already  in  existence,  is  not  prophetic.  Viewed  as  standing 
alone  it  might  not  be  deemed  so,  except  as  it  is  supported  by  the 
prophecies  of  previous  writers ;  but  it  is  the  first  in  the  series  of  the 
four  prophetic  kingdoms,  and  therefore  an  important  link  in  the 
chain  of  testimony.  The  first  kingdom  found  mankind  in  no  state 
of  cohesion — a  vast  number  of  petty  tribes  bound  together  by  no  ties 
of  national  affinity,  religion,  language,  or  manners — and  in  proportion 
to  its  extension,  its  intensity  was  weakened,  and  felt  only  around  the 
person  of  the  monarch.  Having  the  imperfections  of  an  elementary 
state  of  civilization,  and  of  a  first  experiment,  and  being  corrupted 
by  the  vices  of  luxurious  effeminacy,  it  fell  an  easy  prey  to  the  then 
hardy  and  enterprising  Persians. 

17.  THE  SECOND  KINGDOM.  In  the  interpretation  of  the  dream 
of  Nebuchadnezzar,  the  prophet  declared  that  after  the  first  king, 
(or  kingdom,)  should  arise  another  kingdom,  (Dan.  ii.  32  and  39,) 
which  was  represented  by  the  breast  and  arms  of  the  image,  which 
were  of  silver.  Here  is  a  prophetic  declaration  believed  to  refer  to 
the  Medo-Persian  kingdom,  which  lasted  two  hundred  and  five  years, 
from  the  capture  of  Babylon  by  Cyrus  (B.  C.  536)  to  the  battle  of 
Arbela,  (B.  C.  331.)  As  to  the  appropriateness  of  the  symbols  rep- 
resenting this  kingdom,  it  may  be  mentioned  that  the  arms  and 
shields  of  the  Medes  and  Persians  were  frequently  cased  with  silver  ; 
wherefore  Alexander,  after  the  conquest  of  Persia,  adopting  the  cus- 
toms of  the  conquered  nations,  instituted  a  body  of  infantry  which  he 
called  the  "silver  shields"  In  the  first  vision  of  Daniel  the  same 
kingdom  is  represented  by  the  second  beast,  a  bear  with  three  ribs 
in  its  mouth ;  (Dan.  vii.  5  ;)  and  in  the  second  vision  by  a  ram, 
(Dan.  viii.  3,)  the  figure  of  which,  it  is  known,  became,  after  the  time 
of  Daniel,  the  armorial  ensign  of  the  Persian  empire.  Moreover,  in 
the  vision,  Daniel  saw  that  the  ram  had  two  horns,  and  that  "  the 
one  which  came  up  last  was  higher  than  the  other," — the  lower  horn 
believed  to  denote  the  Median  power,  and  the  higher  one  the  Persian, 
for  these  two  powers  constituted  the  Medo-Persian  empire.  It  is  an 
interesting  fact  that  rams'  heads,  with  unequal  horns,  one  higher 
than  the  other,  are  still  to  be  seen  on  the  ruined  pillars  of  Persepolis. 
Moreover  Daniel  "  saw  the  ram,  (that  is,  the  Medo-Persian  empire,) 
pushing  westward,  and  northward,  and  southward,"  (Dan.  viii.  4.) 
History  verifies  the  interpretation,  for  in  this  exact  order  were 


CHAP.  VII.]  HISTORICAL  PROPHECIES.  735 

Lydia,  Babylonia,  and  Egypt,  (represented  in  the  first  vision  (Dan. 
vii.  5)  by  three  ribs  in  the  bear's  mouth,)  subdued  by  Cyrus  and  his 
successor  Cambyses.  The  second  kingdom,  more  powerful  than  the 
first,  but,  like  it,  held  together  by  the  feeblest  bonds  of  union, — owed 
its  fall,  after  an  existence  of  two  centuries,  more  to  the  crimes  of  its 
monarchs,  the  mal-administration  of  government,  and  the  repeated 
disputes  and  wars  for  succession,  than  to  the  small  but  highly  effect- 
ive force  brought  against  it. 

18.  THE  THIRD  KINGDOM.  The  third  division  of  the  compound 
image  which  Nebuchadnezzar  saw  (Dan.  ii.  32  39)  was  the  "  belly  and 
thighs  of  brass"  explained  with  great  historical  minuteness,  as  de- 
noting the  Macedo-  Grecian  kingdom  of  Alexander  and  his  successors. 
The  Greeks  usually  wore  brazen  armor,  whence  Homer  calls  them 
the  "  brazen-corslet  Grecians"  In  the  first  vision  of  Daniel  the  same 
kingdom  is  represented  by  the  third  beast — a  leopard  with  two  pair 
of  wings  and  four  heads, — the  wings  aptly  denoting  the  rapidity  of 
the  conquests  of  Alexander  ;  and  the/awr  heads,  the  four  kingdoms, 
Macedon,  Thrace,  Syria,  and  Egypt,  into  which  the  empire  of  Alex- 
ander was  divided  among  his  generals.  In  the  second  vision  of  the 
prophet  the  same  Macedo-  Grecian  kingdom  is  represented  by  "  a 
he-goat  that  came  from  the  west  (Macedonia)  and  touched  not  the 
ground"  for  swiftness.  "  And  the  he-goat  had  a  notable  horn  be- 
tween his  eyes"  (Alexander  the  Great),  and  "  he  ran  at  the  ram" 
(Darius  the  Persian)  "  and  smote  him,  and  cast  him  upon  the  ground." 
But  when  "  the  he-goat  waxed  very  great,  the  great  horn  was  broken," 
(Alexander's  death)  "  and  in  its  place  came  up  four  notable  ones 
towards  the  four  winds  of  Heaven.  (Alexander's  four  successors, 
among  whom  his  kingdom  was  divided.)  But  this  part  of  the  second 
vision  is  interpreted  to  Daniel  with  all  the  distinctness  with  which 
the  history  itself  could  have  been  written  after  the  events  had  trans- 
pired. For  Daniel  was  told,  (Dan.  viii.  20-22 :)  "  The  ram  which 
thou  sawest  having  two  horns  are  the  kings  (or  kingdoms)  of  Media 
and  Persia.  And  the  rough  goat  is  the  king  (or  kingdom)  of 
Grecia  ;  and  the  great  horn  between  his  eyes  is  the  first  king,  (Alex- 
ander.) Now  that  being  broken,  whereas  four  rose  in  its  stead,  four 
kingdoms  shall  arise  out  of  the  nation,  but  not  in  his  power" — 
that  is,  not  of  the  family  of  Alexander.  In  the  fourth  vision  of 
the  prophet  the  same  historical  truths  are  presented  with  similar  ex- 
plicitness  in  the  second,  third,  and  fourth  verses  of  the  eleventh 
chapter  of  Daniel,  with  the  additional  notice  that  a  certain  king  of 


736  PHILOSOPHY   OF  HISTORY.  [PART  III 

Persia  (Darius  Codomanus)  should  stir  up  the  whole  empire  for  an 
invasion  of  "  the  realm  of  Grecia."  The  prophecy  respecting  the 
Third  or  "  Macedo-Grecian"  kingdom,  is  so  distinct,  and  so  minute 
in  its  details,  and  the  historical  verification  so  perfect,  that  no  candid 
mind  will  attribute  the  coincidence  to  chance  or  accident. 

19.  THE  FOURTH  KINGDOM.  The  fourth  division  of  the  image 
which  Nebuchadnezzar  saw,  and  which  Daniel  declared  to  represent 
the  fourth  kingdom,  was  "  the  legs  of  iron,  and  the  feet  part  of  iron 
and  part  of  clay."  (Dan.  ii.  33.)  This  is  believed  to  denote  the 
Roman  dominion,  which  reached  its  full  vigor  about  the  time  of  the 
conquests  of  Macedon,  Greece,  and  Carthage,  when  the  republic, 
under  the  consular  government,  was  the  strongest,  as  represented  by 
the  "  legs  of  iron."  Rome,  the  "  Mistress  of  Nations,"  the  "  Mother 
of  Empires,"  was  the  greatest  monarchy  the  world  has  ever  known. 
It  continued  in  the  full  tide  of  prosperity  until  the  conquest  of 
Egypt,  (B.  C.  30,)  after  which  it  gradually  declined  under  the 
monarchy  :  the  partition  of  the  empire  into  Eastern  and  Western 
greatly  weakened  it ;  and  it  gradually  sunk  under  the  repeated  in- 
vasions of  the  Gothic  and  Vandal,  tribes,  and  was  finally  broken  into 
ten  kingdoms,  as  represented  by  the  ten  toes  of  the  image.  Daniel 
says  :  "  As  the  toes  of  the  feet  were  part  of  iron  and  part  of  clay,  so 
the  kingdom  shall  be  partly  strong  and  partly  broken."  (Dan.  ii.  42.) 
In  the  first  vision  of  Daniel  the  same  kingdom  is  represented  by  the 
fourth  beast,  which  was  "  dreadful  and  terrible,  and  strong  exceed- 
ingly ;  and  it  had  great  iron  teeth ;  it  devoured  and  broke  in  pieces, 
and  stamped  the  residue  with  the  feet  of  it ;  and  it  was  diverse  from 
all  the  beasts  that  were  before  it ;  and  it  had  ten  horns."  (Dan. 
vii.  7.)  Here  the  Roman  power  and  progress  are  aptly  represented. 
It  was  the  strongest  of  the  four  kingdoms,  its  very  name  (Ro-me) 
being  the  Grecian  term  for  strength,  and  it  broke  in  pieces,  and  de- 
voured, the  previous  three  kingdoms ;  and  the  residue  (the  western 
provinces  of  the  Roman  empire, — Spain,  Gaul,  &c.)  it  "trampled 
upon  with  the  feet  of  it."  And  as  in  the  first  vision  of  Daniel,  the 
first  three  kingdoms  had  been  represented  by  a  lion,  a  bear,  and  a 
leopard,  (Dan.  vii,)  so  St.  John,  in  the  Revelation,  (Rev.  xiii.  1,  2,) 
describes  the  form  of  the  fourth  beast  (or  kingdom)  as  being  com- 
pounded of  all  the  rest,  having  "  the  body  of  the  leopard,  the  feet  of 
the  bear,  and  the  mouth  of  the  lion ;"  and  thus  the  Roman  empire  em- 
braced the  territories  of  the  preceding  empires.  In  the  second  vision 
of  Daniel  the  fourth  kingdom  is  represented  by  "  a  little  horn"  spring- 


CHAP.  VII]  HISTORICAL   PROPHECIES.  73T 

ing  up  from  one  (the  western,  or  Macedonian)  of  the  four  heads  (or 
kingdoms)  into  which  the  empire  of  Alexander  had  been  divided.  The 
progress  of  the  Roman  power  is  here  geographically  described  also ; 
for  this  little  horn  "  waxed  exceeding  great  towards  the  south,  (Sicily 
and  Africa.)  and  towards  the  east,  (Macedon,  Greece,  and  Syria,)  and 
towards  the  pleasant  land,  (Judea.) 

20.  Thus,  as  marked  out  by  prophecy,  four  times  have  the  nations 
of  the  earth  gathered  themselves  into  mighty  aggregates  of  power, 
denoted  Universal  Empires  or  Monarchies :  none  like  went  before,  and 
none  like  have  come  after  them  ;  and  it  is  upon  the  warrant  of  nega- 
tive scripture  testimony  that  men  believe  no  other  temporal  universal 
empire  possible.     But,  still,  the  dream  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  and  the 
interpretation  of  the  prophet,  point  to  a  fifth  monarchy  greater  than 
all  the  others,  that  shall  arise  when  Christianity  shall  have  swallowed 
up  all  other  ibrms  of  religion,  and  the  nations  of  the  earth  shall  be 
gathered  into    one  fold,  under  one   all-conquering   Shepherd — the 
Prince  of  Peace.*     For  Nebuchadnezzar  saw  a  "  stone  cut  out  with- 
out hands,  which  smote  the  image  and  became  a  great  mountain,  and 
filled  the  whole  earth,"  (Dan.  ii.  34-5,)  and  this  the  prophet  himself 
declares  to  be  "  the  kingdom  which  the  God  of  Heaven  should  set 
up,  and  which  shall  never  be  destroyed."     The  first  and  the  fourtk 
vision  of  Daniel  contain  farther  prophecies  relating  to  this  kingdom. 

21.  While  Daniel,  in  the  first  vision,  was  considering  the   ten 
horns  (or  kingdoms),b  a  little  horn,  believed  by  Protestant  writers  to 
denote  Papal  Rome,  came  up  among  them,  and  before  it  were  three 
of  the  first  herns  plucked  up  by  the  roots ; — the  kingdom  of  the 
Heruli  in  the  year  488 — of  the  Ostrogoths  in  553 — and  of  the  Lom- 
bards in  756.     The  seventh  chapter  of  Daniel  also  gives  an  interpre- 
tation of  the  vision,  and  says  of  this  little  horn  or  kingdom  that  it 
"  shall  speak  great  words  against  the  Most  High,  and  shall  wear  out 
the  saints  of  the  Most  High,  and  think  to  change  times  and  laws ; 
and  they  (the  saints)  shall  be  given  into  his  hand  until  a  time,  and 
times,  and  the  dividing  (or  half)  of  time"     The  period  here  denoted, 
in  which  the  supposed  Papal  power  was  to  prevail,  is  found  to  be 
twelve  hundred  and  sixty  years,  allowing  a  day  for  a  year,  as  ex- 
plained in  the  Apocalypse.     (Rev.  xi.  3 — xii.  6,  14.)     Dr.  Hales,  a 

a.  Hence  the  fanatics  of  1650,  who  looked  for  the  immediate  advent  of  the  Saviour  to  rule 
over  the  whole  earlh  as  a  temporal  prince,  were  usually  called  Fifth  Monarchists. 

b.  The  ten  kingdoms  into  which  that  of  Rome  was  broken,  or  divided,  are  generally  believed 
to  have  been  the  following,  with  their  dates.     Huns,  (A.  D.  356)— Ostrogoths,  (377)— Visi- 
goths, (378)— Franks,  (407)—  Sandals,  (407)— Suevi,  (Wl)-Burgundians,  (407)— Utruli,  (476) 
—Saxons,  (476)— and  Lombards,  (4*3—526.) 

47 


738  PHILOSOPHY   OF    HISTORY.  [PART  III. 

celebrated  English  divine  and  chronologist,  computes  the  commence- 
ment of  the  period  at  A.  D.  620,  and  the  end  of  it  at  A.  D.  1880. 
We  have  not  room  to  follow  out  here  the  reasoning  on  which  the 
chronology  is  based. 

22.  The  fulfilment  of  the  prophecies  relating  to  the  taking  away 
of  the  daily  sacrifice  of  the  Jews,  and  the  destruction  of  the  city  and 
sanctuary  of  Jerusalem  by  the  Romans,  is  so  clear  in  relation  to 
the  times  mentioned  as  to  satisfy  the  most  arrant  scepticism.     The 
period  of  the  two  thousand  three  hundred  days  (years,  Dan.  viii.  14) 
at  the  expiration  of  which  the  "  transgression  of  desolation"  should 
cease,  and  the  ^sanctuary  be  cleansed,"  is  computed  by  Dr.  Hales  to 
have  commenced  B.  C.  420,  and  the  expiration  of  this  period  is  also 
placed  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1880.     Most  Protestant  theological 
writers  suppose  that  the  three  great  angels  described  in  the  Apoca- 
lypse (Rev.  xiv.  6-12)  were  the  three  great  heralds  of  the  REFORMA- 
TION, Wicldiffe,  Huss,  and  LutJier. 

23.  The  eleventh  chapter  of  Daniel  contains  a  remarkable  series 
of  prophetic  declarations,  foretelling  the  sufferings  and  persecutions 
of  the  Jews,  from  Alexander's  successors  in  Syria  and  Egypt,  till 
the  end  of  the  reign  of  Antiochus  Epiph'  anes,  a  period  of  one  hun- 
dred and  sixty  years.     Bishop  Newton,  who  has  given  a  copious  illus- 
tration of  the  historical  facts  which  verify  the  whole  of  this  prophecy, 
remarks  that  "  there  is  not  in  profane  history  so  complete  and  regular 
a  series  of  Egyptian  and  Syrian  kings,  and  so  concise  and  compre- 
hensive an  account  of  their  affairs,  as  is  found  in  this  chapter  of  the 
prophet  Daniel,"  and  that  "  the  prophecy  is  really  more  perfect  than 
any  one  history."     Dr,  Hales  says  that  "  these  prophecies  of  Daniel 
are,  if,  possible,  more  surprising  and  astonishing  than  even  his  grand 
prophetic  period  of  two  thousand  three  hundred  years,  arid  the  sev- 
eral successions  of  empire  that  were  to  precede  the  spiritual  kingdom 
of  God  upon  the  earth."     With  reference  to  the  exact  fulfilment  of 
these  prophecies  he  remarks  :  "  Even  the  infidel  Porphyry,  who  had 
access  to  several  sources  of  information  now  lost,  was  so  confounded 
by  this  exactness  that  he  was  driven  to  deny  the  authenticity  of  the 
prophecy  relating  to  the  Jews,  declaring  that  it  could  not  have  been 
written  before,  but  must  have  'been  compiled  after,  the  reign  of  An- 
tiochus Epiph'  anes.     But  the  prophecy  is  so  intimately  connected 
with  the  preceding  and  following  parts  of  the  vision,  which  relate  to 
the  Macedonians  and  Rqmans,  that  it  must  have  been  written  by 
the  same  hand,  and  therefore  be  esteemed  equally  genuine  with  the 


CHAP.  VII.]  HISTORICAL  PROPHECIES.  739 

whole  book  of  Daniel.  The  astonishing  exactness,  indeed,  with 
which  this  minute  prophetic  detail  has  been  fulfilled,  furnishes  the 
strongest  pledge,  from  analogy,  th&t  the  remaining  prophecies  were, 
and  will  be,  as  exactly  fulfilled,  each  in  its  proper  season." 

24.  The  Old  Testament  abounds  in  prophecies  which  foretell  the 
time  and  the  circumstances  of  the  coming  of  Christ  the  Messiah. 
That  event  was  to  happen  before  the  sceptre  should  depart  from 
Judah,a  and  while  a  prince,  of  Jewish  descent   reigned  over  the 
Jews  in  their  own  land  :  the  Messiah  was  to  come  while  the  second 
temple  was  standing,b  and  a  messenger  was  to  appear  before  him, 
the  voice  of  one  crying  in  the  wilderness  to  prepare  his  way.c     In 
the  prophecies  of  Daniel  the  same  event  is  foretold,  (Dan.  ix.  24-27,) 
and  specified  periods  (marked  according  to  similar  computations  in 
the  Jewish  scriptures,  by  weeks  of  years,  each  day  for  a  year)  are 
designated  for  the  birth  of  the  Messiah,  his  death,  the  duration  of  the 
Jewish  war,    and  the   destruction   of  Jerusalem.     This   illustrious 
prophecy  Sir  Isaac  Newton  declares  to  be  "  tlie  foundation  of  tJie 
Christian  religion.'1'1 

25.  The  subject  of  the  prophecies  embraced  in  the  Old  Testament 
is  one  of  so  vast  magnitude,  that  a  brief  sketch  of  only  a  few  pages 
devoted  to  it  must  be  imperfect  in  the  extreme  ;  but  our  object  will 
have  been  accomplished  if  the  little  that  we  have  said  shall  induce 
the  reader  to  examine  farther  the  historical  evidences  which  the 
prophecies  furnish  in  favor  of  the  Christian  religion,  and  which  may 
be  found  in  full  detail  in  the  works  of  Newton  and  Hales,d  and  an 
excellent  compend  of  which  is  contained  in  the  valuable  work  of 
Keith.      The  disciples  of  the   Christiarn  religion   believe  that   its 
doctrines  rest  on  a  basis  firm  as  immutable  truth ;  and  among  the 
evidences  of  the  reasonableness  of  their  faith  they  point  with  confi- 
dence to  the  prophecies  which  set  forth  the  circumstances  attendant 
Upon  the  introduction,  progress,  and  final  triumph,  of  that  religion ; 
which  contain  historical  proofs  the  most  conclusive,  and  furnish  the 
Christian  with  arguments  which  the  cavillings  of  infidelity  have  never 
been  able  to  invalidate.     Whoever  expresses  an  infidel  doubt  against 
the  Christian  religion,  before  he  has  fully  examined  the  evidences 
which  prophecy  and  history  combined  furnish  in  its  favor,  shows  not 
only  an  unwarranted  prejudice  against  the  truth,  but  the  most  culpa- 
ble ignorance  and  presumption  also. 

a.  Gen.  xlix.  10.  b.  Hag.  ii.  7,  9.    Mai.  iii.  1.  c.  Isa.  xl.  3.    Mai.  iii.  ]— iv.  5. 

d.  Thomas  Newton  on  the  Prophecies,  2  vols.  12mo,  1793.    Hales'  Analysis  of  Chronology 
and  Geography,  History  and  Prophecy,  4  vols.  8vo,  1830. 


740  PHILOSOPHY   OF  HISTORY.  [PART  III. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE. 

ANALYSIS.  1.  Rome  at  the  commencement  of  the  Christian  era.  The  Roman  empire. — 2. 
I5eginning  of  the  history  of  Imperial  Rome.  Roman  greatness  not  destroyed  by  Caesar. — 3. 
POVVKR  AND  MAJESTY  OF  ROME  AND  HER  CAESARS. — 4.  Sacred  character  of  the  emperor — 
attached  to  the  office  rather  than  the  man.— 5.  Atrocities  of  the  early  Caesars.  Character  of 
Caligula.— 6.  Story  of  Caligula  and  the  two  consuls:  of  Caligula  and  his  wife  Caesonia.  Clau- 
dius and  Nero.  How  their  crimes  were  viewed  by  the  people. — 7.  Virtues  of  the  people  of 
Republican  Rome.  Causes  of  the  rapid  declension  from  virtue — revolutionary  wars— changes 
in  the  character  of  the  population,  &c. 

8.  Conquests  of  Republican  Rome.  Peaceful  FOREIGN  POLICY  of  Augustus  and  his  success- 
ors.—ft.  Departures  from  this  policy. — 10.  Policy  of  Adrian  and  the  Antonines. — 11.  Decline 
of  the  empire  under  succeeding  rulers.  Causes  and  consequences  of  this  decline— an  interest- 
ing subject  of  philosophical  research.  Proposed  view  of  the  subject. 

12.  INTERNAL  CONDITION  OF  THE  ROMAN  WORLD  IN  THE  AGE  OF  THE  ANTONINES.  Repub- 
lican simplicity  of  the  early  emperors. — 13.  The  republican  forms  retained  by  Augustus  and 
succeeding  rulers.  The  numerous  offices  concentrated  in  the  person  of  the  emperor.  Extent 
of  the  royal  prerogatives.  The  illusion  cherished  by  the  people. — 14.  Increase  of  prosperity 
and  population  after  Claudius.  Italy  and  Greece  compared.  Amount  of  population  in  the 
empire. — 15.  THE  SLAVES  OF  THE  ROMANS.  Derivation  of  the  term  slave. — 16.  Sanguinary 
character  of  the  wars  of  the  ancients.1  Treatment  of  slaves.  Their  value.  Manumission  of 
slaves.— 17.  ROMAN  CITIZENS.  Extension  of  the  rights  of  citizenship. — 18.  TAXATION,  under 
Augustus,  Caracalla,  Alexander  Severus,  &c. — 19.  Depopulation  of  the  provincial  districts. 
Foreign  luxuries. — 20.  General  poverty  of  the  people.  The  amount  of  taxation. — 21.  Fixedness 
of  the  amount  on  each  municipality.  Causes  of  the  impoverishment  of  the  provinces. — 22. 
THK  ROMAN  ARMY  ;— recruited  in  early  times  from  the  citizens  only— in  later  times  from  the 
barbarians.  Examples, — in  the  times  of  Marius  and  Caesar ;— at  a  later  period. — 23.  Decline 
of  public  virtue  in  the  army— how  the  emperors  attempted  to  supply  the  defect.  The  pay  of 
soldiers. — 24.  Military  strength  of  the  empire.  Divisions  of  the  legions.  Their  principal  sta- 
tions. "  City  Cohorts"  and  "Praetorian  Guards." — 25.  Military  tactics,  armor,  and  discipline. 
— 20.  The  cavalry.  A  Roman  camp.  The  Roman  navy. — 27.  The  RELIGION  OF  THE  ROMANS 
DURING  THE  EMPIRE. — 28.  Intolerance  towards  the  Christians.  Rise,  progress,  and  influence, 
of  Christianity. — 29.  The  pagan  religions — how  viewed  by  the  philosophers.  The  advantages  of 
some  religion  admitted  by  all.  General  infidelity  on  the  subject  of  religion. — 30.  The  educated 
pagans.  Superstitions  of  the  common  people. — 31.  SOCIAL  MORALITY  OF  THE  ROMANS. — 32. 
Demoralizing  effects  of  domestic  slavery. — 33.  Of  the  favorite  amusements  of  the  Romans — 
mock  sea-fights,  and  the  combats  of  the  gladiators.  Tragedy,  in  its  gross  reality.  Influence 
of  Christianity. 

34.  OUTWARD  APPEARANCES  OF  GENERAL  PROSPERITY  IN  THE  AGE  OF  THK  ANTONINES. — 
35.  Populousness  of  Italy,  Gaul,  and  Britain.  Carthage  and  the  Eastern  provinces. — 36.  The 
public  highways.  Construction  of  the  Appian  Way. — 37.  Aqueducts  leading  into  the  capital. 
Buildings  of  the  Imperial  age. — 38.  Roman  architecture. — 39.  Sculpture  and  painting.  The 
Laocoon  and  the  Apollo  Belvidere. — 40.  Education  of  the  common  people.  Branches  taught 
in  the  public  schools.  Additional  instruction  of  the  higher  classes. — 41.  Support  of  the 
schools.  Encouragement  given  to  education  by  Vespasian,  Adrian,  and  Antoninus  Pius. 
Mathematics  and  the  Natural  Sciences.  Bookshops.  Libraries. 

42.  THE  SILVKR  AGE  OF  ROMAN  LITERATURE.  Niebuhr's  view  of  it.  Gibbon's  view.  Servile 
Imitation  of  the  Greek  writers.— 43.  The  most  distinguished  Roman  writers  in  this  period  of 
decline.— 44.  Opposing  opinions  entertained  of  Lucan.  Lucau's  Pharsalia. — 45.  Writings  and 
character  of  Seneca.  Juvenal.— 46.  Pliny  the  Elder.— 47.  Quinctilian  the  rhetorician.— 48. 
Tacitus  the  historian. 


CHAP.  VIII]  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE.  741 

49.  GREEK  LITERATURE  DURING  THE  SILVER  AGE.  Dionysius  the  critic.  Strabo  the 
geographer.— 50.  Plutarch,  Lucien,  Galen,  Pausanias,  tec. 

51.  ROMAN  HISTORY  AFTER  THE  TIME  or  THE  ANTONINKS.  Science  of  jurisprudence.  Phi- 
losophical school  of  the  Eclectics.  Their  system  and  its  results.— 52.  Revival  of  Grecian  litera- 
ture. Louginus,  Arrian,  Diogenes  Laertius,  Herodian,  and  Dio  Cassius. 

53.  INCREASING  CAUSES  OF  DECLINE.  Education  for  the  many  neglected.  Public  morals 
depraved.  Diverse  interests,  &c.,  in  the  widely-distant  provinces.  Division  of  the  empire. 
The  citizens  confounded  with  the  provincials.  Mercenary  legions.  Election  of  emperor.  The  old 
attachments  to  Rome  broken.  The  destruction  completed  by  the  barbarians. — 54.  Gloomy  fore- 
bodings. Examples  from  the  opposite  extremes  of  the  pagan  and  the  Christian  world.  Byron. 

I. 

1.  At  the  commencement  of  the  Christian  era,  the  little  settlement 
of  mud-walled  cottages  which  Romulus  and  his  robber  band  had 
formed  on  the  Palatine  Hill,  had  grown  into  a  mighty  city — a  nation 
in  itself — the  emporium  of  commerce  and  the  arts,  and  the  Mistress 
of  the  civilized  world.     The  laws  and  institutions  of  Augustus,  and 
the  gradual  assimilation  of  manners,   cemented  the  union  of  the 
provinces ;  and  had  public  and  private  virtue  remained,  and  wise 
legislation  continued  to  uphold  the  fabric,  the  history  of  the  "  Decline 
and  Fall "  of  the  Roman  empire — the  last  of  the  great  monarchies 
of  Prophecy — might  not  yet  have  been  written. 

2.  With  the  overthrow  of  the  republican  constitution  by  Julius 
Caesar,  the  history  of  Imperial  Rome  commences : — the  struggles 
that  followed  the  death  of  the  usurper  are  only  an  interlude  between 
the  first  and  the  second  acts  of  the  drama.     But  the  destruction  of 
Roman  greatness  was  not  an  act  of  Caesar  :  Rome,  already  given  up 
to  anarchy  and  civil  war,  and  fast  falling  a  prey  to  its  own  passions, 
was  saved  from  dissolution  by  an  act  of  daring  usurpation  ;  and  it 
was  through  the  twelve  Caesars,  of  whom  Julius  was  the  first,  that 
she  attained  the  summit  of  her  power,  and  fulfilled  her  destiny. 

3.  If  Imperial  Rome — embracing  within  herself  and  her  mighty 
suburbs3-  not  less  than  three  millions  of  inhabitants — was  the  "  Mis- 
tress of  Nations,"  the  "  Mother  of  Empires,"  in  comparison  with 
whom  other  cities  were  but  villages  :  the  Roman  Caesars 

rOW KB  AND 

were  monarchs,  in  comparison  with  whom  all  modern  MAJKSTy  OF 
kings  or  emperors  are  mere  phantoms  of  royalty.  In  the  EOME  AND 
times  of  the  Caesars  there  were  no  other  kings  that  de- 

a.  Including  the  numerous  contiguous  villages  immediately  dependent  upon  the  capital  for 
support.  Much  baa  been  written  on  this  subject.  Vossius,  Lipsius,  Chateaubriand,  and 
ethers,  assign  to  imperial  Rome  fourteen,  seven,  five,  and  three  millions  of  inhabitants :  Hume, 
seven  hundred  thousand  to  eight  hundred  thousand ;  and  Gibbon  one  million  two  hundred 
thousand.  De  Quincey  ("The  Caesars,"  p.  5;  "  resolutely  maintains"  that  her  population  wa» 
"not  less  than  four  millions." 


742  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [PART  III. 

served  the  appellation  :  there  were  no  antagonist  forces  to  raise  up 
formidable  bulwarks  against  the  majesty  of  Rome :  civilization  and 
the  Roman  empire  were  commensurate  terms ;  and  during  more 
than  two  centuries  nearly  the  whole  habitable  world  known  to 
Geography  or  recognized  by  History,  slumbered  in  security  under 
the  protecting  aegis  of  the  Roman  name.  The  occasional  wars  on 
the  distant  frontiers  were  pulsations  scarcely  felt  in  the  capital,  and 
seldom  disturbing  its  luxurious  lull  of  repose. 

4.  It  should  not  therefore  surprise  us  that  the  person  of  the  Roman 
emperor — the  inheritor  of  power  so  vast,  so  intense — should  have 
been  called  "  august,"  sacred, — and  not  merely  so  called  through  ex- 
cess of  adulation,  but  so  regarded  by  the  Romans,  with  a  kind  of  re- 
ligious awe,  that  to  doubt  his  consecrated  character  was  the  double 
crime  of  treason  and  heresy.     But  this  veneration  attached  to  the 
office  rather  than  the  man ;  for  the  tenure  of  supreme  power  in  im- 
perial Rome  was  ever  hazardous  :   rivals  and  competitors  might 
aspire  to  the  same  station ;  a  mercenary  army  might  desire  a  more 
prodigal  master ;  or  the  dagger  of  an  assassin  might  invade  the  im- 
perial chamber.     From  the  heights  of  glory  the  transition  was  often 
sudden  to  the  depths  of  misery ;  and  coloring  the  most  brilliant  and 
gorgeous,  and  shades  the  deepest  and  darkest,  are  in  striking  contrast 
in  the  pictures  of  the  Roman  Caesars.     Nowhere  else  does  history 
furnish  so  intensely  interesting  studies  of  individual  character. 

5.  While  the  vast  power  and  unrivalled   splendors  of  imperial 
Rome  fix  our  attention  and  command  our  admiration,  the  monstrous 
atrocities  of  the  early  Caesars  loom  up  in  the  background  of  the 
picture  like  "  shapes  hot  from  Tartarus,"  in  strange  and  bewildering 
contrast.     Tiberius,  Caligula,  Claudius,  and  Nero,  shock  us  by  com- 
binations of  wickedness  for  which  history  has  no  parallel ;  and  it  is 
hard  to  say  whether  the  levity  or  brutality  of  their  baseness  most 
merits  our  execration.     In  Caligula,  crime  was  but  the  pastime  of 
his  hours  of  amusement :  his  banquets  were  insipid  without  a  supply 
of  executions, — his  dinners  incomplete  without  such  a  dessert ;  and 
he  deplored  the  tameness  and  insipidity  of  his  own  times,  as  likely 
to  be  marked  by  no  wide-spreading  calamity  of  war,  pestilence,  or 
famine. 

6.  We  are  told  that  when  the  two  consuls  were  once  seated  at  his 
table  he  burst  into  a  fit  of  immoderate  laughter  at  the  pleasant 
thought  of  the  facility  with  which  he  might  have  both  their  throats 
cut,  with  so  little  trouble  to  himself ; — and  that,  while  toying  play- 


CHAP.  VIII.]  THE   ROMAN   EMPIRE.  743 

fully  and  fondly  with  the  polished  throat  of  his  wife  Caesonia,  he  was 
distracted  between  the  desire  of  caressing  it,  which  might  be  often  re- 
peated, and  that  of  cutting  it,  which  could  be  gratified  but  once. 
Claudius  and  Nero  were  varieties  of  the  same  species, — the  former, 
an  imbecile  tyrant — the  tool  of  profligate  associates, — the  latter  a 
very  amateur  of  murder ;  but  what  shocks  us  even  more  than  the 
baseness  of  the  later  Caesars,  (for  they  may  be  justly  entitled  to  the- 
apology  of  hereditary  madness  or  lunacy,)  are  the  public  demonstra- 
tions of  approval  with  which  their  blackest  crimes  were  sometimes 
greeted  ; — as  when  Tiberius  received  the  thanks  of  the  senate  for  his 
clemency  in  putting  to  death  the  unfortunate  and  virtuous  widow  of 
Grermanicus — because  she  was  not  publicly  strangled,  nor  her  body 
drawn  through  the  streets  like  that  of  a  public  malefactor ; — and 
when  Nero  received  the  congratulations  of  all  orders  of  men  for  the 
infamous  murder  of  his  own  mother. 

7.  And  yet,  fifty  years  before  the  times  of  the  emperors,  the  Ro- 
mans were  a  people  of  severe  morals,  and  stern  republican  virtues. 
Can  it  be  that  such  monsters  as  Tiberius,  Caligula,  and  Nero, — their 
abettors  and  parasites — the  degraded  senate — and  the  fickle  and  de- 
praved populace, — were  the  immediate  descendants  of  the  same  race  ? 
If  so,  what  causes  could  have  produced  this  rapid  and  wonderful  de- 
clension from  virtue  ?  Some  of  them  may  be  traced  to  the  great 
revolutionary  struggles  which  gave  birth  to  the  empire  : — for  revo- 
lutionary times  relax  all  modes  of  moral  obligation,  and  introduce  a 
general  licentiousness  and  depravity  in  private  life.  In  the  second 
place,  the  civil  wars  swept  away  the  greatest  and  best  of  the  Roman 
nobility,  together  with  vast  numbers  of  the  better  classes  of  the  Ro- 
man people ;  and,  to  fill  their  places,  Syrians,  Cappadocians,  Phryg- 
ians, and  great  numbers  of  enfranchised  slaves,  were  brought  from 
the  provinces;  so  that,  in  a  single  generation,  Republican  Rome  was 
transmuted  into  a  nation  of  barbarians,  with  a  strong  taint  of 
Asiatic  luxury  and  depravity.8-  It  has  been  estimated  that,  in  the 
time  of  Nero,  not  one  man  in  six  was  of  pure  Roman  descent. 
Juvenal  complains  that  long  before  his  time,  the  Orontes  (a  river  of 
Syria)  had  mingled  its  impure  waters  with  the  Tiber.  Such,  not- 
withstanding all  the  splendors  and  glory  of  the  imperial  city,  was 
the  character  of  its  population  under  the  rule  of  the  Caesars. 

\  a.  Lucent,  after  enumerating  Galatians,  Syrians,  Cappadocians,  Gauls,  Celtiberians,  Arme- 
nians, Cilicians,  &.C.,  says :— 

M  nam  post  civilia  bella 

Hie  populus  Romanus  erit." 


744  PHILOSOPHY   OF  HISTORY.  [PART  III. 

II. 

8.  The  youthful  energies  of  a  growing  republic,  and  the  martial 
virtues  of  the  people,  had  marked  the  first  seven  centuries  of  Rome's 
existence  with  a  rapid  succession  of  conquests ;  but  Augustus  saw 

the  necessity  of  relinquishing  the  design  of  subduing  the 
POLICY*  wn°le  earth  ;  and  in  his  will  he  bequeathed,  as  a  valuable 

legacy  to  his  successors,  the  advice  to  restrict  the  empire 
to  the  limits  which  it  had  already  attained.  It  was  perhaps  fortunate 
for  the  repose  of  surrounding  nations  that  the  system  recommended 
by  Augustus  was  adopted  by  the  fears  and  vices  of  his  immediate 
successors. 

9.  The  only  departure  from  this  peaceful  policy,  previous  to  the 
reign  of  Trajan,  was  the  conquest  of  Britain  during  the  first  century 
of  the   Christian  era,  after  a  war  of  forty  years'  duration, — a  war, 
gays  Gibbon,  "  undertaken  by  the  most  stupid,  maintained  by  the 
most  dissolute,  and  terminated  by  the  most  timid,  of  all  the  Roman 
emperors."     In  the  person  of  Trajan,  the  Romans  received  a  mili- 
tary emperor  ambitious  of  fame  and  emulous  of  the  martial  glories 
of  Alexander.     After  a  war  of  five  years  he  added  Dacia  to  the  Ro- 
man  dominions ;  and  in  an  expedition  against  the  nations  of  the 
East  reduced  Armenia,  Mesopotamia,  and  Assyria,  while  his  fleets, 
setting  sail  on  the  waters  of  the  Persian  Gulf,  ravaged  the  coasts  of 
Arabia. 

10.  But  Adrian,  the  successor  of  Trajan,  adopting  the  maxims  of 
Augustus,  withdrew  the  Roman  garrisons  from  the  newly-conquered 
provinces,  and  once  more  established  the  Euphrates  and  the  Danube 
as  the  frontiers  of  the  empire.     The  two  Autonines  pursued,  with 
trifling  exceptions,  the  same  policy,  and  by  the  justice  which  they 
exhibited  in  their  foreign  relations,  and  the  firmness  with  which  they 
repelled  aggressions,  caused  the  Roman  name  to  be  respected  and 
revered  among  the  most  remote  nations. 

11.  Succeeding  rulers,  relinquishing  the  idea  of  extending  the  do- 
minions of  the  already  overgrown  empire,  aimed  only  to  preserve  its 
ancient  limits  ;  but  the  task  grew  more  and  more  difficult;  gradually 
province  after  province  was  abandoned,  till  the  Roman  world  was  re- 
duced to  the  narrow  limits  of  Italy  ;  Rome  was  repeatedly  pillaged  by 
barbarians  ;  arid,  finally,  a  Gothic  kingdom  was  established  on  the  ruins 
of  the  Empire  of  the  Caesars.     The  causes  of  the  decline  and  fall  of  the 
Roman  empire,  and  the  consequences  resulting  to  European  civilization 
from  the  unloosing  and  breaking  up  of  the  elements  which  composed 


CHAP.  VIII]  THE   ROMAN  EMPIRE.  745 

the  complex  fabric,  present  one  of  the  most  interesting  fields  of  philo- 
sophical research  which  history  furnishes.  A  brief  view  of  this  important 
subject  is  all  that  can  be  given  here  ;  and  as  a  just  understanding  of  it 
presupposes  a  knowledge  of  the  internal  condition  of  the  Roman 
world  at  the  period  when  its  prosperity  had  reached  its  height,  we 
shall  first  take  a  survey  of  the  elements  of  Roman  society  as  they 
existed  in  the  age  of  the  Antonines,  near  the  close  of  the  second  cen- 
tury of  the  Christian  era.  It  is  immediately  after  this  period,  with 
the  accession  of  the  young  ruffian  Commodus,  that  Gibbon  com- 
mences his  story  of  the  decline  of  the  empire. 

III. 

12.  In  the  age  of  the  Antonines,  the  Roman  dominion  extended 
from  the  wall  of  Scotland  to  the  Euphrates ;  and  from 

the  Rhine  and  the  Danube  to  Mount  Atlas,  the  African  CONDITION  OF 
deserts,  and  the  cataracts  of  the  Nile ;  embracing  the   THE  ROMAH 
fairest  regions  of  the  known  world,  and  the  most  civil-  THE  AGfi  OF 
ized  portions  of  mankind.     The  vast  empire  included    THE  ANT°- 
within  these  limits  was  under  an   absolute  monarchy, 
disguised  by  the  forms  of  the  old  Roman  commonwealth ;  for  the 
wisest  emperors  professed  themselves  the  accountable  ministers  of  the 
senate,  and,  disdaining  the  pomp  and  ceremony  of  Eastern  royalty, 
cloaked  their  real  power  under  the  garb  of  republican  simplicity. 

13.  When  Augustus  subverted  the  republic,  he  artfully  retained 
the  ancient  forms,  professed  to  restore  the  senate  to  its  ancient 
rights,  and,  while  he  deluded  the  people  with  the  image  of  civil 
liberty,  forged  for  them  the  chains  of  despotism.     The  true  character 
of  his  early  public  acts  was  concealed  under  the  mask  of  hypocrisy; 
and  if  he  at  last  became,  as  he  was  called,  the  "  father  of  the  people," 
it  was  because  his  own  interests  did  not  run  counter  to  the  public 
welfare.     Succeeding  emperors,  down  to  the  time  of  Commodus,  if 
we  except  those  tyrants  who  violated  every  law  of  decency  and  every 
rule  of  policy,  imitated  the  democratic  affectation  of  Augustus,  and, 
in   all  the  offices  of  life,  mingled  freely  with  their  subjects,  and 
studiously  affected  to  place  themselves  on  a  level  with  the  tribunes, 
censors,  and  consuls,  of  former  times,  the  powers  of  whose  offices 
were  now  united  in  the  royal  prerogative.     The  emperor,  by  virtue 
of  his  office,  was  commander  of  the  army  and  navy ;  as  consul,  he 
was  the  minister  of  the  senate,  whose  decrees  he  dictated,  and  seemed 
to  obey;  and  as  tribune,  he  was  the  representative  of  the  people; 


746  PHILOSOPHY   OF   HISTORY.  [?AET  III. 

while  the  dignity  of  supreme  pontiff  gave  him  the  management  of 
religion  ;  and  that  of  censor,  the  control  of  morals  and  education. 
To  sum  up  the  extent  of  the  royal  prerogatives,  not  only  could  the 
emperor  make  peace,  declare  war,  ratify  treaties,  and  employ  the 
revenue  at  discretion,  but  by  a  comprehensive  decree  of  the  senate 
conferring  the  powers  of  former  emperors  upon  Vespasian,  he  was 
empowered  to  execute  whatever  he  should  judge  advantageous  to  the 
empire,  and  agreeable  to  the  majesty  of  things,  private  or  public,  hu- 
man or  divine.  Yet  the  Romans,  abhorring  the  name  of  king,  looked 
with  complacency  upon  the  title  of  "  Augustus,"  and  cherished  the 
illusion  that  it  represented  only  the  chief  magistrate  of  a  free  com- 
monwealth. 

14.  During  the  reigns  of  several  emperors  after  Claudius,  there 

was  a  gradual  increase  of  prosperity  in  the  Roman  prov- 

POPULAT10N.    .  3  .  «  i     ,•  i   •    i  MI 

mces,  and  an  increase  of  population,  which  was  still  con- 
fined to  the  towns ;  for  the  Romans  never  dispersed  themselves  over 
the  country,  like  the  occupants  of  the  small  farms  and  plantations  of 
modern  times.  Italy  was  gradually  recovering  from  the  desolation 
which  civil  wars  had  spread  over  it,  but  Greece  remained  a  poor  and 
desolated  country.  The  entire  population  of  the  Roman  empire  in 
the  time  of  Claudius  was  estimated  by  Gibbon  at  one  hundred  and 
twenty  millions,  of  all  classes  and  both  sexes,  one  half  of  whom  were 
slaves.  Yet  Robertson  estimated  that  there  were  twice  as  many 
slaves  as  freemen  ;  and  Mr.  Blair  that  the  number  of  the  former  was 
three  times  the  greatest. 

15.  The  slaves  of  the  Romans  consisted,  for  the  most  part,  of  bar- 
SLAVES      harian  captives  taken  in  war,  and  sold  by  the  government, 
OF  THE      or  purchased  from  the  surrounding  nations.     The  deriva- 
ROMANS.     ^on  Of  tne  ^erm  perpetuates  a  historic  truth ;  but  its 

present  meaning,  which  appears  to  have  arisen  in  France,  in  the 
eighth  century,  shows  a  strange  perversion  of  the  original  sense  of 
the  appellation.  Slava,  the  root  of  the  term  Slavonian,  signified 
renown,  glory  ;  but  when,  in  the  eighth  century,  the  French  princes 
became  rich  in  Slavonian  captives,  the  national  appellation  of  the 
Slaves  (Slavonians)  was  degraded  from  the  signification  of  glory  to 
that  of  servitude. 

16.  The  practice  of  reducing  captives  to  slavery  rendered  the 
wars  of  the  ancients  extremely  sanguinary,  and  the  battles  obstinate; 
and  as  it  could  hardly  be  expected  that  those  suddenly  reduced  from 
a  state  of  independence  to  servitude  would  neglect  any  opportunity 


CHAP.  VIIL]  THE  ROMAN   EMPIRE.  747 

of  recovering  their  freedom,  they  were  subjected  to  the  strictest  dis- 
cipline, and  often  treated  with  extreme  cruelty.  During  a  long 
period,  the  master  exercised  the  jurisdiction  of  life  and  death  over 
his  slaves;  but  under  the*  reign  of  Adrian  and  the  Antonines,  the 
protection  of  the  laws  was  extended  to  this  unfortunate  part  of  the  Ro- 
man population  ;  and,  on  a  just  complaint  of  intolerable  treatment,  the 
slave  either  obtained  his  freedom,  or  a  less  cruel  master.  Slaves  of 
promising  genius  were  sometimes  instructed  in  the  arts  and  sciences; 
they  were  also  found  in  the  learned  professions ;  and  many  of  the 
Roman  physicians  belonged  to  this  class  of  the  population.  The 
price  of  a  slave  was  regulated  by  the  variations  of  supply  and  de- 
mand, and  the  degree  of  skill  and  talent  which  he  displayed.  In  the 
camp  of  Lucullus  an  ox  sold  for  one  shilling,  and  a  slave  for  three : 
by  the  conquests  of  Titus  and  Vespasian  the  Jewish  slaves  so  glutted 
the  market  that  no  man  would  buy  them ;  but  a  learned  slave,  who 
had  been  bred  and  taught  by  one  Atticus,  sold  for  many  hundred 
pounds  sterling.  Many  of  the  Roman  slaves  were  manumitted  by 
their  masters ;  when  they  became  what  were  termed  liberti  or  free- 
men ;  but  after  manumission  they  obtained  no  more  than  the  private 
rights  of  citizens,  being  excluded  from  either  civil  or  military  honors ; 
and  it  was  not  until  the  third  or  fourth  generation  that  all  traces  of 
their  servile  origin  were  obliterated. 

17.  The  free  inhabitants  of  the  Roman  world,  apart  from  the 
freedmen  and  their  descendants,  were  not  all,  for  a  long 
period,  Roman  citizens.  We  have  seen  that  at  an  early  WHO  WE* 
period  of  the  Republic  the  right  of  citizenship,  which 
was  at  first  confined  to  a  part  of  the  population  of  Rome,  was  ex- 
tended to  the  freemen  of  nearly  all  the  Italian  towns.  It  was  the 
policy  of  the  early  emperors  gradually  to  enlarge  the  nation  of  Ro- 
man citizens  by  admitting  the  most  faithful  and  deserving  of  the 
provincials  to  the  privileges  of  citizenship ;  and  in  the  age  of  the 
Antonines  this  freedom  had  been  bestowed  upon  the  greater  pro- 
portion of  the  subjects  of  the  empire.  The  boon  stimulated  the 
national  spirit,  and  was  accompanied  with  solid  advantages  so  long 
as  it  implied  the  distinction  which  was  designed  to  be  kept  up  by 
Augustus ;  for  with  the  title  of  citizens  the  people  acquired  the  im- 
portant benefit  of  the  Roman  laws,  and  the  right  of  a  free  competition 
for  the  highest  honors  of  the  State;  and  it  is  asserted  by  Tacitus 
that  the  grandsons  of  the  Gauls  who  besieged  Julius  Caesar  in  one 


748  PHILOSOPHY  OF   HISTORY.  [PART  IIL 

of  his  campaigns,  commanded  legions,  governed  provinces,  and  were 
admitted  to  the  senate  of  Rome. 

18.  During  more  than  a  century  and  a-half  previous  to  the  reign 
of  Augustus,  the  Italians  had  been  exempt  from  taxation,  while  the 

tribute  extorted  from  the  provinces  enriched  Rome,  and 

TAXATION.  i        11  /. 

defrayed  all  expenses  of  government.  Augustus,  com- 
plaining of  the  insufficiency  of  the  provincial  tributes,  introduced  a 
system  of  customs  and  duties,  and  caused  the  real  and  personal 
property  of  the  citizens  to  be  assessed,  and  taxes  on  the  same  to  be 
paid  into  the  treasury  :  he  did  not  extend  the  system  of  direct  taxa- 
tion to  the  subjects  who  were  not  citizens,  but  demanded  of  them  the 
customary  tribute.  Caracalla  was  led  to  extend  constitutional  free- 
dom over  the  whole  empire,  from  the  necessity,  under  which  he  had 
placed  himself,  of  gratifying  the  insatiable  avarice  of  his  army ;  as 
the  proffered  boon  furnished  him  the  pretext  for  demanding  of  the 
provincials  the  customary  taxes  paid  by  the  citizens,  while  he  con- 
tinued to  extort  from  them  the  provincial  tribute  from  which  they 
were  legally  exempted.  During  the  reign  of  Alexander  Severus  the 
provincials  were  relieved,  in  great  measure,  from  this  excessive  taxa- 
tion ;  but  under  succeeding  emperors  they  were  crushed  to  the  earth 
and  impoverished,  and  the  country  desolated,  by  heavy  contributions 
of  corn,  wine,  oil,  and  meat,  in  addition  to  the  ordinary  taxes  which 
were  exacted  for  the  court,  the  army,  and  the  capital. 

19.  Among  the  causes,  and  perhaps  the  most  important  of  them, 
that  concurred  to  let  in  the  barbarians,  and  thereby  contributed  to 
the  overthrow  of  the  empire,  was  the  depopulation  of  the  provincial 
districts,  occasioned  by  the  excess  of  taxation,  and  by  the  competition 
which   they  had  to  encounter  with  the  grain-growing  districts  of 
Egypt,  Libya,  and  Sicily.     It  has  often  been  alleged  that  the  luxu- 
ries that  flowed  in  from  the  conquered  nations  corrupted  the  Roman 
people,  and  destroyed  their  military  virtues — that  the  legions  could 
not  be  recruited  from  Roman  citizens — and  that  the  national  defence 
was  thus  left  to  the  uncertain  fidelity  of  the  semi-barbarous  tribes  on 
the  frontiers. 

20.  But  we  know  that,   although  corruption  had  pervaded  the 
higher  ranks  of  the  Romans,  and  subjected  to  its  influences  the  chief 
cities  of  the  empire,  the  great  mass  of  the  people  were  suffering  under 
an  excess  of  poverty ;  and  that  it  was  in  the  lower  ranks,  and  in  the 
country  districts,  that  the  greatest  and  most  fatal  weakness  first  ap- 
peared.    Of  the  amount  of  taxation  in  proportion  to  property  we 


CHAP.  VIII.]  THE   ROMAN  EMPIRE.  749 

are  ignorant,  as  the  tributary  persons  were  fictitious — several  indi- 
gent citizens  being  united  under  one  head,  while  the  wealthy  pro- 
vincial represented  several.  In  a  poetical  request  sent  to  one  who 
had  recently  been  appointed  governor  of  Gaul,  a  wealthy  poet,  per- 
sonifying his  tribute  under  the  figure  of  a  triple  monster,  the  Geryon 
of  the  Grecian  fables,  implores  the  new  Hercules  to  save  his  life  by 
cutting  off  his  three  heads. 

21.  The  fixedness  of  the  amount  on  each  municipality  was  a  most 
grievous  oppression  to  the  frontier  districts ;  and  as  the  tax  seldom 
suffered  any  diminution,  while  the  number  of  freemen  on  whom  it 
fell  yearly  grew  less  as  disasters  of  war  laid  waste  the  provinces, 
every  attempt  at  productive  industry  was  crushed,  and  the  strongest 
incentive  to  defensive  exertions  taken  away.     Added   to   this,  the 
grain-growing  countries  of  Egypt,  Libya,  and  Sicily,  that  were  now 
embraced  in  the  Roman  dominions,  and  which  rewarded  the  labors 
of  the  husbandman  some  fifty  or  sixty  fold  over  the  produce  of  the 
lands  of  Italy,  Greece,  and  Spain,  crushed,  by  free  competition,  all 
agricultural  efforts  in  the  latter  countries,  and  forced  the  cultivators 
there  to  retire  from  the  unequal  contest,  and  devote  their  lands  to 
pasturage,  which  required  not  one-fourth  of  the  population   that 
would  otherwise  have  been  devoted  to  tillage.     Thus  an  impoverished 
population  was  driven  back  from  the  frontier  districts  upon  the  cities 
of  the  interior,  where  indolence,  with  all  its  attendant  evils  of  poverty 
and  crime,  contributed  to  the  destruction  of  the  last  remains  of  Ro- 
man virtue. 

22.  The  Roman  army  was  the  powerful  instrument  on  which  the 
safety  of  the  empire  was  thought  to  depend,  by  which  its  extensive 
conquests  were  defended,  and  to  which  its  honor  was         THE 
principally  intrusted.     The  early  Romans  were  a  nation      ROMAN 

of  warriors  ;  and  in  the  purer  ages  of  the  commonwealth  ARMY- 
the  constitution  permitted  the  ranks  of  the  army  to  be  filled  with 
citizens  only,  who  were  interested  in  maintaining  the  government  and 
institutions  to  which  they  owed  their  safety  and  happiness,  while  the 
officers  were  for  the  most  part  distinguished  for  their  liberal  birth 
and  education.  Thus  the  profession  of  arms  was  dignified  by  the 
rank  and  character  of  those  who  entered  the  service ;  and  as  the 
Roman  conquests  extended,  the  proportion  of  the  subjects  increased 
over  the  number  of  citizens ;  but  as  the  civil  wars  began  to  encroach 
on  the  public  freedom,  the  armies  were  often  recruited  from  the  most 
degraded  of  the  populace,  and  from  the  camps  of  the  barbarians ; 


750  PHILOSOPHY   OF   HISTORY.  [PART  IIL 

and  the  public  virtue  of  the  legions  witnessed  a  corresponding  de- 
cline. Sallust  informs  us  that  Marius  levied  troops  for  his  African 
expedition  from  all  who  were  inclined  to  volunteer,  without  observing 
the  ancient  method  of  enrolling  those  of  certain  classes  only ;  and 
Caesar  formed  one  of  his  legions  of  Gauls  and  strangers ;  although 
he  afterwards  extended  to  them  the  privileges  of  citizenship  for  their 
reward.  At  a  later  period  entire  legions  of  barbarian  troops,  who 
served  the  readiest  those  who  paid  the  highest,  formed  alternately 
the  terror  and  support  of  the  tottering  empire. 

23.  The  Roman  emperors,  sensible  of  the  decline  of  public  virtue 
in  the  army,  endeavored  to  supply  the  defect  by  motives  of  honor, 
the  fear  of  punishment,  and  the  hope  of  reward.     The  troops  were 
required  to  take  an  oath  annually,  with  every  circumstance  of  so- 
lemnity, never  to  desert  their  standard,  the  golden  eagle  which  glit- 
tered in  front  of  their  legion,  to  be  obedient  to  their  officers,  and 
even  to  sacrifice  their  lives  for  the  safety  of  their  emperor,  and  the 
good  of  their  country.      Cowardice  or   disobedience    received    the 
severest  punishment ;  and  the  soldiers  were  taught  to  dread  their 
officers  more  than  the  enemy.     Promotion  was  ever  open  to  ability 
and  valor.     In  the  time  of  Diocletian  the  annual  stipend  of  a  private 
soldier  was  twelve  pieces  of  gold — equivalent  to  about  forty-seven 
dollars  of  our   money.     After  twenty  years'   service,   the   veteran 
received  about  four  hundred  and  forty-five  dollars,  or  a  proportional 
amount  of  land. 

24.  Some  idea  of  the-  military  strength  of  the  empire  may  be 
obtained  from  the  number  enrolled  in  the  army,  which,  under  the 
peace  establishment  of  Adrian,  formed  a  standing  force  of   about 
three  hundred  and  seventy-five  thousand  men.     This  formidable  body 
was  divided  into  thirty  legions  or  brigades,  each  of  which,  with  its 
attendant  auxiliaries,  numbered  about  twelve  thousand  five  hundred 
men.     The  legions  were  stationed  on  the  banks  of  large  rivers,  and 
along  the  frontiers  of  the  surrounding  barbarous  nations, — the  main 
strength  of  the  army  being  upon  the  Rhine  and  the  Danube.     The 
court  of  the  monarch,   and   the   capital,  were   defended  by  about 
twenty  thousand  chosen   soldiers,  who,  under  the  titles  of  "  City 
Cohorts,"  and   "Praetorian   Guards,"   were  the  authors  of  almost 
every  revolution  that  distracted  the  empire,  from  the  time  of  Au- 
gustus, by  whom  they  were  instituted,  to  that  of  Constantine  the 
Great,  who,  in  the  war  with  Maxentius,  the  tyrant  of  Italy,  almost 


CHAP.  VIII.]  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE.  751 

annihilated  those  haughty  troops  in  battle,  and  afterwards  dispersed 
the  rejnnant  among  the  legions  on  the  frontiers. 

25.  In  military  tactics,  armor,  and  discipline,  the  Romans  in  the 
time  of  the  empire  were  far  in  advance  of  the  surrounding  nations. 
The  Macedonian  Phalanx  was  superior  to  the  Grecian,  and  the  Roman 
legion  to  both.     The  former,  presenting  sixteen  ranks  of  long  pikes 
wedged  together  in  closest  array,  was  well  adapted  to  resist  attack ; 
but  the  superior  activity  of  the   Roman  legion,  which  was  usually 
drawn  up  eight  deep,  with  intervals  of  three  feet  between  the  files 
as  well  as  the  ranks,  rendered  the  latter  a  more  available  instrument 
on  the  field  of  battle.     The  armor  of  a  heavy  armed  Roman  soldier 
consisted  of  an  open  helmet,  a  breastplate  or  coat  of  mail,  greaves 
on  the  legs,  an  ample  concave  buckler  on  the  left  arm,  a  broadsword, 
a  light  spear  in  the  left  hand,  and  a  ponderous  javelin  in  the  right. 
The  utmost  length  of  the  javelin  was  about  six  feet.     It  was  termi- 
nated by  a  massy  triangular  point  of  steel  twelve  or  eighteen  inches 
in  length  ;  and  when  launched,  by  a  powerful-hand,  a  distance  of  ten 
or  twelve  paces,  no  shield  or  corslet  could  resist  its  weight.    Besides 
his  arms,  the  Roman  soldier  carried  his  tent  furniture,  instruments 
of  fortification,  and  provisions  for  many  days ;  and  under  all  this 
weight  he  was  trained  to  march  in  a  regular  step. 

26.  The  cavalry  were  incased  in  a  coat  of  mail,  a  helmet,  and 
light  boots ;  they  also  bore  on  their  left  arms  an  oblong  shield,  while 
the  iavelin,  and  a  long  broadsword,  were  their  principal  weapons  of 
offence.     A  Roman  camp  was  an  exact  quadrangle  on  level  ground, 
surrounded  by  a  rampart  of  earth  usually  twelve  feet  high,  armed 
with  strong  and  intricate  palisades,  defended  by  a  ditch  of  twelve 
feet  in  depth  as  well  as  in  breadth,  from  which  the  earth  of  the  ram- 
part had  been  taken.     The  Roman  navy  of  Augustus  and  his  suc- 
cessors was  small,  as  compared  with  the  army,  and  was  composed 
principally  of  two  permanent  fleets,  the  one  stationed  at  Ravenna  on 
the  Adriatic,  and  the  other  at  Misenum  in  the  Bay  of  Naples.     A 
considerable  force  was  stationed  at  Frejus,  on  the  southern  coast  of 
Gaul ;  the  Euxine  was  guarded  by  thirty  or  forty  ships ;  and  a  few 
vessels  preserved  the  communication  between  Gaul  and  Britain.    The 
ships  seldom  exceeded  three  ranks  of  oars,  as  those  of  greater  burden 
were  considered  too  unwieldly  for  real  service. 

27.  The  religion  of  the  Romans,  which,  in  the  early  ages  of  the 
republic,  preserved  a  homogeneousness  of  character,  gradually  verged 
into  a  complexity  of  rites   and   ceremonies,  and    a  confused   min- 


752  PHILOSOPHY   OF  HISTORY.  [PART  IIL 

gling  of  systems,  as  conquest  enlarged  the  limits  of  the  empire  ;  but 

RELIGION     human  sacrifices  were  abolished  in  Gaul  by  the  emperors 

OF  THE      Tiberius  and  Claudius,  not  so  much  from  motives  of  hu- 

Du^iNGTaK  inanity,  as  f°r  tne  purpose  of  suppressing  the  dangerous 

EMPIRE,      power  of  the  Druids ;  and  the  rites  that  exhibited  the 

abject  superstition  of  the  Egyptians  were  frequently  prohibited  at 

Rome. 

28.  The  Roman  government,  however,  often  departed  from  the 
system  of  general  toleration  in  its  treatment  of  the  Christian  con- 
verts, the  growth  of  whose  numbers  in  the  midst  of  paganism,  and 
the  final  triumph  of  whose  religion  over  all  opposition,  is  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  facts  which  history  records.     An  account  of  the  rise 
and  progress  of  Christianity  must  necessarily  be  passed  over  in  a 
work  like  the  present,  for  want  of  room ;  but  the  influence  which 
Christianity  has  exerted  in  the  affairs  of  Europe,  and  the  effects  of 
its  principles  upon  the  civilization  of  mankind,  form  an  important 
part  of  subsequent  history. 

29.  The  various  pagan  religions  that  were  tolerated  in  the  Roman 
empire,  were  in  general  considered  by  philosophers  as  equally  true, 
or  false,  and  equally  useful ;  and  the  Syrian  and  the  Egyptian,  the 
Greek,  the  Roman,  and  the  barbarian,  could  easily  persuade  them- 
selves, that  under  different  names  and  different  forms  of  worship, 
they  adored  the  same  deities.     As  a  bond  of  society,  the  advantages 
of  some  religion  were  admitted  by  all ;  the  persuasion  that  either  in 
this,  or  a  future  life,  the  crime  of  perjury  will  be  punished,  was  gen- 
erally acknowledged,  although  Lucian  laments  that,  in  his  time,  this 
apprehension  had  lost  much  of  its  effect.     But  the  gods  of  the 
heathen,  though  still  openly  respected  by  all,  had  long  been  regarded 
with  secret  contempt  by  the  polished  and  enlightened ;  and  in  the 
age  of  the  Antoniries  a  general  infidelity  on  the  subject  of  religion 
pervaded  the  minds  of  the  people. 

30.  Something,  however,  was  needed  to  supply  the  place  of  the 
waning  pagan  mythology ;  for  the  human  mind  cannot  rest  without 
some  principles  of  religious  belief.     The  educated  pagans  found  a 
refuge  in  the  metaphysical  speculations  of  the  Greek  philosophers ; 
while  the  multitude  gave  themselves  up  to  a  thousand  superstitions, 
which  exercised  a  great  influence  over  many  of  the  better  informed 
classes  also.     Every  unusual,  unforeseen  event,  was  converted  into 
an  omen ;  the  science  of  Astrology  was  sedulously  cultivated ;  in- 
terpreters of  dreams,  and  fortune-tellers,  exercised  a  gainful  pro- 


CHAP.  VIII]  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE.  753 

fession ;  witchcraft,  in  its  most  gloomy  features,  seems  to  have  been 
universally  believed  in ;  and  while  the  power  of  magicians  to  raise 
the  dead  was  long  a  disputed  question  with  the  learned,  it  was  never 
doubted  that  ghosts  were  wont  to  rise  of  their  own  accord.  What 
renders  these  superstitions  peculiarly  deserving  of  notice  is  the 
strong  hold  which  they  had  taken  of  the  popular  mind  ;  for  the  most 
unnatural  tales  respecting  them  are  related  by  the  best  Roman 
writers  as  matters  of  veritable  history. 

31.  Of  the  social  morality  of  the  Romans  little  need  be  said  after 
the  examples  which   have   been   ffiven,   of  unbounded 

,  .  ?.,.  SOCIAL 

licentiousness  and  crime  in  the  nobility  and  the  emper-    MORALITY 
ors.     The  manners  and  morals  of  the  court  ever  exert      OF  THE 
a  commanding  influence  upon  the  people,  from  the  same 
principle  that  the  tyranny  of  a  despotic  government  is  almost  uni- 
versally imitated  in  the  private  life  of  its  subjects.     While  a  con- 
tempt of  the  decencies  of  life  distinguished  the  Roman  tyrants,  a 
general  dissoluteness  of  manners  pervaded  the  people ;  and  Tacitus 
forcibly  contrasts  the  virtues  of  the  women  of  the  rude  German 
tribes,  with  the  shameless  conduct  of  the  Roman  ladies.     A  state  of 
general  concubinage  prevailed,  and  was  not  deemed  dishonorable ; 
and  infanticide,  the  prevailing  vice  of  antiquity,  was  tolerated  until 
it  was  restrained  by  the  laws  of  Valentinian  and  his  associates. 

32.  In  addition  to  the  exceeding  profligacy  of  the  court,  two  other 
agents,  domestic  slavery,  and  the  barbarous  nature  of  the  favorite 
public  spectacles,  may  be  assigned  as  prominent  causes  of  the  exceed- 
ing depravity  of  morals  in  the  times  of  the  empire.     The  slave 
merchants  formed  a  large  class,  notorious  for  dishonesty  ;  and  while 
the  moral  character  of  the  slaves  was  ruined  by  their  degraded  state, 
owing  to  the  vast  multitudes  and  general  distribution  of  these  un- 
fortunate people,  society  was  infected  by  their  vices.     Again,  the 
manumitted  slaves,  or  freedmeu,  debased  by  servitude,  were,  as  a 
class,  the  most  rapacious  and  insolent  part  of  the  population. 

33.  The  Romans  under  the  empire,  gradually  neglecting   such 
amusements  as  afforded  intellectual  recreation,  turned  with  passion- 
ate enthusiasm  to  the  spectacles  of  the  amphitheatre,  among  which, 
mock  sea  fights,  and  the  combats  of  gladiators  with  each  other  and 
with  wild  beasts,  were  the  most  favored  diversions.     Among  the  sea 
fights,  Claudius  exhibited  one  which  exceeded  all  others  in  pomp  as 
well  as  atrocity.     On  the  Fucine  Lake  he  caused  two  fleets  of  gal- 
leys, of  fifty  sail  each,  to  be  constructed ;  these  he  manned  with 

48 


754  PHILOSOPHY   OF  HISTORY.  [PART  III. 

nineteen  thousand  slaves  and  criminals,  whom  he  caused  to  fight  for 
the  amusement  of  himself  and  court,  and  the  degenerate  Romans, 
until  the  greater  part  were  slaughtered.  The  gladiators,  usually  re- 
fractory slaves  or  prisoners  of  war  recently  taken,  were  kept  in  large 
buildings  or  prisons,  and  subjected  to  a  long  course  of  training,  pre- 
vious to  being  brought  forward  to  contest  in  the  arena.  Nearly 
every  petty  town  in  Italy  had  its  amphitheatre,  where  the  gladiators 
were  compelled  to  fight ;  and  thousands  of  them  were  annually 
slaughtered  by  each  other  before  the  eyes  of  the  Roman  people,  who 
delighted  in  these  spectacles  of  blood  and  cruelty.  Tragedy  had  no 
part  in  Roman  literature  ;  but  in  gross  reality  it  was  continually  be- 
fore the  eyes  of  the  people,  rendering  their  hearts  seared  and  callous 
to  human  suffering,  and  furnishing  daily  provocations  to  the  appetite 
for  blood.  The  cruelties  of  the  circus  and  amphitheatre  are  an  addi- 
tional key  to  the  atrocities  of  the  Roman  Imperators.  To  the  influence 
of  Christianity  must  be  attributed  the  final  suppression  of  these  human 
sacrifices,  in  the  reign  of  the  emperor  Honorius. 

IV. 

34.  But,  turning  from  these  gloomy  pictures  of  national  immor- 
ality, we  are  compelled  to  admit  that,  notwithstanding  the  seeds  of 

decay  which  had  long  been  germinating  in  the  corrupt 
APPEARANCES  soil  of  Roman  degeneracy,  the  empire  presented,  in  the 
OF  GENERAL  age  Of  ^ne  Antonines,  an  outward  appearance  of  general 

PROSPERITY  .  _„,  •        •     i  A  •     i    i  • /**        i  * 

IN  THE  AGE  prosperity.  The  true  principles  ot  social  lite,  laws,  agn- 
OF  THE  culture,  and  science,  which  had  first  been  invented  by 
the  wisdom  of  Athens,  were  then  firmly  established  by 
the  power  of  Rome,  under  whose  auspicious  influence  the  fiercest 
barbarians  were  united  by  an  equal  government  and  common  lan- 
guage. With  the  improvement  of  arts,  population  increased ;  the 
cities  gained  additional  splendor ;  the  beautiful  face  of  the  country 
was  cultivated  and  adorned  like  an  immense  garden ;  and  a  long 
festival  of  peace  was  enjoyed  by  many  nations  forgetful  of  their 
ancient  animosities,  and  delivered  from  the  apprehension  of  future 
dangers, a 

35.  Ancient  Italy  is  stated  by  a  writer  of  the  time  of  Alexander 
Severus,  to  have  contained  eleven  hundred  and  ninety-seven  cities. 
Gaul,  in  the  time  of  Vespasian,  could  boast  of  twelve  hundred ;  and 
Pliny  assigns  three  hundred  and  sixty  to  Spain.     In  the  woods  of 

a.  Gibbon,  i.  34,  quotes  from  Pliny,  Tertulliaa,  &c. 


CHAP.  VIIL]  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE.  755 

Britain  spaces  had  been  opened  for  convenient  and  elegant  habitations. 
York,  the  capital,  was  a  thriving  town  ;  Bath  was  celebrated  for  its 
medicinal  waters ;  and  a  busy  commerce  already  enlivened  the  streets 
of  London.  Carthage  had  arisen  with  new  splendor  from  its  ashes, 
and  was  regarded  as  the  capital  of  Africa.  Corinth  and  Athens  had 
recovered  all  the  advantages  that  could  be  separated  from  sovereignty; 
and  Asia  Minor,  Syria,  and  Egypt,  exhibited  a  multitude  of  cities 
whose  splendor  is  attested  by  their  ruins. 

36.  The  cities  of  the  most  distant  provinces  were  united  with  each 
other,  and  with  the  capital,  by  public  highways,  traces  of  which,  at- 
testing the  solidity  of  their  construction,  are  still  visible  after  the 
lapse  of  fifteen  centuries.     These  roads  consisted  of  a  terrace  of 
earth,  sand,  gravel,  and  cement,  in  many  places  paved  with  large 
stones,  and  near  the  capital  with  blocks  of  granite.     The  most  entire, 
as  well  as  the  most  ancient  of  these  highways,  is  the  Appian  road, 
commenced  in  the  four  hundred  and  forty  second  year  of  Rome,  and 
leading  from  the  capital  through  Capua  to  Brundusium.     At  a  depth 
of  several  feet  is  found,  in  the  Appian  way,  a  pavement  of  hard 
whitish  stone ;  above  is  a  bed  of  pebbles  and  gravel,  on  which  rests 
the  surface  pavement,  composed  of  stones  with  hewn  edges,  and  fitted 
to  each  other  with  the  utmost  exactness.     The  lower  pavement  was 
probably  the  original  road,  and  it  is  supposed  that  the  upper  stratum 
was  added  in  the  times  of  Nerva  and  Trajan. 

37.  The  aqueducts  leading  into  the  capital  were  perhaps  the  most 
extraordinary  works  of  the  Roman  people.     Of  these,  the  nine  which 
supplied  Rome  with  water  in  the  reigns  of  Nerva  and  Trajan,  had  a 
total  length  of  more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles.    The  longest,  the 
Marcian,  extends  to  two  springs  in  the  valley  of  the  Arno,  a  distance 
of  sixty-one  miles ;  and  for  more  than  six  miles,  near  Rome,  it  was 
carried  on  arches,  stupendous  lines  of  which  are  still  to  be  seen  on  the 
left  of  the  Alban  road. 

38.  The  ruins  that  still  exist  of  the  public  buildings  of  the  im- 
perial age — the  amphitheatres,  theatres,  temples,  baths,  porticos,  and 
triumphal  arches — which  embellished  not  only  the  capital  and  Italy, 
but  all  the  Roman  provinces,  would  alone  be  sufficient  to  prove  that 
those  countries  were  once  the  seat  of  a  wealthy,  polite,  and  powerful 
empire.     Until  the  time  of  Augustus,  Roman  architecture,  formed 
upon  Grecian  models,  exhibited  little  originality  of  invention ;  but 
the  great  extent  demanded  for  the  Roman  amphitheatres,  circuses, 
and  similar  edifices,  gave  rise  to  a  new  style  of  building,  the  distin- 


756  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [PAET  IIL 

guishing  feature  of  which  was  the  union  of  the  arch  with  the  Grecian 
orders.  In  the  amphitheatre,  which  Was  best  calculated  for  the  dis- 
play of  the  new  style,  vaults  rose  above  vaults  in  magnificent  gal- 
leries, and  the  huge  fabric  was  adorned  by  beautiful  Grecian  colon- 
nades. Another  change  in  style  was  the  mixture  of  the  Ionic  and 
Corinthian,  which  formed  a  new  order,  called  the  Roman  or  Com- 
posite. 

39.  In  sculpture  and  painting,  the  Romans  discovered  but  little 
nationality  of  art,  as  their  subjects  were  almost  invariably  borrowed 
from  the  mythology  and  legendary  history  of  the  Grecians,  to  the 
exclusion  of  scenes  from  the  annals  or  poetical  traditions  of  their 
own  nation.     Still  these  arts,  especially  that  of  sculpture,  were  culti- 
vated with  considerable  success  by  the  Romans  of  the  imperial  age  ; 
and,  as  exponents  of  thought  and  national  character,  the  existing  re- 
mains of  them  are  highly  valuable.     The  Laocoon  and  the  Apollo 
Belvidere,  works  of  Roman  art  which  exhibit  the  perfection  of  sculp- 
ture, proudly  vie  in  design  with  the  sublimest  conceptions  of  a  Virgil 
or  a  Homer,  and  rival,  in  execution,  the  skill  of  a  Praxit'  les  or  a 
Phid'  ias. 

40.  A  knowledge  of  the  kind  and  degree  of  education  obtained  by 
the  great  mass  of  the  Roman  people  would  be  highly  desirable ;  but 
on  this  point  our  information  is  quite  limited.     It  appears,  however, 
that,  both  in  early  times,  and  throughout  the  period  of  the  empire, 
the  Romans  had  public  schools,  which  were  frequented  by  boys  and 
girls  of  all  ranks.     Reading,  writing,  and  a  little  arithmetic,  were 
the  only  branches  taught  in  them ;  and  here  the  instruction  of  the 
common  people  ended ;  but  the  children  of  the  higher  classes,  who 
were  able  to  obtain  private  tutors,  passed  through  several  subsequent 
courses  of  learning.     First,  the  elements  of  Greek  and  Latin  were 
taught ;  for  the  former  was  the  natural  idiom  of  science,  while  the 
exclusive  use  of  the  latter  was  maintained  in  the  administration  of 
civil  as  well  as  military  government ;  and  every  person  of  liberal 
education  was  expected   to  be  conversant  with   both.     After  the 
mastery  of  the  languages,  the  student  received  lessons  in  rhetoric, 
philosophy,  and  general  literature. 

41.  Until  the  time  of  Vespasian  no  professorships  received  public 
endowment,  the  schools  being  supported  by  the  fees  of  tuition.    Ves- 
pasian, however,  conferred  salaries  on  a  few  teachers  of  literature  and 
eloquence  ;  Adrian  extended  the  scheme;  and  Antoninus  Pius  intro- 
duced, generally,  into  the  principal  towns,  both  in   Italy  and  the 


CHAP.  VIII.]  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE.  757 

provinces,  seminaries  in  which  all  the  higher  branches  of  education 
were  taught  by  salaried  professors.  Mathematics,  however,  and  the 
natural  sciences,  were  almost  universally  neglected ;  and  no  teacher 
of  these  branches  ever  received  a  public  salary,*  Bookshops,  con- 
taining for  sale  manuscript  copies  of  books,  first  appeared  at  Rome 
in  the  time  of  Augustus ;  and  the  business  of  a  copyist  soon  after  be- 
came a  profession  of  considerable  importance.  Private  libraries  of 
considerable  extent  had  accumulated  in  Rome  as  early  as  the  time 
of  Cicero.  The  first  public  library  in  Rome  was  the  celebrated  one 
which  belonged  to  Aristion  of  Athens,  and  which  was  captured  by 
Sylla,  and  placed  by  him  in  the  capitol.  Afterwards,  the  public 
libraries  of  Rome  increased  to  twenty-nine  in  number  under  the 
emperors :  the  most  important  of  which  were  those  founded  by 
Augustus,  Vespasian,  and  Trajan. 

V. 

42.  The  Augustan,  or  Golden  age  of  Roman  literature,  to  which 
the  attention  of  the  reader  has  been  called  in  a  previous  chapter,  was 
followed  by  an  era  commonly  called  the  Silver  Age, 

which  was  marked  by  a  style  quite  inferior  to  the  former,  AGK  OF 
and  a  taste  considerably  corrupted.  "  About  the  time  ROMAN 
of  the  death  of  Augustus,  and  in  the  reign  of  Tiberius," 
says  Niebuhr,  "  the  rhetoricians  exercised  a  paramount  influence 
upon  all  branches  of  literature.  Their  only  object  was  to  produce 
effect  by  sophistical  niceties,  and  a  bombastic  phraseology ;  thoughts 
and  substance  were  considered  of  secondary  importance."11  Gibbon 
says  that  although  the  love  of  letters  was  fashionable  among  the 
subjects  of  Adrian  and  the  Antonines,  yet  "  the  name  of  poet  was 
almost  forgotten  ;  that  of  orator  was  usurped  by  the  sophists ;  and 
a  cloud  of  critics,  of  compilers,  of  commentators,  darkened  the  face 
of  learning."0  The  Greek  writers,  who  seemed  already  to  have  occu- 
pied every  place  of  honor,  were  still  the  models  that  were  faintly 
copied  by  the  Romans ;  and  as  freedom  of  thought  and  expression, 
especially  on  philosophical  and  political  subjects,  could  seldom  be  in- 
dulged in  with  safety  under  the  arbitrary  rule  of  the  emperors,  a  de- 
cided check  was  thereby  placed  on  the  most  elevated  kind  of  prose 
composition. 

43.  Yet  in  the  period  of  the  decline  of  Roman  literature,  and  the 
decay  of  Roman  greatness,  there  are  names  that  would  have  done 

a.  Spalding's  Italy,  i.  324.  b.  Niebuhr,  v.  lect.  briii.  c.  Gibbon,  1.  36. 


758  PHILOSOPHY   OF   HISTORY.  [PAET  HI. 

honor  to  a  better  age  ;  although  perhaps  there  are  few  writers  among 
them  of  original  genius,  or  of  a  style  really  eloquent.  During  the 
Silver  Age  of  Roman  literature,  which  embraced  a  period  of  one 
hundred  and  eighty  years,  from  the  death  of  Augustus  to  that  of 
Marcus  Aurelius,  the  most  distinguished  of  the  Roman  writers  are 
the  poets  Lucan  and  Juvenal,  Seneca  the  moralist  and  philoso- 
pher, Pliny  the  naturalist,  Quintilian  the  rhetorician,  and  Tacitus  the 
historian. 

44.  Of  Lucan,  whom  Gibbon  calls  "  the  inimitable,"  and  Niebuhr, 
the  "  bad  poet,"  the  most  opposite  opinions  have  been  entertained. 
His  principal  work,  and  the  only  one  that  has  come  down  to  us,  the 
Pharsalia,  describes  the  wars  of  Caesar  and  Pompey,  and  depicts  with 
great  vividness  the  death  struggle  of  the  Roman  Republic,  in  which 
the  moral  greatness  of  Cato  rises  in  pious  serenity  above  the  elements 
of  discord  and  the  wreck  of  freedom.     This  poem,  although  it  has 
heavy  faults  of  plan  and  style,  for  which  great  allowance  should  be 
made  to  the  youth  of  the  author,  has  been  characterized  by  a  late 
critica  as  aone  of  the  grandest  in  any  language."     Lucan  died  in  his 
twenty-sixth  year,  a  victim  to  the  tyranny  of  Nero. 

45.  Seneca,  the  paternal  uncle  of  Lucan,  whose  tutorship  of  Nero, 
and  his  murder  by  the  tyrant,  have  given  additional  interest  to  his 
writings,  was  the  most  remarkable  man  of  the  age  in  which  be  lived. 
Professedly  a  stoic  philosopher,  he  was  an  earnest  advocate  of  ascetio 
severity,  and  a  valuable  instructor  of  mankind ;  yet  he  failed  to 
practice  the  lessons  which  he  inculcated  upon  others.     He  is  charged 
with  unbounded  avarice,  and  a  violent  rage  for  popularity,  while  his 
private  life  was  confessedly  irregular,  and  far  from  being  commend- 
able.    The  style  of  Seneca  is  antithetical,  -forced,  and  unnatural ; 
yet  he  was  the  best  writer  of  his  age,  and  although  his  example 
doubtless  precipitated  the  fall  of  Roman  letters,  yet  his  moral  in- 
fluence was  for  the  time  beneficial.     Juvenal,  distinguished  as  an 
eminent  satirical  poet,  died  at  an  advanced  age  in  the  reign  of  Adrian. 
He  painted,  with  a  bold  and  free  hand,  the  vices  and  follies  of  the 
times ;  and  although  not  a  purely  classical  writer,  he  was  a  man  of 
probity,  and  worthy  of  a  better  age. 

46.  Pliny  the  Elder,  called  also  the  Naturalist^  wrote  a  great 
number  of  books  upon  various  subjects ;  but  the  last  and  most  im- 
portant of  his  writings,  was  his  Natural  History.     This  was  a  work 
of  great  erudition,  containing  extracts  from  more  than  two  hundred 

a.  Spalding.    See  his  Italy  and  the  Italian  Islands,  i.  131. 


CHAP.  VIIL]  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE.  759 

volumes;  but  the  plan  is  imperfect,  and  the  execution  exhibits  a 
great  want  of  discrimination  in  the  selection  of  materials,  for  tales 
the  most  marvellous  and  unnatural  are  related  without  once  having 
their  probability  questioned.  Pliny  was  little  more  than  a  mere 
compiler,  and  one  often  unacquainted  with  the  things  about  which 
he  collects  the  opinions  of  others  ;  yet  his  work  is  a  treasure  of  Latin 
terms  and  expressions,  without  the  aid  of  which  it  would  have  been 
almost  impossible  to  reestablish  the  Latin  language.  Pliny  lost  his 
life  by  the  same  eruption  of  Vesuvius  in  which  the  cities,  Hercula- 
neum  and  Pompeii,  were  destroyed. 

47.  Quintilian  the  rhetorician,  a  native  of  Spain,  who  wrote  near 
the  close  of  the  first  century,  and  in  the  early  part  of  the  second,  was 
the  restorer  of  a  better  taste  in  literature,  and  the  most  classical 
writer  of  the  Silver  Age.     The  work  which  has  immortalized  his 
name  is  entitled  "  The  Institutes  of  Oratory," — an  elaborate  treatise 
on  the  rhetorical  -art,  exhibiting  results  of  a  refined  critical  spirit, 
of  a  pure  taste,  of  extensive  and  varied  reading,  and  a  long  course  of 
practical  experience. 

48.  Tacitus,  a  cotemporary  of  Quintilian,  whose  lectures  on  rhet- 
oric he  probably  attended,  was  one  of  Home's  best  historians,  and  in 
some  respects  superior  to  Livy  himself.     His  principal  works  are  his 
life  of  Agricola,  his  annals,  and  his  history ;  the  latter  two  embrac- 
ing a  period  in  Roman  history  of  eighty-one  years,  from  the  death 
of  Augustus  to  that  of  Domitian,  although  portions  of  both  works 
have  been  lost.     The  style  of  Tacitus  is  peculiarly  distinguished  for 
that  brevity  which  is  sparing  of  words  and  prodigal  of  sentiment ; 
and  hence  his  laconic  manner  has  rendered  him  frequently  obscure 
to  modern  readers,  where  he  might  have  been  perfectly  clear  to  a 
scholar  of  his  own  times.     He  has  been  called  the  Father  of  Phi- 
losophical History;    but  his  criticisms  relate   more  to   individual 
character,  than  to  subjects  of  political  speculation. 

VI. 

49.  If  we  turn  to  Greek  literature  in  the  period  of  the  Silver 
Age,  we  find,  amid  the  general  darkness,  a  few  isolated 

_        .          GREEK  LITE- 

authors  whose  names  deserve  honorable  mention.     In  the      EATURE 
reign  of  Augustus  we  meet  with  Dionysius  of  Halicar-  DURING  THE 
nassus,  an  excellent  critic  and  rhetorician,  but  only  a 
tolerable  historian.     He  wrote,  in  Greek,  a  history  of  the  Roman 
people  for  the  use  of  his  countrymen ;  but  with  all  his  study  and  re- 


760  PHILOSOPHY   OF  HISTORY.  [PART  III. 

search  he  was  imperfectly  acquainted  with  the  Roman  constitution. 
His  critical  works  are  valuable.  Dionysius  was  succeeded  by  the 
geographer  Strabo,  who  was  born  at  Pontus,  in  Asia  Minor.  His 
great  work,  which  appears  to  have  occupied  a  considerable  portion 
of  a  long  life,  not  only  shows  a  vast  amount  of  erudition  for  the 
times,  but  bears  on  every  page  evidence  of  a  philosophical  and  re- 
flecting mind.  Both  Dionysius  and  Strabo,  however,  belong  more 
nearly  to  the  Augustan  than  to  the  Silver  Age. 

50.  After  Strabo,  we  meet  with  the  excellent  and  amiable  Plutarch, 
a  native  of  Chseronea  in  Boeotia,  who  was  born  about  the  middle  of 
the  first  century.     Of  the  several  productions  of  this  writer,  that  to 
which  he  owes  his.  celebrity  is  his  "  Lives"  or  biographical  sketches 
of  distinguished  Greeks  and  Romans,  which  contain  a  treasure  of 
practical  philosophy,  of  morality,  and  of  sound  and  useful  maxims, 
the  fruit  of  a  long  experience.     In  the  age  of  the  Antonines,  a  period 
which  witnessed  a  revival  of  Greek  literature,  we  meet  with  Lucian, 
celebrated  for  his  satirical  "  Dialogues,"  exposing  the  vices,  follies, 
and  delusions  of  the  times ;  with  Galen  the  physician,  and  Pausanias 
a  traveller  and  geographical  writer  ;  but  of  the  whole  school  of  Greek 
rhetoricians  of  this  period  it  has  been  justly  said  that  there  is  little 
substance  in  what  they  spoke  and  wrote. 

VII. 

51.  The  later  period  of  Roman  history,  from  the  time  of  the 
Antonines  to  the  fall  of  the  "Western  Empire,  was  nearly  a  blank  in 

ROMAN      the  native  literature  and  philosophy  of  Italy,  if  we  ex 
HISTORY     cept  the  dawning  of  jurisprudence  as  a  science,  which 
nME^THE  was  honored  by  the  worthy  names  of  Papinian  and  Ul- 
ANTONINES.   pian.     Almost  the  only  light  that  shone  upon  this  age 
of  decay  was  derived  from  a  new  philosophical  school,  that  of  the 
Latter  Platonists,  or  Eclectics,  whose  seat  was  Alexandria.     The 
Electics,  taking  the  opinions  of  Plato  concerning  God,  the  human 
soul,  and  things  invisible,  as  the  basis  of  their  system,  and  as  not  in- 
consistent with  the  spirit  and  genius  of  the  Christian  doctrine,  col- 
lected their  dogmas  from  every  school,  and  attempted  a  coalition  of 
all  sects  and  systems,  by  maintaining  that  the  great  principles  of 
truth  were  to  be  found  equally  in  all,  and  that  they  differed  from 
each  other  only  in  the  mode  of  expressing  them.     In  conformity  to 
this  plan,  by  removing  the  fables  of  the  priests  from  Paganism,  and 
the  comments  and  interpretations  of  the  Apostles  from  Christianity, 


CHAP.  VIII.]  THE   ROMAN  EMPIRE.  761 

and  by  reducing  the  whole  history  of  the  heathen  gods  to  an  allegory, 
they  made  all  the  religions  of  the  world  harmonize  with  each  other. 
This  plausible  system,  which  was  adopted  by  many  pagan  writers, 
and  by  some  of  the  Christian  fathers,  extended  rapidly  for  a  time, 
and  was  the  source  of  innumerable  errors  and  corruptions  in  the 
Christian  Church.  Ammonius,  Plotinus,  and  Porphyry,  were  the 
orignators,  or  early  advocates,  of  the  new  school. 

52.  This  re-awakening  of  philosophy  in  the  East  appears  to  have 
been  the  cause  of  a  brief  revival  of  Grecian  literature,  which  shone 
forth  the  brighter  from  the  growing  intensity  of  the  surrounding 
darkness.    Among  the  Greek  writers  of  this  period  may  be  mentioned, 
as  the  most  conspicuous,  the  names  of  Longinus  the  critic  and  rhet- 
orician, author  of  the  celebrated  treatise  on  "  The  Sublime" — Arrian 
the  annalist  and  philosopher ;  Diogenes  Laertius,  who  wrote  the  Lives 
of  the  philosophers ;  and  the  historians  Herodian  and  Dio  Cassius  ; 
but  none  of  these,  except  Longinus,  belong  to  the  first  class  of  writers, 
although  they  were  such  as  the  dull  Latin  literature  of  the  period 
had  nothing  to  match. 

VIII. 

53.  As  we  approach  the  period  of  the  dissolution  of  the  "Western 
empire,  the  causes  of  decline  increase,  and  the  darkness 

which  settles  on  the  minds  and  morals  of  the  people  grows  CAUSES  OF 
rapidly  more  intense.  About  the  time  of  Theodosius,  DECLIN*- 
education  for  the  many  had  almost  entirely  died  away,  while  for  the 
few  it  seemed  suddenly  to  become  more  complete  in  the  establish- 
ment, at  Rome,  by  Theodosius,  of  a  regular  college,  which  numbered 
thirty-one  professors.  But  this  was  only  the  evanescent  glare  of  the 
expiring  luminary.  Even  before  this  time  public  morals  had  become 
as  depraved  as  they  well  could  be,  and  the  little  of  pure  Christianity 
that  was  diffused  among  the  western  Romans,  was  unable  to  stem  the 
overwhelming  torrents  of  vice  and  misery.  With  the  external  and 
more  immediate  causes  of  the  ruin  of  the  empire — the  irruptions  of 
the  barbarians — the  reader  is  already  acquainted.  By  the  time  of 
Diocletian,  the  increasing  diversity  of  interests,  feelings,  and  preju- 
dices, in  the  widely-distant  provinces,  the  frequency  of  rebellions,  and 
the  inroads  of  the  barbarians,  so  multiplied  the  cares  of  government, 
that  the  burden  seemed  too  great  for  one  man  to  sustain,  and  a  di- 
vision of  the  Roman  world  into  the  Eastern  and  Western  empires,  ap- 
peared necessary  to  internal  security  as  well  as  foreign  defence. 


762  PHILOSOPHY   OF   HISTORY.  [PART  III. 

But  nothing  could  arrest  the  progress  of  decay,  for  Roman  virtue 
was  extinct, — the  heart  was  rotten  to  the  core.  The  nation  of  Ro- 
man citizens  and  soldiers  had  become  confounded  with  the  millions 
of  provincials — with  the  Spaniard,  the  Briton,  the  Gaul,  the  Syrian, 
the  Egyptian,  and  the  Moor — who  had  received  the  name,  without 
adopting  the  spirit,  of  Romans.  The  stern  old  Roman  soldiery  had 
given  place  to  mercenary  legions  levied  among  the  barbarians  of  the 
frontiers ;  the  languages  and  dialects  spoken  in  a  Roman  camp  emu- 
lated the  confusion  of  Babel ;  and  by  the  tumultuary  election  of  a 
Roman  army,  a  Groth,  a  Syrian,  or  an  Arab,  was  exalted  to  the 
throne,  and  invested  with  despotic  power  over  the  conquests  and  over 
the  country  of  the  Scipios.  When  the  unity  of  the  empire  was  de- 
stroyed, and  the  identity  of  Rome  as  the  mistress  of  nations  was  lost 
in  the  founding  of  the  Byzantine  capital,  the  old  attachments  that 
clustered  around  the  "  Eternal  City,"  and  that  were  affixed  to  the 
Roman  name,  were  gone  forever  ;  a  voiceless  forum  and  a  deserted 
senate  only  imbittered  the  remembrance  of  past  glories  and  virtues  ; 
and  the  Roman  world,  swayed  from  the  centre  of  its  attraction,  was 
already  fast  breaking  into  fragments  when  the  inundations  of  the 
barbarians,  sweeping  like  a  torrent  over  Italy,  served  to  complete, 
rather  than  hasten,  the  general  ruin. 

54.  Of  the  gloomy  forebodings,  and  the  despair  of  their  country, 
that  filled  the  minds  of  the  more  intelligent  and  virtuous  citizens  in 
the  last  age  of  the  empire,  we  have  a  multitude  of  evidence  in  the 
writings  of  the  historians,  lawgivers,  statesmen,  philosophers,  and  di- 
vines, of  that  period.  From  the  opposite  extremes  of  the  pagan  and 
the  Christian  world,  we  select  two  examples  which  portray  in  vivid 
colors  the  saddening  degeneracy  of  the  times,  although  the  lamenta- 
tions are  called  forth  by  very  different  views  and  principles.  Sym'- 
machus,  the  heathen  pontiff,  augur,  and  prefect  of  Rome,  indulges 
the  following  reflections  in  a  letter  to  a  friend.  "  You  complain," 
says  he,  "  that  I  send  you  no  narrative  of  public  events.  What  if  I 
answer,  it  is  better  to  let  them  pass  unnoticed  ?  The  ancient  oracles 
have  grown  dumb  :  in  the  grotto  of  Cumse  are  read  no  mystic  char- 
acters :  no  voice  issues  from  the  tree  of  Dodona :  no  chanted  verse 
is  heard  amid  the  vapors  of  the  Delphic  cell.  And  we,  mortal  and 
impotent,  who  owe  our  very  existence  to  the  act  of  a  religious  demi- 
god, may  most  wisely  learn  from  the  silence  of  heaven,  and  ponder 
in  quiet  over  that  sad  history  of  our  race,  for  which  the  book  of 
prophecy  has  no  longer  a  leaf."  Such  was  the  lament  of  the  cham- 


CHAP.  VIIL]  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE.  763 

pion  of  the  old  faith.  Saint  Ambrose,  the  Christian  bishop  of  Milan 
in  the  fourth  century,  and  one  of  the  latest  and  most  distinguished  of 
what  are  denominated  the  Fathers  of  the  Church,  expresses  similar 
feelings  in  a  different  tone.  He  describes  a  journey  in  which  are 
passed  successively  Bologna,a  Modena,  Reggio,a  and  Piacenza.a 
Those  ancient  cities  lie  half  ruined,  and  half  unpeopled  :  among  the 
valleys  of  the  Apennines  stretch  wide  uncultivated  wastes,  where  of 
old  the  land  bloomed  like  a  garden  ;  and  on  the  surrounding  heights, 
the  site  of  once  flourishing  villages  is  marked  by  mouldering  and 
roofless  walls.  The  pious  churchman  speaks  of  the  grief  which  we 
feel  for  departed  friends,  as  softened  by  our  trust  that  they  have 
passed  to  a  purer  life ;  but  for  his  country  he  has  no  such  hopes  of 
renewed  existence  :  her  prosperity  is  sunk  forever. 

'„  *  •      "  Oh  Rome !  ray  country !  city  of  the  soul ! 
The  orphans  of  the  heart  must  turn  to  thee, 
Lone  mother  of  dead  empires  !  and  control 
In  their  shut  breasts  their  petty  misery. 
What  are  our  woes  and  sufferance  ?  Come  and  see 
The  cypress,  hear  the  owl,  and  plod  your  way 
O'er  steps  of  broken  thrones  and  temples,  Ye  I 
Whose  agonies  are  evils  of  a  day— 
A  world  is  at  our  feet  as  fragile  as  our  clay." 

Childe  Harold. 

a.  Pronounced  Bo-lone-ya,  Redge-yo,  Pe-a-chen'-za. 


764  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [PART  III 

CHAPTER    IX. 

THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

ANALYSIS.  1.  Prominent  subjects  of  history  during  the  thousand  years  succeeding  the 
fall  of  the  Roman  empire.  A  Dark  Age.— 2.  The  two  different  views  that  may  be  taken  of  it. 
What  the  former  requires.  The  latter.  Importance  of  the  latter. 

3.  UNITY  OF  CHARACTER  IN  ANCIENT  CIVILIZATION.    Among  the  Jews— in  Egypt— in  India, 
China,  and  Asia  Minor.    Character  of  Grecian  acivilization. 

Great  diversity  of  the  Elements  of  Modern  Civilization. 

4.  Theocracy,  monarchy,  aristocracy,  democracy,  &c. — 5.  ELEMENTARY  PRINCIPLES  DERIVED 
FROM  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE.     Municipal  corporations.     Despotic  rule.— 6.  THE   CHRISTIAN 
CHURCH — how  made  to  cooperate  in  the  advance  of  modern  civilization. — 7.  THE  BARBARIAN 
WORLD — individual  liberty,  and  military  protection. — 8.  The  three  kinds  of  society  existing  at 
the  time  of  the  fall  of  the  Roman  empire.    The  four  principles  growing  out  of  them.    The 
claims  of  monarchy — of  theocracy — of  aristocracy — of  democracy.    Basis  of  the  claims  of  each. 
— 9.  UNSETTLED   CONDITION  OF  INDIVIDUALS.    Freemen — vassals— freedmen — slaves.    Prop- 
erty.—10.  Unsettled  condition  OF  GOVERNMENTS  AND  STATES. 

Social  developments  arising  out  of  the  elements  enumerated. 

11.  IMPULSES  TOWARDS  AN  ESCAPE  FROM  BARBARISM.  Great  men— unforgotten  glories  of 
civilized  Rome — compilation  of  laws.  INFLUENCES  OF  THE  CHURCH.  Laws  of  the  Christianized 
Visigoths. — 12.  The  Church  did  little  for  the  advancement  of  the  individual :  more  for  the 
melioration  of  the  social  condition  of  man.  Political  influence  of  the  Church  on  the  side  of 
despotism. — 13.  Increasing  internal  tranquillity,  and  rise  of  the  Feudal  System. — 14.  THE  TWO- 
FOLD INFLUENCES  OF  FEUDALISM. — 15.  Decline  of  the  municipal  system.  The  cities  begin  to 
regain  their  importance.  They  are  oppressed  by  the  feudal  lords.  GENERAL  INSURRECTION 
OF  THE  CITIES  in  the  eleventh  century. — 16.  The  cities  prevail.  Their  relations  to  the  king 
and  the  feudal  lords — rise  of  a  "Third  Estate" — and  the  beginning  of  the  struggle  between 
monarchy,  aristocracy,  and  democracy.— 17.  Different  views  of  this  struggle.  On  what  the 
final  triumph  of  democracy  must  depend. — 18.  EFFECTS  OF  THE  ENFRANCHISEMENT  OF  THE 
CITIES.  Government  of  the  cities.  Growing  inequalities  among  the  citizens.  The  burgesses. 
Confederations  among  the  cities.  The  Hanseatic  League.  Its  power  and  wealth.  The  Italian 
cities.  The  Lombard  and  German  war. — 19.  EFFECTS  OF  THE  CRUSADES.  Spirit  in  which 
they  were  undertaken.  European  and  national  character  of  the  enterprise — shared  in  by  all 
classes.— 20.  Tendency  to  more  enlarged  views.— 21.  Illustrations  given  by  Guizot.— 22.  Changes 
in  the  social  state  during  the  crusades. 

Attempts  at  Centralization  of  Power. 

23.  First :  ATTEMPT  AT  THEOCRATIC  ORGANIZATION. — 24.  Three-fold  causes  of  the  failure. 
Popular  reaction  against  the  Church  in  the  thirteenth  century.  The  Albigenses.  Pope 
Boniface  VIII.— 25.  Second:  ATTEMPTS  AT  DEMOCRATIC  ORGANIZATION.  Partial  success  in 
Italy.  Failure  in  the  south  of  France.  Results  in  Switzerland— Flanders— the  German 
Leagues. — 26.  Third:  ATTEMPT  AT  A  UNION  OF  THE  VARIOUS  ELEMENTS  OF  SOCIETY  : — in  the 
States-General  of  France : — in  the  Cortes  of  Spain  and  Portugal : — in  Germany. — 27.  Success  of 
the  union  in  England  alone. — 28.  Fourth:  SUCCESSFUL  ATTEMPTS  AT  MONARCHICAL  ORGANIZA- 
TION. The  progress  of  centralization  in  the  fifteenth  century. — 29.  Gradual  consolidation  of 
the  French  monarchy.  Its  internal  regulations.— 30.  Consolidation  of  the  Spanish  monarchy. 
Of  the  German  empire.  Concentration  of  the  Italian  Republics.  Subsequent  history  of  Italy. 


CHAP.  IX.]  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  765 

\ 

—31.  Centralization  of  powers  in  England.— 32.  The  general  tendency  towards  absolute  mon- 
archy.   How  monarchy  contributed  to  the  civilization  of  Europe. 

33.  MORAL  AND  INTELLECTUAL  CHANOKS  IN  THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY.  Church  reforms. 
The  great  schism  in  the  Church.  John  Huss  and  Jerome  of  Prague. — 34.  REVIVAL  or  LITERA- 
TURE. Italian  literature. — 35.  INVENTIONS. — 36.  DISCOVERIES.  \ 

I. 

1.  The  prominent  subjects  of  history  during  the  thousand  years 
that  succeeded  the  fall  of  the  Western  empire  of  the  Romans,  after 
the  great  deluge  of  barbarism  had  overwhelmed   Europe,  are  the 
rise,  establishment,  and  decline,  of  the  Saracen  empire — the  rise  of 
the  monarchy  of  the  Franks — the  beginnings  of  English  history — the 
Feudal  system — Chivalry — and  the  Crusades.     These  are  the  promi- 
nent outward  events  and  subjects — the  surface  life — w^ich  historical 
narrative  elucidates.     This  is,  emphatically,  as  it  has  been  called,  a 
DARK  AGE — in  its  general  features,  an  age  of  ignorance  and  super- 
stition ;  an  age  of  passion,  and  romance  ;  a  period  of  storms,  and 
strife,  lit  up  by  an  occasional  meteor  glare  that  only  renders  the 
darkness  more  visible ;  but  in  its  troubled  and  tempestuous  waste  we 
are  to  search  for  the  elements  of  modern  civilization. 

2.  Two  different,  but  not  opposing  views,  may  be  taken  of  this 
broad  field  of  history.     Its  barren  Zaharas — its  few  fertile  oases — 
its  desolating  barbarian  inroads — its  now  mouldering  castles,  wrecks 
of  feudal  power — its  proud  barons — its  courtly  knights — its  crusading 
hosts — its  chivalric  honor,  love,  and  enthusiasm — may  be  so  portrayed 
as  to  present  a  vivid  panorama  of  the  whole,  finished  to  the  sight ; 
or,  on  the  other  hand,  we  may  pass  behind  the  scenes,  and  examine 
the  picture  in  all  its  stages  of  growth — its  elements,  combinations, 
groupings,  and  colorings — and  the  machinery  that  moves  the  whole. 
The  former  requires  the  artistic  labor  of  the  painter  or  sculptor, 
the  latter  that  of  the  anatomist :  the  results  of  the  former  may  be 
the  most  entertaining ;  but  to  those  already  familiar  with  the  general 
subject,  the  latter,  assuredly,  must  be  the  most  instructive  and  use- 
ful ;  and  without  the  knowledge  which  it  presents,  the  modern  student 
can  have  no  just  and  comprehensive  views  of  the  great  struggles  for 
power  that  have  since  transpired,  and  that  are  now  transpiring,  on 
the  vast  theatre  of  European  politics. 

II. 

3.  When  we  look  at  the  kind  and  degree  of  civilization  that  pre- 
vailed in  the  States  of  antiquity,  we  find  there,  almost  universally, 


766  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [PART  IIL 

an  exceeding  unity  of  character — some  one  general,  prevailing,  prin- 
ciple, that  influenced  all  the   developments  of  society. 
CHARACTER    Thus,  among  the  Jews,  the  theocratic  system  prevailed, 
IN  ANCIENT   imposing  upon  society  its  laws,  and  giving  a  great  degree 

CIVILIZATION.       -      .          ?.    .,  ,  ..  ,.  ,  ,.      -  , 

of  simplicity  and  unity  to  the  character  of  the  people. 
In  Egypt  a  religion  of  fixed  rites  and  ceremonies  produced  monotony, 
and  threw  around  society  a  barrier  beyond  which  civilization  could 
make  no  farther  progress.  Similar  results  are  observable  among  the 
religious  people  of  early  India,  and  the  Chinese,  and  the  same  ten- 
dencies to  unity  in  the  character  of  civilization  are  the  legitimate 
effects  of  any  one  all-absorbing  principle  or  system  to  which  the 
people  yield  implicit  deference.  Among  the  commercial  republics 
which  covered  the  coasts  of  Phoenicia  and  Asia  Minor  the  democratic 
principle  prevailed,  impressing  its  character  upon  the  institutions^ 
habits,  and  manners,  of  the  people.  In  Greece,  the  combined  social 
and  municipal  principle,  as  exhibited  in  the  numerous  independent 
and  often  rival  cities  that  covered  the  land,  like  so  many  families 
having  separate  interests,  feelings,  and  sympathies,  was  at  the  basis 
of  a  civilization  the  most  rapid  and  remarkable  the  world  has  ever 
witnessed. 

III. 

Great  diversity  of  the  Elements  of  Modern  Civilization. 

4.  When,  however,  we  turn  to  modern   Europe,  we  find  there, 
during  the  Middle  Ages,  a  widely  different  state  of  things  in  the 
prodigious  diversity  of  all  those  ideas  and  sentiments,  principles, 
feelings,  opinions,  and  systems,  which  form  the  elements  of  society. 
Theocracy,  monarchy,  aristocracy,  and  democracy,  with  numerous 
gradations  of  each,  are  found  side  by  side  ;  and  these  principles,  ever 
active,  ever  jostling  each  other,  each  striving  after  superiority,  all 
modified  by  the  collisions  which  they  encountered,  and  no  one  power 
or  system  capable  of  excluding  the  rest,  have  combined,  with  the 
diversities  in  religion  and  morals,  in  literature  and  the  arts,  to  con- 
stitute modern  European  civilization  as  it  now  exists.     If  we  would 
understand  and  appreciate  the  true  character  of  that  civilization,  we 
must  investigate  the  origin  of  this  variety  of  the  elements  of  social 
organization,  follow  them  hi  their  constant  struggles  for  power,  and 
analyze  with  care  their  results  and  tendencies. 

5.  For  the  earliest  elements  of  modern  European  civilization  it  is 
natural  that  we  should  look  to  the  period  of  the  dissolution  of  the 


CHAP.  IX.]  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  767 

Roman  empire,  that  we  may  learn  what  the  ancient  world  bequeathed 
to  the  modern.  Greece,  from  its  earliest  annals,  down  ELEMENTARY 
to  the  time  of  its  conquest  by  the  Romans,  was  divided  PRINCIPLES 
into  a  large  number  of  petty  States,  whose  governments  F^IV™K 
were  little  more  than  city  corporations.8-  The  federal  KOMAN 
tie  between  the  States  was  always  weak ;  and  the  city,  EMPIRE. 
which  composed  the  State,  was  the  point  towards  which  the  best 
affections  of  the  citizens  centered.  The  government  of  Rome  was, 
in  its  origin,  a  mere  city  corporation  :  the  numerous  Italian  nations 
that  surrounded  Rome  were  nothing  more  than  confederations  of 
cities :  in  the  Gauls  and  in  Spain  the  entire  population  was  con- 
centrated in  large  fortified  towns ;  and  the  Roman  dominion  was  en- 
larged by  the  conquest  and  founding  of  cities,  that  often  assumed  the 
rank  of  nations.  The  cities  conquered  had  once  been  little  free  re- 
publics, like  'that  of  Rome,  and  when  they  became  incorporated  into 
the  Roman  world,  their  national  rights,  or  rights  of  sovereignty  only, 
were  transferred  to  the  central  government,  and  Rome  reigned  over 
a  vast  number  of  municipalities.  Everywhere  there  was  an  almost 
total  absence  of  a  rural  population  :  the  numerous  churches,  baronial 
castles,  country  seats,  and  villages,  that  sprung  up  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  were  unknown  ;  and  the  country  was  tilled  by  the  dweilers  in 
cities ;  while  slaves  alone,  with  their  overseers,  resided  on  the  sur- 
rounding plantations.  The  Roman  world  was  a  vast  system  of  mu- 
nicipal corporations,  having  few  points  of  cohesion,  and  with  local 
ties  far  stronger  than  national  affinities ;  all  attempts  to  form  the 
whole  into  one  general  State  were  unavailing ;  it  was  feebly  held 
together  by  the  despotic  administration  of  the  empire  ;  and  when  it 
broke  in  pieces,  the  incoherent  assemblage  of  municipal  republics 
was  resolved  into  the  elements  of  which  it  had  been  composed ;  and 
all  the  monuments  of  civilization  which  Rome  bequeathed  to  the 
moderns  were  strongly  impressed  with  the  municipal  character. 
"  The  Roman  world  had  been  formed  of  cities,  and  to  cities  again  it 
returned."1*  But  with  the  habits  of  independent  thought  and  action, 
and  the  principles  of  political  liberty  engendered  by  an  immediate 
share  in  the  regulations  of  city  government,  there  was  associated  the 
idea  of  the  majesty  and  power  of  the  empire ;  and  with  that  the 
deferential  respect  paid  to  the  name  of  emperor.  On  the  one  hand, 
growing  out  of  the  system  of  municipal  rule,  there  was  the  inde- 
pendence of  personal  respect,  based  on  the  real  self-importance  of 

a.  See  p.  70.  b.  Guizot.    History  of  Civilization  in  Europe,  p.  48. 


768  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [PART  III. 

the  individual,  as  a  citizen ;  and  on  the  other,  growing  out  of  the  ex- 
ercise of  absolute  power,  there  was  the  principle  of  order,  and  the 
principle  of  servitude.  The  municipal  system  and  despotic  rule — 
personal  liberty  and  political  servitude  combined — were  the  two 
living  principles  that  survived  the  wreck  of  the  Roman  world,  and 
that  have  left  their  impress  on  every  feature  of  modern  European 
civilization. 

6.  A  still  more  important  connecting  link,  however,  between  the 
THK        old  Roman  empire  and  the  barbarian  world  that  arose 

CHRISTIAN  on  its  ruins,  was  the  institution  called  the  Christian 
IURCH.  Church — not  the  mere  belief,  the  personal  opinions,  the 
individual  convictions,  that  form  our  idea  of  the  spirit  or  essence  of 
Christianity,  but  the  Church,  with  its  magistracy  of  priests,  bishops, 
and  deacons ;  and  a  system  of  clerical  government  that  gave  it  a 
separate  existence,  independently  of  the  society  over  which  it  ruled. 
In  the  West,  the  Church  was  able  to  withstand  the  barbarian  inva- 
sions, and  even  to  make  numerous  and  powerful  converts  in  the  ranks 
of  the  enemies  of  the  empire ;  and  in  the  East,  in  the  times  of 
Theodosius  and  Justinian,  and  afterwards  in  the  West,  we  find  that 
the  clergy  were  everywhere  elevated  to  power,  and  that  they  general- 
ly became  the  chief  magistrates  in  the  city  corporations.  An  ecclesi- 
astical municipal  system  succeeded  that  of  the  Roman  world,  and 
prepared  the  way  for  the  free  cities  and  petty  republics  that  over- 
spread Italy,  and,  to  a  considerable  extent,  other  countries  also, 
during  the  Middle  Ages.  Thus  at  a  time  when  society  seemed  on 
the  point  of  being  overwhelmed  by  physical  force,  a  power  resting 
entirely  upon  moral  influences,  which  proclaimed  a  law  above  all 
human  law,  was  brought  in  to  preserve  it,  and  made  to  cooperate  in 
the  advance  of  modern  civilization.  The  Church  itself  gained  a  vast 
accession  of  strength  by  the  consideration  thus  attached  to  it,  and 
with  accumulated  force  reacted  upon  the  materials  of  social  order  by 
which  it  was  surrounded. 

7.  To  these  elements  of  civilization  derived  from  the  Church  and 
THE        *^e  R°man  empire,  the  barbarians  added   that  strong 

BARBARIAN  love  of  individual  liberty  so  universal  in  savage  life — a 
WORLD.  feei}ng  Of  personal  independence  before  unknown — dif- 
fering from  Roman  freedom  as  being  the  personal  liberty  of  the  man, 
rather  than  the  political  liberty  of  the  citizen.  A  second  element  of 
civilization  derived  from  the  barbarians  was  the  strong  tie  of  military 
protection — that  graduated  brotherhood  in  arms  that  existed  between 


CHAP.  IX.]  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  769 

a  chieftain  and  his  followers — which  was  the  beginning  of  a  subordina- 
tion that  led  to  a  feudal  aristocracy,  and  eventually  established  the 
relationship  between  sovereign  and  vassal. 

8.  At  the  time  of  the  fall  of  the  Roman  empire  we  find,  therefore, 
as  the  elements  of  future  social  order  throughout  central  and  West- 
ern Europe,  three  kinds  of  society  existing, — municipal,  Christian, 
and  barbarian,  each  differing  from  the  other ;  and  growing  out  of 
these  we  early  detect  the  various  principles  of  monarchy,  theocracy,8 
and  democracy,  all  existing  together,  and  neither  prevailing  over  the 
others,  although  each  has  in  later  days  claimed  for  itself  an  undivided 
share  in  the  original  formation  of  European  society.     Monarchy  has 
asserted  that  the  German  kings,  in  the  person  of  Charlemagne  and 
his  successors,  inherited  all  the  rights  of  the  Roman  emperors  :  theo- 
cracy, in  the  person  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  claimed  the  right  of 
governing  society,  on  the  pretensions  of  her  sacred  mission  and  di- 
vine sanction  :  aristocracy  declared  that,  at  the  downfall  of  the  Ro- 
man empire,  the  conquering  nation,  forming  afterwards  the  nobility, 
alone  possessed  authority,  and  established  an  aristocratic  organiza- 
tion, which  thus  became  the  primitive  and  genuine  form  of  European 
government ;  and  democracy  declared  that,  in  the  fifth  century,  so- 
ciety was  ruled  by  the  assemblies  of  freemen — that  free  institutions 
first  arose  on  the  ruins  of  the  empire,  and  that  kings  and  nobles  af- 
terwards enriched  themselves  by  the  spoils  of  this  primitive  liberty. 
Each  of  these  principles  has  claimed  the  right  to  rule,  by  virtue  of 
its  supposed  priority  to  the  others,  and  its  unopposed  adoption ; 
while  each,  as  if  conscious  that  force  is  no  ground  of  title,  disclaims 
its  establishment  as  the  offspring  of  violence. 

9.  As  no  general  principle — nothing  like  stability — prevailed  in 
the  social  system  of  this  early  period,  there  was  an  equal  variety,  and 
a  want  of  permanency,  in  the  condition  of  individuals. 
Freemen,  who  held  their  life  and  property  in  full  lib-    CONDITION 
erty ;   vassals,  who  owed  fealty  and   service   to    their      OK  INDI- 
patrons ;  freedmen,  who  had  been  released  from  the 

bondage  of  servitude ;  and  slaves,  with  all  the  marks  of  their  sub- 
jection upon  them,  were  found  side  by  side ;  but  the  relations  in 

a.  The  term  theocracy,  for  want  of  a  better,  is  used  in  this  chapter,  on  the  authority  of  Guizot 
in  his  "  History  of  Civilization,"  to  denote,  simply,  Ecclesiastical  or  Church  government.  Al- 
though theocracy  means  "  government  of  a  state  by  the  immediate  direction  of  God,"  yet  as 
the  Church  of  Rome— then  the  only  Church — claimed  the  right  to  govern  by  divine  sanction, 
there  is  no  impropriety  in  designating  that  government  as  theocratical,  provided  the  correct 
meaning  be  attached  to  the  term.  There  has  been  but  one  genuine  theocracy  on  the  earth— 
the  government  of  the  Israelites. 

49 

i 


/70  PHILOSOPHY  OF    HISTORY.  [PAET  III 

which  those  classes  stood  to  each  other  were  not  fixed  and  uniform, 
for  freemen  were  daily  becoming  vassals,  and  vassals  were  shaking 
off  the  yoke  of  patronage,  and  returning  to  the  class  of  freemen : 
everywhere  society  was  in  motion,  and  no  rank  or  class  of  persons 
long  continued  the  same.  Property  was  in  the  same  unsettled  con- 
dition, some  estates  being  allodial,  or  entirely  free,  others  beneficiary, 
or  held  by  various  degrees  of  tenure, — all  marking  the  period  of 
transition  from  the  wandering  life  to  a  more  advanced  state  of  civil- 
ization. 

10.  In  the  different  systems  of  government  that  struggled  for  su- 
premacy, there  was  no  uniformity — no  fixedness  of  character  :  the 
conditions  of  fealty  due  to  the  baronial  aristocracy  were  almost  in- 
finitely diversified ;  while  free  institutions  often  sunk  into  decay  from 

OF  GOVERN-  *ne  neglect  °f  those  who  should  have  supported  them. 

MENTS  AND  States,  created,  suppressed,  united,  and  divided,  by  a 
STATES.  thousand  circumstances  of  personal  ambition,  conquest, 
or  alliance,  had  seldom  any  definite  limits ;  nations  and  races  were 
confusedly  intermingled  ;  and  a  strange  variety  of  idioms  existed  in 
the  place  of  the  systematic  languages  of  Greece  and  Rome.  It 
must  not  be  supposed  that  when  the  Roman  empire  fell,  the  great 
movement  of  nations  was  over  ;  for  during  five  centuries  the  German 
and  Slavonian  tribes,  pressing  upon  the  Rhine  and  the  Danube,  and 
the  Saracens,  attacking  various  points  on  the  Mediterranean,  kept 
the  interior  of  Europe  in  such  a  state  of  continued  ferment,  that  it 
was  impossible  for  society  to  acquire  any  degree  of  permanence. 

IV. 

Social  developments  arising  out  of  the  elements  enumerated. 

11.  We  have  enumerated  the  elements  of  which  European  society 
was  composed  soon  after  the  fall  of  the  Roman  empire,  and  we  now 
proceed  to  consider  what  social  developments,  and  what  influences  on 

IMPULSES     the  progress  of  civilization  arose  out  of  them.     During  the 
TOWARDS     iong  night  of  darkness  from  the  fifth  to  the  fifteenth  cen- 

AN  ESCAPE  i        •  i  i  /.  i         i 

FROM  BAR-  tury,  the  impulses  towards  an  escape  trom  barbarism  were 
BARISM.  numerous.  Amidst  the  chaos  of  universal  disorder  a 
few  great  men  appeared,  as  Alfred  the  Great  and  Charlemagne,  who 
had  aspirations  for  a  better  state  of  things,  and  who  labored  to  civil- 
ize the  nations  they  governed  :  the  glories  of  civilized  Rome  were 
not  unknown,  nor  entirely  forgotten,  by  the  nations  that  had  over- 


CHAP.  IX.]  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  771 

whelmed  her  :  between  the  sixth  and  the  eighth  century  are  recorded 
the  first  attempts  of  our  barbarian  ancestors  to  bring  society  under 
the  authority  of  general  and  fixed  principles,  by  compilations  of  the 
laws  of  nearly  all  the  European  nations ;  and  the  Christian  church, 
a  regularly  organized  society,  embracing  most  of  the  learning  of  the 
times,  made  unremitting  efforts,  in  its  attempts  to  rule  over  barba- 
rism, to  assimilate  the  surrounding  world  to  itself.  In  INFLUENOES 
Spain,  before  the  invasion  of  the  Saracens,  the  Church  OF  THE 
was  the  chief  instrument  of  civilization  ;  and  in  the  laws  CHURCH. 
of  the  Visigoths,  compiled  mostly  by  the  clergy,  are  seen  the  first 
indications  of  learning,  philosophy,  and  system,  that  we  meet  with 
in  the  legislation  of  modern  Europe.  Under  the  early  barbarians, 
each  separate  people,  although  united  under  the  same  government, 
was  judged  by  its  own  laws — the  Romans  by  one  system,  the  Franks 
by  another — -'but  the  Christianized  Visigoths  compelled  all  the  free- 
men to  yield  obedience  to  the  same  law.  Among  the  barbarians 
nearly  all  capital  offences  were  punished  by  fines,  varying  according 
to  the  rank  of  the  offender ;  but  the  Visigoths,  considering  the  lives 
of  all  men  of  equal  worth  in  the  eyes  of  the  law,  punished  murder 
with  death.a 

12.  For  the  development  of  the  capacities  of  man — for  the  ad- 
vancement of  the  individual — the  Church  evidently  did  but  little, 
except  what  was  confined  to  the  clergy  themselves ;  and  for  these  she 
established  schools  and  colleges,  and  such  other  institutions  as  the 
deplorable  state  of  society  would  permit.  For  the  melioration  of 
the  social  condition  of  man,  however,  her  labors  were  highly  effica- 
cious. By  her  influences,  the  rugged  manners  and  sentiments  of  the 
great  were  softened ;  slavery,  intestine  wars,  and  other  evils  of  the 
social  system,  were  combated ;  legislation  was  improved  ;  and  some 
degree  of  literary  taste,  that  would,  otherwise,  have  perished,  was 
kept  alive  in  the  world.  But  in  a  political  point  of  view,  the  in- 
fluence of  the  Church,  as  between  the  governing  and  governed,  was 
decidedly  opposed  to  liberty.  Unfortunately  there  prevailed  in  its 
bosom  a  desire  to  rule  in  matters  of  faith  apart  from  the  convictions 
of  reason  or  the  consent  of  the  will ;  and  with  this  was  connected  the 
attempt  to  establish  for  itself  an  absolute  theocracy,  and  thus  to  ob- 
tain universal  dominion,  both  temporal  and  spiritual ;  but,  failing  in 
this,  it  leagued  itself  with  temporal  rulers,  and  sheltering  itself  under 

a.  For  an  interesting  abstract  of  the  laws  of  the  Visigoths  see  "  History  of  Spain  and  Por- 
tugal," (published  by  the  Harpers,)  vol.  iv.  pp.  70-89. 


772  PHILOSOPHY   OF  HISTORY.  [PART  III. 

their  claims  of  absolute  power,  attempted  to  establish  the  divine 
right  of  kings,  at  the  expense  of  the  liberty  of  the  people.  In  the 
struggles  between  prerogative  arid  liberty,  the  Church,  throughout 
the  entire  period  of  the  Middle  Ages,  arrayed  itself  on  the  side  of 
despotism. 

13.  In  addition  to  the  two-fold  influences  of  the  Church, — one 
salutary  to  the  intellectual  and  moral  condition  of  man,  and  the  other 
detrimental  to  his  political  condition — both  silently  working  in  the 
midst  of  barbarism,  about  the  beginning  of  the  tenth  century  the 
emigration  of  nations  had  ceased,  and  the  wandering  life  had  declined 
in  the  interior  of  Europe  ;  population,  consequently,  became  more 
fixed,  landed  possessions  more  settled,  and  the  customs  which  make 
laws  more  uniform  :  all  the  social  relations  of  men  also  assumed  in- 
creasing permanency ;  their  ideas  and  sentiments  acquired  a  more 
fixed  character ;  their  roving  dispositions  began  to  yield  to  attach- 
ments to  place  ;  and  at  the  close  of  the  first  period  of  barbarism,  the 
Feudal  System  had  taken  possession  of  European  society. 

14.  The  influences  of  feudalism  on  civilization  were  also  two-fold. 
To  the  ruling  orders  it  gave  great  additional  energy  and  indepen- 
dence of  character,  and,  as  the  parent  of  chivalry,  it  gave 

FOLD  INFLU-  birth  to  elevated  ideas  and  feelings,  and  noble  develop- 
KNCES  OF  ments  of  sentiment  in  individuals  ;  and  it  was  under  this 
form  that  foe  civilization  of  Europe  began  ;  but  at  the 
same  time  it  was  a  blight  upon  the  social  condition  of  the  masses, 
and  an  obstacle  to  the  progress  of  society ;  it  subjected  the  lower 
classes  to  every  species  of  lawless  oppression,  and  everywhere  op- 
posed, not  only  the  establishment  of  general  order,  but  the  extension 
of  general  liberty.  Feudalism  and  the  Church  were,  therefore,  to  a 
great  extent,  opposing  influences  upon  society — upon  the  masses — 
and  it  was  not  until  the  former  was  substantially  overthrown,  about 
the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century,  that  the  condition  of  the 
people  began  to  be  sensibly  improved. 

15.  With  the  growing  influences  of  feudalism,  the  municipal  sys 
tern  left  by  the  Romans  had  gradually  declined  in  importance,  until, 
about  the  tenth  century,  the  towns,  having  no  political  connection 
with  the  kings,  or  national  rulers,  were  everywhere  subjected  to  the 
control  of  feudal  lords,  although  exempt  from  the  servitude  of  the 
agricultural  portions  of  community.     When,  however,  the  wandering 
habits  of  the  people  had  ceased,  and  society  had  become  more  per- 
manent, the  increasing  activity  and  industry  of  the  cities,  the  growth 


CHAP.  XL]  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  773 

of  their  commerce,  and  a  corresponding  advance  in  their  wealth,  re- 
gained for  them  some  importance,  and  a  small  portion  of  the  power 
which  they  had  lost,  but  conferred  upon  the  citizens  little  additional 
security  of  person  and  property.  Their  barbarian  conquerors,  the 
new  proprietors  of  the  soil,  restrained  from  distant  pillaging  excur- 
sions by  the  more  settled  state  of  society,  redoubled  their  exactions 
upon  the  cities  within  their  domains,  as  additional  means  were  there 
offered  for  the  gratification  of  avarice.  At  length  the 

...  GENERAL 

cities,  borne  down  by  oppression,  the  more  galling  on  ac-    INSURREO- 
count  of  the  exposure  of  their  interests  to  the  hazard  of     T10N  IN 
pillage,  resolved  to  resist  the  iniquitous  rule  of  their 
feudal  masters ;  and  about  the  commencement  of  the  eleventh  cen- 
tury they  broke  out  into  a  general  insurrection,  although  without  any 
concerted  movement,  which  led  to  important  changes  in  the  condition 
of  society. 

16.  There  had  been  many  previous  unsuccessful  efforts  for  free- 
dom, and  even  now,  when  the  struggle  was  general,  it  was  attended 
with  many  vicissitudes ;  but  the  cities  prevailed ;  and  written  treaties 
of  peace  were  made  between  them  and  their  feudal  proprietors. 
These  treaties  were  so  many  concessions  or  charters  granted  to  the 
cities,  usually  guaranteeing  to  them  most  of  the  rights  and  privileges 
for  which  they  had  taken  up  arms.     As  these  charters  were  frequent- 
ly violated,  and  their  articles  eluded  in  different  ways,  the  inter- 
ference of  royalty  was  often  solicited,  sometimes  by  the  cities  and 
sometimes  by  the  lords ;  and  a  connection  thus  began  to  be  formed 
between  the  citizens  and  the  king ;  although  the  burgesses,  or  freemen 
of  the  towns,  had,  as  yet,  acquired  no  additional  part  in  the  general 
government  of  the  country.     All  remained  local  as  before ;  the  cities 
were  still  politically  attached  to  their  feudal  lords ;  and  the  latter 
only  had  any  political  relations  with  the  head  of  the  government ; 
but  a  new  class  of  society  had  been  formed  by  the  enfranchisement 
of  the  commons ;  a  "  third  estate"  began  to  arise  in  the  chartered 
corporations  that  covered  Europe  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  cen- 
turies ;  and  that  struggle  of  classes  began,  which  has  ever  since  con- 
tinued in  European  society, — the  struggle  between  kings,  lords,  and 
commons — between  the  monarchy,  the  aristocracy,  and  the  democ- 
racy. 

17.  In  the  more  civilized  countries  of  Europe  neither  of  these 
classes  has  so  far  triumphed  as  to  bring  the  others  into  subjection  to 
itself;  and  some  writers,  observing  that  in  Asia  and  Egypt,  the  tri- 


774  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [PAIIT  IIL 

umph  of  monarchy,  aristocracy,  or  theocracy,  has  led  to  the  system 
of  castes,  and  interposed  a  barrier  to  the  progress  of  civilization,  have 
been  led  to  attribute  to  the  constant  struggle  between  the  three  great 
powers  in  European  society,  the  wonderful  energy  and  productive- 
ness of  modern  European  civilization,3-  and  to  predict  its  illimitable 
progress.  That  the  progress  of  civilization  is  to  be  onward,  even 
in  Europe,  despite  the  opposing  elements  of  monarchy,  aristocracy, 
and  democracy,  we  do  not  doubt  5  but  our  faith  in  man's  moral  des- 
tiny forbids  us  to  believe  that  the  struggle  is  to  be  unending ;  and 
we  confidently  anticipate  the  period  when  democracy  will  triumph, 
although  it  will  not  be  until  her  cause  relies  for  its  main  support 
upon  the  general  intelligence  and  virtue  of  the  people.  With  them, 
universal  education  alone  can  lead  to  universal  emancipation. 

18.  The  enfranchisement  of  the  cities — the  greatest  revolution  of 
the  Middle  Ages — was  highly  favorable  to  the  progress  of  civiliza- 
EFFECTS  OF  tion  in  Europe  ;  but  owing  to  the  ignorance  and  barba- 
THE  ENFRAN-  rigm  Of  the  inhabitants,  the  government  of  them  was  still 
OF  THE  a  verj  difficult  matter.  The  magistrates,  chosen  by  the 
CITIES.  general  assembly  of  the  citizens,  being  under  few  restric- 
tions, at  first  governed  with  almost  arbitrary  power ;  so  that  there 
was  but  little  more  security  in  these  communities  than  there  had 
been  previously  under  the  rule  of  the  barons.  Soon  there  grew  up, 
under  the  system  of  privileges  or  monopolies  granted  to  the  trading 
classes  or  merchants,  a  great  inequality  among  the  citizens ;  and  the 
community  was  divided  between  a  corps  of  opulent  burgesses,  and  a 
poor  and  ignorant  population  subject  to  all  the  errors  and  vices  of  a 
mob.  The  power  of  government  very  naturally  centured  in  the 
wealthier  class,  which  found  itself  harassed,  on  the  one  hand,  by  an 
insolent  and  turbulent  democracy,  arid  pressed  on  the  other  by  the 
ancient  feudal  lord  of  the  borough,  who  sought  to  regain  the  power 
which  he  had  lost.  The  situation  of  the  superior  burgesses  there- 
fore required  from  them  a  temporizing  policy,  which  sought  to  ac- 
commodate all  differences  without  the  risk  of  insurrection  on  the  one 
hand,  or  the  danger,  on  the  other,  of  being  involved  in  a  contest  in 
which  the  want  of  cordial  support  from  the  people  was  certain  to 
incur  defeat.  Excessive  timidity  and  caution  in  political  matters, 
and  a  feeling  of  indifference  as  to  the  government  of  the  nation,  with 

a.  See  Guizot's  History  of  Civilization  in  Europe,  Lecture  VII.  Alison,  the  historian,  takes 
the  same  view,  and,  especially,  never  neglects  an  opportunity  to  portray  the  dangers  of 
"  democratic  ascendency." 


CHAP.  XL]  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  775 

a  consequent  modesty  of  pretensions  to  the  right  of  taking  part  in 
the  same,  was  the  character  of  the  burgesses  in  the  twelfth  and  thir- 
teenth centuries.  This  timid  and  cautious  spirit  was  poorly  calcu- 
lated to  raise  the  cities  to  any  great  degree  of  importance  in  the 
government  of  the  state.  Confederations  among  the  free  or  incor- 
porated cities  were  found  throughout  all  southern  and  western  Eu- 
rope ;  but  the  free  cities  of  Germany  and  Italy  contributed  the  most 
largely  to  the  progress  of  civilization.  As  early  as  the  year  1254 
seventy  cities  in  the  south  of  Germany  formed  the  Rhenish  League, 
to  resist  the  encroachments  and  pretensions  of  the  nobility :  after- 
wards arose  the  Swabian  cities-union ;  but  the  most  powerful  of  the 
Germanic  confederations  was  that  of  the  Hanse  towns,  called  the 
Hanseatic  League,  formed  between  Lubeck,  Hamburg,  Bremen, 
Stettin,  and  other  cities,  numbering  sixty  at  the  beginning  of  the 
fourteenth  century,  and  afterwards  increased  to  a  hundred.  These 
were  all  commercial  cities ;  and  the  League  not  only  monopolized 
the  trade  of  the  Baltic,  but  extended  its  influences  to  the  shores  of 
the  Mediterranean,  and  competed  with  the  Italians  in  the  merchan 
dize  of  India.  The  League  was  also  able  to  collect  together  whole 
fleets  and  armies,  and  such  was  its  wealth  and  power  that  its  friend- 
ship was  universally  sought.  In  Italy,  as  early  as  the  middle  of 
the  twelfth  century,  the  cities  of  Lombardy,  with  Milan  at  their 
head,  had  become  extremely  rich  and  powerful,  principally  by  the 
commerce  which  the  Crusades  threw  into  their  hands ;  but  it  was 
only  in  confederated  communities  that  they  found  protection  against 
the  German  emperor,  who  called  himself  their  sovereign.  From 
1153  to  1183  the  Lombard  cities  maintained  an  obstinate  struggle 
with  Frederic  Barbarossa ;  but  the  former  triumphed,  and  the  em- 
peror was  compelled  to  renounce  all  prerogatives  which  he  had  hith- 
erto exercised  over  the  internal  administration  of  towns.  The  Lom- 
bard and  German  war,  says  an  able  modern  writer,  "  was  the  first 
and  most  noble  struggle  which  the  nations  of  modern  Europe  have 
ever  maintained  against  despotism. "a 

19.  The  history  of  the  Crusades,  which  occupied  a  period  of  nearly 
two  hundred  years,  from  the  close  of  the  eleventh  to  the      EFFECTS 
close  of  the  thirteenth  century,  has  been  given  in   a      OK  THE 
former  chapter,  but  their  effects  upon  the  state  of  Eu-    CRUSADES 
ropean   society  remain  to   be  noticed.     From  the  seventh  century 
Christianity  had  been  engaged  in  a  contest  with  Mohammedanism  ; 

a.  Sismondi's  Italian  Republics,  cb.  iii. 


776  PHILOSOPHY  OF   HISTORY.  [PART  III. 

and  throughout  Christian  Europe  the  strongest  feelings  of  hatred 
and  aversion  were  entertained  towards  the  infidel  believers  in  the 
Koran,  so  that  when  the  first  crusade  was  preached,  the  seeds  of  the 
great  moral  movement  that  followed  had  already  been  sown,  and  the 
crusades  were  but  the  continuation  of  the  great  struggle  that  had 
commenced  several  centuries  before.  They  were  the  first  great 
movement  in  which  all  Europe  was  influenced  by  one  common  senti- 
ment ;  for  all  Europe  joined  in  them ;  and  the  redemption  of  the 
Holy  Sepulchre  was  made  the  common  cause  of  all  Christendom. 
They  were,  therefore,  the  first  enterprise  that  was,  comprehensively, 
European  in  its  character  ;  and  they  furnished  the  first  opportunity 
of  acquaintance  among  all  the  Christian  nations  of  Europe.  Their 
effects  were  similar  upon  the  different  classes  of  society ;  for  the 
king  and  the  peasant,  the  lord  and  the  vassal,  the  priest  and  thjB  lay- 
man, all  took  the  same  interest  and  the  same  share  in  them  5 — the 
first  swarm  of  crusaders  was  composed  mostly  of  bands  t>f  ignorant 
peasants,  led  by  a  hermit ;  the  second  was  led  by  a  hundred  thousand 
mounted  and  mailed  warriors  of  the  feudal  nobility ;  and  afterwards, 
the  greatest  sovereigns  of  Europe  were  drawn  into  the  general  move- 
ment. The  crusades  were  not  only  European,  but  eminently  national, 
also,  in  their  character  ;  and  they  were  sustained  by  the  strong  hold 
which  religious  belief,  or,  rather,  religious  fanaticism,  had  taken  of 
the  human  mind. 

20.  During  the  two  centuries  in  which  European  society  was  con- 
vulsed by  these  mighty  movements,  the  narrow  horizon  that  had  lim- 
ited the  views  of  all  classes  was  enlarged ;  the  mists  that  sectional 
prejudice  and  bigotry  had  thrown  around  existing  institutions,  and 
opinions,  once  dissipated,  revealed  still  a  world  beyond  ;  and  the  new 
state  of  existence  which  was  opened  to  the  crusaders,  the  novelty, 
extent,  and  variety  of  the  scenes  displayed  to  their  view,  and  the 
contact  of  mind  with  mind  which  they  occasioned,  contributed  to  let 
in  more  enlarged  and  liberal  views  than  had  hitherto  prevailed,  and 
to  arouse  society  from  the  stupor  and  inactivity  into  which  it  had  fallen. 

21.  The  favorable  change  of  sentiments  and  opinions  occasioned 
by  these  holy  wars  is  well  illustrated  by  a  comparison  of  the  cotem- 
porary  chroniclers  of  the  first  crusades  with  those  who  wrote  towards 
the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century.     "  The  former,"  says  Guizot,  "are 
animated  writers,  whose  imagination  is  excited,  and  who  relate  the 
events  of  the  crusade  with  passion ;  but  they  are  narrow-minded  in 
the  extreme,  without  an  idea  beyond  the  little  sphere  in  which  they 


CHAP.  XL]  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  777 

lived ; — ignorant  of  every  science,  full  of  prejudices,  incapable  of 
forming  an  opinion  on  what  was  passing  around  them,  or  of  the  events 
which  were  the  subject  of  their  narratives.  In  William  of  Tyre,  one 
of  the  later  writers,  we  are  surprised  to  find  almost  a  modern  his- 
torian ; — a  cultivated,  enlarged,  and  liberal  mind  ;  great  political  in- 
telligence, and  general  views  and  opinions  upon  causes  and  effects. 
Other  writers  of  this  period  do  not  confine  themselves  to  what  imme- 
diately concerns  the  crusades,  but  describe  the  state  of  manners,  the 
geography,  the  religion,  and  natural  history  of  the  countries  which 
passed  under  their  notice.  The  first  crusaders  speak  of  the  Moham- 
medans without  knowing  them  ;  they  form  no  judgment  of  them  ; 
they  detest  them,  and  fight  them,  and  nothing  more.  The  later  cru- 
saders, even  when  fighting  with  them,  no  longer  regard  them  as 
monsters ;  they  sometimes  eulogize  their  conduct  and  manners,  and 
exhibit  an  impartiality  of  judgment  that  would  have  filled  the  first 
crusaders  with  surprise  and  horror.  There  is,  in  short,  an  immense 
distance  between  the  historians  and  people  of  the  first  and  those  of 
the  last  crusades ;  a  distance  which  indicates  an  actual  revolution  in 
the  state  of  the  human  mind." 

22.  The  social  state  also  underwent  an  important  change  during 
the  crusades.     The  expenses  of  the  feudal  proprietors,  in  furnishing 
and  equipping  themselves  and  their  vassals  for  the  wars,  reduced 
many  of  them  to  the  necessity  of  selling  their  fiefs  to  the  kings,  or 
their  privileges  to  the  cities  ;  and  many  of  the  nobles  found,  on  their 
return,  that  a  great  portion  of  their  power  had  been  usurped  during 
their  absence.     The  number  of  petty  fiefs,  petty  domains,  and  petty 
proprietors,  was  thus  greatly  diminished  ;  property  was  concentrated 
in  a  small  number  of  hands ;  and  everything  began  to  tend  towards 
that  centralization  of  power  which  characterized  the  monarchical  sys- 
tem of  modern  Europe  from  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  to  the 
middle  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

y. 

Attempts  at  Centralization  of  power. 

23.  Before  this  result  was  accomplished  there  had  been  various 
attempts  to  remodel  society  on  the  basis  of  some  one  or      1st.  AT- 
all  of  the  elements  that  we  have  mentioned :  so  as  to     TEMPT  AT 

/.  •     ,  !  ,       i  m,  THEOORATIO 

form  one  society  under  one  central  power.     Theocracy,    OROANIZA- 
or  the  Church,  attempted  to  bring  everything  into  sub-        TI°N- 
jection  to  the  principles  and  dominion  of  ecclesiastical  authority ; 


778  PHILOSOPHY  OF   HISTORY.  [*>AKT  IIL 

and  under  the  sway  of  Gregory  the  Seventh,  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
eleventh  century,  the  plan  of  rendering  the  world  subservient  to  the 
clergy,  and  the  clergy  to  the  pope,  was  fully  developed.81  The  scheme 
was  pursued  down  to  the  thirteenth  century,  when  the  incipient  spirit 
of  religious  reform,  and  the  numerous  controversies  between  the 
popes  and  the  European  sovereigns,  compelled  the  Church  to  relin- 
quish the  design  of  forcing  her  system  upon  Europe,  and  to  act  only 
upon  the  defensive. 

24.  The  causes  of  the  failure  of  the  attempts  at  theocratic  organi 
zation  were  three-fold.  The  first  was  the  purely  moral  and  peaceful 
nature  of  Christianity,  which  eschewed  force,  and  whose  only  legitimate 
conquests  were  over  the  souls  of  men.  The  second  was  the  resistance 
the  Church  encountered  from  the  feudal  nobility,  who,  when  sover- 
eigns and  people  had  almost  submitted  to  its  domination,  still  pro- 
claimed themselves,  with  all  the  lofty  pride  of  the  conquering  bar- 
barian, the  legitimate  possessors,  proprietors,  and  rulers  of  the  country. 
The  third  obstacle  in  the  way  of  the  Church  was  the  celibacy  of  the 
clergy,  who,  unable  to  recruit  their  ranks  from  their  own  society, 
were  forced  to  let  in  from  the  surrounding  world  the  materials  for 
the  continuance  of  their  order.  With  these,  many  discordant  ele- 
ments gained  admission ;  and  no  society  has  suffered  more  from 
schisms,  and  internal  dissensions,  than  the  Church  itself.  Still  the 
cause  of  theocratic  organization  seemed  to  prosper  down  to  the  mid- 
dle of  the  thirteenth  century,  when  a  popular  reaction  took  place 
against  the  Church  in  almost  every  part  of  Europe.  In  the  early 
part  of  the  century,  the  Albigenses,  a  republican  society  of  religious 
reformers  in  the  south  of  France,  who  distinguished  themselves  by 
their  opposition  to  the  discipline  and  ceremonies  of  the  Roman 
Church,  had  become  so  formidable  that  Pope  Innocent  III.  author- 
ized a  holy  war  or  crusade  against  them.  The  Albigenses  were  over- 
powered, and  nearly  exterminated  by  their  ruthless  invaders,  the 
king  of  France  and  his  feudal  nobility.  But  notions  similar  to  those 
entertained  by  the  Albigenses  appeared  in  other  parts  of  Europe  ; 
the  doctrine  of  papal  supremacy  was  already  on  the  decline  ;  and  the 

a.  See  also  p.  246.  Pope  Gregory  VII.,  known  before  his  installation  by  the  name  of 
Hildebrand,  published  a  series  of  papal  constitutions,  in  which  he  declared  that  the  Roman 
pontiff  alone  can  rightly  be  called  universal — that  he,  and  he  alone,  has  a  right  to  depose 
bishops,  prelates,  and  even  emperors,  and  to  use  imperial  ornaments — that  no  book  can  be 
called  canonical  without  his  authority— that  his  sentence  can  be  annulled  by  none,  but  that  he 
may  annul  the  decrees  of  all— that  princes  are  bound  to  kiss  his  feet— that  the  Roman  Church 
has  been,  is,  and  will  continue  to  be,  infallible ;  and  that  whoever  dissents  from  it  ceases  to  be 
a  Catholic  Christian. 


CHAP.  XL]  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  779 

arrogant  pretensions  of  Pope  Boniface  VIII.,  which  met  with  the 
most  decided  opposition  from  Philip  IV.  of  France  and  Edward  I. 
of  England,  were  fatal  to  the  papal  power  ;  and  at  the  opening  of  the 
fourteenth  century  the  attempt  at  theocratic  organization  had  utterly 
failed.*  The  tranquillity  that  followed  the  troubled  life  of  Boniface, 
was,  to  the  court  of  Home,  a  political  death. 

25.  The  democratic  attempts  to  remodel  society  begin  with  the 
history  of  the  free  cities  of  Italy — the  Italian  Republics.    The  feudal 
system  was  never  so  firmly  established  in  Italy,  as  in      2n.  AT- 
France  and  Germany :  and  to  this  circumstance  may  be     TEMPT  AT 

..     .,       .      ,      ,,  .  .,  ,     -  7.    ,       DEMOCRATIC 

attributed  the  superior  strength  and  importance  which  ORGANIZA. 
the  Italian  towns  acquired  at  an  early  period,  over  simi-  TION. 
lar  communities  in  other  States  of  Europe.  From  the  eleventh  to  the 
fifteenth  century  the  municipal  system  prevailed  in  Italy ;  and  during 
this  period  many  of  the  Italian  Republics  were  blessed  with  a  remark- 
able degree  of  commercial  prosperity ;  but  their  history  abounds  in  po- 
litical dissensions,  crimes,  and  misfortunes,  which  impeded  the  progress 
of  liberty  ;  and  the  want  of  union  among  them,  constantly  threatened 
as  they  were  by  foreign  sovereigns,  prevented  them  from  exerting 
any  important  influence  upon  other  countries.  In  the  south  of 
France  the  overthrow  of  the  Albigenses  was  not  only  the  triumph  of 
papacy  over  religious  heresies,  but  also  of  feudalism  over  democracy. 
Among  the  mountains  of  Switzerland  the  republican  organization 
succeeded  better, — the  Swiss  feudal  nobility,  allying  themselves,  for 

a.  When  Boniface  haughtily  required  the  kings  of  France  and  England  to  abstain  from  tax- 
ing the  clergy,  Philip  spurned  the  demand ;  and  Edward,  although  complying,  ordered  his 
judges  to  admit  no  causes  in  which  ecclesiastics  were  complainants,  but  to  try  every  suit 
brought  against  them,  averring  that  those  who  refused  to  contribute  to  the  support  of  the  State. 
had  no  claim  to  the  protection  of  the  law.  This  expedient  succeeded,  and  the  ecclesiastics 
hastened  to  pay  their  taxes  without  farther  compulsion. 

In  the  long  controversy  between  the  pope  and  Philip  the  latter  was  supported  by  all  classes 
of  his  people — even  the  clergy.  In  a  papal  bull  addressed  to  the  French  monarch  Boniface 
says : — "  We  desire  you  to  know  that  you  are  subject  to  us  in  temporal  as  well  as  in  spiritual 
affairs ;  that  the  appointment  to  benefices  and  prebends  belongs  not  to  you  ;  that  if  you  have 
kept  benefices  vacant,  the  profits  must  be  reserved  for  the  legal  successors ;  and  if  you  have 
bestowed  any  benefice,  we  declare  the  appointment  invalid,  and  revoke  it  if  executed.  Those 
who  oppose  this  judgment  shall  be  deemed  heretics." 

Philip,  after  ordering  this  declaration  to  be  publicly  burned,  published  the  following  mem- 
orable reply.  "Philip,  by  the  grace  of  God,  king  of  the  French,  to  Boniface,  claiming  to  be 
pope,  little  or  no  greeting.  May  it  please  your  sublime  stupidity  to  learn,  that  we  are  subject 
to  no  person  in  temporal  atfairs ;  that  the  bestowing  of  fiefs  and  benefices  belongs  to  us  by 
right  of  our  crown  ;  that  the  disposal  of  the  revenues  of  vacant  sees  is  part  of  our  prerogative  ; 
that  our  decrees,  in  this  respect,  are  valid,  both  for  the  past  and  for  the  future ;  and  that  we 
will  support,  with  all  our  power,  those  on  whom  we  have  bestowed,  or  shall  bestow,  benefices. 
Those  who  oppose  this  judgment  shall  be  deemed  fools  or  idiots."  Boniface  died  in  the  year 
1303. 


780  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [PAKT  III 

the  most  part,  with  the  cities,  and  giving  to  the  governments  of  the 
Swiss  cantons  that  tincture  of  aristocracy  which  they  retained  up  to 
the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth  century.  In  the  free  towns  "of 
Flanders,  and  in  the  German  Leagues  along  the  Rhine,  democracy 
triumphed  in  the  internal  government  of  the  cities ;  but  feudalism 
pressed  upon  it  from  every  side  :  in  their  struggles  with  the  barons 
the  free  communities  lent  no  assistance  to  one  another,  and  most  of 
these  petty  republics  finally  became  absorbed  in  the  principalities 
of  the  surrounding  barons. 

26.  After  the  failure  of  the  attempts  at  theocratic  and  democratic 
organization,  there  appears  to  have  been  a  general  tendency,  for 
SD  ATTEMPTS  awn^6)  towards  a  union  of  the  various  elements  of  society, 

AT  A  UNION  as  observed  in  the  rise  of  the  States- General  of  France, 
VARIOUS  tne  Cortes  of  Spain,  the  Assemblies  of  the  German  States, 

ELEMENTS    and  the  Parliament  of  England.     In  France,  the  States- 

OF  SOCIETY.  Genera^  first  called  in  the  year  1302,  and  discontinued 
early  in  the  next  century,  composed  of  representatives  of  the  "  third 
estate,"  or  of  the  people,  together  with  the  clergy  and  nobility,  and 
corresponding  to  the  English  Parliament,  never  acquired  any  im- 
portance until  it  was  summoned  at  the  interesting  period  of  the 
opening  of  the  French  Revolution,  and  accomplished  but  little 
towards  organizing  the  elements  of  society  into  one  united  govern- 
ment. The  Cortes,  or  representative  assemblies,  of  Spain,  composed 
of  the  nobility,  dignified  clergy,  and  representatives  of  towns,  shared 
largely  in  the  legislative  authority  during  the  fourteenth  century ; 
and,  down  to  the  time  of  the  union  of  the  crowns  of  Castile  and 
Aragon,  enjoyed  very  extensive  privileges.  Unfortunately,  however, 
although  the  crowns  were  united,  the  kingdoms  were  not ;  for  each 
preserved  its  own  laws  and  institutions  ;  and  their  mutual  jealousies 
were  often  converted  to  the  destruction  of  the  liberties  of  both  ;  and 
when,  moreover,  Granada,  Navarre,  and  Naples,  were  subjected  to 
the  Spanish  crown,  the  Spanish  sovereign  became,  in  a  great  measure, 
independent  of  the  Cortes  of  his  hereditary  States.  The  reigns  of 
Charles  V.  and  Philip  II.,  at  a  period  a  little  later,  completed  the 
extinction  of  all  constitutional  control  over  the  acts  of  the  sovereign. 
The  powers  of  the  Cortes  of  Portugal  corresponded  to  those  of 
Spain;  but  here  also  royalty  triumphed;  and  the  year  1697  wit- 
nessed the  last  convocation  of  these  early  guardians  of  Portuguese 
liberties.  The  attempts  made  in  Germany  to  unite  the  various  ele- 
ments of  society  into  one  political  organization  were  only  partially 


CHAP.  XL]  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  781 

successful  ;  and  although  public  affairs  were  transacted  in  diets  or  as- 
semblies of  the  great  feudatories  and  the  representatives  of  the  free 
cities,  yet  the  decisions  of  the  diet  were  frequently  disregarded,  and 
the  general  government  was  little  more  than  a  league  between  many 
independent  States,  whose  individual  systems  of  local  administration 
often  differed  radically  from  each  other. 

27.  The  attempts  to  unite  the  various  elements  of  society  into  one 
government  fully  succeeded  in  England  alone,  where  the  legislative 
power  has  been  vested,  for  many  centuries,  in  the  great  council  of  par- 
liament, consisting  of  the  king  and  the  three  estates,  —  that  is,  of  the 
king,  the  lords  spiritual,  the  lords  temporal,  and  the  commons.     The 
causes  that  led  to  this  intimate  union  of  monarchy,  aristocracy,  theo- 
cracy, and  democracy,  were  gradually  operating  from  the  middle  of 
the  thirteenth  century,  when  the  burgesses  first  took  seats  in  parlia- 
ment, down  to  the  Revolution  of  1688,  when  the  principles  of  the 
constitution  were  clearly  established. 

28.  Up  to  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century  European  nations 
and  governments,  apart  from  England,  can  hardly  be  said  to  have 
existed  on  a  large  scale  ;  but  now,  in  place  of  the  local    4TH   guo 
interests,  laws,  manners,  and  ideas,  that  had  so  long  held  CBSSFUL  AT- 
sway,  more  general  views  began  to  take  possession  of    TEMPTS  AT 
society,  and  that  process  of  centralization  began,  which 


resulted  in  the  reduction  of  all  the  elements  of  society  TION- 
to  two  —  the  government  and  the  people  —  and  the  establishment  of 
the  arbitrary  monarchical  system  that  prevailed  over  Europe  during 
the  sixteenth,  seventeenth,  and  eighteenth  centuries.  The  fifteenth 
century  may  be  regarded  as  the  threshold  of  modern  civilization  —  as 
the  dawn  of  the  day  in  which  we  moderns  live  —  a  day  whose  bright- 
ness seems  only  to  render  more  intense  the  darkness  of  the  night 
that  preceded  it.  The  developments  that  were  made  towards  the 
centralization  of  the  powers  of  society  during  the  fifteenth  century 
were  but  the  germs  of  those  political  institutions  which  the  three  suc- 
ceeding centuries  perfected  ;  and  at  the  close  of  this  latter  period  we 
shall  see  still  another  change  commencing,  which  rapidly  ushered  in 
a  revolution  far  more  important  than  any  that  had  preceded  it. 

29.  At  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century  France  and  England, 
the  two  most  important  powers  of  Europe,  were  engaged  in  a  war, 
which  resulted,  after  an  almost  uninterrupted  struggle  of  more  than 
a  hundred  years,  in  the  expulsion  of  the  English  from  the  continent, 
and  the  enlargement  and  consolidation  of  the  French  people  and  the 


782  PHILOSOPHY  OF   HISTORY.  [PAKT  IIL 

French  territories  into  one  nation.  Before  this  war  France  was  di- 
vided into  a  number  of  almost  independent  feudal  principalities, 
which,  together  with  the  provinces  vacated  by  the  English,  were  now 
united  under  a  common  monarchy ;  a  common  patriotism  had  in- 
duced the  nobles,  the  burghers,  and  the  peasantry,  to  unite  in  repel- 
ling the  invaders ;  and  France  thereby  gained  the  outer  semblance 
at  least  of  a  strength  and  unity,  which  no  other  European  nation, 
save  England,  then  possessed.  Internally  also,  at  the  end  of  this 
period  of  wars,  considerable  progress  had  been  made  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  principal  resources,  and  the  regular  organization  of  the 
chief  powers,  of  government.  Parliaments  were  called  more  fre- 
quently than  before,  the  administration  of  justice  was  extended  and 
organized,  a 'standing  military  force  was  established,  and  a  perpetual 
tax  ordained  for  its  support, — an  event  fatal  to  the  political  influence 
of  the  nobles,  and  the  liberties  of  the  people,  but  one  which  contrib- 
uted powerfully  to  the  permanency  and  strength  of  the  government. 

30.  Events  of  a  similar  nature  occurred  in  Spain.     It  was  in  the 
fifteenth  century  that  Spain  was  consolidated  into  one  kingdom,  and 
the  Spanish  monarchy  extended  and  confirmed  by  the  conquest  of 
Granada,  and  the  union  of  the  crowns  of  Castile  and  Aragon.     In 
Germany  the  crown  was  conferred  upon  the  powerful  house  of  Austria 
in  the  year  1438  ;  and  at  the  close  of  the  century  the  emperor  Maxi- 
milian had  united  the  Low  Countries,  and  the  county  of  Burgundy, 
his  wife's  inheritance,  to  his  paternal  States  of  Austria ;  so  that  over 
the  whole  of  Germany  he  exercised  the  imperial  authority,  which  had 
escaped  from  his  predecessors.     Although  monarchy  did  not  establish 
itself  in  Italy,  yet  the  centralization  of  powers  progressed  there  also ; 
and  during  the  fifteenth  century  the  numerous  petty  Italian  Repub- 
lics were  concentrated  in  the  hands  of  a  few  ruling  families, — most 
of  the  Lombard  free  towns  becoming  merged  in  the  duchy  of  Milan, 
and  Florence  falling  under  the  dominion  of  the  Medici.     Soon  after 
these  events,  the  French,  Spaniards,  and  Germans,  overwhelmed 
Italy  ;  in  their  struggle  for  the  spoils  of  that  ill-fated  country  they 
deprived  the  Italians  of  the  little  remnant  of  their  independence ; 
and  henceforward  the  misfortunes  of  Italy  are  only  episodes  in  the 
history  of  other  nations. 

31.  The  most  important  events  in  the  history  of  England  during 
the  fifteenth  century  are  the  war  with  France,  and  the  civil  contest 
between  the  houses  of  York  and  Lancaster.     The  protracted  foreign 
war  contributed  greatly  to  augment  the  powers  of  royalty,  by  keep- 


CHAP.  XL]  THE  MIDDLE   AGES.  783 

ing  the  military  force  of  the  nation  so  long  under  the  control  of  the 
king;  while  the  civil  wars  of  the  two  Koses,  by  diminishing  the 
numbers  of  the  nobility  of  the  kingdom,  who  were  decimated  by  bat- 
tles and  wasted  by  proscription,  and  by  ruining  in  fortune  a  large 
portion  of  the  survivors,  so  effectually  crippled  the  feudal  aristocracy 
as  to  render  it  unable  longer  to  resist  the  encroachments  of  royal 
authority.  With  the  accession  of  Henry  VII.  ,  the  first  prince  of 
the  house  of  Tudor,  begins  the  era  of  political  centralization  in  Eng- 
land, and  the  triumph  of  royalty. 

32.  With  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century  the  ancient  liberties  of 
Europe  seem  to  have  become  nearly  extinguished,  while  everything 
tended  to  the  establishment  of  absolute  monarchy.     "  Parliaments 
and  diets,  States-general,  and  cortes,"  says  an  English  writer,  "  were 
gradually  disappearing  from  view,  or  reduced  from  august  assemblies 
to  insignificant  formalities  ;  and  Europe  seemed  on  the  eve  of  exhib- 
iting nothing  to  the  disgusted  eye  but  the  dead  uniformity  of  imbecile 
despotism,  dissolute  courts,  and  cruelly-oppressed  nations.  "a     Yet 
this  revolution  was  not^without  its  benefits.     The  feudal  system  and 
the  municipal  system,  theocracy,  aristocracy,  and  democracy,  separate 
and  combined,  had  failed  in  the  organization  of  a  government  truly 
national  ;  and  monarchy  alone  seemed  capable  of  bringing  order  out 
of  confusion,  and  guaranteeing  to  society  that  security  which  the 
dawn  of  a  brighter  era  in  civilization  demanded.     Monarchy  there- 
fore came  in  at  the  proper  time,  to  contribute  to  the  cause  of  civil- 
ization ;  for  it  aided  the  progress  of  equality,  by  combating  feudalism 
and  aristocratical  privileges,  and  by  introducing  some  degree  of  unity 
in  legislation,  and  in  the  administration  of  government. 

VI. 

33.  Passing  from  the  political  to  the  moral  and  intellectual  world, 
we  observe  in  the  latter,  during  the  fifteenth  century,  the   MORAL  AND 
beginning  of  changes  and  revolutions  no  less  important    INTKLLECT- 

.L!  •       ^l        f  AT  i        ,1  •    •.        f         f  i  UAL  CHANGES 

than  in  the  tormer.     Already  the  spirit  of  reform  began  1N  THK 


to  agitate  the  church  itself;  and  about  the  middle  of  the  CENTURY. 
fourteenth  century  John  Wickliffe,  an  English  divine,  who  has  been 
called  the  morning  star  of  the  Reformation,  boldly  attacked  papal 
usurpation  and  the  abuses  of  the  Church  ;  and  although  the  pope 
insisted  on  his  being  brought  to  trial  as  a  heretic,  he  was  effectually 
protected  by  the  English  nobility.  In  the  year  1378,  six  years  be- 

a.  Mackintosh.    Hist  Eng.,  i.  313. 


784  PHILOSOPHY   OF  HISTORY.  [PART  III 

fore  the  death  of  "Wickliffe,  occurred  what  is  called  the  great  schism 
of  the  West ;  when  two  popes  were  created,  Urban  VI.,  and  Clement 
VII.,  one  at  Rome  and  the  other  at  Avignon.  The  rival  popes 
hurled  anathemas  against  each  other,  and  excommunicated  the  parti- 
sans of  their  adversaries  as  heretics ;  the  whole  Christian  world  was 
divided  by  the  schism  ;  and  although  rival  councils  in  the  Church  in 
vain  attempted  reforms,  and  temporal  powers  succeeded  little  better 
in  their  efforts,  yet  more  liberal  views,  and  a  general  desire  of  ref- 
ormation, began  to  pervade  all  classes  of  society.  In  the  early  part 
of  the  fifteenth  century,  John  Huss  and  Jerome  of  Prague,  who  had 
joined  in  spreading  the  doctrines  of  Wickliffe,  were  condemned  to 
the  flames  as  heretics  and  revolutionists.  The  Bohemian  disciples  of 
Huss  revenged  his  death  by  a  revolt  from,  and  a  long  and  bloody 
war  with,  the  emperor  Sigismund ;  and  although  the  revolt  was  sub- 
dued, the  spirit  of  reform  could  not  be  extinguished,  but  only  waited 
for  an  opportunity  to  break  out  anew,  which  it  found  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  next  century. 

34.  The  age  that  witnessed  the  first  efforts  of  the  human  mind 
to  escape  from  the  thraldom  of  religious  despotism,  witnessed  also 

the  revival  of  literature,  and  many  important  inventions 
*n  m°dern  science.  Genius,  despising  the  vain  cavils  of 
the  schools,  began  to  study  truth  in  the  volume  of  na- 
ture ;  while  Grecian  and  Roman  learning  were  revived,  and  with 
them  an  admiration  excited  for  the  institutions,  opinions,  philosophy, 
and  literature  of  antiquity.  In  the  latter  part  of  the  thirteenth 
century  Roger  Bacon,  an  Englishman,  and  Franciscan  friar,  became 
famous  for  his  discoveries  in  chemistry  and  mechanical  philosophy. 
In  Italy,  during  the  fifteenth  century,  Dante,  Petrarch,  and  Boccacio, 
distinguished  themselves  for  the  greatness  and  originality  of  their 
conceptions ;  and  devoting  themselves  with  enthusiasm  to  the  study 
of  ancient  models,  gave  to  the  Italian  language,  by  the  grace  and 
elegance  of  their  compositions,  much  of  that  refinement  of  which  it 
now  boasts. 

35.  Among  the  many  important  inventions  that  mark  the  devel- 

opment of  mind  in  the  closing  period  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
and  which  tended  greatly  to  accelerate  the  progress  of 
modern  civilization,  may  be  mentioned  the  mariner's  needle,  which 
changed  the  art  of  navigation,  gave  to  commerce  a  wonderful  ex- 
tension, and  opened  the  way  to  the  discovery  of  a  New  World ; — 
paper  made  of  linen,  a  cheap  substitute  for  the  scarce  and  expensive 


CHAP.  IX.]  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  785 

material  of  parchment; — painting  in  oil  colors,  which  effected  a 
change  in  the  system  and  the  principles  of  the  art,  and  rendered  the 
works  of  modern  painters  far  more  durable  than  those  of  the  ancients; 
— engraving  on  copper,  which  multiplied  and  diffused  the  master 
pieces  of  art ; — the  manufacture  of  gunpowder,  which,  equalizing 
the  peasant  and  the  noble  on  the  field  of  battle,  changed  the  whole 
system  of  war ; — and  lastly  the  art  of  printing,  the  greatest  of  all 
inventions,  and  the  one  which  commemorates  all  others — transmit- 
ting to  posterity  every  important  event — immortalizing  the  actions 
of  the  great — and,  above  all,  extending  and  diffusing  the  Word  of 
God  to  all  mankind. 

36.  Among  the  discoveries  of  this  period  was  the  opening  of  a  new 
route  to  India  by  Vasco  de  Grama,  around  the  Cape  of 

~        ,     TT  '*  •    .  *       11      Ai          T       DISCOVERIES. 

(rood  Hope,  and,  the  most  important  of  all,  the  dis- 
covery of  America  by  Christopher  Columbus,  an  event  which  burst 
upon  astonished  Europe  like  a  new  creation,  and  one  that  has  opened 
for  society  a  new  field  of  development,  where  civilization  may  progress 
unimpeded  by  the  many  incumbrances  of  opposing  elements,  and 
systems,  and  castes,  and  classes,  which,  in  the  Old  World,  the  wreck 
of  ages  has  strewn  in  its  way. 

50 


786  PHILOSOPHY   OF   HISTORY.  [PART  IIL 


CHAPTER    X. 

THE   SIXTEENTH   CENTURY. 

THE    REFORMATION. 

ANALYSIS.  1.  The  era  of  the  Reformation.  Germany,  France,  and  England,  at  thia 
period.  The  four  aspects  under  which  the  Reformation  may  be  viewed. 

I.   The  causes  that  led  to  the  Reformation. 

2.  The  events  that  opened  the  Reformation.  The  causes  to  which  it  has  been  variously  and 
erroneously  attributed.  These  not  adequate  to  the  effects  attributed  to  them.  The  claim  to 
spiritual  domination  over  the  human  mind.  The  progress  towards  mental  freedom,  the  true 
cause  of  the  Reformation. — 3.  The  reformers  themselves  had  but  little  idea  of  the  prevailing 
spirit  of  the  age.  The  right  of  private  judgment. — 4.  The  subordinate  causes  which  produced 
the  crisis.  Effects  of  the  great  schism  of  the  West.  The  councils  of  Constance  and  Basil. 
Dissolute  lives  of  the  popes — 5.  Repugnant  doctrines  of  the  Romish  Church.  The  influence 
of  considerations  not  strictly  religious.  Immoralities  of  the  clergy,  &c. — 6.  Protection  extend- 
ed to  ecclesiastics  guilty  of  crimes.  Indulgences  or  pardons. — 7.  Riches  and  power  of  the 
clergy.  General  dissatisfaction  with  the  Church,  and  general  tendency  to  freedom. 

II.  Progress  and  extent  of  the  Reformation. 

8.  Establishment  of  the  Reformation  in  the  German  empire.  Its  introduction  into  France. 
Opposition  of  the  king,  Francis  I.,  to  the  new  doctrines.  John  Calvin.  Treatment  of  the 
Huguenots.  Edict  of  Nantes.  Its  revocation  by  Louis  XIV. — 9.  Adoption  of  the  principles 
of  the  Reformation  in  England.  The  way  previously  prepared  for  them. — 10.  The  immediate 
causes  of  their  ascendency  in  England. — 11.  The  design,  the  creed,  and  the  intolerance  of  Henry 
the  Eighth.  The  results  of  the  position  assumed  by  Henry.— 12.  Partial  introduction  of  the 
Reformation  into  Ireland.  The  struggles  through  which  it  passed  in  Scotland. — 13.  Its  princi- 
ples early  introduced  into  the  Northern  kingdoms.  Christian  II.,  and  Frederic  I.  of  Denmark. 
Gustavus  Vasa  of  Sweden. — 15.  Suppression  of  the  Reformation  in  Italy,  Spain,  and  Portugal. 

III.    Character  of  the  Reformation. 

16.  Intolerant  spirit  of  the  age.  Both  Protestants  and  Romanists  involved  in  the  charge. 
The  merit  due  to  Luther  and  bis  coadjutors.—]?.  The  right  to  propagate  and  defend  opinions 
by  force  generally  claimed  by  all  parties. — 18.  Both  Romanists  and  Protestants  demanded  the 
support  of  the  civil  power.  Intolerance  of  Luther,  Calvin,  Craumer,  Knox,  &c.  Extract  from 
Hallam :  Persecution,  the  Bin  of  the  Reformed  churches.— 19.  Luther  more  favorably  distin- 
guished than  the  other  reformers.  Account  of  Calvin's  intolerance.  How  viewed  by  the 
Romanists.— 20.  Intolerance  of  the  English  reformers.  Henry  the  JMghth.  His  reign, 
how  characterized.  Protestant  cruelties  in  the  reign  of  Edward  VI.  Roman  Catholic 
cruelties  during  the  reign  of  Queen  Mary.— 21.  The  acts  of  "supremacy"  and  "uniformity" 
passed  during  Elizabeth's  reign. — 22.  Roman  Catholic  martyrs  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth.  Re- 
mark of  Hallam.  The  pretence  for  the  punishment  of  the  Romanists.— 23.  The  differences  that 
sprung  up  among  the  reformers  themselves.  Exterior  ceremonies.  The  course  pursued 
by  Cranmer  and  Ridley.  The  influence  of  the  reign  of  Edward  VI.  Of  Elizabeth.— 24.  At- 
tempt to  enforce  uniformity  to  the  rites  of  the  established  Church,  in  1565.  The  controversy 
with  the  English  dissenters.  Extract  from  Hallam.  The  two  great  branches  into  which  the 
Reformation  was  divided. 


CHAP.  X.]  THE   REFORMATION.  787 

IV.  Effects  of  tfe  Rjefortnatwn. 

25.  Division  of  Europe  into  two  classes  of  States.  The  Protestant  States :  Roman  Catholic 
States.  Effects  of  the  Reformation  upon  the  papal  power. — 26.  The  Church  of  Rome  improved 
iu  science  and  morals.  The  character  of  religion,  so  called,  changed.— 27.  Effects  upon  the 
progress  of  civilization ; — emancipation  of  mind.  Extension  of  religion.  Independence  of 
the  temporal  power.  Roman  Catholic  writers. — 28.  Progress  of  literature  and  the  arts.  Char- 
acter of  the  literature  of  the  sixteenth  century.— 29.  Philosophy,  the  natural  sciences,  and 
politics.  The  art  of  printing — good  and  evil  effects. — 30.  The  great  men  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury. English  writers— French— Spanish— German— Italian. 

1.  The  Reformation  was  the  great  event  that  distinguished  the 
sixteenth  century.     It  originated  at  an  era  of  great  political  im- 
portance in  the  history  of  Europe — in  the  midst  of  the  great  struggle 
between  Francis  I.  and  Charles  V.,  and  at  the  moment  when  Eng- 
land, under  Henry  VIII.,  placed  in  a  position  to  hold  the  balance  of 
power  between  the  rivals,  began  her  first  systematic  interference  in 
continental  politics.     The  Reformation  may  be  viewed  under  four 
different  aspects:   1st.  The  causes  that  led  to  it :  2d.  Its  progress 
and  extent :  3d.  Its  character  ;  and  4th.  Its  effects. 

I. 

The  causes  that  Led  to  the  Reformation. 

2.  The  events  that  opened  the  Reformation,  lying  on  the  surface 
of  history,  are  familiar  to  most  readers  ;  but  its  causes  have  not  un- 
frequently  been  confounded  with  the  circumstances  of  its  immediate 
origin.     It  has  been  variously  and  erroneously  attributed,  on  the 
one  hand,  to  the  sale  of  indulgences, — to  the  ambition  of  princes, 
who   desired  to  escape  from  the  sway  of  papal  tyranny, — to  the 
avarice  of  the  nobility,  who  sought  to  get  possession  of  the  property 
of  the  clergy ;  and,  on  the  other,  to  the  pure  desire  of  effectually  re- 
forming the  existing  abuses  of  the  Church.     None  of  these  causes, 
however,  are  adequate  to  the  effects  attributed  to  them  ;  and  for  the 
moving  principle  that  urged  forward  so  large  a  portion  of  the  popu- 
lation of  Europe  to  rebel  against  the  authority  which  it  had  so  long 
revered,  we  are  compelled  to  look  beyond  accidental  circumstances, 
and  beyond  individuals  themselves,   who  were   merely  the  instru- 
ments of  a  change  that  would  ere  long  have  been  effected  under  the 
names  of  some  other  reformers,  if  such  men  as  Luther,  and  Zuinglius, 
and   Calvin,  had  never  lived.     If  the  spiritual  power  had  yielded 
everything  demanded  by  the  early  reformers,  both  in  temporal  mat- 
ters— in  exactions  and  tributes — and  in  points  of  faith,  but  had  still 


788  PHILOSOPHY   OF   HISTORY  [PAM  III. 

retained  its  claim  to  spiritual  domination  over  the  human  mind,  there 
is  no  reason  to  believe  that  the  religious  revolution  would  have 
stopped  short  in  its  course.  After  having  obtained  reform,  it  would 
have  demanded  liberty.  The  true  causes  of  the  Reformation  are  to 
be  sought  for  in  that  undercurrent  of  social  progress  in  which  the 
human  mind  had  long  been  laboring  to  accomplish  its  freedom.  We 
have  alluded,  in  a  former  chapter,  to  the  failure  of  the  attempts  at  a 
theocratic  organization  of  society, — to  the  popular  reaction  against 
the  principles  and  dominion  of  ecclesiastical  authority  that  began  in 
Europe  as  early  as  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century, — and  to  the 
spirit  of  reform  that  began  to  agitate  the  Church  itself  a  century 
later, — all  indicating  a  tendency  to  an  increasing  exercise  of  private 
judgment,  and  a  gradual  progress  towards  the  emancipation  of  human 
reason.  The  Reformation  was  the  outward  development  of  revolu- 
tionary causes  that  had  long  been  operating  to  free  the  human  mind 
from  the  bondage  of  spiritual  despotism. 

3.  Yet  the  early  reformers— even  Luther  himself — had  but  little 
idea  of  the  prevailing  spirit  of  the  age  ;  and  the  principles  on  which 
the  Reformation  progressed  were  developed  and  perfected  as  circum- 
stances called  them  forth.     The  right  of  private  judgment  in  religious 
matters  was  not  contended  for  as  an  absolute  principle,  until  long 
after  it  had  been  generally  exercised  in  point  of  fact ;  and  even 
Luther,  while  appealing  "  from  the  pope  ill  informed  to  the  pope 
better  informed,"  repeatedly  offered  to  submit  himself  to  the  decision 
of  the  Roman  Church,  when  expressed  under  the  authority  of  a  gen- 
eral council.     At  a  later  period,  however,  the  followers  of  Luther, 
and  probably  Luther  himself,  would  have  regarded  the  decision  of  a 
council  of  prelates  as  of  no  more  binding  authority  in  matters  of 
faith  and  doctrine  than  a  mere  dictum  of  the  pope  himself. 

4.  The  more  immediate  causes  which  produced  the  crisis  of  the 
Reformation,  and  that  were  subordinate  to  the  general  cause  which 
we  have  stated,  were  of  a  character  affecting  the  entire  administra- 
tion of  the  government  of  the  Roman  Church,  its  doctrines,  and  the 
manners  and  morals  of  its  priesthood.     The  great  schism  of  the 
West,  to  which  we  have  previously  alluded,  which  divided  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  Church  among  two  or  three  contending  pontiffs,  each 
excommunicating  his  rivals,  and  anathematizing  those  who  adhered 
to  them,  had  an  astonishing  effect  in  diminishing  the  veneration  with 
which  the  world  had  been  accustomed  to  view  the  papal  dignity,  and 
imposed  upon  community  the  necessity  of  the  exercise  of  private 


CHAP.  X.]  THE  REFORMATION.  789 

judgment,  so  far  at  least  as  to  choose,  among  these  infallible  guides, 
the  one  whose  authority  should  be  acknowledged.  The  councils  as- 
sembled at  Constance  and  Basil,  by  taking  into  their  hands  the 
authority  of  deposing  and  electing  popes,  spread  the  growing  disre- 
spect for  the  Roman  See  still  wider,  and  taught  the  world  that  there 
was  a  power  within  the  Church  superior  to  the  Church  itself;  while 
the  dissolute  lives  of  some  of  the  popes  of  this  period,  and  the  fraud, 
injustice,  and  cruelty  of  others  in  their  administration,  prepared  the 
minds  of  men  to  listen  to  the  bold  attacks  of  Luther  and  his  follow- 
ers against  the  high  claims  of  papal  prerogative. 

5.  Of  the  doctrines  of  the  Roman  Church,  which  the  reformers 
declared  to  be  repugnant  to  the  spirit  of  Christianity,  and  destitute 
of  any  foundation   in  reason,  in  the  word  of  God,  or  in  the  practice 
of  the  primitive  Church,  we  have  given  elsewhere  a  brief  synopsis,3- 
and  we  le'ave  their  discussion  to  ecclesiastical  historians,  to  whose 
province  they  peculiarly  belong.     Considerations  strictly  religious, 
however,  although  having  their  full  weight  with  the  learned,  were 
not  more  powerful  in  urging  forward  the  Reformation  than  the  gross 
immoralities  and  excesses  which  stained  the  character  of  a  great 
portion  of  the  Catholic  clergy,  from  the  pope  downwards.     When 
Luther  declaimed  against  the  voluptuous  lives  of  the  ecclesiastics, 
all  his  hearers  were  able,  from  their  own  observation,  to  confirm  the 
truth  of  his  invectives ;  while  only  a  few  could,  of  themselves,  form 
a  satisfactory  judgment  of  the  points  of  religious  faith  which  he 
assailed. 

6.  The  scandal  of  the  crimes  committed  by  many  of  the  ecclesias- 
tics, was  increased  by  the  facility  with  which  such  as  committed  them 
obtained  pardon.     Under  the  growing  influence  of  the  court  of  Rome, 
convents,  monasteries,  and  all  consecrated  places  of  worship,  had  be- 
come general  asylums,  or  places  of  refuge,  to  which  criminals  might 
escape,  and  be  safe  from  the  vengeance  of  the  law.     By  another 
stretch  of  papal  prerogative,  all  clergymen,  and  others  set  apart  to 
perform  religious  services,  were  exempted  from  criminal  process  in 
the  courts  of  law,  and  delivered  over  to  the  ecclesiastical  judge; 
so  that  the  Church  alone  took  cognizance  of  the  offence.     As  the 
avarice  and  corruption  of  the  court  of  Rome  went  hand  in  hand,  the 
next  step  in  iniquity  was  for  the  officers  of  the  Roman  chancery  to 
decree  the  precise  sum  to  be  exacted  for  the  pardon  of  every  par- 
ticular sin.     A  book  was  actually  published  by  authority,  containing 

a.  Pp.  331-2. 


790  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [PAET  IIL 

all  the  specifications.  A  deacon  guilty  of  murder  could  be  absolved 
for  twenty  crowns.  A  bishop  or  abbot  might  assassinate  for  three 
hundred  livres.  Any  ecclesiastic  might  violate  his  vows  of  chastity, 
even  under  the  most  aggravating  circumstances,  for  the  third  part 
of  that  sum.  The  doctrine  of  granting  indulgences  for  crime,  opened 
the  way  for  a  traffic  still  more  profitable  to  the  Holy  See.  Not  only 
were  indulgences,  or  pardons,  granted  for  past  offences,  but  if  a  man 
meditated  any  crime,  he  might,  beforehand,  purchase  pardon,  or  ex- 
emption from  the  penalty.  The  gross  immoralities  and  the  wicked- 
ness which  such  a  system  introduced  into  society  may  be  more  easily 
conceived  than  described. 

7.  Next  to  the  degeneracy  of  manners  among  the  clergy,  their  ex- 
orbitant riches  and  power,  when  taken  in  connection  with  the  manner 
in  which  the  former  were  acquired,  and  the  latter  exercised,  rendered 
them  odious  to  the  people,  and  objects  of  great  jealousy  to  temporal 
sovereigns.  During  the  long  contests  between  the  popes  and  the 
G-erman  emperors,  concerning  the  right  of  investiture,  or  the  appoint- 
ment and  endowment  of  bishops,  the  ecclesiastics  seized  a  large  por- 
tion of  the  Imperial  domains  and  revenues,  which  the  emperors  were 
afterwards  unable  to  wrest  out  of  their  hands,  so  great  was  the  power 
of  the  Church ;  and  at  the  period  of  the  Reformation  it  was  com- 
puted that  the  German  clergy  had  obtained  possession,  in  various 
ways,  of  more  than  one-half  of  the  national  property.  In  England, 
the  proportion  was  about  one-fifth  ;  and  throughout  Christian  Europe, 
the  share  belonging  to  the  Church  was  everywhere  prodigious.  The 
avarice  and  extortion  of  the  court  of  Rome  were  excessive  almost  to 
a  proverb.  As  Church  property  was  exempt  from  taxation,  the  laity 
were  loaded  with  excessive  impositions,  while  those  who  possessed 
the  greatest  property  were  freed  from  any  obligation  to  support 
or  defend  the  State.  To  so  great  a  height  had  dissatisfaction  risen 
concerning  the  dissolute  manners,  the  exorbitant  wealth,  and  the 
enormous  power  and  privileges  of  the  clergy,  before  the  Reformation, 
and  such  was  the  general  tendency  of  the  period  to  freedom  and  in- 
dependence of  thought,  that  the  bold  doctrines  of  Luther  were  pro- 
mulgated with  almost  the  certainty  of  success.  Other  men  had  long 
before  denounced  the  immoralities  of  the  Romish  clergy, — had  com- 
bated many  of  the  peculiar  tenets  of  the  Church, — and  had  declaimed 
against  the  tyranny  of  papal  jurisdiction ;  but  the  times  were  not 
ripe  for  the  success  of  their  efforts.  But  when  Luther  and  his  coad- 
jutors appeared  on  the  stage,  the  minds  of  men  had  already  been  pre- 


CHAP.  X.I  THE   REFORMATION.  791 

pared,  by  a  singular  combination  of  circumstances,  for  receiving 
their  doctrines ;  and,  through  infinite  wisdom,  instrumentalities  ap- 
parently the  most  inadequate,  triumphed  over  a  system  of  spiritual 
despotism  the  most  deeply  rooted,  and  the  most  powerful  that  the 
world  has  ever  known. 

II. 

Progress  and  extent  of  the  Reformation. 

8.  The  final  establishment  of  the  Reformation  in  the  German  em- 
pire dates  with  the  treaty  of  Augsburg  in  1555  ;  but  even  before  this 
period  its  principles  had  been  propagated,  more  or  less,  throughout 
nearly  all  the  kingdoms  of  Europe.  The  Reformation  was  early  in- 
troduced into  France,  where  it  was  countenanced  by  Margaret,  queen 
of  Navarre,  sister  to  Francis  I.  As  early  as  1523  there  were  in 
several  provinces  of  France  large  numbers  of  those  who  had  con- 
ceived the  greatest  aversion  to  the  doctrines  and  tyranny  of  the 
Church  of  Rome ;  and  among  them  were  many  nobles  of  the  first 
rank  and  dignity ;  but,  after  troubles  and  commotions  had  been  ex- 
cited in  several  places  on  account  of  religious  differences,  the  king 
interposed  his  authority  against  the  new  sect,  and  caused  many  per- 
sons eminent  for  their  virtue  and  piety  to  be  put  to  death  in  the 
most  barbarous  manner.  Although  at  times  Francis  showed  a  lean- 
ing towards  the  Protestants,  probably  with  a  view  to  please  his  sister, 
whom  he  tenderly  loved,  yet  such  was  his  abhorrence  of  the  new 
doctrines  that  he  is  said  to  have  declared,  that  if  he  thought  the 
blood  of  his  arm  was  tainted  by  the  Lutheran  heresy,  he  would 
have  it  cut  off;  and  that  he  would  not  spare  even  his  own  children, 
if  they  entertained  sentiments  contrary  to  those  of  the  Romish 
Church.  The  celebrated  John  Calvin,  often  called  the  second  re- 
former of  the  sixteenth  century,  the  founder  of  the  Presbyterian 
form  of  Church  government,  was  a  Frenchman  by  birth,  but,  being 
compelled  to  leave  France,  he  settled  first  at  Basil  in  Switzerland, 
and  afterwards  at  Genoa,  at  which  latter  place  he  possessed  almost 
absolute  power  in  religious  matters.  The  treatment  of  the  French 
Protestants,  or  Huguenots,  as  they  were  called  by  their  adversaries, 
was  exceedingly  cruel ;  and  in  no  other  part  of  the  world  did  the  re- 
formers suffer  so  much.  In  the  year  1598,  however,  the  famous 
Edict  of  Nantes  seemed  to  place  the  Reformation  in  France  on  a 
firm  basis ;  but  this  act,  after  continuing  in  force  nearly  a  century 


792  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [PAET  IIL 

was  revoked  by  Louis  XIV.,  which  led  to  a  renewal  of  the  persecu- 
tions and  bloody  scenes  that  had  disgraced  the  kingdom  during  the 
reign  of  Charles  IX.  The  profession  of  the  reformed  religion  was 
at  no  time  so  safe  in  France  as  in  most  other  countries  of  Europe. 

9.  The  principles  of  the  Reformation  began  to  be  extensively 
adopted  in  England  as  soon  as  an  account  of  Luther's  preaching  was 
received  there.     The  way  for  them  had  probably  been  better  pre- 
pared in  England  than  in  any  other  country  of  Europe ;  for  almost 
a  hundred  and  fifty  years  before  the  time  of  Luther,  Wickliife  had 
maintained  nearly  the  same  doctrines  as  those  taught  by  the  great 
reformer ;  and  his  disciples,  who  were  called  Lollards,  still  existed 
in  the  time  of  Henry  the  VIII.,  as  a  numerous,  although  a  proscribed 
sect,  and  among  them  the  sentiments  of  Luther  at  once  gained  great 
credit. 

10.  The  immediate  cause  that  gave  the  principles  of  the  R^forma- 
tion  an  ascendency  in  England  was,  undoubtedly,  the  king's  passion 
for  and  marriage  with  Anne  Boleyn,  and  the  divorce  of  his  first  wife 
Catherine,  in  opposition  to  the  counsels  of  the  pope ;  and  such  a 
mingling  was  there  of  motives,  temporal  and  spiritual,  in  this  mat- 
ter, that,  as  an  able  writer  observes,  "  In  England  the  interests  of 
Anne  Boleyn  and  of  the  Reformation  were  considered  the  same."a 
But  although  passion  and  policy  were  the  leading  motives  that  in- 
fluenced the  sovereign,  the  people  were  moved  by  principles  that  had 
taken  deeper  root,  and  that  honestly  formed  a  part  of  their  religious 
faith. 

11.  It  was  not,  apparently,  the  design  of  Henry  the  VIII.  to  re- 
ject any  of  the  doctrines,  properly  so  called,  or  the  most  absurd  su- 
perstitions, of  the  Romish  Church ;  and  the  most  essential  article 
in  the  creed  of  this  monarch  appears  to  have  been  his  own  supremacy, 
as  protector  and  supreme  head  of  the  Church  of  England ;  and 
whoever  rejected  this  article  of  faith,  whether  Protestant  or  Papist, 
was  sure  to  suffer  the  most  severe  penalties.     As  an  instance  of  the 
impartiality  of  his  intolerance,  history  relates  that  three  persons 
convicted  of  disputing  his  supremacy,  and  three  deniers  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  doctrine  of  transubstantiation,  were  drawn  on  the  same 
hurdle  to  execution.     It  was  probably  owing  to  the  peculiar  position 
assumed  by  Henry  the  VIII. ,  as  the  head  of  a  Church  independent 
of  the  Roman  See,  while  he  still,  in  other  respects,  avowed  the  princi- 
ples of  a  Papist,  that  the  Church  of  England  differs  less  than  any 

a.  Hallam's  Const.  Hist.,  ch.  ii. 


CHAP.  X.]  THE  REFORMATION.  793 

other  of  the  Reformed  churches  from  the  rites  and  principles  of  the 
Roman  hierarchy. 

1 2.  The  Reformation  was  only  partially  introduced  into  Ireland, 
although  Henry  the  VIII.  banished  the  monks  from  that  country, 
confiscated  their  revenues,  and  destroyed  their  convents.     In  Scot- 
land the  seeds  of  the  Reformation  were  early  sown  by  several  pre- 
lates and  noblemen  who  had  resided  in  Germany  during  the  religious 
disputes  there  ;  but  for  many  years  the  progress  of  the  new  doctrines 
was  checked  by  the  most  inhuman  laws  against  heretics,  great  num- 
bers of  whom  were  burned  at  the  stake.     The  most  eminent  of  the 
Scotch  reformers  was  John  Knox,  a  disciple  of  Calvin,  who  intro- 
duced into  Scotland  the  form  of  doctrine,  worship,  and  discipline, 
that  had  been  established  by  Calvin  at  Geneva.     About  the  time  of 
the  accession  of  Elizabeth  to  the  throne  of  England,  civil  war  broke 
out  in  Scotland,  occasioned  by  an  attempt  of  the  queen  regent,  the 
mother  of  Mary,  to  put  down  the  Protestant  reform ;  but  at  last, 
through  the  assistance  of  Elizabeth,  the  Protestant  party  triumphed, 
and,  after  peace  had  been  ^concluded,  the  Scottish  parliament  abol- 
ished the  Roman  Catholic  form  of  worship,  and  prohibited  the  cele- 
bration of  the  mass,  under  severe  penalties,  (1560.)     From  this 
period  the  Presbyterian  form  of  doctrine  has  maintained  the  ascend- 
ency in  Scotland. 

1 3.  The  principles  of  the  Reformation  were  early  introduced  into 
Denmark,  Norway,  and  Sweden,  by  the  young  men  of  those  countries, 
who  pursued  their  studies  at  Wittemberg  and  other  German  universi- 
ties.    Christian  II.  of  Denmark,  who  ruled  these  Scandinavian  king- 
doms, although  a  heartless  tyrant,  received  with  joy  the  account  of 
this  new  religious  system,  by  which  princes  were  enabled  at  once  to 
correct  the  vices,  and  enrich  themselves  with  the  spoils  of,  the  ancient 
Church ;   and  the  monarch  used  the  utmost  endeavors  to  induce 
Luther  to  visit  his  dominions. 

14.  After  the  deposition  and  banishment  of  Christian  II.  in  1523, 
his  successor  Frederic  I.,  who  had  previously  secretly  embraced  the 
Protestant  faith,  conducted  the  religious  affairs  of  his  kingdom  with 
much  greater  prudence  than  his  predecessor ;  but  during  his  entire 
reign  the  Reformation  was  a  continued  struggle  against  the  encroach- 
ments of  the  aristocracy.     In  the  year  1527,  however,  Frederic,  after 
much  opposition,  procured  the  publication  of  a  famous  edict,  sanc- 
tioned by  a  general  diet  of  the  kingdom,  by  which  every  subject  of 
Denmark  was  declared  free  to  adhere  to  the  tenets  of  the  Church  of 


794  PHILOSOPHY   OF  HISTORY.  [lAE-rlll. 

Rome,  or  to  the  doctrines  of  Luther.  The  Reformation  owes  it 
success  in  Sweden,  in  a  great  measure,  to  the  wisdom,  firmness,  and 
prudence,  of  Gustavus  Vasa,  raised  by  his  countrymen  to  the  throne 
in  place  of  Christian  II.  of  Denmark,  whose  horrid  cruelties  lost 
him  the  crown.  No  opposition  could  deter  Gustavus  from  encourag- 
ing and  protecting  the  great  work  of  the  Reformation  :  he  declared 
publicly  that  he  would  lay  down  the  sceptre  and  retire  from  the 
kingdom,  rather  than  rule  a  people  enslaved  by  the  orders  and  au- 
thority of  the  pope;  and  in  the  year  1527  he  obtained  from  an 
assembly  of  the  States  the  declaration  that  the  Lutheran  doctrines 
should  be  the  established  religion  of  Sweden.  From  this  time  the 
papal  hierarchy  in  Sweden  was  entirely  overthrown,  and  Gustavus 
was  declared  head  of  the  Church. 

15.  In  Italy,  immediately  after  the  rupture  between  Luther  and 
the  Roman  pontiff,  the  doctrines  of  the  Church  lost  ground,  and 
great  numbers  of  people  of  all  ranks  expressed  an  aversion  to  the 
papal  yoke.     In  some  places,  and  especially  in   the  kingdom  of 
Naples,  violent  commotions  ensued,  and  the  terrors  of  the  inquisition 
alone  were  found  adequate  to  put  a  stop  to  the  progress  of  the 
Lutheran  heresies.     In  Spain  and  Portugal,  the  reform  principles 
encountered  similar  opposition,  and  were  subjected  to  the  same  fate : 
even  before  the  breaking  out  of  the  Reformation  in  Germany,  the 
greatest  cruelties  were  perpetrated  in  Spain,  in  the  name  of  religion  ; 
during  the  forty- three  years  that  ended  in  1524,  eighteen  thousand 
human  beings  were  committed  to  the  flames  by  the  decisions  of  the 
Spanish  inquisition ;  and  papacy  has  ever  since  reigned  triumphant 
throughout  the  Spanish  peninsula. 

III. 

Character  of  the  Reformation. 

16.  At  the  time  of  the  Reformation,  very  imperfect  views  pre- 
vailed of  the  right  of  private  judgment  in  religious  matters  ;  and 
even  the  early  reformers  themselves  were  far  from  being  emancipated 
from  the  intolerant  principles  of  the  age.     Yet  the  opinion  is  very 
prevalent  among  Protestants,  that  the  Romanists  alone  inflicted  the 
penalty  of  death  for  doctrines  which  they  deemed  heretical.     The 
truth  on  this  subject  should  not  be  concealed.     A  defence  of  the 
glorious  principles  of  the  Reformation  does  not  require  any  palliation 
of  the  indefensible  acts  of  its  first  authors ;  and  while  we  mourn- 


CHAP.  X.]  THE  REFORMATION.  795 

fiillj  regret  that  any  warrant  should  have  been  given  for  the  taunt 
of  the  papists  "  that  the  reformers  were  only  against  burning  when 
they  were  in  fear  of  it  themselves,"  we  are  still  bound  to  accord  to 
Luther  and  his  coadjutors  the  merit  of  originating  principles  that 
have  since  emancipated  Christendom  from  the  monstrous  absurdity 
of  correcting  and  regulating  religious  faith  by  physical  punishment. 

17.  During  many  centuries  previous  to  the  Reformation,  Europe 
had  been  accustomed  to  see  opinions  propagated  or  defended  by  force ; 
so  that,  in  the  language  of  Robertson,  "  The  charity  and  mutual  for- 
bearance which  Christianity  recommends  with  so  much  warmth,  were 
forgotten ;  the  rights  of  conscience  and  of  private  judgment  were 
unheard  of;  and  not  only  the  idea  of  toleration,  but  even  the  word 
itself,  in  the  sense  now  affixed  to  it,  was  unknown.     A  right  to  ex- 
tirpate error  by  force  was  universally  allowed  to  be  the  prerogative 
of  such  as  possessed  the  knowledge  of  truth ;  and  as  each  party  of 
Christians  believed  that  it  had  got  possession  of  this  invaluable  at- 
tainment, each  claimed  and  exercised,  as  far  as  it  was  able,  the  rights 
which  this  knowledge  was  supposed  to  convey. 

18.  "  The  Roman  Catholics,  as  their  system  rested  on  the  de- 
cisions of  an  infallible  judge,  never  doubted  that  truth  was  on  their 
side,  and  openly  called  on  the  civil  power  to  repel  the  impious  and 
heretical  innovators  who  had  risen  up  against  it.     The  Protestants, 
no  less  confident  that  their  doctrine  was  well  founded,  required,  with 
equal  ardor,  the  princes  of  their  party  to  check  such  as  presumed  to 
impugn  it.     Luther,  Calvin,  Cranmer,  Knox,  the  founders  of  the 
Reformed  Church  in  their  respective  countries,  so  far  as  they  had 
power  and  opportunity,  inflicted  the  same  punishments,  upon  such  as 
called  in  question  any  article  in  their  creeds,  that  were  denounced 
against  their  own  disciples  by  the  Church  of  Rome.     To  their  fol- 
lowers, and  perhaps  to  their  opponents,  it  would  have  appeared  a 
symptom  of  distrust  in  the  goodness  of  their  cause,  or  an  acknowl- 
edgment that  it  was  not  well  founded,  if  they  had  not  employed  in 
its  defence  all  those  means  which  it  was  supposed  truth  had  a  right 
to  employ."*     Such  were  the  principles,  and  such  the  spirit  of  the 
age,  when  the  Reformation  dawned  upon  benighted  Europe.     "  Tol- 
erance in  religion,"  says  Hallam,  "  was  seldom  considered  as  practi- 
cable, much  less  as  a  matter  of  right,  during  the  period  of  the  Ref- 
ormation.     The   difference   in   this   respedt    between   the    Roman 
Catholics  and  Protestants  was  only  in  degree ;  and  in  degree  there 

a.  Robertson's  Charles  V.  p.  447. 


796  PHILOSOPHY    OF   HISTORY.  [PART  III. 

was  much  less  difference  than  we  are  apt  to  believe.  Persecution 
is  the  deadly  original  sin  of  the  Reformed  churches ;  that  which 
cools  every  honest  man's  zeal  for  their  cause,  in  proportion  as  his 
reading  becomes  more  extensive. "a 

19.  These  are  Protestant  concessions,  and  they  are  highly  credit- 
able to  the  fairness,  candor,  and  liberality  of  their  authors.     The 
remark  of  Robertson,  however,  requires  some  qualification,  as  Luther 
should  be  favorably  distinguished,  on  the  subject  of  religious  tol- 
erance, from  most  of  the  other  reformers.     "  There  are  passages  in 
his  writings,"  says  a  late  author,  "  with  regard  to  the  interference  of 
the  magistrate  in  religious  concerns,  that  do  him  honor  ;  but  he  was 
favorably  situated  and  lived  not  to  see  the  temporal  sword  at  his 
command.     He  was  never  tried. "b     Calvin,   on  the  contrary,  the 
eminent  Swiss  reformer,  cannot  be  so  favorably  noticed ;  and  his 
conduct  to  Servetus,  whom  he  caused  to  be  brought  to  the  stake,  has 
fixed  an   indelible   stain   upon  his  character.      This   Servetus  had 
carried  his  inquiries  far  beyond  other  reformers,  not  only  renouncing 
many  of  the  opinions  of  the  Roman  Catholics,  but  going  so  far  as 
to  question  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity.     Passing  through  Geneva,  he 
was  arrested  at  the  instigation  of  Calvin,  who  prepared  the  articles 
of  accusation  against  him ;  and  when  the  magistrates  condemned 
him  to  the  flames,  even  the  mild  Melancthon  approved  the  act.    The 
intolerance  which  Calvin  exhibited  in  this  matter  gave  the  papists  an 
opportunity  to  accuse  the  Protestants  of  inconsistency  in  their  princi- 
ples, which  they  did  not  fail  to  embrace.     "  How  could  Calvin,  and 
the  magistrates  of  Geneva,"  said  they,  "  who  acknowledge  no  infalli- 
ble interpretations  of  the  scriptures,  condemn  Servetus  to  death  be- 
cause he  explained  them  differently  from  Calvin,  if  every  man  has 
the  privilege  to  expound  the  scripture  according  to  his  own  judgment, 
without  having  recourse  to  the  Church  ?     It  is  a  great  injustice  to 
condemn  a  man  because  he  will  not  submit  to  the  judgment  of  an  en- 
thusiast, who  may  be  wrong  as  well  as  himself." 

20.  The  early  principles  of  the  Reformation  did  not  prevent  the 
English  reformers  from  practicing,  upon  the  Roman  Catholics,  se- 
verities similar  to   those  which  the  latter  had  inflicted  upon  the 
Protestants  while  the  power  was  in   their  hands.     The  intolerant 
spirit  of  Henry  VIII.  was  exercised  towards  both  parties,  as  has 
been  stated ;  but  this  was  doubtless  more  from  political  than  religious 
intolerance  ;  and  the  reign  of  this  monarch  has  been  very  justly  char- 

a.  Hallam'a  Const.  Hist.  p.  63.  b.  Sinythe's  Lectures  on  Mod.  Hist.  p.  292. 


CHAP.  X.]  THE   REFORMATION.  797 

acterized  "  as  a  bridge  which  the  nation  was  to  pass  on  its  road  to 
more  complete  reformation. "a  In  the  Protestant  reign  of  Edward 
VI.  a  commission  was  issued  to  archbishop  Cranmer,  "  to  inquire 
into  heretical  pravity," — being  nearly  the  same  words  by  which  the 
power  of  the  court  of  inquisition  is  described ;  and  although  many 
accused  of  entertaining  anti-Protestant  opinions,  recanted  them,  one 
Joan  Boucher  was  burnt  at  the  stake  for  maintaining  some  meta- 
physical notions  about  the  real  nature  of  Christ ;  and  not  long  after, 
one  Von  Paris,  an  eminent  surgeon  in  London,  was  condemned  to 
death  for  Arianism.  (1550-1.)  While  these  two  unfortunate  and 
most  unjustifiable  executions  are  to  be  exceedingly  regretted,  we  find 
that  only  a  little  later  queen  Mary,  justly  called  the  "  Bloody  Mary," 
caused  nearly  three  hundred  Protestants  to  be  burnt  during  less  than 
four  years  of  her  reign.  (1555-8.) 

21.  In  the  early  part  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  two  important 
statutes  were  enacted  by  parliament,  in  restraint  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  doctrines  and  worship  in  England.     The  first,  the  act  of 
supremacy,  obliged  all  ecclesiastics,  and  all  persons  holding  office 
under  the  crown,  to  abjure  the  spiritual  as  well  as  temporal  juris- 
diction of  every  foreign  prince  or  prelate ;  and  the  second,  the  act 
of  uniformity,  prohibited,  under  severe  penalties,  any  minister  from 
using  any  other  liturgy  or  form  of  worship  than  that  of  the  estab- 
lished Church.     Roman  Catholic  rites,  however  privately  celebrated, 
were  thus  absolutely  interdicted ;  and  although  the  oath  acknowl- 
edging the  queen's  absolute  supremacy  was  not  fully  enforced,  yet 
the  Roman  Catholics  were  otherwise  severely  persecuted  during  this 
reign,  and  a  systematic  determination  was  evinced  to  extirpate  their 
religion. 

22.  It  is  believed  that  the  Roman  Catholic  martyrs,  under  Eliza- 
beth, amount  to  about  two  hundred,  while  many  others  died  of  hard- 
ships in  prison,  and  many  were  deprived  of  their  property ;  yet  it 
has  been  strenuously  maintained  by  the  apologists  of  Elizabeth,  that 
no  one  was  executed  by  her,  for  his  religion.     "  There  seems,"  says 
Hallam,  "  to  be  good  reason  for  doubting  whether  any  one  who  was 
executed  might  not  have  saved  his  life  by  explicitly  denying  the 
pope's  power  to  depose  the  queen."b     The  persecution  of  the  Roman 
ists  was  indeed  carried  on  under  the  plea  that  the  security  of  the 
government  demanded  it ;  and  although  this  is  doubtless  a  very  un- 
worthy pretence,  yet  it  shows  that  the  punishment  of  death  for  re- 

a.  Mackintosh,  ii.  p.  202.  b.  Hallam'a  Const.  Hist,  of  Eng. 


798  PHILOSOPHY   OF    HISTORY.  [PAKT  lit 

ligious  opinions  was  already  deemed  indefensible,  under  the  increas- 
ing liberality  of  the  principles  of  the  Reformation. 

23.  Any  exposition  of  the  character  of  the  Reformation  would  be 
very  incomplete  without  an  explanation  of  the  differences  that  sprung 
up  among  the  reformers  themselves.     While  Luther  showed  much 
indifference  about  retrenching  exterior  ceremonies,  and  allowed  the 
use  of  crucifixes  and  images,  tapers,  and  priestly  vestments ;   Calvin, 
Zuinglius,  arid  Knox,  labored  to   eradicate   them   as  remnants  of 
popish  idolatry  and  superstition.     Archbishops  Cranmer  and  Ridley, 
who  gave  to  the  English  Reformation  its  character,  deeming  them- 
selves independent  of  any  foreign  master,  adopted  a  course  between 
the  Lutheran  and  Calvanistic  ritual,  but  adhered  the  most  closely  to 
the  former.     The  influence  of  the  reign  of  Edward  VI.  was  favor- 
able to  the  simpler  forms  ;  but  Elizabeth,  who  loved  a  more  splendid 
worship  than  had  prevailed  in  her  brother's  reign,  was  not  so  averse 
to  all  the  tenets  abjured  by  Protestants  :  she  retained  the  crucifix, 
images,  and  lighted  tapers,  in  her  own  chapel,  even  after  she  had  re- 
luctantly made  the  concession  to  have  them  taken  away  from  the 
churches ;  and  so  opposed  was  she  to  the  Protestant  view  of  the 
question  relating  to  the  marriage  of  the  clergy,  that  she  would  never 
consent  to  repeal  the  statute  of  her  sister's  reign  against  it. 

24.  The  external  religious  observances  continued  in  an  unsettled 
state  in  England  until  1565,  when  the  attempt  was  made  to  enforce 
conformity  to  the  rites  of  the  established  Church.     Those  of  the 
Puritan  clergy — so  called  because  they  aimed  at  what  they  deemed 
a  purer  form  of  worship — who  would  not  conform  to  the  use  of  the 
clerical  vestments,  and  other  matters  of  discipline,  were  suspended 
from  their  ministry,  and  their  livings  or  salaries  taken  from  them. 
Up  to  the  year  1570  the  retention  of  superstitious  ceremonies  in  the 
Church  was  the  sole  avowed  ground  of  complaint  among  the  English 
dissenters ;  but  when  the  Puritans  were  hunted  from  their  private 
conventicles,  and  persecuted  with  the  most  unsparing  rigor,  they  be- 
gan to  consider  the  national  religious  system  as  itself  in  fault — to 
claim  an  ecclesiastical  independence  of  the  English  Church — and  to 
question  the  authority  that  oppressed  them.     A  new  feature  in  the 
controversy  now  began  to  be  developed ;  the  hour  for  concessions  had 
been  suffered  to  pass ;  political  and  religious  principles  began  to  be 
intermingled  ]  and  in  the  language  of  Hallam,  u  the  battle  was  no 
longer  to  be  fought  for  a  tippet  and  a  surplice,  but  for  the  whole 
ecclesiastical  hierarchy,  interwoven  as  it  was  with  the  temporal  con- 


OHAP.X.]  THE   REFORMATION.  799 

stitution  of  England.  "a  Our  attention  will  hereafter  be  called  to 
the  character  and  results  of  this  controversy,  as  developed  in  the 
English  Revolution  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Suffice  it  here  to 
remark,  that  we  have  followed  the  Reformation  until  we  find  it  divid- 
ed into  two  great  branekos,  which  were  known  as  the  Protestant 
Episcopal,  and  the  Puritanical :  in  subsequent  history,  the  former, 
which  diverged  least  from  the  parent  stem,  will  be  found  to  continue 
its  course  with  a  uniformity  which  has  witnessed  few  changes  or  in- 
terruptions ;  the  latter,  more  and  more  divergent,  with  the  lapse  of 
time,  has  been  divided  and  subdivided,  almost  without  limits,  until 
a  hundred  homogeneous  sects  now  make  up  the  Puritanical  party  of 
the  Church. 

IV. 

Effects  of  the  Reformation. 

25.  The  first  striking  effect  of  the  Reformation  was  the  division 
of  Europe  into  two  classes  of  States, — Protestant  and  Roman  Catholic. 
The  former  were  England,  Scotland,  Denmark,  Sweden,  Norway,  Hol- 
land, Switzerland,  and  one-half  of  Germany :  the  latter  were  Italy, 
Austria,  France,  Spain,  and  Portugal.     The  defection  of  so  many 
opulent  and  powerful  kingdoms  from  the  Papal  See  was  a  fatal  blow 
to  its  grandeur  and  power,  as  it  not  only  abridged  the  dominions  of 
the  popes  in  extent, — diminished  their  revenues, — and  left  them 
fewer  rewards  to  bestow,  but  it  also  obliged  them  to  adopt  a  different 
system  of  conduct  towards  the  nations  which  still  continued  to  re- 
cognize their  jurisdiction,  and  to  govern  them  by  new  maxims,  and 
with  a  milder  spirit. 

26.  But  although  the  Reformation  was  fatal  to  the  power  of  the 
popes,  it  nevertheless  contributed  to  improve  the  Church  of  Rome 
both  in  science  and  morals ;  as  it  created  an  emulation  between  the 
rival  Churches,  that  compelled  the  Catholic  clergy  to  acquire  the 
knowledge  requisite  to  defend  their  own  tenets ;  and  moreover  im- 
posed the  necessity  of  greater  decency  of  conduct ;   where  every 
irregularity  was  open  to  observation  and  censure,  and  was  sure  to  be 
contrasted  with  that  austere  purity  of  manners  that  marked  the  lives 
of  the  Reformers.     The  Reformation,  to  a  great  extent,  changed  the 
character  of  religion,  so  called,  by  making  it  more  an  object  of  the 
understanding,  and  not  of  the  eye ;  of  the  heart,  rather  than  of  the 
memory. 

a.  Hallam'B  Const.  Hist.  p.  114,  Am.  Ed. 


800  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [PART  III 

27.  In  its  effects  upon  the  progress  of  civilization,  and  in  all  its 
relations  with  civil  order,  the  Reformation  produced  results  of  im- 
mense importance.     By  teaching  man  to  think  and  reason  for  himself 
in  religious  matters,  and  to  acknowledge  therein  none  but  a  divine 
authority,  it  emancipated  mind  from  the  thraldom  which  ages  of 
spiritual  despotism  had  imposed  upon  it ;  it  extended  religion  be- 
yond the  exclusive  domain  of  the  ecclesiastical  order,  and  sent  it 
forth  into  the  wide  world  of  humanity,  where,  before,  it  had  scarcely 
been  permitted  to  enter.     This  universality — this  general  diffusion — 
of  religious  knowledge,  had  a  farther  important  result,  by  taking 
from  a  priestly  caste  and  a  corrupt  hierachy  the  government  of  so- 
ciety, and  giving  back  to  the  temporal  power  that  independence  which 
had  been  wrested  from  it.     The  Reformation  purified  religion  and 
morals,  improved  the  intellect,  and  guaranteed  civil  liberty.    Roman 
Catholic  writers,  who  impugn  the  faith  and  worship  of  the  Protestant 
reformers,  seldom  deny  the  otherwise  beneficial  effects  of  the  Ref- 
ormation. 

28.  The  progress  of  literature  and  the  arts  during  the  sixteenth 
century  was  greatly  favored  by  the  spirit  of  free  inquiry  fostered  by 
the  Reformation, — a  spirit  that  extended  beyond  religion,  and  per- 
vaded, more  or  less,  every  form  and  feature  of  society.     The  litera- 
ture of  this  period  begins  to  be  distinguished  by  the  first  dawnings 
of  a  bold  and  daring  spirit  of  doubt,  examination,  and  originality  ; 
a  spirit  that  was  partly  arrested  by  a  return  to  religious  creeds  in 
the  next  century,  but  which  we  shall  see  reappearing  near  the  close 
of  the  eighteenth,  and  developing,  with  amazing  energy  and  rapidity, 
the  wonderful  inventions  and  discoveries  which  give  to  our  own  a 
marked  superiority  over  all  former  times. 

29.  Philosophy,  which,  during  the  Dark  Ages,  and  down  to  the 
close  of  the  fifteenth  century,  was  cultivated  only  by  the  learned,  now 
becomes  more  general,  and  extends  its  examination  to  every  subject : 
the  dogmas  of  the  schoolmen  begin  to  be  abandoned ;  the  natural 
sciences  leave  chimerical  systems,  to  enter  upon  the  path  of  observa- 
tion and  experiment ;  and  the  theory  of  politics,  discarding  the  rude 
maxim  of  a  barbarous  age,  that  "  might  makes  right,"  begins  to  take 
for  its  avowed  basis  the  principles  of  morality.     The  progress  of  the 
art  of  printing,  took  knowledge  from  libraries,  convents,  and  monas- 
teries, where  it  was  accessible  to  but  few,  and  disseminated  it  among 
the  people.     The  intellectual  excitement  thus  occasioned  had  also  its 
transient  evil  as  well  as  its  gbod  effects ;  knowledge,  sought  after  at 


CHAP.  X.]  THE  REFORMATION.  801 

every  hazard,  and  without  method,  was  often  necessarily  superficial 
and  partial  in  its  results ;  and  many  learned  men,  stopping  short  in 
their  investigations,  because  all  they  desired  to  know  was  not  unfold- 
ed to  them,  became  the  most  daring  sceptics. 

30.  Among  the  great  men  of  the  sixteenth  century,  whose  names 
adorn  the  annals  of  literature  and  science,  may  be  mentioned,  as  the 
most  prominent,  Shakspeare  in  England,  the  glory  of  the  British 
drama — together  with  Sidney,  and  Raleigh,  and  Drayton,  and  Spencer, 
and  Hooker,  and  Coke — the  latter,  the  celebrated  author  of  the  In- 
stitutes, which  are  still  the  standard  authority  on  English  law.  In 
France  we  meet  with  the  name  of  Montaigne,  the  witty,  but  subtle 
and  sceptical  essayist ;  and  of  Scaliger,  the  philologist,  whom  his 
friends  denominated  "  an  ocean  of  science,"  and  "  the  masterpiece  of 
nature."  The  most  noted  of  the  Spanish  writers  of  this  period  are 
Herrera,'  the  historian,  and  Cervantes,  author  of  the  romance  Don 
Quixotte.  The  German  States  produced  many  writers  of  celebrity 
in  this  period.  Among  theologians  are  the  familiar  names  of  Eras- 
mus, Luther,  Zuingle,  and  Melancthon ;  while  Copernicus,  Tycho 
Brahe,  and  Kepler,  have  acquired  an  immortality  of  renown  by 
their  astronomical  researches  and  discoveries.  The  sixteenth  cen- 
tury has  been  called  the  golden  age  of  Italian  intellect ;  and  the  era 
that  gave  birth  to  Ariosto  and  Tasso,  to  Michael  Angelo,  Raffaelle, 
Correggio,  Titian,  and  Palladio,  has  nobly  merited  the  title.  Ariosto 
and  Tasso  are  distinguished  for  those  chivalrous  poems,  the  "  Or- 
lando Furioso,"  and  the  "  Jerusalem  Delivered  :"  the  cotemporary 
artists,  Michael  Angelo,  Raffaelle,  Correggio,  and  Titian,  form  the 
most  splendid  group  that  the  world  has  ever  seen  in  the  art  of  paint- 
ing ;  while  the  most  widely  known  of  all  modern  names  in  architec- 
ture is  that  of  Palladio. 

51 


802  PHILOSOPHY   OF  HISTORY.  [PAM  III. 

.:     '.  .  :M  >• 


CHAPTER    XI. 

THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY. 
THE    ENGLISH   REVOLUTION. 

ANALYSIS.  1.  Failure  of  attempts  to  organize  a  government  truly  national.  State  of 
Europe  at  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century.  The  sixteenth  century— the  Reformation  and  ab- 
solute monarchy.  The  contest  that  naturally  followed  the  Reformation.  The  English  Revolu- 
tion.—2.  The  two  causes  why  the  political  revolution  broke  out  in  England  sooner  than  on  the 
continent. 

3.  How  the  Reformation  in  England  had  been  accomplished.  No  changes  in  faith  allowed 
by  Henry  VIII.  The  English  Church,  as  established  in  the  reign  of  Edward  VI.  The  compro- 
mise effected  by  Cranmer. — 4.  How  the  Church  of  England  was  regarded  by  Luther  and  Calvin. 
Its  doctrines  imposed  by  the  king's  supremacy  alone.  Declarations  of  the  Puritans.  The  com- 
promise effected  by  Cranmer  regarded  as  only  a  partial  reform. — 5.  The  demand  for  farther 
reformation.  Why  political  liberty  was  invoked.  Persecution  and  its  effects.  The  Revolution 
grew  out  of  the  partial  suppression  of  the  Reformation. 

6.  The  second  cause  that  hurried  on  a  political  revolution  in  England.  The  free  institutions 
of  England.  Magna  Charta. — 7.  The  English  House  of  Commons : — under  the  Plantaganets — 
under  the  Tudor  princes.— 8.  Other  liberal  institutions,— their  tendencies,  &c.  The  result. 

9.  The  career  of  monarchy  on  the  continent — unchecked  there,  but  resisted  in  England. — 10. 
Arbitrary  principles  of  the  Stuarts.  James  the  First,  and  his  courtiers  and  counsellors.  The 
views  of  the  English  people.— 11.  The  demand  for  farther  religious  and  political  reforms  at  the 
time  of  the  accession  of  Charles  I.  Arbitrary  principles  of  Charles.  The  legal  reform  party  in 
the  House  of  Commons.  Its  character  and  objects. — 12.  The  course  pursued  by  this  party — the 
granting  of  supplies.  The  contests  of  Charles  with  his  parliaments.  Eleven  years  of  arbitrary 
rule.  A  second  reform  party  springs  up.  —13.  Union  and  progress  of  the  reformers  during  the 
first  session  of  the  Long  Parliament.— J 4.  Schism  in  the  constitutional  party.  Tories  and 
Whigs.  Views,  arguments,  and  principles,  of  the  two  parties. — 15.  Two  religious  sects  con- 
nected with  the  two  political  parties.  Episcopacy  supports  the  crown.  Objects  of  the  Pres- 
byterians.—16.  Pacific  hopes  blasted  by  the  rashness  of  the  king.  Civil  war.— 17.  New  and 
alarming  doctrines.  Appearance  of  a  revolutionary  or  Independent  party.  Its  political  creed. 
Its  religious  creed.  Its  success,  under  Cromwell,  and  overthrow  of  the  monarchy.— 18.  Over- 
throw of  the  Commons — failure  of  all  parties — Cromwell  at  the  head  of  the  State.  Character 
of  Cromwell's  administration. 

19.  Restoration  of  monarchy,  without  pledges. — 20.  The  government  returns  to  its  old  posi- 
tion,— the  ancient  principles  of  the  monarchy  restored. — 21.  The  reform  party  renews  the 
contest,— 22.  General  profligacy  of  manners  and  morals.  The  Cabal  Administration.— 23. 
Growing  unpopularity  of  the  king.  Formation  of  a  national  party. — 24.  The  national  minis- 
try—its downfall.— 25.  Failure  of  all  parties  to  afford  a  satisfactory  government.  Absolutism 
of  the  king.  Character  of  his  government.  Royalty  did  not  abate  any  of  its  pretensions.  Arbi- 
trary character  of  the  reign  of  James  II.  Coalition  of  parties,  and  deposition  of  the  reigning 
sovereign. 

26.  Concluding  event  of  the  Revolution— the  crown  settled  on  William  and  Mary.  Change 
in  the  principles  of  the  government. — 27.  The  effects  of  William's  elevation : — freedom  of  par- 
liament— the  Commons,  the  paramount  power  in  the  State.  Whig  ascendency.  Political  sci- 
ence.—28.  Connection  of  the  English  Revolution  with  the  general  course  of  European  civil- 
ization. The  course  of  monarchy  on  the  other  aide  of  the  Channel.  Coalition  against  Louis 
XIV.  The  great  object  of  William  of  Orange.— 29.  The  chief  motive  that  prompted  his  ac- 
ceptance of  the  English  crown— to  strengthen  the  coalition  against  the  absolute  monarchy  of 
Louis.  The  English  Revolution  not  an  isolated  struggle  for  liberty. 


CHAP.  XL]  ENGLISH  REVOLUTION.  803 

I. 

1.  In  the  brief  sketch  which  has  been  given  of  the  progress  of 
European  civilization  during  the  Middle  Ages,  it  was  shown  that 
the  feudal  system  and  the  municipal  system,  theocracy,  aristocracy, 
and  democracy,  separate  and  combined,  had  failed  in  the  organiza- 
tion of  a  government  truly  national,  whatever  other  good  each  of 
these  powers  may  have  accomplished ;  and  that  at  the  close  of  the 
fifteenth  century  the  ancient  liberties  of  Europe  seem  to  have  be- 
come nearly  extinguished.     The  following  century  witnessed,  in  the 
events  of  the  Reformation,  a  great  insurrection  of  the  human  mind 
against  absolute  power  in  the  spiritual  order,  while  at  the  same  time 
the  centralization  of  temporal  power  was  progressing,  and  absolute 
monarchy  triumphed   throughout    Christendom.     But   freedom  of 
thought  in  religious  matters,  and  the  overthrow  of  the  ancient  eccle- 
siastical tyranny,  very  naturally  led  to  inquiries  into  the  basis  of 
civil  and  political  rights,  and  a  desire  for  civil  liberty ;  and  accord- 
ingly a  contest  between  liberal  principles  and  absolutism  naturally 
followed  wherever  the  Reformation  had  sown  the  seeds  of  freedom. 
The  first  shock  between  these  powers  took  place  in  England ;  and 
the  struggle  is  known  in  history  as  the  English  Revolution, — the 
great  event  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and,  next  to  the  Reforma- 
tion, with  which  it  is  intimately  connected,  the  greatest  event  that 
had  hitherto  happened  in  Europe. 

2.  Two  prominent  causes  may  be  assigned  why  a  general  political 
revolution  broke  out  in  England  sooner  than  on  the  continent.     The 
first  is  the  partial  suppression  of  the  Reformation,  before  it  had 
accomplished  all  its  legitimate  results,  but  not  until  the  seeds  of  lib- 
erty had  been  sown  broadcast  over  the  land ;  the  second  is  the  exist- 
ence of  several  important  free  institutions — liberal  maxims — princi- 
ples— and  precedents  far  in  advance  of  any  existing  on  the  continent 
at  this  period,  and  which  gave  a  firm  support  to  the  reformatory 
spirit  of  the  age,  and  furnished  it  with  the  means  of  making  its  in- 
fluence known.     Let  us  examine  these  causes,  and  see  how  they  oper- 
ated in  bringing  forward  the  great  Revolution  of  the  seventeenth 
century. 

II. 

3.  The  religious  reformation  in  England  had  not  been  accom- 
plished in  the  same  way  as  on  the  continent :  in  England  it  was  the 
work  of  the  monarchs  themselves, — Henry  the  Eighth  taking  the 
lead,  in  an  attempt  to  constitute  an  English  Church — differing  from 


804  PHILOSOPHY   OF  HISTORY.  [Pxur  IIL 

the  Roman  only  on  the  point  of  supremacy,  the  king  of  England, 
instead  of  the  Pope,  being  declared  its  head.  No  changes  in  faith 
were  required  or  allowed ;  and  hence  those  who  avowed  the  tenets 
of  Luther  were  burned  as  heretics,  and  those  who  owned  the  au- 
thority of  the  pope  were  hung  as  traitors.  But  Henry's  system, 
furiously  assailed  by  the  ardent  reformers  and  the  papists,  died 
with  him ;  and  under  the  reign  of  his  son  Edward,  the  tenets  and 
homilies  of  the  Anglican  Church  were  established,  essentially  as 
they  now  exist.  (1549.)  They  were  drawn  up  chiefly  by  archbishop 
Cranmer,  who  was  eminently  qualified,  in  his  double  capacity  of  di- 
vine and  statesman,  to  act  the  mediator  between  the  sweeping  spirit 
of  reform,  and  that  ecclesiastical  organization  which  had  admirably 
served  the  purposes  of  the  Church  of  Rome  during  so  many  cen- 
turies. That  the  English  Church  still  retains  in  its  constitution, 
doctrines,  and  services,  visible  marks  of  the  compromise  effected  by 
Cranmer,  occupying  a  middle  position  between  the  Churches  of 
Rome  and  Geneva,  will  not  be  denied  at  this  day ;  nor  is  it  surpris- 
ing that  it  was  denounced,  at  its  origin,  as  retaining  most  of  the 
abuses  of  the  papal  hierarchy. 

4.  The  admirers  of  Luther  and  Calvin,  in  particular  disliked  the  rela- 
tion in  which  the  Church  of  England  stood  to  the  monarchy ;  for  as  the 
king  arrogated  to  himself  the  right  of  deciding  what  was  orthodox  in 
doctrine,  and  what  was  heresy,  and  claimed  the  supreme  direction  in 
spiritual  as  well  as  in  temporal  matters,  they  regarded  him  as  the  pope 
of  his  kingdom,  and  soon  transferred  to  the  new  Church  establishment 
much  of  that  animosity  which  they  had  evinced  towards  the  Papal 
See.  The  doctrines  of  the  English  Church,  as  set  forth  in  the  Articled 
of  Faith,  compiled  in  the  year  1549,  were  never  confirmed  by  an  as- 
sembly of  divines  or  by  a  convocation  of  parliament,  but  were  im- 
posed by  the  king's  supremacy  on  all  the  clergy  and  the  universities. 
The  Puritans  declared  that,  on  the  point  of  supremacy,  the  king 
went  even  farther  than  the  pope  ;  for  the  latter  was  in  a  degree  sub- 
ject to  the  decisions  of  general  councils  of  the  Church ;  whereas  the 
former  dictated  articles  of  faith,  and  prescribed  modes  of  worship,  on 
his  sole  authority.  The  compromise  arranged  by  Cranmer  was  re- 
garded, by  a  large  body  of  Protestants,  as  a  scheme  for  serving  two 
masters  :  it  had  met  with  much  opposition  in  the  days  of  Edward 
the  Sixth,  as  being  but  a  partial  reform,  and  much  less  than  the  in- 
terests of  pure  religion  required  ;  and,  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  the 
difficulties  which  it  encountered  were  greatly  increased.  Elizabeth 


CHAP.  XI]  ENGLISH  REVOLUTION.  805 

was  not  disposed  to  make  any  concessions  to  her  Puritan  subjects ; 
and  persecution  was  called  in  to  enforce  the  observance  of  the  estab- 
lished doctrines  and  worship. 

5.  The  people  declared  that  the  Reformation  had  been  forcibly 
arrested  in  its  progress  :  their  minds  were  left  agitated  and  uneasy, 
craving  still  greater  spiritual  freedom  than  they  had  obtained,  de- 
siring a  still  further  reformation  of  abuses,  and  attributing  their  per- 
petuation to  unauthorized  assumption  of  power  by  the  temporal  sov- 
ereign.    As  the  monarch  necessarily  required  temporal  aids  to  en- 
force his  supremacy  as  head  of  the  Church,  so  the  religious  reform 
party,  aiming  at  the  root  of  the  evil,  invoked  political  liberty  to  the 
aid  of  its  faith  and  worship,  against  the  whole  system  of  absolute 
sovereignty  which  the  Tudor  princes  had  labored  to  establish.     Per- 
secution produced  its  natural  effects  :  it  converted  the  Puritan  sects 
into  a  political  faction  ;  and  the  controversy  of  divines  about  religious 
faith  and  worship  soon  became  a  political  contest  between  the  crown 
and  the  people.     It  was  thus  that  the  partial  suppression  of  the 
Reformation  in  England,  and  the  measures  adopted  for  the  establish- 
ment of  the  English  Church,  formed  one  of  the  leading  causes  of  the 
great  political  revolution  that  soon  followed.     The  religious  reforma- 
tion being  checked  by  the  hand  of  power,  and  the  spirit  of  liberty 
which  it  had  aroused  being  smothered,  England  rested  on  a  vol- 
cano, whose  pent-up  fires  only  slumbered,  to  break  forth  in  the  de- 
vastating effects  of  a  moral  earthquake. 

III. 

6.  The  second  great  cause  that  hurried  on  a  political  revolution  in 
England,  sooner  than  on  the  continent,  was  the  support  which  the 
new  spirit  of  liberty  found  among  the  English  people,  in  the  exist- 
ing free  institutions  of  the  country.     The  origin  of  the  free  institu- 
tions of  England,  as  is  well  known,  dates  back  to  the  year  1215, 
when  a  coalition  of  the  great  barons  wrested  Magna  Charta  from 
king  John.     The  most  important  articles  of  this  instrument,  are 
those  which  provide  that  no  freeman  shall  be  arrested,  or  imprisoned, 
or  proceeded  against,  "  except  by  the  lawful  judgment  of  his  peers, 
or  by  the  law  of  the  land,"  and  that  no  aid  or  taxes  shall  be  im- 
posed, unless  by  the  concurrence  of  the  common  council  of  the  king- 
dom.    So  important  was  the  Great  Charter  deemed  to  the  security 
of  public  and  private  rights,  that  the  people  obtained  from  their  sov- 


806  PHILOSOPHY   OF   HISTORY.  [PART  IIL 

ereigns  the  confirmation  of  it  upwards  of  thirty  times  between  the 
thirteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries. 

7.  From  the  time  of  the  Norman  conquest,  indeed,  there  had  ex- 
isted a  "  great  council  "  of  the  kingdom,  composed  of  the  chief  feudal 
tenants  of  the  crown ;  but  it  was  not  until  after  the  reign  of  John 
that  the  House  of  Commons  had  been  formed  on  the  representative 
system,  and  taken  its  place  among  the  sovereign  institutions  of  the 
country.     For  a  long  time  it  exerted  little  influence  in  the  govern- 
ment, afraid  rather  of  bringing  itself  into  trouble  and  danger,  than 
desirous  of  augmenting  its  power  and  authority  ;  but  under   the 
Plantaganets,  (from  Henry  II.  to   Richard  III.  inclusive,  1154 — 
1485,)  when  private  rights  were  invaded  it  showed  itself  the  champion 
of  the  oppressed,  and  in  its  legal  decisions  and  enactments  gradually 
put  forward  and  established  those  principles  which  have  become  the 
basis  of  the  English  constitution.     Under  the  Tudors,  on  the  con- 
trary, (from  Henry  VII.  to  Elizabeth,  inclusive,  1485—1603,)  so 
great  were  the  encroachments  of  the  crown  and  its  officers  upon  pri- 
vate rights,  and  the  difficulty  of  procuring  adequate  redress,  that  the 
general  privileges  of  the  nation  were  far  more  secure  than  those  of 
private  citizens.     The  House  of  Commons  no  longer  defended  indi- 
vidual liberties  so  successfully  as  under  the  Plantagenets,  but  it  inter- 
fered to  a  much  greater  extent  than  formerly  in  the  general  affairs 
of  the  nation ;  and  this  laid  the  foundation  of  the  power  which  it  has 

^er  since  wielded  in  the  administration  of  the  government. 

8.  Other  institutions  pregnant  with  the  seeds  of  liberty,  and  af- 
fording support  and  encouragement  to  the  new  spirit  of  reform,  were 
found  in  the  system  of  trial  by  jury, — in  the  right  of  holding  public 
meetings  and  bearing  arms, — in  the  privileges  of  chartered  towns 
and  the  immunities  of  corporations, — and  in  the  precedents,  favor- 
able to  liberty,  found  in  the  decisions  of  courts  of  justice  and  the 
legal   enactments  of   parliament ;    although  it  is   true   that   these 
decisions  and  enactments  sometimes  furnished  examples  of  an  op- 
posite nature ;  still  they  were  sufficient  to  countenance  the  claims 
of  the  friends  of  liberty,  and  to  support  them  in  their  struggles 
against  arbitrary  and  tyrannical  government.     Such  were  the  two 
prominent  causes  that  placed  the  English  people  in  a  state  of  readi- 
ness for  a  successful  political  revolution,  whenever   circumstances 
should  urge  it  on ;  they  were  the  platform  whence  liberty  unfurled 
her  banners — the  fulcrum  on  which  the  lever  of  reform  rested. 


CHAP.  XL]  ENGLISH   REVOLUTION.  807 

IV. 

9.  While  this  state  of  things  existed  in  England,  monarchy  was 
running  the  same  career  there  that  it  had  pursued  on  the  continent — 
arrogating  to  itself  all  prerogatives,  and  allowing  the  liberties  of  the 
people  to  exist  only  as  subordinate  rights,  or  rather  as  concessions 
for  which  they  were  indebted  to  the  sovereign's  generosity.     On  the 
continent,  monarchy  found  nations  incapable  of  resisting  its  pre- 
tensions ;  but  in  England  the  causes  which  we  have  mentioned  had 
secretly  undermined  its  foundations,  and  prepared  its  ruin,  while  it 
was  still  in  the  tide  of  apparently  successful  progress. 

10.  The  princes  of  the  Stuart  family,  still  more  than  the  Tudors, 
were  imbued  with  the  principles  of  absolute  monarchy.     James  the 
First  made  no  concealment  of  his  sentiments ;    he  wished  to  be 
thought  a  despot ;  the  "  divine  right  of  kings"  was  his  favorite  max- 
im ;  and  his  courtiers  and  counsellors,  when  forced  to  vindicate  the 
measures  of  his  government,  such  as  arbitrary  imprisonments  and 
illegal  taxes,  alleged  the  examples  of  the  monarchs  of  France  and 
Spain.     "  The  king  of  England,"  said  they,  "  cannot  be  of  lower 
degree  than  his  equals ;  and  the  dignity  of  the  English  prince  re- 
quires that  he  should  enjoy  the  same  rights."     The  English  people, 
on  the  other  hand,  had  lived  faster  than  their  rulers  :  they  had  out- 
grown such  arbitrary  principles,  and  were  unable  to  reconcile  the 
arrogant  assumptions  of  their  rulers  with  the  liberties  of  their  country. 

11.  At  the  time  of  the  accession  of  Charles  the  First  the  senti- 
ments of  the  people  had  become  sufficiently  developed  to  make  known 
the  general  want  of  additional  religious  reform,  and  greater  political 
liberty,  both  of  which  seemed  arrested  by  the  absolute  monarchy  now 
establishing  its  power.     Charles  had  inherited  his  father's  political 
maxim  of  the  "  divine  right  of  kings  ;"  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury 
was  suspended  from  his  office,  and  banished  from  London,  because  he 
would  not  preach  the  doctrine  of  passive  obedience ;  and  in  all  things 
Charles  sought  opportunities  of  enforcing  the  principles  of  abso- 
lutism upon  the  nation.     In  the  House  of  Commons  arbitrary  mon- 
archy encountered  its  first  decided  opposition ;  and  a  party,  consist- 
ing of  the  religious  and  political  reformers,  was  there  organized, 
having  for  its  object  the  advocacy  of  legal,  constitutional  reforms, 
on  the  basis  of  the  liberties  guaranteed  in  Magna  Charta,  and  con- 
firmed by  the  ancient  laws,  institutions,  and  usages  of  the  realm. 
This  party,  the  first  that  appeared  in  the  field,  although  strongly  at- 
tached to  monarchy  and  episcopacy,  yet  wished  to  bring  the  former 


808  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [PART  lit 

back  within  the  limits  of  constitutional  power,  by  putting  a  atop  to 
illegal  imposts,  to  arbitrary  imprisonments,  and  to  all  acts  contrary 
to  law  and  usage  ;  while  it  also  desired  to  restrain  the  encroachments 
of  the  latter,  believing  that  its  jurisdiction  was  too  extensive,  and 
that  it  possessed  far  too  much  political  power. 

12.  The  legal  reform  party,  which  had  the  control  of  parliament, 
at  once  seized  upon  the  only  effective  engine  of  opposition  that  it 
possessed ;  and,  determined  to  place  the  king  in  a  position  where  he 
should  rule  in  conformity  with  its  wishes,  or  openly  violate  the  most 
sacred  principles  of  the  constitution,  sought  to  hold  the  king  sub- 
servient to  its  wishes  by  voting  supplies  very  sparingly,  and,  even 
then,  only  as  the  price  of  reformation.     When  the  king  demanded  a 
subsidy,  the  House  of  Commons  demanded  a  redress  of  grievances ; 
but  the  haughty  spirit  of  Charles  could  not  brook  such  presumption  : 
his  first  parliament  was  quickly  dissolved,  and  taxes  were  levied  by 
the  royal  authority  alone.     A  second  parliament  proved  as  intract- 
able as  the  first ;  and  in  a  third  the  opposition  was  stronger  and 
fiercer  than  ever.     Charles  now  changed  his  tactics  :  he  agreed  to  a 
compromise  of  differences ;  and  by  ratifying  the  famous  Petition  of 
Right,  he  bound  himself  to  abandon  forever  illegal  imprisonments 
and  arbitrary  taxation.     The  commons  now  granted  an  ample  supply  ; 
but  in  three  weeks  the  royal  promise  by  which  that  supply  had  been 
obtained  was  broken.     A  violent  contest  followed  ;  the  parliament 
was  angrily  dissolved ;  and  during  eleven  years,  from  March  1629  to 
April  1640,  Charles  ruled  without  the  aid  or  counsel  of  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  nation.     During  this  interval  of  arbitrary  rule  it 
became  more  and  more  apparent  that  some  new  securities,  some  im- 
portant limitations  of  royal  authority,  were  absolutely  indispensable 
for  the  preservation  of  English  liberties  and  privileges ;  and  by  the 
time  of  the  convocation  of  the  Long  Parliament',  in  1640,  a  second 
party,  more  revolutionary  than  that  which  had  hitherto  opposed  arbi- 
trary abuses,  had  grown  up,  and  now  had  the  ascendency  in  the 
House  of  Commons. 

1 3.  During  the  whole  of  the  first  session  of  the  Long  Parliament, 
these  two  parties  still  remained  united,  eagerly  engaged  in  the  work 
of  promoting  popular  reforms,  and  in  bringing  the  instruments  of 
tyranny  to  justice.     It  was  enacted  that  the  interval  between  the 
assembling  of  two  successive  parliaments  should  not  exceed  three 
years ;  and  the  people  welcomed  the  act  with  bonfires,  and  every 
demonstration  of  joy.     After  laying  this  solid  foundation  for  the 


CHAP.  XL]  ENGLISH  REVOLUTION.  809 

maintenance  of  the  laws,  the  Commons  abolished  the  court  of  the 
Star  Chamber,  and  of  the  High  Commission,  and  annihilated  the  ar- 
bitrary jurisdiction  of  several  other  irregular  tribunals ;  prisoners  of 
State  were  released  from  confinement ;  Archbishop  Laud,  one  of  the 
king's  ministers,  was  imprisoned ;  and  Strafford  was  impeached,  and 
at  length  brought  to  execution,  as  the  chief  adviser  of  the  tyranny 
of  the  king,  his  master. 

1 4.  At  the  opening  of  the  second  session  of  the  Long  Parliament, 
in  November  1641,  the  final  schism  in  the  constitutional  party  became 
apparent ;  and  from  that  day  dates  the  corporate  existence  of  the 
two  great  parties  which,  under  the  appellation,  first,  of  Cavaliers  and 
Roundheads,  and  subsequently,  of  Tories  and  Whigs,  have  ever  since 
alternately  governed  the  English  nation.     The  early  constitutional 
party,  now  the  party  of  the  court,  still  stood  on  its  ancient  ground, 
but  pleaded  strongly  for  conservatism,  alleging  that  the  rights  of  the 
nation  had  been  vindicated,  and  surrounded  with  new  securities  by 
the  recent  enactments  of  parliament ;  that  the  edifice  of  the  constitu- 
tion which  had  received  such  violent  shocks  in  the  recent  struggle 
now  needed  the  most  watchful  care  for  its  preservation  ;  and  that  the 
prerogatives  with  which  the  law  had,  for  the  public  good,  armed  the 
sovereign,  should  be  guarded  from  further  encroachments,  lest  the 
victory  over  despotism  should  run  into  anarchy.     Thus  argued  the 
enlightened  royalists.     Their  opponents  contended  that  good  laws 
were  not  sufficient  to  stem  the  tide  of  despotism — that  the  liberties 
which  the  English  people  enjoyed  were  rather  apparent  than  real — 
that  unless  more  radical  changes  were  made  in  the  government,  and 
the  king  restrained  from  the  personal  exercise  of  any  effective  power, 
the  royal  word  was  the  only  security  for  English  freedom  ;  and  it  had 
been  proved,  in  the  case  of  the  Petition  of  Right,  that  the  royal 
word  was  not  to  be  trusted.     In  fine,  instead  of  acknowledging  the 
absolute  sovereignty  of  the  crown,  this  party  contended  for  the  sov- 
ereignty of  the  House  of  Commons,  the  representatives  of  the  nation, 
while  behind  this  lurked  the  scarcely  yet  avowed  principle  of  the 
sovereignty  of  the  people.     This  has  been  called  the  political  revolu- 
tionary party,  although  it  sought  only  a  legal  reform,  and  professed 
adherence  to  the  principles  of  a  monarchy  properly  limited  and 
controlled. 

15.  With  each  of  the  contending  parties,  a  religious  sect  was 
closely  allied — the  Episcopalians  with  the  conservatives,  and  the 
Presbyterians  with  their  opponents.     Episcopacy  had  gained  every- 


310  PHILOSOPHY   OF   HISTORY.  [PART  IIL 

thing  from  the  crown,  and  she  gave  it  a  cordial  support  in  return. 
The  Presbyterians,  on  the  other  hand,  wished  to  produce  important 
changes  in  the  Church,  similar  to  what  their  allies  were  endeavoring 
to  effect  in  the  State — to  erect  a  system  of  Church  government 
emanating  from  the  people,  composed  of  a  series  of  assemblies,  but 
without  any  gradation  of  orders  in  the  priesthood,  and  without  any 
preferences  but  those  which  should  be  constituted  by  voluntary  agree- 
ment for  the  sake  of  order. 

16.  The  first  collision  between  the  two  parties  in  parliament  was 
highly  favorable,  in  its  results,  to  the  conservatives  ;  and  the  modera- 
tion which  the  king  had  now  assumed  promised  well  for  his  cause, 
when  a  single  false  step, — his  attempt  to  seize  the  five  members 
within  the  walls  of  the  Housea — placed  all  reconciliation  at  a  hopeless 
distance,  and  rendered  his  affairs  irretrievable  by  anything  short  of 
civil  war.     That  fatal  act  showed  the  little  regard  of  the  king  for 
the  privileges  of  Parliament ;  he  had  broken  faith  with  even  his 
own  adherents,  many  of  whom  now  deserted  him ;  and  in  the  House 
of  Commons  the  opposition  became  at  once  irresistible.     Those  who 
still  adhered  to  the  monarch  withdrew — the  king  quitted  London — 
civil  war  began,  and  two  parties  only  were  known, — the  party  of  the 
king,  and  the  party  of  Parliament. 

17.  Before  the  war  had  lasted  two  years  the  most  alarming  doc- 
trines, both  religious  and  political,  began  to  arrest  public  attention. 
A  third  party,  exchanging  the  watchword  of  reform  for  that  of  revo- 
lution, had  grown  up  in  the  parliamentary  ranks.     In  politics,  this 
party  would  have  swept  away  the  ancient  institutions  of  England, — 
its  judicial  system  and  its  administrative  system, — even  monarchy 
itself — placing  all  on  a  new  basis, — changing  not  only  the  form,  but 
the  foundation  of  the  government — and  erecting  a  commonwealth  or 
republic  on  the  ruins  of  the  old  English  polity.     In  religion,  the 
men  of  this  party  called  themselves  Independents  :  they  maintained 
the  uncontrolled  independence  of  every  single  congregation  of  Chris- 
tians, and  condemned  every  national  establishment  of  religion,  whether 
Papal,  Episcopal,  or  Presbyterian,  as  merely  forms  of  one  great 
apostasy.     Under  the  banners  of  this  party  marched  all  the  radical 
republicans  of  the  day,  and  all  the  advocates  of  absolute  liberty  of 
faith  and  worship.     The  soul  of  this  party  was  Oliver  Cromwell ; 
and,  under  the  guidance  of  his  master  spirit,  episcopacy  was  repudi- 
ated, the   act  establishing  presbytery  as  the  national   Church  was 

a.  See  p.  364. 


CHAP.  XLJ  ENGLISH  REVOLUTION.  811 

rendered  inoperative,  in  favor  of  the  Independents ;  and  monarchy 
was  overthrown,  by  the  execution  of  the  king.  England  was  declared 
a  commonwealth,  and  the  republican  party  was  left  master  of  the 
field,  and  of  power. 

1 8.  That  portion  of  the  republican  party  which  filled  the  House 
of  Commons,  now  reduced  to  fifty  or  sixty  members,  and  forming 
what  was  contemptuously  called  the  Rump,  soon  found  its  govern- 
ment of  the  country  rejected,  and  anarchy,  which  it  had  not  the 
power  to  restrain,  everywhere  prevailing.     Ejected  from  their  seats 
and  the  doors  closed  upon  them,  the  Republican  members  resigned 
their  power  without  a  struggle.     Thus  King,  Lords,  and  Commons, 
had  in  turn  been  vanquished  and  destroyed  :  the  legal  reform  party, 
the  political  revolutionary  party,  and  the  republican  party,  had  suc- 
cessively failed  in  conducting  the  revolution ;  and  Cromwell — one 
of  the  master  spirits  whom  revolutionary  times  produce — who  had 
done  more  than  any  other  man  to  overthrow  authority,  was  now  the 
only  man  who  could  restore  it.     The  country  required  a  ruler  ;  and 
in  the  emergency  Cromwell  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  the  State 
Although  no  party  liked  to  see  the  government  in  his  hands,  and  all 
repeatedly,  and  at  the  same  time,  attacked  his  power,  yet  to  the  last 
he  was  honored  by  the  army,  obeyed  by  the  whole  British  population 
without  having  gained  their  affections,  and  dreaded  by  all  foreign 
powers.     His  administration  was  arbitrary,  of  necessity,  but  not  cruel 
and  tyrannical ;  property  was  secure,  and  justice  was  administered 
with  impartiality ;  while  the  foreign  policy  of  Cromwell  raised  high 
the  fame  of  the  nation,  and  brought  back  the  renown  of  the  age  of 
Elizabeth. 

V.    " 

19.  Upon  Cromwell's  death,  the  government  again  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  republicans ;  but  they  succeeded  no  better  than  before  ; 
and  a  coalition  between  the  old  conservative  party  and  those  who 
separated  from  it  in  1641,  restored  constitutional  monarchy.     Cava 
Hers   and   Roundheads,    Episcopalians   and   Presbyterians,  waving 
petty  scruples  and  postponing  to  a  more  convenient  season  their  dis- 
putes about  reform,  united  to  reestablish  the  old  civil  polity  of  the 
kingdom,  as  the  only  chance  of  escaping  from  the  terrors  of  military 
despotism  and  civil  anarchy.     A  prince  of  the  Stuart  family  was 
restored  to  the  throne  of  his  fathers,  without  any  pledges  for  the  se- 
curity of  those  liberties  which  the  nation  had  been  striving,  during 
twenty  years,  to  establish. 


812  PHILOSOPHY  OF   HISTORY.  [PART  IIL 

20.  At  the  restoration,  the  government  returned  to  the  position 
in  which  it  had  been  left  when  Charles  the  First,  eighteen  years  be- 
fore, withdrew  from  his  capital.     The  acts  of  the  Long  Parliament 
which  had  received  the  royal  assent  were  evidently  still  binding  upon 
the  crown  and  the  nation  ;  but  all  subsequent  proceedings  of  the  gov- 
ernment were  regarded  by  the  party  of  the  court  as  the  acts  of  a 
usurping  faction.     The  complexion  of  the  first  parliament  called  by 
Charles  the  Second  was  decidedly  Royalist ;  and  under  the  ministry 
of  Lord  Chancellor  Hyde,  soon  created  Earl  of  Clarendon,  a  man 
who  venerated  the  royal  prerogative,  who  was  strongly  attached  to 
Episcopacy,  and  who  regarded  the  Roundheads  with  political  and 
personal  aversion,  the  old  ecclesiastical  polity  was  revived,  and  the 
ancient  principles  of  the  monarchy  restored.     Again  the  doctrine  of 
the  absolute  sovereignty  of  the  king  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the 
creed  of  the  dominant  party  ;  and  although  it  was  acknowledged  that 
the  royal  prerogatives  were  limited  by  the  House  of  Commons,  as  re- 
gards taxation,  and  by  the  judicial  tribunals  in  matters  affecting 
private  rights,  yet  they  still  gave  to  the  crown  an  almost  complete 
independence  in  point  of  government,  and  a  preponderating  control 
over  Parliament. 

21.  But  notwithstanding  the  strong  reaction  at  first  in  favor  of 
royalty,  the  fundamental  principles  upon  which  the  Clarendon  min- 
istry was  based  had  now  become  old  and  powerless ;  twenty  years  of 
parliamentary  rule  had  destroyed  them  forever :  the  coalition  that 
had   restored  royalty  terminated  with   the  danger  from  which  it 
sprung  ;  and  the  reform  party,  though  trampled  upon,  and  seemingly 
annihilated,  again  raised  its  head,  and  renewed  the  interminable  war. 

22.  Meanwhile  a  general  profligacy  of  morals  and  manners  had 
grown  up  in  the  nation,  and  pervaded  the  court ;  Clarendon,  an  un- 
flinching royalist,  but  a  despiser  of  fashionable  debauchery,  became 
unpopular  with  both  parties,  and  his  administration  odious ;  a  new 
party  arose  out  of  the  discontented  spirits  who  cared  little  about 
legal  order,  and  were  only  anxious  for  their  own  success ;  and  from 
the  profligates  and  libertines  of  the  court,  the  Cabal  administration 
was  formed, — an  administration  regardless  of  law,  or  right,  or  justice; 
and  that  sought  the  means  of  success  by  every  tortuous  policy,  with- 
out regard  to  its  own  dignity,  or  the  honor  of  the  nation. 

23.  But  corruption  so  glaring  and  so  public  ere  long  deprived  the 
king  of  the  whole  stock  of  popularity  with  which  he  had  commenced 
his  administration  :  the  national  pride  was  wounded  by  the  reverses 


CHAP.  XL]  ENGLISH   REVOLUTION.  813 

sustained  in  foreign  wars  ;  a  deep  anxiety  for  civil  liberty  pervaded 
the  nation,  and  alarming  rumors  of  Popish  plots,  and  of  a  design  to 
restore  the  Roman  Catholic  faith,  were  industriously  circulated.  The 
Cabal  ministry  fell  before  the  gathering  storm  ;  a  national  party  be- 
came gradually  formed  in  the  House  of  Commons ;  and  in  1679  the 
king  was  obliged  to  take  the  leaders  of  it  into  his  council. 

24.  Although  the  national  ministry  consisted,  in  great  part,  of 
those  eminent  men,  of  pure  intentions,  who  had  headed  the  oppo- 
sition in  both  houses  of  parliament,  yet  the   suspicions  attached 
to  the  king's  character  greatly  abated  the  public  esteem  for  those 
who  had  gone  into  his  council ;  they  could  neither  gain  the  confidence 
of  the  nation,  nor  manage  the  interests,  habits,  or  prejudices  of  the 
king,  who  soon  broke  his  faith  with  those  by  whom  he  had  pledged 
himself  to  be  directed.     The  national  ministry,  after  holding  power 
less  than  a  year,  was  broken  up,  and  the  agitation  became  more  violent 
than  ever. 

25.  Thus  the  English  restoration,  like  the  English  Revolution,  had 
in  a  manner  tried  all  parties  ;  and  the  Clarendon  or  legal  ministry, 
the  Cabal  or  corrupt  ministry,  and  the  national  ministry,  had  suc- 
cessively failed  to  afford  the  nation  a  satisfactory  government.     As 
at  the  close  of  the  revolutionary  troubles  in  1653  Cromwell  turned 
the  disordered  elements  of  party  strife  to  his  own  advancement,  so 
Charles  II.  now  turned  them  to  the  profit  of  the  crown,  by  enter- 
ing upon  a  career  of  absolute  power,   although  he  seldom  dared 
to  infringe  upon  the  fundamental  privileges  of  the  nation.     The 
Anglican  clergy  of  this  period  boldly  asserted  the  doctrine  of  ab- 
solute non-resistance ;   servile  writers  endeavored  to  show  that  Mag- 
na  Charta,  and  other  constitutional  laws,  were  but  rebellious  en- 
croachments upon  the  prerogatives  of  monarchy ;   and  among  the 
propositions  which  the  University  of  Oxford  denounced  as  damnable, 
was  the  republican  doctrine  that  all  civil  authority  is  derived  orig- 
inally from  the  people.     Under  Charles  II.  royalty  had  not  abated 
any  of  its  pretensions ;  and  under  his  successor,  James  II.,  it  rapidly 
approached  the  despotic  rule  of  the  first  Charles.     But  what  hastened 
the  crisis  of  the  Revolution  was  the  desire  of  James  to  achieve  a 
triumph  for  popery  as  well  as  for  absolute  power ;  and  from  the 
prospect  thus  presented,  the  nation  shrunk  with  horror.     Thus,  as 
at  the  commencement  of  the  Revolution,  there  was  a  religious  struggle 
and  a  political  struggle,  both  directed  against  the  government ;  and, 
as  at  the  restoration,  a  coalition  was  formed  between  the  two  great 


814  PHILOSOPHY   OF   HISTORY.  [PAET  III. 

parties  of  the  nation,  the  reformers  and  the  conservatives,  since  better 
known  as  Whigs  and  Tories,  and  the  result  was  a  deposition  of  the 
reigning  sovereign,  and  a  change  of  dynasty  by  a  transfer  of  the 
crown  to  William,  Prince  of  Orange. 

VI. 

26.  The  concluding  event  of  the  Revolution,  the  act  by  which  the 
crown  was  settled  on  William  and  Mary,  terminated  a  contest  which 
had  been  waged  ever  since  the  reign  of  king  John,  between  the  crown 
and  the  people ;  and  which,  under  the  last  of  the  Stuarts,  had  been 
obstinately  maintained  by  royalty  against  the  liberties  and  the  re- 
ligion of  England.     By  the  Act  of  Settlement,  and  the  Declaration 
of  Rights  which  soon  followed  it,  all  the  arbitrary  prerogatives  of 
royalty  were  taken  away ;  and  in  place  of  the  maxim  of  the  "  divine 
right  of  kings,"  and  the  doctrine  of  passive  obedience,  it  was  hence- 
forth conceded  that  the  rights  of  the  crown  emanated  from  the  par- 
liament and  the  people.     The  immediate  beneficial  effects  of  the  es- 
tablishment of  this  just  principle  of  government  were  not  confined 
to  the  British  islands ;  they  extended  across  the  ocean,  and  relieved 
the  British  American  colonies  of  much  of  that  royal  tyranny  against 
which  they  had  so  long  been  struggling. 

27.  The  effects  of  William's  elevation  went  far  beyond  a  mere 
change  of  dynasty.     Placed  on  the  throne  by  the  nation  itself,  to  the 
rejection  of  the  claims  of  hereditary  right,  his  title  was  bound  up 
with  that  of  the  nation  to  its  liberties.     Chosen  by  the  free-will  of 
parliament,  the  freedom  of  that  body  became  part  of  the  royal  creed ; 
its  wishes  the  king  was  bound  to  conform  to ;  its  support  was  ever 
necessary  to  his  own  security ;  and  henceforth  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, which  now,  for  the  first  time,  assumed  the  distribution  of  the 
revenue — the  regulation  of  the  expenses  of  the  army,  the  navy,  &c. — 
became  the  paramount  power  in  the  State.     From  the  Revolution  to 
the  death  of  G-eorge  the  Second,  a  period  of  seventy  years,  the  Whig 
party  had  the  ascendency  in  the  government ;  and  it  was  a  funda- 
mental doctrine  of  that  party,  (however  often  they  might  depart  from 
it  in  practice,)  that  power  is  a  trust  for  the  people,  to  be  used  for 
their  benefit.     Political  science  made  a  great  stride  during  this 
period,  producing  its  effects  not  only  upon  England,  but  upon  France 
also,  and  through  France,  upon  Europe. 

28.  It  is  at  the  point  when  the  republican  government  of  Holland 
was  called  to  the  defence  of  English  liberties,  that  the  English  Revo- 


CHAP.  XL]  ENGLISH  REVOLUTION.  815 

lution  links  itself  with  the  general  course  of  European  civilization. 
It  would  be  a  contracted  view  of  this  great  event  to  regard  it  as  ex- 
clusively English  in  its  character,  without  showing  the  connection  of 
its  results  with  the  great  drama  that  was  enacting  on  the  broader 
stage  of  continental  politics.  While  the  struggle  of  absolute  power 
against  civil  and  religious  liberty  took  place  in  England,  pure  mon- 
archy, in  the  person  of  Louis  XIV.,  was  waging  a  war  against  the  lib- 
ties  and  the  independence  of  States  on  the  other  side  of  the  Channel. 
Against  Louis  a  powerful  coalition  was  entered  into,  in  which  the  Pro- 
testant Republic  of  Holland,  with  William  of  Orange  at  its  head,  took 
the  lead.  To  the  one  object  of  securing  the  liberties  of  his  country  and 
of  Europe  against  the  present  aggressions  of  Louis,  and  his  schemes 
for  universal  monarchy,  the  whole  of  the  heroic  life  of  William  was 
devoted  with  undeviating  firmness,  and  with  an  ardor  and  persever- 
ance that  has  scarcely  a  parallel  in  history  ;  and  it  was  an  important 
part  of  his  magnanimous  designs  to  place  England  in  its  natural 
position,  as  a  party  to  the  coalition  which  he  had  formed.  Under 
Charles  II.  the  English  government  had  been  treacherously  sub- 
servient to  the  counsels  of  Louis,  who  had  found  in  James  II.  a  still 
more  devoted  adherent,  and  the  liberties  of  England  an  enemy  whose 
resentment  could  never  be  appeased,  and  whose  power,  consequently, 
must  be  taken  away. 

29.  A  deep  feeling  of  enmity  to  France  and  her  monarch,  and  the 
cause  which  he  represented,  had  taken  possession  of  William's  soul ; 
and  that  feeling  governed  the  whole  of  his  policy  towards  England. 
His  public  spirit  was  European  in  its  character  ;  and  when  the  crown 
of  England  was  tendered  him,  the  chief  motive  that  prompted  his 
acceptance  was  not  personal  ambition,  nor  the  interests  of  the  people 
whose  cause  he  served,  nor  the  safety  of  his  own  country,  but  a  de- 
sire to  lay  hold  of  England  as  a  new  force  requisite  to  complete  the 
coalition  of  feeble  and  dispirited  States  against  their  common  enemy. 
With  this  view  of  the  subject,  the  course  which  William  pursued 
towards  the  contending  parties  in  England  appears  far  more  uniform 
and  consistent  than  when  supposed  to  be  restricted  in  its  objects  to 
the  narrow  theatre  of  English  politics  ;  and  the  English  Revolution, 
instead  of  an  isolated  struggle  for  liberty,  becomes,  independently  of 
the  influence  of  its  example,  an  important  act  in  the  great  drama  of 
European  civilization. 

.  • 


816  PHILOSOPHY   OF  HISTORY.  [PAET  IIL 

CHAPTER    XII. 

THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY. 

THE    FRENCH    REVOLUTION. 

ANALYSIS.  1.  The  Frenck  Revolution— the  great  event  of  the  eighteenth  century.  In 
what  light  we  are  at  first  disposed  to  view  it.— 2.  A  great  development  of  the  inconstancy  of 
French  character.  An  era  in  the  page  of  history. — 3.  Previous  inquiry  into  the  state  of  civil- 
ization at  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century.  Farther  examination  of  the  state  of  French  society. 

4.  GROWTH  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE  FRENCH  MONARCHY  AND  NOBILITY.  Political  aspect 
of  Gaul  under  its  feudal  lords.  The  chieftain  Clovis.— 5.  Limited  powers  of  the  Merovingian 
kings. — 6.  Overthrow  of  the  Merovingian  dynasty. — 7.  Character,  extent,  and  fall,  of  the  Carlo- 
vingian  dynasty.  Increased  power  of  the  nobility.  Why  the  Carlovingian  dominion  failed.— 
8.  Election  of  Hugh  Capet  by  the  feudal  lords,  and  gradual  subversion  of  the  power  of  the 
latter.  Enlargement  of  the  royal  domain. 

9.  ORIGIN  or  THE  THIHD  ESTATE,  OR  COMMONS.    The  free  towns,  or  municipalities,  aid  in 
the  overthrow  of  feudalism.    Change  in  the  character  of  society.    The  municipal  republics 
absorbed  in  the  absolutism  of  Louis  XIV.    Subsequent  reappearance  of  this  part  of  the  social 
system. 

10.  CHARACTER  AND  POSITION  OF  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.    The  Church  early  made  de- 
pendent upon  the  crown.    Pontifical  decrees  not  binding  on  any  Frenchman  without  the  consent 
of  the  monarch. — 11.  Original  jurisdiction  of  the  French  ecclesiastical  courts — gradually,  but 
permanently  impaired. — 12.  Church  property  not  taxed  without  the  free  consent  of  the  eccle- 
siastical order.    Immense  amount  of  Church  property.    Political  influence  of  the  Church. 

13.  PECULIARITIES  OF  EARLY  FRENCH  LEGISLATION.  The  parliaments  of  the  feudal  lords. 
The  king's  parliament.  Enlargement  of  its  powers  by  Louis  VII.,  and  origin  of  the  French 
peerage.  Enlargement  by  Louis  IX.  The  French  noblesse  in  the  seventeenth  century.  Their 
mutual  jealousies — they  are  hated  by  the  plebeian  classes — their  exclusive  privileges. — 14. 
Origin  and  composition  of  the  States-General.  Its  rights  and  powers.  Previous  to  Louis  XVI., 
France  had  no  constitution,  and  the  king  was  the  real  as  well  as  nominal  lawgiver. 

15.  RELATIONS  BETWEEN  THE  RULING  ORDERS  AND  TUB  PEOPLE  DURING  THE  CENTURY 
PRECEDING  THE  REVOLUTION.  The  English  and  French  Revolutions,  results  of  the  workings  of 
the  same  principles.  Comparative  suddenness  and  violence  of  the  French  Revolution. — 16. 
First  avowal  of  republican  principles  in  France.  How  they  were  checked.  Prevalent  ideae 
respecting  popular  rights. — 17.  Character  andresults  of  the  Insurrection  of  the  Fronde.  Ab- 
solutism of  Louis  XIV., — poverty  of  the  people,  and  wealth  of  the  nobility. — 18.  Exhaustion 
of  the  kingdom,  by  persecutions  of  the  Protestants,  and  the  wars  of  Louis.  Expedients  to  re- 
plenish the  treasury.  Why  the  reign  of  Louis  was,  externally,  one  of  glory  to  his  country. 
Cause  of  decline.  Absolute  monarchy  unfavorable  to  the  development  of  the  highest  talent. — 
19.  The  regency  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans.  Iniquitous  measures  for  removing  the  public  debt. 
— 20.  Political  and  moral  character  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XV.  Degraded  state  of  the  nobility. 
Ecclesiastical  tyranny  and  immorality.  Low  state  of  morals  generally.  General  presentiment 
of  an  approaching  revolution.  The  system  of  absolute  power  worn  out,  and  nothing  to  take 
its  place.— 21.  Struggle  between  the  Jesuits  and  Legists.  Abolition  of  the  order  of  the  Jesuits 
— the  people  begin  to  make  common  cause  against  the  monarchy. 

22.  CAUSES  OF  THE  DEVELOPMENT  AND  SPREAD  OF  FREE  PRINCIPLES.  Resistance  to  des- 
potism increases  with  the  advance  of  civilization.  The  three  forms  of  despotism  in  feudal 
France— their  contests  with  each  other.  Society  afterwards  divided  into  two  classes— the 
privileged  few,  and  the  laboring  many.  The  mastery  at  first  obtained  by  the  former.  Various 
ways  through  which  the  people  strove  for  emancipation.— 23.  Opposition  to  sacerdotal  tyranny : 


CHAP.  XJL]  THE  FRENCH   REVOLUTION.  817 

— Calvinism,  Jansenism,  Infidelity. — 24.  Influence  of  general  literature  in  advancing  the  Ravo- 
lution.  Great  activity  of  the  human  intellect.  Disquisitions  of  the  French  philosophers. 
General  tendency  to  republican  principles. — 25.  Unhappy  distinction  of  classes  in  France. 
Selfish  zeal  of  the  higher  classes  to  limit  the  royal  authority.  The  exclusiveness  and  pride  of 
the  aristocracy  contrihuted  to  give  to  the  Revolution  its  sanguinary  character.  Unyielding  op- 
position of  pa/ties  and  classes  in  France  to  the  present  day.— 26.  Wretchedness  of  the  peasant 
population.  City  vagrants — the  part  which  they  played  in  the  Revolution. 

27.  Lons  XVI.  THE  FIRST  ACT  IN  THK  DRAMA  OF  THE  REVOLUTION.  General  restlessness 
of  the  French  people  at  the  time  of  the  accession  of  Louis  XVI.  Effects  of  the  American 
Revolution. — 2d.  Character  of  Louis. — 20.  His  ministers,  &c.  Opposition  of  the  clergy  and 
nobility  to  reforms.  Convocation  of  the  States-General.  Representation  of  the  "Third 
Estate."  Results  of  the  elections.  The  opening  of  the  Revolution. — 30.  Indication  of  a  change 
of  public  feelings.— 31.  Unwise  policy  of  the  government. — 32.  Unwise  policy  of  the  nobility 
and  clergy.  The  National  Assembly.  Its  measures.  Success  of  the  Commons  in  opposing  the 
royal  edict. — 33.  Want  of  harmony  in  the  Assembly.  Formation  of  a  monarchist  party.  The 
national  party.— 34.  Reformation  of  abuses,  and  adoption  of  a  Constitution.  Appropriation 
of  Church  property.— 35.  The  old  Provinces  changed  into  Departments,  &c.  Sovereignty  of 
the  people  established.  The  acts  of  the  National  Assembly  highly  praiseworthy.  Its  great 
error,  iu  excluding  its  members  from  the  next  legislature. 

36.  CHANGE  IN  THE  CHARACTER  OF  THE  REVOLUTION.  Effects  of  the  king's  attempted 
escape,  and  the  emigration  of  the  nobility.  Ultra  character  of  the  new  Legislative  Assembly. 
— 37.  Impolitic  and  vacillating  conduct  of  the  king.  Important  considerations  that  led  the 
Assembly  to  contemplate  his  deposition. — 38.  Manifesto  of  the  allies — abolition  of  royalty — the 
Girondists  and  the  Mountuinists.  The  leaders  of  the  latter. — 39.  Motives  of  the  Mountainists 
in  urging  the  condemnation  of  the  king. — £0.  Sanguinary  carreer  of  tbe  Mountainists  after  the 
execution  of  the  king.  Successive  fall  of  the  Girondists  and  Dantonists.— 41.  Napoleon's  po- 
litical sagacity  compared  with  the  course  of  the  Dantonists. — 42.  Fall  of  the  Mountainists,  and 
retrograde  movement  of  the  Revolution. 

43.  TERMINATION  AND  RESULTS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION.  Military  despotism— a  relief  from 
anarchy.  Changes  in  public  opinion.  Beneficial  effects  of  the  Revolution.  Onward  tendency 
of  liberal  principles.  The  fate  of  France,  a  warning  to  rulers  and  people. — 44.  Important 
moral— standing  armies  no  security  to  arbitrary  power.  Good  government : — the  people  the 
only  basis  of  power.— 45.  Salutary  lesson  to  the  friends  of  freedom.  Unwise  legislation— 
what  institutions  only  can  be  permanent.  French  infidelity.  The  English  Rebellion  contrasted 
with  the  French  Revolution.  Mild  character  of  the  former — violence  of  tbe  latter.  The  causes. 
— 46,  Ignorance  the  only  reliable  support  of  arbitrary  power.  Freedom  naturally  keeps  pace 
with  the  progress  of  knowledge  and  virtue.  Attempt  to  stifle  necessary  reforms.  What 
qualities  are  necessary  for  the  successful  development  of  democratic  institutions.  What  the 
French  people  have  overlooked,  and  what  they  have  still  to  learn. 

:«.-tf  is* .Jb&*Jfc$*^xHj  to  ».>  \  'n>  <4u >8K*k»  (<taidB/<tr • 

I. 

1.  The  French  Revolution  is  not  only  the  great  event  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  but  it  stands  out  prominent  on  the  page  of  history 
as  the  most  awful  moral  convulsion  the  world  has  ever  known.  We 
are  shocked  and  dismayed  at  the  spectacle  which  it  presents ;  and 
it  is  only  by  knowing  both  its  causes  and  effects,  that  we  can  regard 
it  in  any  other  light  than  as  a  great  moral  desolation,  unconnected 
with  human  agencies,  which  the  almighty  sent  upon  the  earth  as  he 
sends  the  deluge  and  the  earthquake.  But  when  the  long  train  of 
causes  is  brought  to  light,  and  beneath  the  fair  exterior  of  society 
the  germs  of  a  mortal  disease  are  developed,  we  can  think,  and  re- 

52 


818  PHILOSOPHY   OF  HISTORY.  [PAKT  III. 

fleet,  and  reason,  on  the  catastrophe  :  we  no  longer  wonder,  although 
we  shudder  at  the  wide  waste  of  ruin  that  meets  our  view. 

2.  The  acts  of  individuals,  when  external  restraints  have  lost  their 
influence,  are  generally  truthful  developments  of  character  ; — and 
nations  have  their  character  also,  their  leading  traits  of  thought  and 
feeling;  their  passions,  their  virtues,  and  their  vices.     And  if  ever 
the  character  of  a  nation  showed  itself,  undissembled,  on  the  surface 
of  its  public  life,  then  did  that  of  France,  in  its  worst  aspects,  during 
the  Revolution, — when  all  the  ancient  landmarks  were  swept  away, 
and  there  was  no  law,  no  government,  no  religion,  but  such  as  arose 
from  the  effervescence  of  popular  feeling,  to  restrain,  and  guide,  and 
govern  society.     The  singular  spectacle  is  presented  of  a  professedly 
Christian  nation,  occupying  the  front  rank  in  civilization,  rapidly 
passing  through  all  the  phases  of  government — from  arbitrary  rule 
to   the   anarchy  of  democratic  ascendency,   and,   in  religion,  from 
Christianity  to  Atheism, — tearing  up  the  very  foundations  of  society 
— guilty  of  excesses  and  crimes  that  would  have  disgraced  a  barba- 
rous age ;  and  then,  apparently,  as  rapidly  returning  to  the  point 
from  which  it  had  departed.     This  seeming  anomaly  in  the  history 
of  nations  is  a  great  development  of  the  inconstancy  of  French 
character  ;  but  it  is  by  no  means  the  whole  of  the  French  Revolu- 
tion, which  had  its  effects,  great,  and  important,  and  lasting,  as  well 
as  its  causes ;  and  it  will  ever  form  a  prominent  era  in  the  page  of 
history,  not  only  on  account  of  the  astounding  events  which  marked 
its  progress,  but  also  on  account  of  the  magnitude  of  the  effects  by 
which  it  was  followed. 

3.  In  a  previous  article  we  endeavored  to  unfold  to  the  reader  the 
principal  elements  of  European  civilization  as  they  existed  at  the 
close  of  that  long  and  gloomy  period  usually  denominated  the  "  Dark 
Ages."     We  briefly  traced  the  attempts  of  theocracy,  democracy, 
aristocracy,  and  monarchy,  separate  and  combined,  to  remodel  and 
govern  society ;  and  we  saw,  at  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
the  monarchical  principle  prevailing,  in  that  general  centralization 
of  power  which  reduced  all  the  elements  of  society  to  two — the  gov- 
ernment and  the  governed.     The  view  which  we  there  took  was  a 
general  one ;  but  a  correct  understanding  of  later  French  History, 
and  especially  of  the  great  Revolution  of  1789,  renders  important,  as 
the  basis  of  our  inquiries,  a  more  minute  examination  of,  first,  the 
growth  and  character  of  the  French  monarchy  and  nobility ;  second, 
the  origin  of  the  "  Third  Estate,"  or  Commons  ;  third,  the  character 


CHAP.  XII.]  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION.  819 

and  position  of  the  Gallican  Church  ;  and,  fourth,  the  peculiarities 
of  early  French  legislation. 

II. 

4.  The  political  aspect  which  Gaul,  —  the  country  now  called  France 
—  presents  to  us  on  the  first  appearance  of  partial  order,  after  the  sub- 
sidence of  those  mighty  waves  of  barbarian  inundation  by 
which  the  Western  empire  of  the  Romans  was  overthrown,    OHAKACTKE 
is  that  of  a  large  territory  parcelled  out  among  a  great      OF  THE 
number  of  petty  barbarian  lords  who  ruled  with  almost 


absolute  sway  over  their  vassals,  the  cultivators  of  the        AND 
soil,  and  who,  themselves,  were  but  the  tenants,  some- 
times in  the  second,  or  third  degree,  of  some  military  chieftain  to 
whom  they  had  vowed  fidelity  and  feudal  allegiance.     The  chieftain 
who,  at  the  end  of  the  fifth  century,  held  this  superior  rank,  was 
Clovis,  who  was  at  the  head  of  a  confederation  of  Frankish  tribes  of 
Germanic  origin,  which  had  spread  themselves  over  Gaul  ;  and  it  was 
Clovis  who,  as  conqueror  of  the  Romano-Gallic  province,  laid  the 
basis  of  that  great  European  commonwealth  which  has  exerted  a 
greater  influence  than  any  other  on  the  destinies  of  modern  Europe. 

5.  The  kings  of  the  race  of  Clovis,  or,  as  they  are  called  in  history, 
of  the  Merovingian  race,a  enjoyed  few  of  the  attributes  of  modern 
sovereignty  ;  and  the  word  king  is  less  appropriate  to  them  than  the 
Latin  term  imperator  or  consul.     The  king  of  the  Franks  was  the 
general  of  the   nation  :    he  was  honored,  followed,  and  supported 
by  his  people,  but  he  did  not  reign  over  them.     All  real  dominion 
was  in  the  hands  of  the  official,  patriarchal,  or  military  aristocracy, 
the  whole  forming  a  complex  sovereignty,  in  which  government  was 
maintained  by  physical  force,  and  submitted  to  by  the  people  through 
abject  fear. 

6.  The  Merovingian  dominion  was  gradually  subverted  by  the  en- 
croachments of  the  feudal  aristocracy,  from  whom  arose  a  chief, 
Pepin,  who  became  the  founder  of  the  Carlovingian  dynasty.     The 
nobles  had  overturned  the  semblance  of  a  throne,  but  it  was  merely 
to  give  place  to  a  ruler  of  their  own  order.     Like  many  subsequent 
and  similar  changes  in  French  history,  the  overthrow  of  the  Mero- 
vingian dynasty  was  unattended   by  any  progress   in  civilization, 
because  it  was  a  change  of  external  forms  merely,  without  a  corre- 

a.  The  Frankish  chiefs  were  called  Meer-wigs,  (that  is,  Sea  Warriors  ;)  a  title  which  they 
transmitted  to  the  first  Frankish  dynasty. 


820  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [PAET  III 

spending  development  of  intelligence  and  virtue.  The  ignorance,  the 
rapacity,  and  the  barbarian  character  of  the  Merovingian  dynasty, 
was  a  barrier  to  the  establishment  of  a  moral  dominion  over  the 
people ;  and  barbarism  leagued  against  and  overthrew  it. 

7.  The  Carlovingian  dynasty,  whose  dominion  Charlemagne  en- 
deavored to  establish  on  the  basis  of    the  revival  of  the  Roman 
power,  and  an  alliance  with  the  Church  of  Rome,  was  extended  by 
that  powerful  and  enlightened  monarch  over  a  mighty  empire  ;  but 
it  fell  to  pieces  under  his  early  descendants ;  and  the  same  nobles,  or 
barons,  who  had  been  been  viceroys  in  the  administration  of  his  gov- 
ernment, soon  became  the  real  sovereigns  over  their  territories,  and 
rendered  their  power  hereditary  in  their  families.     The  unity  of 
royal  dominion  was  again  lost  in  the  plurality  of  aristocratic  chiefs — 
the  greater  feudatories  of  the  realm — while  little  but  the  name  of 
royalty  remained  as  a  bond  of  their  common  union.     The  Carlo- 
vingian dominion  was  based  on  moral  influences  altogether  in  advance 
of  the  character  of  the  people  ;  and  it  failed  because  nothing  but 
arbitrary  power  was  capable  of  ruling  in  that  barbarous  age. 

8.  For  a  time  the  feudal  confederation  ruled,  and  at  length  elected 
one  of  their  number,  Hugh  Capet,  duke  of  the  duchy  of  France,  and 
count  of  Paris,  as  their  king,  or  feudal  superior ;  thinking  that  they 
would  make  of  him  the  key  stone  to  the  arch  of  their  baronial  power ; 
while,  in  their  own  seigniories,  they  would  be  free  from  his  authority 
and  control.     They  little  thought  that  this  pageant  of  royalty  would 
ever  rise  into  a  power  by  which  their  States  would  be  subjugated, 
and  their  posterity  reduced  to  insignificance  and  want.     Hugh  Capet 
inherited  from  his  ancestors  the  duchy  of  France  alone ;  but  by  the 
conquest  and  cession  of  various  other  fiefs,  the  royal  domain  was  in 
after  times  successively  enlarged,  until  at  last  it  embraced  nearly  the 
whole  of  the  more  modern  kingdom  of  France.     Those  fiefs  that 
did  not  belong  to  the  royal  domain  were  governed  by  their  own 
lords,  who  owed  various  feudal  services  to  the  king  as  their  com- 
mon sovereign. 

III. 

9.  An  important  cause  which  cooperated  with  royalty  in  over- 

throwing the  power  of  the  feudal  lords  or  barons,  was 
THE  THIRD    the  springing  up  anew,  out  of  the  wrecks  of  the  Roman 
ESTATE,  OR   W0rld,  of  free  towns  or  municipalities,  which,  by  conces- 
sions from  the  feudal  lords,  and  charters  from  the  king, 
obtained  emancipation  from  the  control  of  their  former  masters,  free- 


OHAP.XIL]  THE  FRENCH   REVOLUTION.  821 

dom  from  taxation  beyond  a  certain  amount,  without  their  own  con- 
sent, and,  to  a  great  extent,  the  right  of  self-government.  Thus 
the  range  of  feudal  power  was  narrowed,  and  its  energy  impaired, 
by  a  transfer  to  these  corporate  bodies.  The  character  of  society 
also  was  changed.  In  place  of  only  two  classes  which  before  existed 
— the  feudal  proprietors  and  the  laboring  population — a  third  was 
interposed,  as  a  mediating  body,  between  them, — serving  both  to 
mitigate  feudal  tyranny,  and  to  elevate  the  multitude,  by  extending 
to  them  its  own  free  spirit  and  policy.  The  aristocracy  of  commerce 
which  grew  up  in  the  towns  was  a  counterpoise  to  the  aristocracy  of 
hereditary  descent ;  and  the  traditional  customs  on  which  feudal  do- 
minion rested  were  gradually  overborne  by  the  municipal  authority  of 
written  law.  Out  of  gratitude  to  the  monarch,  the  free  towns  at  first 
sided  with  him  against  the  barons ;  and  thus  the  tendency  was  towards 
the  overthrow  of  feudalism  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  growth  of  royal 
power  on  the  other.  These  numerous  municipalities,  however,  were 
so  many  petty  republics  scattered  throughout  a  vast  monarchy ;  and 
although  they  had  aided  the  king  against  the  barons,  they  were  des- 
tined eventually  to  yield  to  the  power  which  they  had  contributed  to 
elevate.  Being  hostile  in  spirit  to  the  principles  of  royalty,  the  two 
powers  were  often  brought  into  collision,  in  which  the  monarch 
possessed  overwhelming  advantages.  Some  of  these  municipalities — 
the  city  of  Paris  for  instance — resisted,  but  being  widely  dispersed 
and  isolated  bodies,  having  no  confederations  for  mutual  defence, 
having  been  accustomed,  in  their  strictly  municipal  character,  to  the 
exercise  of  no  political  powers,  their  privileges  were  gradually  taken 
away  by  the  encroachments  of  royal  authority,  until,  in  the  reign  of 
Louis  XIV.,  they  had  fallen  from  the  position  of  independent  com- 
monwealths, and  become  absorbed  in  the  overwhelming  dominion  of 
royalty,  then  the  centralization  of  all  political  power  in  France. 
After  the  lapse  of  more  than  a  century,  this  part  of  the  social  system 
reappears  on  the  political  arena  as  the  long  oppressed  but  indignant 
commonalty,  or  "  Third  Estate,"  whose  redemption  was  to  be  worked 
out  by  the  greatest  of  the  revolutions  through  which  France  had  yet 


IV. 

10.  The  Gallican  Church,  with  all  its  power  and  influence,  and 
boasted  freedom  from  papal  jurisdiction,  was  early  made  politically 
dependent  upon  the  pleasure  of  the  crown.  Until  the  time  of  Francis 


822  PHILOSOPHY   OF   HISTORY.  [PART  IIL 

I.  the  Church  was  independent  in  the  election  of  her  bishops  and 

CHARACTER   other  great  dignitaries ;  but  the  concordat  of  Francis 

AND  POSITION  with  the  Pope  Leo  X.  gave  to  the  former  the  right  of 

GALLICAN     nominating  bishops  to  every  vacant  See,  and  of  making 

CHURCH,     appointments  to  every  other  ecclesiastical  dignity  ;  and, 

to  the  present  time,  the  head  of  the  French  government,  whether 

royal,  imperial,  or  republican,  has  held  in  its  own  hands  the  bestowal 

of  those  offices.     Another  great  encroachment  upon  the  liberties  of  the 

Church  was  that  made  by  Philip  the  Fair,  who,  when  Pope  Boniface 

VIII.  commanded  the  attendance  of  all  the  French  prelates  at  Rome, 

issued  an  edict  forbidding  them  to  go  beyond  the  limits  of  his  own 

dominions ;  and,  from  that  time  it  has  been  an  established  maxim 

of  the  French  jurists  that  no  pontificial  decree  is  binding  on  any 

Frenchman  without  the  previous  sanction  of  the  French  monarch. 

11.  Originally  the  jurisdiction  of  the  French  ecclesiastical  courts 
was  of  great  extent,  embracing  all  offences  that  could  be  construed  as 
coming  under  the  laws  of  God — or  in  which  sin  might  be  imputed  to 
one  of  the  litigants ;  but  the  Church  could  neither  fine,  imprison, 
torture,  nor  kill,  and  was  thus  obliged  to  call  upon  the  temporal 
power  for  the  infliction  of  her  penalties.     After  a  time  the  temporal 
powers  hesitated  to  lend  their  aid  until  they  were  satisfied  of  the 
justice  of  the  sentence ;  and  thus  arose  the  doctrine  of  the  right  of 
reviewing  the  decisions  of  the  ecclesiastical  courts,  and  of  correcting 
any  abuses  that  might  be  committed  by  them.     And  when,  moreover, 
the  principles  of  the  Justinian  code  were  generally  adopted  in  the 
secular  courts,  and  had  become  popular  with  the  people,  those  courts 
acquired  a  manifest  advantage ;  and  by  these  various  causes  the  in- 
fluence of  the  Church  in  temporal  matters  was  gradually  but  perma- 
nently impaired. 

12.  At  first  ecclesiastical  persons  and  property  in  France  were 
exempt  from  all  imposts ;  and  after  a  long  period  of  controversy  on 
this  subject  it  was  finally  established  as  a  fundamental  law  of  the 
realm,  so  early  as  the  reign  of  Charles  VIII.,  that  no  Church  prop- 
erty could  be  taxed  without  the  free  consent  of  the  ecclesiastical 
order.     The  Church,  however,  seldom  refused  to  aid  the  monarch  in 
cases  of  great  exigency.     In  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV.  the  property 
of  the  Church  thus  exempt  from  legal  taxation  had  become  of  im- 
mense value,  the  net  income  of  it  being  estimated  at  ten  or  twelve 
millions  of  pounds  sterling.     The  Church  had  become,  at  this  time, 
politically,  a  vast  moneyed  corporation  of  tremendous  power ;  but 


CHAP.  XIL]  THE  FRENCH   REVOLUTION.  823 

the  influence  of  the  king,  as  its  temporal  head,  in  the  appointment  of 
the  officers,  kept  it  within  the  restraints,  and  greatly  under  the  control, 
of  royal  authority. 

V. 

13.  The  peculiarities  of  early  French  legislation,  and  the  manner 
in  which  royal  power  gradually  assumed  to  itself  all  legislative  au- 
thority, throws  much  light  on  the  political  state  of  France    PECULIAKI- 
at  the  period  of  the  Revolution.     In  feudal  times,  each      TIKS  OF 

of  the  great  feudal  lords  who  held  his  fief  directly  from  FRENCH 
the  crown  was  accustomed  to  hold  a  parliament  of  his  LEGISLATION. 
vassals,  at  which  were  adopted  all  general  regulations  for  the  seig- 
niorie  or  province,  and  especially  such  as  related  to  the  raising  of  im- 
posts. The  king  also  at  first  held  his  parliament  in  like  manner  in 
his  own  seigniorie  ;  but  Louis  VII.  enlarged  its  influence  by  summon- 
ing six  of  the  greater  barons  and  six  dignitaries  of  the  Church — all 
immediate  vassals  of  the  crown — to  aid  him  in  such  legislation  as 
concerned  the  interests  of  the  whole  realm.  These  royal  counsel- 
lors were  designated  peers  of  France,  and  this  was  the  origin  of 
the  French  peerage.  Louis  IX.  greatly  enlarged  this  body  by  the 
addition  of  knights  and  legistes,  or  men  bred  to  the  study  of  the  law ; 
when  it  assumed  the  distinctive  title  of  Parliament  of  Paris,  and, 
under  the  control  of  the  monarch,  began  to  exercise  extensive  ju- 
dicial as  well  as  legislative  functions.  In  various  ways  the  order  of 
Nobility,  or  of  French  Peers,  was  enlarged,  until,  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  the  Noblesse,  comprising  all  those  entitled  to  a  seat  in  the 
Parliament  of  Paris,  was  composed  of  many  different  and  discordant 
elements, — of  nobles  by  birth — of  nobles  by  patent — nobles  by  office 
— and  nobles  by  the  possession  of  certain  lands  to  which  the  rank  of 
nobility  was  inseparably  attached.  Of  origins  so  diverse,  these  vari- 
ous sections  of  the  patrician  order  viewed  each  other  with  exceeding 
jealousy ;  while  the  privileges  attached  to  their  rank,  at  the  expense 
of  the  plebeian  classes,  made  them  the  objects  of  hatred  to  the  latter. 
Although,  in  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV.,  almost  entirely  excluded  from 
any  share  in  the  conduct  of  public  affairs,  they  had  that  which  they  per- 
haps valued  as  highly  as  their  titular  distinctions.  The  laws  generally, 
were  more  favorable  to  them  than  to  persons  of  ignoble  rank  :  many 
public  offices  were  open  to  them  alone  :  they  were  pensioned  out 
of  the  royal  revenues  :  they  alone  were  entitled  to  the  rights  of  the 
chase  ;  and  they  were  exempt  from  all  ordinary  taxes. 

14.  In  addition  to  the  local  parliaments  in  the  various  provinces 


824  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [PART  III 

of  the  empire,  and  the  central  parliament  of  Paris,  which  originally 
exercised  jurisdiction  only  in  the.  royal  domain,  on  important  occa- 
sions the  king  ordered  representatives  to  be  sent  to  his  parliament 
by  the  sub-vassals  of  the  first  degree,  and  also  representatives  of  the 
inferior  clergy  throughout  the  kingdom.  In  addition  to  these  repre- 
sentatives of  the  nobility  and  the  Church,  the  king  commanded  the 
free  male  inhabitants  of  the  municipalities,  that  is,  of  the  villages, 
towns,  and  cities,  forming  what  has  been  called  the  "  Tiers  Etat"  or 
"  Third  Estate"  in  the  realm,  to  elect  deputies  to  represent  them 
also.  The  rural  or  country  districts  sent  no  deputies,  because  they 
were  supposed  to  be  adequately  represented  by  their  respective  lords, 
whose  tenants  they  were.  The  assemblage  of  all  these  representa- 
tives was  called  the  States- General  of  the  realm,  and,  as  a  body 
separate  from  the  Parliament  of  Paris,  appears  to  have  been  first 
summoned  by  Philip  the  Fair  in  the  year  1301.a  The  admitted 
rights  of  the  States-General  went  no  farther  than  to  petition  for  the 
redress  of  grievances,  and  to  grant  taxes ;  and  even  in  the  latter 
case  they  were  incapable  of  binding  their  constituents  without  their 
consent  ;b  they  had  never  any  real  legislative  authority  ;  nor  had  the 
monarchy  any  limitations  in  the  enactment  of  laws  except  those  im- 
posed by  feudal  principles  and  public  opinion.0  From  Louis  the 
Ninth  to  Louis  the  Sixteenth,  France  had  no  constitution  ;  and  the 
king  was  the  real  as  well  as  the  nominal  lawgiver  ;d  although  during 
this  period  many  ineffectual  attempts  were  made  to  maintain  the 
authority  of  the  representatives  of  the  people,  and  to  restrain  the 
usurpations  of  the  royal  power.  Such  was  the  general  character  of 
the  imperfectly-formed  civil  and  political  institutions  of  France,  up 
to  the  period  of  the  beginning  of  the  French  Revolution — the  great 
crisis  in  modern  civilization. 

VI. 

15.  If  we  now  look  at  the  current  history  of  France  during  the  cen- 
tury preceding  that  event,  we  shall  see  how  all  the  elements  of  society, 
RELATIONS    developed  upon  such  a  basis,  contributed  to  the  coming 
BETWEEN     catastrophe.     The  Reformation  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
ORDERS  AND  which  had  violently  agitated  all  Christian  Europe,  was 
THE  PEOPLE.  an  uprising  of  the  people  against  mental  bondage  and 
spiritual  despotism,  and,  where  most  successful,  as  in  England,  it 
hastened  on  the  inevitable  struggle  for  civil  and  political  liberty.    The 

a.  Hallam  says  1305.        b.  Hallam,  106.       c.  Do.  Note,  103.        d.  Sir  J.  Stephen,  261. 


CHAP.  XII.]  THE   FRENCH  REVOLUTION.  825 

English  Revolution  of  1688  was  a  great  moral  and  political  move- 
ment in  carrying  forward  the  principles  which  the  Reformation  had 
left  partially  developed ;  and  it  will  be  seen  that  the  French  Revo- 
lution, a  century  later,  was  the1  result  of  the  onward  progress  of  the 
same  principles  among  a  people  scarcely  less  intelligent,  but  less 
virtuous,  less  candid,  and  infinitely  more  passionate  and  impulsive. 
In  England  the  shock  was  divided,  and  its  force  consequently  weak- 
ened, by  an  interval  of  a  century  between  the  Reformation  and  the 
Revolution;  but  the  Reformation  had  done  little  or  nothing  for 
France,  and  the  long  gathering  storm  burst  upon  her  all  at  once  with 
the  desolating  fury  of  the  avalanche. 

16.  During  the  progress  of  the  Revolution  in  England,  republican 
principles  were,  almost  for  the  first  time,  openly  avowed  in  France, 
being  called  forth  by  the  arbitrary  measures  by  which  Mazarin,  the 
minister  of  the  youthful  monarch  Louis  XlY.,  then  in  his  minority, 
sought  to  replenish  an  exhausted  treasury.     The  French  parliament 
first  manifested  opposition  :  vague  ideas  of  liberty  began  to  circulate 
among  the  people  of  Paris — always  the  centre  of  revolutionary  ex 
citement  in  France — radical  reforms  were  suggested,  rather  than 
demanded,  by  the  national  councils  ;  and  some,  probably,  entertained 
the  wish  to  imitate  their  insular  neighbors  ;  but  the  catastrophe  of 
the  opening  drama  of  the  English  Revolution,  which  had  begun  with 
civil  war,  and  ended  in  regicide  and  despotism,  deterred  them  from 
entering  on  a  like  career.     The  court  party  were  astonished  at  the 
audacity  of  the  reformers ;  and  the  confident  assurance  of  the  former 
is  well  exemplified  in  the  question  which  the  queen-mother  put  to 
parliament,  "  Did  it  believe  itself  to  possess  the  right  of  limiting  the 
king's  authority  ?"     Even  the  republican  writers  of  this  period,  (if 
they  may  properly  be  called  such,)  were  far  from  conceding  to  the 
people  any  voice  or  share  in  the  administration  of  the  government, — 
asserting  that  "  a  veil  should  ever  cover  all  that  can  be  said  or  thought 
upon  the  rights  of  subjects  and  the  rights  of  kings,  interests  that  can 
never  agree  but  in  silence.  "a     Such  were  the  political  principles  of 
the  French  government  a  century  before  the  Revolution. 

17.  The  difficulties  to  which  we  have  alluded,  between  the  court 
party  and  the  parliament,  led  to  the  civil  war,  known  in  French  his- 
tory as  the  "  Insurrection  of  the  Fronde"     It  was  the  fate  of  this 
insurrection,  like  most  other  attempts  to  establish  liberty  in  France, 
to  be  frustrated  by  the  countenance  which  it  received  from  the  aris- 

a.  De  Retz. 


826  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [PART  HI. 

tocracy,  who,  gaining  the  lead,  by  affecting  to  adopt  its  principles, 
perverted  their  influence  to  their  own  selfish  purposes.  After  five 
years  of  anarchy,  the  French  seemed  to  take  a  sudden  disgust  to 
freedom  ;  and  when,  in  1652,  Louis  XIV.,  who  had  then  attained  his 
majority,  entered  Paris,  and  declared  his  will  that  the  parliament 
should  no  more  presume  to  interfere  with  State  affairs,  the  most 
servile  submission  followed,  and  monarchy  resumed  its  absolute  sway 
over  France.  In  the  Fronde  the  commons  had  united  with  the  aris- 
tocracy against  ministerial  oppression,  as,  in  the  times  of  feudal 
tyranny,  they  had  often  served  the  cause  of  royalty  against  the  barons. 
But  during  the  long  reign  of  Louis  XI V.,  both  the  commons  and  the 
aristocracy  are  nearly  lost  sight  of  in  the  personal  history  of  an  arbi- 
trary rather  than  despotic  monarch  ;  and  while  the  people  were  poor, 
possessing  scarcely  a  third  part  of  the  soil,  and  oppressed  by  feudal 
services  to  their  lords,  tithes  to  the  priests,  and  imposts  to  the  king, — 
the  nobles,  fed  and  pampered  in  idleness,  were  receiving,  in  the  pleas- 
ures and  favors  of  a  dissipated  court,  the  price  of  their  dependence. 
18.  The  persecutions  of  the  Protestants,  and  the  revocation  of  the 
edict  of  Nantes,  which  caused  the  emigration  from  France  of  fifty 
thousand  families,  comprising  the  most  industrious  part  of  the  popu- 
lation, was  a  severe  blow  to  the  industry  and  wealth  of  the  kingdom  ; 
while  the  expensive  wars  which  Louis  carried  on  against  his  neighbors 
completed  the  exhaustion  of  both  men  and  money.  To  meet  the  exi- 
gencies of  the  times,  letters  of  nobility  were  sold  ; — payments  from 
the  treasury  were  made  in  adulterated  coin ;  and  every  iniquitous 
expedient  of  taxation  resorted  to.  That  the  era  of  Louis  XIV.  was, 
externally,  one  of  glory  to  his  country,  and  that  France  maintained, 
during  his  reign,  a  proud  ascendency  over  surrounding  nations,  is 
attributable  not  only  to  the  character  of  the  monarch,  but  also  to 
the  close  alliance  of  the  nobility  with  the  throne,  and  the  enthusiasm 
of  the  people  for  their  king,  whose  absolute  power  was  hailed  as  the 
guarantee  of  security  and  peace.  But  even  while  the  monarchy  was 
at  the  summit  of  its  prosperity,  it  was  fast  sowing  the  seeds  of  its 
own  dissolution.  It  has  been  observed  that  absolute  monarchy  is 
unfavorable  to  the  development  of  the  highest  talent ;  and  the  dif- 
ference between  the  early  part  and  the  close  of  the  reign  of  Louis 
will  be  found  corroborative  of  this  position.  Conde,  Turenne,  and 
Luxembourg,  who  contributed  so  much  to  the  military  renown  of 
Louis,  were  schooled  in  an  age  when  the  power  of  the  monarch  was 
limited, — in  the  license  and  difficulties  of  the  Fronde  ;  but  the  glory 


CHAP.  XIL]  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION.  827 

of  the  monarchy  declined  when  its  councils  and  its  defence  were  in- 
trusted to  those  who  had  been  schooled  in  the  maxims  of  arbitrary 
power,  and  trained  to  servile  submission  to  its  dictates. 

19.  After  the  death  of  Louis,  the  government  passed  into  the 
hands  of  a  regent,  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  one  of  the  nobility,  with 
whom  the  privileged  orders  strove  to  ally  themselves,  to  regain  that 
power  and  influence  in  the  government,  of  which  they  had  been  de- 
prived.    The  absolutism  that  followed  was  that  of  aristocracy  rather 
than  of  monarchy ;  although,  in  the  end,  the  nobles,  during  the  re- 
gency, acquired  little  increase  of  influence.     To  get  rid  of  the  enor- 
mous debts  entailed  upon  the  nation  by  Louis,  a  decree  was  issued, 
requiring  the  public  creditors  to  verify  their  bills  :  if  their  accounts 
did  not  satisfy  the  court  of  commission,  they  were  wholly  rejected ; 
and  in  this  way  the  public  debt  was  diminished  by  several  hundred 
millions.     This  measure  being  found  so  successful,  the  public  creditors 
were  next  summoned  before  the  court,  and  on  the  charge  of  having 
made  unlawful  gains,  were  nearly  all  of  them  thrown  into  prison, 
from  which  they  procured  their  release  only  by  the .  payment  of  ex- 
orbitant ransoms.     The  nobility  succeeded  in  keeping  the  burden  of 
taxation  upon  the  lower  classes ;  as  evidence  of  which,  it  may  be 
mentioned  that  while  the  capitation  tax,  previously  levied  on  all  the 
classes,  was  allowed  to  expire,  the  taxes  imposed  on  plebeians  only 
were  continued.     A  financial  measure  quite  in  harmony  with  the  rest, 
was  a  recoinage,  by  which  government  subtracted  one-fifth  from  the 
value  of  each  piece,  or  nearly  one-fifth  of  the  entire  circulating  medi- 
um of  the  kingdom.     Never  was  spoliation  by  an  oriental  monarch 
more  barefaced  ;  and  yet  such  tyranny,  practiced  by  the  ruling  aris- 
tocracy, was  endured  in  the  eighteenth  century,  and  by  one  of  the 
most  enlightened  nations  in  Europe. 

20.  The  political  and  moral  character  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XV. 
may  be  summed  up  in  few  words.     The  corruptions  and  injustice  of 
the  preceding  reign  had  degraded  royalty,  and  Louis  XV.  brought 
it  still  lower  by  his  dissoluteness,  while  he  weakened  it  by  his  pro- 
fusion.    The  nobles,  denied  all  share  in  the  government,  but  retain- 
ing their  large  estates,  and  surfeited  with  pensions  as  the  price  of 
their  submission,  degraded  their  order  in  the  eyes  of  the  people  by 
their  indolent  and  unambitious  lives,  and  by  sharing  with  the  monarch 
the  contributions  levied  for  his  and  their  pleasures.     The  ecclesias- 
tical power,  taking  the  lead  in  oppression, a  while  the  priesthood  was 

a.  Men  of  the  highest  rank  were  denied  burial  if  they  had  not  obtained  billets  of  confession 


828  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [PAIIT  III. 

odious  for  its  intemperance,  ignorance,  absurdities,  and  scandal, 
brought  reproach  upon  the  very  name  and  institution  of  religion.  The 
general  state  of  morals  was  low  in  the  extreme ;  the  chivalric  senti- 
ments of  a  former  age  had  passed  away ;  the  love  intrigues  of  the  court 
were  topics  of  common  scandal ;  and  it  is  seldom  that  the  morals  of 
the  people  are  better  than  those  of  their  masters.  This  Christian  mon- 
arch even  went  so  far  as  to  outrage  morals  and  decency  by  connect- 
ing with  his  court  a  royal  seraglio ;  and  it  was  madame  de  Pompadour, 
the  favorite  mistress  of  the  monarch,  who  governed  France  in  his 
name ; — it  was  she  who  appointed  generals  and  bishops,  proposed 
laws  and  plans  of  campaigns  ;  and  whose  paramount  influence  spared 
the  shadow  of  a  king  the  trouble  of  either  thinking  or  speaking.  But 
with  all  the  external  quiet  that  appeared  on  the  surface  of  society  at 
this  period,  in  the  endurance  of  oppression,  Revolution  was  not  slumber- 
ing, but  only  waiting  its  time.  Great  moral  and  political  convulsions 
in  the  history  of  nations  are  usually  heralded  afar  off  by  a  growing 
presentiment  of  some  approaching  crisis ; — as  the  influence  of  the  distant 
cataract  is  felt  in  the  increasing  rapidity  of  the  current,  long  before  its 
sound  is  heard.  It  was  thus  with  the  French  Revolution.  Its  move- 
ment was  felt  before  the  middle  of  the  century ;  and  it  was  this  that 
induced  the  selfish  remark  of  Louis  XV.  himself :  "  The  monarchy 
is  very  old,  but  it  will  last  my  time."  Distrust,  and  dissatisfaction 
with  the  existing  state  of  things,  pervaded  the  minds  of  all  classes ; 
a  change  was  felt  to  be  inevitable,  and  all  were  laboring  to  produce 
it,  although  none  saw  whither  the  tide  of  affairs  was  tending.  While 
society  was  growing  into  strength,  and  wealth,  and  activity,  monarchy 
was  beginning  to  feel  the  decrepitude  of  age ;  and  even  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  reign  of  Louis  XY.  the  system  of  absolute  power  was 
literally  worn  out,  while  in  its  place  there  were  neither  political  insti- 
tutions nor  political  habits  to  hold  the  frame-work  of  society  together. 
No  wonder  then  that  when  the  people  took  the  government  into  their 
own  hands  they  knew  not  what  to  do  with  it,  and  that  the  engine  of 
their  power  became  that  of  their  destruction. 

21.  There  was  an  almost  continuous  struggle  during  the  reign  of 
Louis  XY.  between  the  parliament  and  the  magistracy  under  the  general 
appellation  of  legists,  on  the  one  side,  and  Jesuits,  and  high  church- 

from  the  orthodox  priesthood.  (1750.)  The  Protestant  Galas,  for  a  pretended  crime,  was 
doomed  by  the  Catholic  parliament  of  Toulouse  to  perish  on  the  rack.  The  bitter  sarcasm  of 
Voltaire,  called  forth  by  his  hatred  of  the  priesthood  and  the  iniquity  of  the  deed,  covered  the 
parliament  with  shame,  and  with  the  public  indignation.  La  Barre  was  executed,  on  the 
charge  of  having  broken  down  a  wooden  cross.  (1768-9.) 


CHAP.  XII.]  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION.  829 

men  of  the  Catholic  faith,  on  the  other.  La  Pompadour,  the  friend 
of  the  philosophers,  favored  the  opposition  to  sacerdotal  authority ; 
and  by  her  influence  the  clergy  were  sometimes  censured  and  exiled ; 
but  when  parliament  became  too  troublesome  in  its  opposition  to 
taxes  and  fiscal  edicts,  tho  magistrates  were  punished,  and  the  Church 
triumphed.  While  the  quarrel  between  the  Jesuits  and  the  legists 
continued  to  occupy  public  attention,  the  court  was  in  great  part 
shielded  from  the  effect«  of  its  unpopularity ;  but  in  1 764  the  order 
of  the  Jesuits  was  abolished,  and  its  members  banished  from  the 
kingdom ;  and  soon  after,  Louis,  in  a  quarrel  with  the  parliament, 
dispersed  that  body  for  its  opposition  to  his  wishes.  Thus  there  was 
nothing  left  to  divert  attention  from  the  throne  :  the  public  discon- 
tent was  not  long  in  designating  arbitrary  power  and  privilege  as  the 
cause  of  the  wide-spread  evils  under  which  the  kingdom  labored  ;  and 
henceforth  we  find  the  great  mass  of  the  people,  united  by  common 
grievances,  advancing  together,  and  making  common  cause  against 
the  monarchy.  While  the  two  privileged  orders,  the  clergy  and  the 
nobility,  were  the  chief  excitants  of  the  popular  odium,  the  crown 
was  made  the  point  of  attack,  as  being  the  true  exponent  of  arbitrary 
power  and  privilege.  Such  were  the  relations  between  the  ruling 
orders  and  the  people,  down  to  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Louis 
XVI.  The  state  of  society,  and  the  causes  that  developed  and  pro- 
duced the  spread  of  free  principles,  also  require  our  notice. 

VII. 

22.  Despotism,  in  some  form,  appears  to  be  the  government  natural 
to  the  condition  of  man  in  a  rude  state  of  society ;  but  it  never  fails 
to  be  resisted,  with  the  advance  of  intelligence  and  civil-    CAUSES  OF 
ization.     In  feudal  times  its  forms  in  France,  and  in  THE  DKVEL- 
Western  Europe  generally,  were  three ;  the  hierarchy,  °™pREADNt 
the  nobility,  and  the  corporations.     The  first  was  based     OF  FREE 
on  the  absurd  claim  of  divine  right ;  and  the  Church  PRINCIPLES- 
arbitrarily  governed  the  consciences  of  men  because  mankind  were  igno- 
rant.    The  second  was  based  on  the  necessity  of  mutual  aid  and  protec- 
tion against  domestic  enemies ;  and  the  third  on  the  plea  of  the  im- 
portance of  encouraging  and  protecting  industry  by  fraternal  associa- 
tions.    These  classes,  long  distinct,  had  many  contests  with  each 
other,  as  one  or  the  other  strove  to  acquire  more  than  its  share  of 
authority  over  the  people ;  but  as  the  latter  gradually  emerged  from 
a  state  of  serfdom,  and  lost  their  veneration  for  their  oppressors,  a 


830  PHILOSOPHY   OF  HISTORY.  [PART  IIL 

new  organization  was  effected,  and  society  became  divided  into  two 
parties,  often  antagonistic, — the  privileged  few  and  the  laboring 
many.  The  former  at  first  obtained  the  mastery,  and,  dividing 
among  its  members  the  spoils  it  had  won,  gave  to  the  nobility  the 
monopoly  of  the  soil,  to  the  clergy  the  immense  property  that  had 
been  confided  to  it  in  trust,  and  to  the  corporations  all  the  profits  of 
industry.  Monarchy  also  lent  its  aid  to  centralize  in  the  hands  of 
one  individual  the  power  wielded  by  many  rulers.  But  with  the 
dawnings  of  free  inquiry  the  people  strove  for  emancipation.  At 
first  the  Reformation  exposed  the  unjust  pretensions  of  the  hierarchy : 
science,  in  the  writings  of  the  economists,  put  forth  the  claims  of 
equality:  literature  gave  freedom  to  thought;  humanity,  in  the  works 
of  Voltaire  and  Rousseau  and  their  co-laborers,  claimed  exemption 
from  unnecessary  suffering ;  and  finally  liberty  demanded  for  the 
people  equal  political  rights  and  privileges  with  their  oppressors. 
The  latter  became  the  watchword  of  the  Revolution. 

23.  Opposition  to  sacerdotal  tyranny  pursued  a  similar  course,  and 
with  a  like  result.  The  first  show  of  resistance  was  Calvinism  ;  and 
although  the  reformers  were  silenced  at  the  stake,  the  new  doctrines, 
regarded  as  ignoble  and  disloyal,  exerted  an  influence  that  was  never 
entirely  lost.  Jansenism,  a  logical  controversy  between  the  follow- 
ers of  Jansenius  and  the  Jesuits,  about  divine  grace  and  other 
points  of  religious  faith,  having  been  revived  in  the  early  part  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  and  dragged  into  the  political  field,  became  the 
second  stage  in  the  opposition  to  the  usurpations  of  the  Church  of 
Rome.  Opposed  by  the  Pope,  who  found  the  royal  authority  arrayed 
on  his  side,  it  was  favored  by  those  who  sought  freedom  from  the 
arbitrary  will  of  spiritual  confessors.  But  Jansenism  was  timid  and 
compromising,  and  it  failed.  The  next  stand  was  that  taken  by  wit 
and  learning,  led  on  by  a  host  of  infidel  writers,  at  the  head  of  whom 
were  Voltaire,  Rousseau,  Diderot,  and  D'Alembert.  The  Church, 
arbitrary  and  illiberal,  vainly  strove  to  present  itself  as  a  wall  against 
the  advance  of  knowledge,  long  after  it  had  lost  the  monopoly  of  in- 
tellect : — restraining  liberty  of  thought,  it  would  allow  neither  liberty 
of  speech  nor  of  writing ;  and  the  philosophers  of  the  age,  avoiding 
an  open  conflict  with  its  peculiar  tenets,  directed  the  shafts  of  their  wit 
and  sarcasm  against  all  religious  faith  and  worship, — unjustly  draw- 
ing the  portraiture  of  religion  from  the  conduct  of  its  unworthy  pro- 
fessors ;  and  not  only  were  the  intolerance  and  tyranny  of  the  priest- 
hood overthrown  by  the  exposure  of  the  ignorance  and  corruption  of 


CHAP.  XII.]  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION.  831 

the  national  Church,  but,  by  these  insidious  attacks,  the  people  were 
led  to  .look  with  disgust  upon  the  very  name  and  institution  of  re- 
ligion, so  that,  long  before  the  Revolution,  public  sentiment  was  fully 
prepared  for  the  triumph  of  infidelity.  However  difficult  it  may 
have  been  to  separate  the  cause  of  true  religion  from  that  of  Roman- 
ism, the  Roman  Catholic  priesthood  of  France  must  share  with  the 
philosophers  the  guilt  of  the  impiety  and  demoralization  that  shocked 
the  world  in  the  scenes  of  the  Revolution. 

24.  We  come  next  to  the  influence  of  general  literature  in  ad- 
vancing the  Revolution.  The  reign  of  Louis  XIY.  has  been  called 
the  era  of  the  fine  arts  ;  that  of  Louis  XV.  was  the  era  of  philosophy; 
while  both  united  to  characterize  that  of  Louis  XYI.  as  the  age  of 
reform.  The  scholars  of  the  seventeenth  century  had  aroused  the 
human  mind  to  put  forth  its  most  vigorous  efforts  ;  and  a  spirit  of 
ardent  and  enthusiastic  research  in  all  the  departments  of  literature 
followed.  As  was  natural,  politics  and  religion — the  condition  and 
destiny  of  man  here  and  hereafter,  became  prominent  topics  of  in- 
vestigation. A  surprising  freedom  of  discussion  on  governments  and 
religion,  laws  and  their  abuses,  took  place.  Nothing  was  said  of  the 
government  of  France,  or  of  the  condition  of  the  people  :  no  attack 
was  yet  made  on  the  monarchy  :  the  disquisitions  of  the  philosophers 
were  couched  in  general  terms.  Voltaire  was  allowed  to  attack  vulgar 
errors  and  prejudices  in  politics,  and  to  make  religion  the  subject  of 
derision  and  obloquy,  without  the  remote  suspicion  that  he  was  under- 
mining the  foundations  of  the  French  monarchy  on  tlie  one  hand,  and 
of  papacy  on  the  other.  Rousseau,  in  his  celebrated  work  on  the 
Social  Contract,  led  the  people  to  investigate  the  natural  rights  of 
man  and  the  claims  of  authority  :  Montesquieu,  in  his  Spirit  of  Latvs, 
has  the  merit  of  making  political  science  a  favorite  study  ;  and  Diderot 
and  D'Alembert,  the  principal  editors  of  the  Encyclopedias,  published 
in  1731,  embodied  the  current  philosophy  of  the  age  in  a  systematic 
form.  Not  only  the  people,  but  the  court,  the  nobility,  and  the  clergy 
also,  were  captivated  by  the  novelty  and  brilliancy  of  the  ideas  de- 
veloped ;  they  repeated  the  arguments  against  exclusive  privileges, 
without  ever  suspecting  that  they  would  b?  the  first  victims  of  the 
new  philosophy ;  and  a  rigorous  and  enlightened  public  opinion  was 
formed,  tending  not  only  to  free,  but  to  republican  principles.  Public 
attention  was  turned,  with  glowing  admiration,  upon  the  spirit  and 
freedom  of  the  republics  of  antiquity  ;  the  names  of  the  ancient  sages, 
and  lawgivers,  patriots,  and  heroes,  were  on  the  lips  of  all ;  and  a 


832  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [PART  IIL 

happy  classical  allusion  to  such,  by  a  public  speaker,  was  sure  to 
call  forth  tumultuous  applause. 

25.  A  cause  that  insensibly  led  on,  and  gave  virulence  to  the  spirit 
of  Revolution,  was  the  distinction  of  classes  in  France,  which  was 
nftire  marked  than  in  any  other  country  of  Europe.  The  distinction 
between  noble  and  plebeian  was  originally  founded  in  conquest,  first 
by  the  arms  of  the  conquering  Roman,  and  then  of  the  conquering 
Frank :  the  nobility,  if  not  the  direct  descendants,  were  at  least  the 
representatives  of  the  Teutonic  conquerors  of  Gaul :  they  claimed 
everything  by  right,  while,  to  the  Gallic  plebeians — the  serfs  of  feudal 
times, — since  become  the  "  race  of  freedmen,"  everything  was  deemed 
a  favor,  and  all  rights,  concessions  from  former  masters.  The  laws 
and  institutions  of  France  were  calculated  to  perpetuate  an  unhappy 
distinction  that  was  founded  in  the  characters  of  different  races. 
While  the  subjugated  Gaul  was  subtle,  insinuating,  courteous,  volatile, 
vain,  and  reckless ;  the  German  Frank  was  haughty,  cold,  and 
formal,  selfish  and  calculating ;  and  between  characters  so  diverse, 
amalgamation,  social  or  political,  was  of  tardy  growth.  While  in 
England  the  privileges  of  rank  descended  to  the  eldest  son  only,  in 
France  they  were  shared  by  all  the  children,  and  the  consequence 
was  a  complete  separation  of  the  higher  and  lower  orders,  so  marked 
that  there  was  no  passing  from  one  side  of  the  line  to  the  other. 
And  although  at  the  commencement  of  the  Revolution,  the  parlia- 
ment, the  nobles,  and  the  clergy,  were  foremost  in  zeal  to  limit  the 
royal  authority,  it  must  be  remembered  that  they  were  by  no  means 
anxious  to  curtail  their  own  privileges  :  they  would  have  raised  a 
titled  nobility  above  the  throne,  and  placed  them  selves  at  a  still  farther 
remove  from  the  people.  With  the  exception  that  a  common  en- 
thusiasm for  liberty  in  the  abstract  animated  all  classes,  the  haughty 
nobility  and  the  oppressed  peasantry  were  as  far  apart  as  ever ;  and 
it  was  this  arbitrary  and  unyielding  separation— this  hateful  pride  of 
the  aristocracy  which  spurned  the  base-born  and  ignoble,  that  con- 
tributed powerfully  to  give  the  Revolution  its  sanguinary  character. 
In  the  Reign  of  Terror  the  cry  of  "  an  aristocrat !"  was  the  most  fatal 
of  all  accusations.  A  w^ar  of  classes  partakes  much  of  the  character  of 
a  war  of  castes  or  of  races — ending  only  with  the  extermination  of  one 
of  the  parties.  And  it  was  not  until  seventy  thousand  of  the  French 
nobility  had  been  driven  beyond  the  frontiers,  and  the  remainder, 
almost  to  a  man,  had  fallen  beneath  the  axe  of  the  guillotine,  that 

the  fury  of  the  revolutionists  abated,  for  want  of  victims.     The  same 

' 


CHAP.XII.]  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION.  833 

distinction  of  classes  and  parties  has,  ever  since,  stood  in  the  way  of 
successful  representative  government  in  France.  The  monarchic, 
aristocratic,  and  democratic  elements,  have  labored  and  fought  for 
the  exclusion  and  the  destruction  of  each  other  :  a  variety  of  petty 
isms,  equally  intolerant,  has  since  arisen  to  keep  the  social  fabric 
in  constant  agitation  ;  and  while  their  exclusiveness  remains,  all  rep- 
resentative government,  which  is  based  on  mutual  concessions  and 
compromise,  will  be  temporary  and  turbulent. 

26.  The  progressive  increase  of  wealth,  and  the  general  prosperity 
of  the  country  previous  to  the  Revolution,  in  consequence  of  the  ad- 
vance of  civilization,  is  sometimes  cited  as  proof  that  the  people  had 
no  serious  grievances  to  complain  of.    But  while  it  is  true  that  the  mid- 
dling classes — the  smaller  landed  proprietors,  tradesmen,  and  artisans, 
were  acquiring  some  degree  of  wealth,  in  spite  of  the  obstacles  to  their 
advancement,  the  lower  ranks,  including  the  great  mass  of  the  people, 
were  in  a  state  of  indigence  and  suffering,  occasioned  by  years  of 
oppression  and  misrule,  while  the  increasing  lights  that  shone  in 
upon  them,  discovering  their  wretchedness  and  its  causes,  made  them 
discontented,  and  exasperated  against  their  oppressors.     Added  to 
this,  the  peasant  population  had  already  reached  the  limits  which  the 
country  in  its  wretched  state  of  agriculture  could  sustain  ;  and  a 
crowd  of  vagrants  was  thrust  upon  the  towns,  or  left  to  vegetate  in 
idleness  in  their  native  places,  eking  out  a  scanty  subistence  by  petty 
plunder,  shunning  observation  in  times  of  quiet,  but  forward  and 
furious  in  every  civil  commotion.     At  a  later  period  we  find  this 
wretched  class  of  the  population  everywhere  throughout  France  the 
ready  instruments  of  Jacobin  vengeance — pouring  forth  its  thousands 
from  the  faubourgs  of  Paris  at  every  sound  of  sedition — swelling  the 
numbers  of  the  mob  at  Versailles — clamoring  for  bread  at  the  doors 
of  the  National  Assembly,  and,  in  the  Reign  of  Terror,  adding  the 
ferocity  of  famine  to  the  horrors  of  Revolution. 

VIII. 

27.  At  the  time  of  the  accession  of  Louis  XVI.  to  the  throne,  the 
nation  had  not  pnly  become  weary  of  arbitrary  power,    LOUIg  xyj 
but  it  began  to  be  restless  and  uneasy  under  its  burdens.    THE  FIRST 
Many  of  the  young  nobility,  fired  with  the  spirit  of  freedom,    ^  IN  THE 
went  to  assist  the  Americans  in  their  struggle  for  indepen-    THE  EEVO- 
dence:  the  king,  jealous  of  the  power  of  England,  and  urged      LUTION. 
on  by  public  opinion,  took  the  dangerous  step  of  aiding  the  insurgents 

53 


834  PHILOSOPHY   OF  HISTORY.  [PART  IIL 

whose  success  shook  the  foundations  of  despotism  in  the  Old  World. 
The  French  monarchy,  more  than  any  other,  felt  the  shock  :  a  uni- 
versal enthusiasm  for  republican  institutions  pervaded  the  nation  : 
the  court  and  the  nobility,  with  a  strange  fatuity,  seemed  to  have 
combined  for  their  own  destruction,  to  establish  a  new  order  of  things; 
and  when,  beneath  the  whole,  the  French  people  compared  their  griev- 
ances with  those  of  the  Americans,  and  found  they  had  much  greater 
cause  of  complaint  than  those  they  were  aiding  to  be  free,  they  were 
disposed  to  make  a  practical  application  of  the  principles  which  others 
merely  admired  in  theory. 

28.  The  character  of  Louis  XVI.  was  such  as  poorly  qualified  him 
for  carrying  the  nation  through  the  approaching  crisis.     Pure  in 
morals,  humane  and  beneficent,  amiable  and  estimable  in  private  life, 
but  feeble  in  resolution,  hesitating,  and  distrustful  of  himself,  he 
never  would  have  occasioned,  nor  had  he  the  power  to  resist  a  Revo- 
lution.    His  own  security  and  the  peace  of  the  country,  required  of 
him  firmness  of  purpose  and  energy  of  will ;  for  it  was  necessary  for 
him  to  compel  the  privileged  classes  to  submit  to  reforms,  or  the 
nation  to  abuses ;  but  Louis  was  incapable  of  being  either  a  reformer 
or  a  despot.     Ever  vacillating  between  the  nobility  and  the  people, 
he  gave  a  bold  adhesion  to  neither  party,  and   both   eventually 
abandoned  him. 

29.  In  the  beginning  of  his  reign  Louis  had  the  misfortune  to 
choose  for  his  counsellor  the  aged  Maurepas,  a  courtier  of  the  age 
of  Louis  XV.,  whose  vacillating  policy  increased  the  irresolution  of 
the  king.     More  successful  in  the  choice  of  his  ministers  Turgot, 
Malesherbes,  and  Necker,  in  the  various  departments  of  State  gov- 
ernment, he  might  have  at  least  softened  the  asperities  of  the  Revo- 
lution if  he  had  adopted  the  reforms  proposed  by  them ;  but  these 
men  were  suffered  to  be  driven  from  their  places  by  the  opposition 
of  the  higher  clergy  and  the  nobles,  who  were  interested  in  per- 
petuating the  existing  abuses.     For  a  time  the  courtiers  around  the 
throne  directed  the  government :  the  reforms  that  had  been  begun 
were  arrested,  and  old  abuses  revived,  to  the  gratification  of  the  aris- 
tocracy and  the  angry  discontent  of  the  people.     Calonne,  the  next 
minister  of  finance,  adopted  a  new  system  of  political  economy,  which 
was,   to  encourage  industry  by  expenditure ;    but   his   prodigality 
plunged  the  nation  still  deeper  in  debt,  and  ruined  the  credit  of  the 
government.     The  treasury  was  empty,  and  it  became  necessary  to 
resort  anew  to  taxes ;  but  the  people  were  unable  to  pay,  and  the  no- 


CHAP.  XIL]  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION.  835 

bility  would  not.  A  series  of  contentions  between  the  court  and  the 
parliament  of  Paris,  in  the  pressing  demand  for  new  imposts  or  loans 
and  their  rejection  by  that  assembly,  was  terminated  by  a  convoca- 
tion of  the  States-General,  or  National  Legislature,  to  take  into  con- 
sideration the  state  of  the  nation.  All  parties  united  in  demanding 
their  convocation — the  parliaments  of  the  provinces  because  they 
hoped  to  rule  them  ;  the  nobles  because  they  hoped  to  regain  their 
lost  influence ;  and  the  Commons  because  they  hoped  to  rise  into  po- 
litical importance  through  their  instrumentality.  The  meetings  of 
this  great  assembly,  composed  of  representatives  from  the  whole 
nation — nobles,  clergy,  and  commons, — had  been  suspended  more  than 
a  century  and  a-half.  When  previously  convoked  the  representatives 
of  the  three  estates  had  generally  been  equal  in  number ;  but,  as  a 
concession  to  the  growing  importance  of  the  commons,  who  now  com- 
prised all  the  industrious  classes,  it  was  decided,  after  much  resist- 
ance from  the  nobility,  that  the  "  third  estate"  should  be  entitled  to 
as  many  representatives  as  the  other  two.  This  measure,  attributed 
to  Necker,  has  been  censured  by  the  royalist  writers  as  highly  im- 
politic, while,  by  the  republicans,  it  has  been  regarded  both  as  a  mat- 
ter of  justice  and  of  necessity.  In  the  elections  which  followed,  the 
nobility  chose  men  devoted  to  the  interests  of  their  order  ;  the  clergy 
divided  their  influence — the  bishops  and  abbots  voting  for  those 
favorable  to  their  privileges,  and  the  curates  showing  themselves 
favorable  to  the  popular  cause,  which  was  their  own ;  while  the  com- 
mons chose  a  body  of  representatives  strong  in  talent  and  energy, 
firm  in  their  attachment  to  liberty,  and  ardently  desirous  of  extend- 
ing the  influence  of  the  people.  By  the  convocation  of  the  States- 
General  the  powers  of  government  were  virtually  given  back  to 
their  sources;  and  the  5th  of  May,  1789,  the  day  of  the  opening  of 
that  assembly,  was  the  opening  of  the  drama  of  the  Revolution. 

30.  An  incident  which  occurred  at  the  opening  of  the  States-Gen- 
eral was  a  significant  indication  of  the  change  which  had  already 
taken  place  in  the  feelings  and  views  of  the  people.  Hitherto  the 
representatives  of  the  "  third  estate"  had  always  sat  bareheaded  in 
the  presence  of  the  monarch,  while  the  clergy  and  nobles  sat  covered : 
when  addressing  the  king  the  orators  of  the  latter  stood  up,  but  the 
orator  of  the  "  third  estate"  knelt  down.  On  the  present  occasion, 
when  Louis,  seating  himself  on  his  throne,  put  on  his  hat,  the  three 
orders  covered  themselves  at  the  same  time.  The  days  were  past 
'?  bnt  -fl 


836  PHILOSOPHY  OF   HISTORY.  [PART  IIL 

when  the  commons  were  to  bare  their  heads  and  bend  their  knees  at 
the  approach  of  royalty. 

31.  The  addresses  of  the  king  and  his  ministers  were  listened  to 
with  profound  silence  and  attention,  for  the  policy  of  the  government 
was  to  be  gathered  from  them ,  but  the  chagrin  of  the  commons  was 
extreme  when  it  was  evident  to  them  that  the  government  desired  no 
great  innovations,  and  that  its  object  was  the  obtaining  of  subsidies, 
and  not  the  reformation  of  abuses. 

32.  The  events  which  followed  showed  equal  want  of  policy  and 
foresight  in  the  nobility  and  clergy.     Determined  to  maintain  the 
old  distinctions  of  classes,  they  refused  to  unite  with  the  commons 
in  one  deliberative  body ;  and  the  latter,  after  waiting  five  weeks  for 
the  two  orders  to  join  them,  boldly  declared  themselves  the  National, 
Assembly,  and  decreed  the  indivisibility  of  the  legislative  power. 
They  then  entered  upon  the  business  of  legislation.     They  struck  a 
blow  at  arbitrary  power  by  declaring  the  illegality  of  imposts  :  they 
reassured  capitalists   by  consolidating  the  public  debt;    and  they 
showed  their  sympathy  for  the  sufferings  of  the  people  by  appointing 
a  committee  of  subsistence.     Still  the  nobles  and  high  clergy  held 
out,  and  the  king  gave  himself  up  to  their  counsels.     In  a  royal  sitting 
held  the  23d  of  June,  he  condemned  the  conduct  of  the  Assembly, 
annulled  its  resolutions,  declared  his  determination  to  preserve  the 
orders,  and  then  commanded  the  deputies  to  separate.     The  com- 
mons disobeyed, — persisted  in  their  decrees — declared  the  inviola- 
bility of  the  members ; — and  the  royal  authority,  attempting  too 
much,  was  lost.     The  court  had  provoked  resistance,  but  dared  not 
punish  it.     The  king  wavered,  but  finally  requested  the  nobles  and 
clergy  to  unite  with  the  commons  ;  and  thus  their  deliberations  be- 
came general.     By  this  success  of  the  commons  a  great  advance  was 
made  in  the  progress  of  the  Kevolution. 

33.  It  was  evident  from  the  first  that  there  could  be  little  harmony 
of  action  between  the  two  marked  divisions  of  the  Assembly.     The 
clergy  wished  to  preserve  their  privileges  and  their  opulence ;  and 
the  nobles,  although  they  were  to  resume  political  independence,  of 
which  they  had  long  been  deprived,  saw  that  they  would  be  compelled 
to  yield  more  to  the  people  than  they  would  gain  from  the  monarch ; 
and  the  two  orders  were  induced  to  coalesce  with  the  court  against 
the  people,  as  they  had  formerly  united  with  the  people  against  the 
court.     When  the  force  of  public  opinion  rendered  it  certain  that  the 
Revolution  must  go  onward,  a  portion  of  the  nobles  and  the  bishops, 


CHAP.  XIL]  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION.  837 

following  Necker,  who  had  declared  for  the  English  constitution, 
wished  to  effect  such  reforms  as  could  not  be  avoided,  by  accommo- 
dation ; — to  preserve  the  aristocracy,  and  to  establish  an  "  Upper 
Chamber"  of  the  legislative  body,  of  which  they  should  be  members. 
They  formed  the  party  subsequently  called  monarchists.  The  rest 
of  the  Assembly,  forming  the  national  party,  differing  from  the  mon- 
archists in  many  respects,  were  sincerely  desirous  of  carrying  reforms 
to  the  full  extent  of  justice,  but  without  any  thoughts  of  overturning 
the  monarchy.  Those  who,  at  a  subsequent  period,  desired  a  second 
Revolution,  when  the  first  had  been  accomplished,  had  not  yet  ac- 
quired any  political  distinction. 

34.  As  France  had  no  constitutional  government,  and  the  want  of 
one  was  universally  felt  by  the  people,  the  Assembly  had  a  double 
duty  to  perform — first,  the  reformation  of  abuses ;  and,  second,  the 
adoption  of  constitutional  guards  against  their  recurrence.     During 
two  years  the  Assembly  devoted  itself  to  these  objects,  often  en 
countering  the  most  vehement  opposition,  but,  in  the  end,  overcoming 
all  obstacles.     Impelled  by  the  bankruptcy  of  the  government,  the 
Assembly  took  the  important  step  of  appropriating  to  the  use  of  the 
nation  the  immense  property  that,  from  time  to  time,  had  been  con- 
fided in  trust  to  the  Church  for  the  benefit  of  religion.     It  was  urged 
by  the  advocates  of  the  change  that  the  nation  thereby  merely  changed 
the  trust,  taking  upon  itself  the  charge  of  the  ecclesiastical  service — 
the  care  of  hospitals — the  endowment  of  ministers,  &c.     Not  only 
the  reformers  of  a  previous  age,  but  also  some  of  the  ablest  advo- 
cates of  Church  prerogative,  had  long  ere  this  advanced  the  opinion 
that  the  clergy  were  the  mere  trustees,  and  the  State  itself  the  true 
proprietor  of  such  endowments.9-      Although  this  measure  of  the 
Assembly  was  indeed  one  of  pressing  expediency,  its  justice  was 
strongly  denied,  and  from  this  moment  the  hatred  of  the  clergy  to 
the  Revolution  was  bitter  and  unyielding. 

35.  A  change  of  greater  political  importance  was  that  by  which 
the  old  provinces  into  which  France  was  divided  in  feudal  times  were 
changed  into  eighty-three  departments — these  into  districts — and  then 
into  cantons,  the  latter  of  which  designated  the  electors  who  chose 
the  members  of  the  National  Assembly.     The  parliaments  of  the  old 
provinces,  the  nobles,  and  the  clergy,  protested  against  this  new  di- 
vision of  the  realm,  and  brought  all  their  influence  against  it,  but  the 
commons  prevailed,  and  established  the  government  on  its  legitimate 

a.  Stephen,  248. 


838  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [PAKT  III. 

basis — the  sovereignty  of  the  people.  The  people  were  made  the 
source  of  all  power,  and  its  exercise  was  intrusted  to  their  repre- 
sentatives :  long-standing  grievances  were  redressed  :  political  equal- 
ity was  established  among  the  citizens,  to  the  exclusion  of  aristocratic 
privileges ;  and  ample  guards  were  thrown  around  the  administration 
of  justice.  The  Assembly  had  put  down  despotism  on  the  one  hand, 
and  anarchy  on  the  other  :  it  had  defeated  the  intrigues  of  the  clergy 
and  the  nobility,  and  maintained  the  subordination  of  the  populace : 
it  had  given  to  France  a  well-regulated  constitutional  government ; 
and  if  the  Revolution  had  terminated  here,  at  the  close  of  the  first 
Act  in  the  drama,  it  might  perhaps  have  been  sustained,  although 
still  in  advance  of  the  character  of  the  people.  It  had  accomplished 
its  legitimate  objects,  and,  as  a  whole,  met  the  approval  of  all  true 
patriots,  and  of  the  friends  of  freedom  throughout  the  world.  Let 
not  its  character  be  stained  by  the  turbulent  and  sanguinary  scenes 
which  followed.  It  is  not  responsible  for  the  horrors  of  the  Reign 
of  Terror.  If  it  erred  in  anything,  it  was  in  attributing  to  the 
French  people  greater  virtue  and  stability  than  they  possessed — in 
supposing  them  better  qualified,  than  they  were,  for  the  enjoyment 
of  that  freedom  which  the  Revolution  was  calculated  to  bestow.  But 
the  Assembly  erred — fatally  erred — in  excluding  its  members  from 
the  next  national  legislature,  thereby  depriving  France  of  the  benefit 
of  their  experience,  and  leaving  the  Revolution  to  be  commenced 
anew.  They  constructed  the  machine  of  government,  perfect  in  its 
parts  and  harmonious  in  its  proportions,  but  they  left  its  movement 
to  be  regulated  by  unskilful  hands  ;  and  the  work  which  two  centuries 
had  been  preparing,  in  one  brief  year  fell  to  pieces  under  the  blows 
of  a  turbulent  democracy. 

IX. 

36.  Two  causes  which,  at  this  period,  were  greatly  influential  in 
changing  the  character  of  the  Revolution,  were  the  king's 

0  _  CHANGE  IN 

attempted  escape  from  the  kingdom,  and  the  emigration  THE  CHARAO 
of  the  nobility.     The  primary  elections  for  members  of  TER  OF  THK 
the  next  legislature  began  when  the  king's  flight  had 
withdrawn  from  him   the  confidence  of  the  nation ;  and  the  emigra- 
tion of  the  nobles,  and  large  landed  proprietors,  amounting,  at  this 
time,  with  their  families,  to  nearly  one  hundred  thousand  souls,  de- 
prived France,  at  an  important  crisis,  of  those  who  might  have  ex- 
erted a  great  influence  in  moderating  democratic  ardor,  and  who  were 


THE  FRENCH   REVOLUTION.  839 

the  most  deeply  interested  in  standing  by  their  sovereign  and  the 
constitution.  But,  from  the  first  they  had  opposed  every  species  of 
improvement,  and  they  consummated  their  baseness  by  leaguing  with 
the  enemies  of  their  country.  The  new  legislative  assembly,  which 
met  in  Oct.  1791,  chosen  under  these  circumstances,  was  composed 
of  materials  very  different  from  the  former.  In  it  the  property  of 
France  was  unrepresented :  the  members  were,  emphatically,  new 
men,  unaccustomed  to  the  exercise  of  political  power,  and  seeking  to 
recommend  themselves  to  their  constituents  by  the  vehemence  with 
which  they  supported  the  principles  of  democracy.  Royalty  and 
aristocracy  were  without  a  party  in  the  legislature,  and  it  was  not- 
long  before  the  only  question  that  remained  was,  the  maintenance  or 
the  overthrow  of  the  constitutional  throne. 

37.  The  conduct  of  the  king  was  no  less  impolitic  than  that  of  the 
nobility  and  clergy.  Placed,  by  the  force  of  circumstances  which  he 
could  not  control,  in  a  false  position,  he  acted  a  borrowed  part,  and 
was  compelled  to  conceal  his  real  sentiments,  while  he  despised 
hypocrisy.  He  continually  vacillated  between  his  fears  and  his 
hopes — his  fears  that  the  Revolution  would  prevail,  and  his  hopes 
that  foreign  intervention  would  crush  it.  Buoyed  up  by  hope  he 
treated  the  Revolutionary  party  with  coldness  and  haughtiness  :  de- 
jected by  fear,  he  strove  to  conciliate,  and  submitted  to  the  demands 
of  the  Assembly,  but  in  so  wavering  a  manner  that  no  confidence  was 
placed  in  his  promises.  When  first  waited  upon  by  a  committee  of 
the  Legislative  Assembly  he  was  unprepared  to  receive  them,  and, 
through  his  minister,  gave  them  so  unceremonious  a  dismissal,  as 
deeply  to  wound  the  feelings  of  the  deputation.  A  few  days  later 
he  met  the  Assembly  in  the  most  friendly  manner,  and  assured  it  of 
his  cordial  cooperation.  He  was  jealous  and  distrustful  of  the  only 
party  in  the  Assembly  on  which  he  could  rely — the  constitutional- 
ists— and,  while  seeking  to  gain  their  support,  never  yielded  himself 
to  their  confidence.  Hoping  for  more  favorable  times,  his  plan  was 
to  play  the  parties  against  each  other,  and  thus,  by  discord,  to  weaken 
the  Revolution.  While  he  openly  condemned  the  conduct  of  the 
emigrants,  he  refused  his  sanction  to  any  measures  of  the  Assembly 
against  them.  Jealous  of  that  true  republican  and  constitutionalist, 
Lafayette,  he  caused  his  opponent,  Petion,  the  Girondist  candidate, 
to  be  elected  mayor  of  Paris ;  and,  at  a  later  period,  when  Lafayette 
would  have  put  down  the  reign  of  the  Jacobin  clubs,  the  king's  dread 
of  the  triumph  of  the  constitutionals  was  the  cause  of  the  failure. 


840  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.  [PART  IIL 

While  he  assented  to  the  war  against  the  coalition,  it  was  too  evident 
that  his  heart  was  not  in  the  measure ;  and  the  charge  was  not  with- 
out foundation  that  he  had  used  the  power  and  influence  which  his 
position  gave  him  to  paralyze  the  national  defence.  The  country  was 
in  danger  of  invasion  for  the  avowed  object  of  turning  back  the  tide 
of  revolution — restoring  the  nobles  and  the  clergy  to  their  privileges, 
and  the  king  to  his  supremacy.  Could  then  a  king,  whose  hopes 
were  in  the  success  of  the  invasion,  be  relied  upon  to  conduct  the  de- 
fence of  the  nation  ?  It  was  these  considerations  that  led  the  As- 
sembly to  contemplate  his  deposition,  and  to  take  into  its  own  hands 
the  executive  powers  of  government. 

38.  While  the  king  was  thus  weakening  his  influence  with  the  na- 
tion, the  impolitic  manifesto  of  the  allies,  under  the  Duke  of  Bruns- 
wick, by  openly  espousing  the  cause  of  the  monarch,  and  placing 
him  in  seeming  opposition  to  his  people,  rendered  the  fall  of  the 
throne  certain.  The  National  Convention,  which  assembled  on  the 
20th  September,  1 792,  during  its  first  sitting  abolished  royalty,  pro- 
claimed the  republic,  changed  the  calendar,  and  decreed  the  begin- 
ning of  a  new  era.  Then  began  the  disputes  between  the  leading 
parties  of  the  Convention — the  Girondists  and  the  Mountainistsa — 
each,  in  the  rivalry  of  power,  striving  for  supremacy,  and  each  claim- 
ing the  Revolution  as  its  own.  The  Girondists,  upright  in  their  in- 
tions,  repugnant  to  violent  measures,  indignant  at  the  massacre  of 
September,  secretly  desirous  of  saving  the  life  of  the  king,  but  afraid 
of  being  reproached  as  royalists,  and  enemies  of  the  people,  and 
averse  to  the  rule  of  the  multitude,  would  have  been  constitutionals 
if  the  course  of  events  had  not  forced  them  to  be  republicans.  As 
it  was,  they  stood  between  the  middle  classes  and  the  multitude, 
(higher  classes  there  were  none,)  but,  allying  themselves  with  neither, 
they  lost  the  favor  of  both,  and  were  soon  overthrown.  The  Moun- 
tainists,  on  the  contrary,  were  the  "  Red  Republicans"  of  the  day  : 
of  less  political  intelligence,  and  of  ruder  eloquence  than  their  op- 
ponents the  Girondists,  but  less  scrupulous,  more  sagacious,  more 
enthusiastic,  and  more  decided  ;  they  courted  the  populace,  controlled 
the  clubs  of  the  Jacobins,  ruled  absolute  in  Paris,  and  carried  their 
political  principles  to  the  very  extreme  of  democracy.  Marat  the 
apostle  of  massacre,  and  the  tyrant  Robespierre,  were  their  leaders. 

29.  The  motives  which  led  the  Mountainists  to  urge  the  condem- 
nation of  the  king,  were  those  of  party,  and  of  popular  animosity. 

a.  So  called  because  they  occupied  the  highest  seats  in  the  Convention. 


CHAP.  XIL]  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION.  841 

Having  their  sympathies  with  the  lower  classes,  through  whom  alone 
they  hoped  to  acquire  and  retain  power,  they  were  unwilling  that  the 
Girondists,  who  would  have  established  the  government  of  the  middle 
classes,  should  organize  the  Republic.  Besides,  the  mob,  which  then 
governed  Paris,  wrought  up  to  a  pitch  of  frenzy  by  the  Jacobin  ora- 
tors, was  clamorous  for  the  death  of  the  king ;  and  the  Mountain 
seized  upon  it  as  a  means  of  gratifying  their  followers,  gaining  the 
ascendency  for  themselves,  and  insuring  the  destruction  of  their  rivals 
the  Girondists. 

40.  The  execution  of  the  kind-hearted  but  weak  monarch  impelled 
the  Mountainists  to  still  greater  extremes  of  fanaticism  and  violence. 
They  had  gone  too  far  in  crime  to  turn  back ;  they  had  declared 
their  principles,  and  must  abide  by  them,  or  lose  all.     They  had  dis- 
carded   moderate    measures,   rendered   parties   irreconcilable,    and 
greatly  multiplied  the  external  enemies  of  the  Revolution ;  and  it 
was  only  by  exciting  still  higher  the  passions  of  the  mob,  and  urging 
forward  the  reign  of  violence  in  the  name  of  liberty,  equality,  and 
fraternity,  that  they  could  hope  for  temporary  success,  or  even  safety 
to  themselves.     The  fall  and  execution  of  the  Girondists  was  the 
commencement  of  the  Reign  of  Terror.     The  fall  of  Danton  and  his 
associates  followed,  because,  thinking  the  Revolution  had  gone  far 
enough,  they  showed  themselves  less  sanguinary  than  the  opposing 
faction  headed  by  St.  Just  and  Robespierre. 

41.  At  a  later  period,  Napoleon,  under  circumstances  not  very 
dissimilar,  showed  himself  possessed  of  less  virtue,  but  of  greater 
political  sagacity,  than  the  Dantonists.     When,  placed  at  the  height 
of  consular  power,  it  was  suggested  to  him  that  the  French  govern- 
ment, guided  by  his  genius,  and  sustained  by  the  arms  of  thirty 
millions  of  inhabitants,  was  already  sufficiently  prominent  among 
the  European  powers  to  maintain  a  highly  honorable  position  in 
peace,  Napoleon  replied,  "  It  must  be  first  of  all,  or  it  will  perish" 
From  the  commencement  of  his  military  career  his  opinion  was 
"  that,  if  stationary,  he  would  fall ;  that  he  was  sustained  only  by 
continually  advancing,  and  that  it  was  not  sufficient  to  advance,  but 
he  must  advance  rapidly  and  irresistibly."     "  My  power,"  said  he, 
"  depends  on  my  glory,  and  my  glory  on  the  victories  which  I  gain. 
Conquest  made  me  what  I  am  :  conquest  alone  can  sustain  me." 
Had  Napoleon  stopped  at  the  period  of  his  greatest  triumphs,  while 
the  movement  of  the  revolutionary  car  was  still  onward,  he  would 
have  been  crushed  beneath  its  wheels.     The  Dantonists,  shocked  at 

54 


842  PHILOSOPHY  OF   HISTORY.  [PART  IIL 

their  own  excesses,  stopped  short  in  their  guilty  career,  and  the  mad 
torrent  of  the  Revolution  overwhelmed  them. 

42.  St.  Just,  Robespierre,  and  their  associates  of  the  Mountain 
party,  maintained  themselves  until  the  wave  had   spent  its  fury. 
With  their  fall  the  Reign  of  Terror  ended,  and  an  opposite  move- 
ment commenced :  the  Convention,  and,  by  degrees,  the  whole  Re- 
public, were  liberated  from  fear.     As  in  the  progress  of  the  Revo- 
lution the  most  moderate  of  the  ruling  factions  had  ever  been  the  first 
to  be  overthrown,  so  in  its  retrograde  movement  it  passed  back 
through  the  same  changes,  destroying  all  who  had  contributed  to  its 
advancement  beyond  the  bounds  of  reason  and  justice ; — the  ac- 
complices of  Robespierre, — the  judges  of  the  revolutionary  tribunals 
— the  Jacobin  clubs — the  Mountainists — the  Girondists — being  suc- 
cessively overthrown,  until  the  government  of  the  multitude  was  at 
an  end,  and  the  Revolution  rested  with  the  middling  classes,  where 
it  had  originated.     Guilt  sooner  or  later  brings  its  own  punishment, 
and  visits  upon  the  erring  the  consequences  of  their  folly.     So  it  was 
with  the  fanatics  of  the  French  Revolution  :  all  perished  in  the  fires 
which  they  themselves  had  lighted, — and  none  lamented  their  fate. 

X. 

43.  It  has  appeared  surprising  to  many  that  after  so  long  and 

violent  a  struggle  against  arbitrary  power  and  privilege, 

AND  RESULTS  tne  Revolution  finally  terminated  in  military  despotism. 

OF  THE      But  nothing  was  more  natural.     The  French  people  had 

REVOLUTION.  .        ,      ,  .,  „.„  mi- 

entertained  the  most  erroneous  ideas  ot  liberty.  Taking 
all  the  power  of  government  into  their  own  hands,  and  intrusting  its 
exercise  to  their  favorites,  they  anticipated  the  full  enjoyment  of  free- 
dom, but  soon  found  themselves  oppressed  by  the  most  galling 
tyranny.  After  having  been  successively  the  prey  of  all  the  ruling 
factions,  they  looked  with  reasonable  hope  to  the  sovereignty  of  Na- 
poleon for  a  relief  from  anarchy,  and  security  against  foreign  ene- 
mies. Ten  years  of  revolutionary  violence  produced  greater  changes 
in  public  opinion  than  a  century  of  peaceful  experience  would  have 
done  ;  and  in  1 799  the  nation  was  as  anxious  to  terminate  the  Revo- 
lution as  in  1789  it  had  been  to  commence  it.  But  although  it 
voluntarily  surrendered  public  liberty  to  the  care  of  a  military 
chieftain,  it  did  not  throw  away  all  that  had  been  gained.  The 
Revolution  had  broken  down  the  barriers  of  classes  ;  had  permanent- 
ly reformed  many  abuses ;  had  strengthened  civil  liberty ;  had  re- 


CHAP.XIL]  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION.  843 

modeled  society  on  a  more  social  basis  ;  and,  by  its  influence  in  over- 
coming national  barriers,  and  mingling  together  the  people  of  Europe 
by  frequent  communication,  had  advanced  the  cause  of  civilization. 
As  knowledge  increases,  and  the  tide  of  liberal  principles  rolls  on- 
ward, it  seems  unavoidable  that  every  other  kingdom  of  Europe  must, 
in  its  turn,  become  the  battle-ground  of  freedom  ;  and  with  the  ex- 
ample and  the  fate  of  France  before  us,  we  may  well  raise  the 
warning  cry,  "  wo  to  those  rulers  who  do  not  make  timely  concessions 
to  the  spirit  of  enlightened  reform ;  and  wo  to  that  people  whose 
democratic  zeal  outruns  the  regulating  principle  of  Christian  recti- 
tude." 

44.  The  French  Revolution  has  an  important  moral,  both  for  the 
upholders  of  royal  prerogative,  and  the  friends  of  human  freedom. 
Hitherto  the  chief  reliance  of  arbitrary  power  has  been  on  standing 
armies,  ever  regarded  as  the  most  efficient  instrument  of  despotism ; 
but  the  French  Revolution  has  shown  that  even  they  may  be  tainted 
with  the  love  of  freedom,  or,  if  they  do  not  fraternize  with  the  people, 
they  are  swept  away  as  straws  before  the  hurricane  blast  of  de- 
mocracy.    The  sovereigns  of  Europe  have  learned  the  lesson,  how- 
ever reluctant  to  put  it  in  practice,  that  their  only  permanent  securi- 
ty is  in  such  a  government  as  will  promote  the  welfare  and  secure 
the  affections  of  the  people.     They  are  compelled  to  admit  that  the 
people  form  the  basis  of  their  power,  and  that  if  they  cannot  flatter 
or  cajole  them,  they  have  no  alternative  but  to  yield  to  their  de- 
mands. 

45.  The  French  Revolution  has  also  given  a  salutary  lesson  to  the 
friends  of  freedom.     It  has  shown  that  the  best  of  men  have  need  to 
exercise  great  moderation  in  revolutionary  times  :  it  has  developed 
the  truth  that  all  people  are  not  prepared  for  the  full  enjoyment  of 
regulated  liberty ;  and  it  has  illustrated  the  dangers  to  be  apprehend- 
ed from  the  turbulence  of  democratic  ascendency.     The  public  circuit 
through  which  the  Revolution  travelled,  and  the  subsequent  history 
of  France,  show  how  futile  it  is  for  a  nation  to  legislate  in  advance 
of  its  character ;  for  those  institutions  only  can  be  permanent  which 
are  the  spontaneous  productions  of  the  physical,  intellectual,  and 
moral  culture  of  the  people.     The  overthrow  of  religion  in  France 
is  often  attributed  to  the  immorality  of  the  people ;  but  it  would  be 
nearer  the  truth  to  assert  that  the  immorality  of  the  people  and  the 
horrors  of  the  "  Reign  of  Terror"  are  to  be  attributed  to  the  previous 
almost  total  absence  of  the  spirit  of  Christianity.     There  was  little 


844  PHILOSOPHY   OF   HISTORY.  [PxaT  III. 

true  religion  to  be  overthrown  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  for 
France  was  infidel  at  heart  long  before  the  national  apostasy  was 
publicly  proclaimed.  The  great  difference  between  the  comparative- 
ly mild  aspect  of  the  English  Rebellion  and  the  sanguinary  character 
of  the  French  Revolution  consists  in  this,  that  religion  was  the 
moving  instrument  in  the  former,  and  irreligious  fanaticism  in  the 
latter.  Under  the  republican  banners  of  Puritan  zeal,  no  proscrip- 
tions, no  massacres/  took  place ;  but  little  blood  was  shed  on  the 
scaffold  ;  and,  after  the  strife  was  over,  the  victors  and  the  vanquished 
lived  peaceably  together,  the  result  having  produced  little  change  in 
the  relations  of  society.  The  French  Revolution,  on  the  contrary, 
was  marked  by  violence  and  stained  with  blood,  not  because  the 
people  were  ignorant,  but  because  they  were  depraved.  It  was  not 
the  Revolution  that  made  them  so.  Had  the  Reformation  done  for 
them  what  it  did  for  England,  they  might  have  passed  through  the 
conflict  between  democracy  and  despotism  as  honorably  as  their  in- 
sular neighbors.  But  Roman  Catholic  France  was  corrupt ;  dis- 
claiming the  God  of  Revelation,  she  was  abandoned  by  Him,  and  her 
degradation  and  her  punishment  followed. 

46.  Throughout  the  entire  course  of  events  that  led  to  the  French 
Revolution  we  find  abundant  illustrations  of  the  truth  of  the  princi- 
ple, that  ignorance  in  the  people  governed  is  the  only  reliable  support 
of  arbitrary  power,  and  that  as  soon  as  light  dawns  upon  them  they 
begin  to  examine  and  to  question  the  claims  of  their  rulers ;  and,  final- 
ly, when  they  feel  that  they  are  capable  of  taking  care  of  themselves, 
they  are  as  eager  to  assume  the  exercise  of  their  newly-discovered 
rights,  as  the  youth,  grown  up  to  manhood,  to  escape  from  the  re- 
straints of  paternal  authority.  It  would  be  well  for  society  if  the 
ruling  power  always  had  the  enlightened  foresight  to  keep  pace,  in 
its  concessions  to  popular  demands,  with  the  actual  capacities  of  the 
people  for  self-government ;  and  if,  in  times  of  revolutionary  excite- 
ment, all  who  claim  to  be  patriots  had  the  wisdom  and  virtue  to  resist 
impending  evils,  whether  arising  from  monarchical,  aristocratical,  or 
democratic  ascendency.  Then  all  Revolutions  would  be  tranquil, 
and  would  keep  pace  with  the  progress  of  knowledge  and  virtue. 
"  When  reform  has  become  necessary,"  says  an  able  French  historian,11 
"  and  the  period  of  its  accomplishment  has  arrived,  attempts  to 
stifle  tend  only  to  hasten  its  progress.  Happy  would  it  be  for  man- 
kind, could  they  properly  estimate  these  changes;  if  they  who 

a.  Mignet. 

••At,.  J  i  *     WS  r.      .1  ,  y  <  •  "Til 


CHAP.  XII]  THE  FRENCH   REVOLUTION.  845 

possess  too  much  would  yield  up  a  portion  of  their  abundance  ;  and 
they  who  have  too  little,  would  be  content  with  what  they  really 
needed.  Revolution  would  then  be  divested  of  its  horrors;  and  the 
historian,  instead  of  having  to  record  a  series  of  evils  and  excesses, 
would  have  only  to  describe  human  nature  become  more  wise,  more 
free,  and  more  happy."  But  we  must  still  bear  in  mind  that  republican 
changes  are  not  always  salutary  reforms.  As  the  mass  represents 
the  units  of  which  it  is  composed,  if  the  individuals  are  ignorant,  and 
corrupt,  and  selfish,  it  is  impossible  for  the  community  to  be  intelli- 
gent, and  pure,  and  patriotic ;  and  without  these  qualities  in  the 
people,  democratic  institutions  may  prove  a  curse  rather  than  a  bless- 
ing. In  all  their  struggles  for  liberty  the  French  have  overlooked 
the  necessity  of  first  reforming  themselves  :  they  have  begun  where 
they  should  have  ended,  and  have  ended  without  making  progress 
adequate  to  their  efforts.  They  have  still  to  learn  the  important 
truth  that  the  blessings  of  republican  government  are  not  to  be  ob- 
tained by  a  change  of  institutions  and  forms ;  and  that  they  lie  at 
the  end  of  a  long  course  of  toilsome  discipline — of  moral  effort,  and 
self-denying  virtue. 


THE    END. 


INDEX 


TO 


THE  GEOGRAPHICAL  AND  HISTORICAL  NOTES. 


A 


PAGE 

Acamania 96 

Achaia 46 

Ac'tium 186 

Acre 282 

Adrianople 228 

^EgeanSea 31 

jEgina 74 


jEtolia 108 

jEt'na 118 

JE'guians 139 

Agrigen'tum 116 

Agincourt 303 

Abe 172 

Aix-la-chapelle 381 

Alexandria 99 

Alba 126 

Al'ia,  r 143 

Al&ni 213 

Aleman'ni 216 

Alps 229 

Aleppo 249 

Albigenses 332 

Algiers 335 

Almanza 404 

Alsace 406 

Albuera 493 

Ammonites 41 

Amphis'sa 96 

Amiens ..279 

Amboise 342 

Amsterdam 381 

Antioch 222 

Andalusia 232 

Angles 232 

Angora 311 

Anjou 305 

Antwerp 345 

Apollo 25 

ApolUmia 109 

Aquitaine 300 

Aragon 317 

Archimedes 159 

Ardea 133 

Arbela 100 

Arabia 39 

Arcadia 46 

Ar'gos 28 

Ar'golis 88 

Ar 'gives 48 

Argonautic  expedition ....     33 

Ar'nus,r 150 

Arsac'ida 349 

Arras 378 

Arcole 466 

Arad 557 

Assyria 17 


Asia  Minor  

PAGE 

28 

Bologna  

•AOI 

544 

Asia  
Ascalon  

229 
285 

Brundusium 

48 
185 

Aspern             .  . 

.     491 

Bretigny 

300 

Attica  

29 

Brest  

301 

Athens  

....   47,  566 

313 

Attains  

]69 

Brunswick. 

Tffi 

Atlantis  

320 

Breda. 

373 

Atho?,  mt.  

74 

Brabant  

T80 

Austria  

313 

Braganza. 

392 

334 

Bruges 

404 

Austerlitz  

485 

Brazil. 

488 

Auerstadt  

319 

Bristol  

531 

Azores  

388 

Busiris. 

222 

Azof  

486 

230 

B 

Burgundy,  Transjurane.  .  . 
Burgundy  (Circle  of  )  
Burgundy,  Upper 

271 
596 
379 

Babylon 

10 

Busentinus  

939, 

Bacchus  
Balearic  Isles 
Baalbec 

26 
152 

040 

Buenos  Avres  
Burgos  

485 
490 
499, 

Bagdad  
Bavaria  
Bannockburn.... 

266 
270 
286 

Bug,r.  
Bukowina  
Buda  

529 
553 
554 

Bayoune  
Barcelona  

301 
404 

576 

Bahamas  

442 

Baden 

483 

•"!*,> 

Baylen  

489 

Cappadocia 

Badajoz  

493 

Cat'ana  

119 

498 

Cadmus 

30 

Barbary  

509 

41 

Balkan,  mts  

522 

Cap'ua  .  . 

147 

Banat  

551 

Caudine  Forks 

147 

Bartfeld     

556 

Catalonia 

258 

Bethoron  

114 

Can'nse 

158 

Beachy  Head  
Bender.         ..   . 

384 
413 

Capreae  

191 
199 

Berlin  

426 

Cadeaiah 

249 

Bellisle  

432 

254 

497 

Czesarea 

C>£0 

281 

Calais 

299 

Bidassoa,  

379 

Calmar.  

TOR 

Biscay.  

462 

Castile  

317 

Blackheath  

302 

319 

Blenheim  

402 

Cape  Verd  Isles 

•JIQ 

30 

Carlowitz 

K!T| 

Bos'porua  

...  219,  596 

Calcutta 

395 

248 

Cadiz  

402 

Bouillon              • 

280 

eio 

Bordeaux  

300 

470 

.     .   .   .  307 

467 

Bohemia  

313 

Cape  Breton 

422 

Bourbon.        .... 

327 

442 

336 

Ceres  

% 

Bombay  

395 

71? 

Borodino.... 

..  495 

166 

GEOGRAPHICAL  INDEX. 


PAGE 

Cerisoles 336 

Ceylon 394 

Chaeronea 97 

Chalons 233 

China 28t5 

Cherbourg 301 

Chatham 372 

Cholet 459 

Chateau  Gonthier 459 

Cimonian  treaty 81 

Cilicia    98 

Cisalpine  Gaul 143 

Cimbri 171 

Cintra 489 

Ciudad  Rodrigo 492 

Clazom'enae 89 

Clusiura 136 

Clyp'ea 154 

Clastid'ium 156 

Clermont 280 

Corinth 51 

Corinthian  Isth 46 

Corcy'ra 82 

Coronea 89 

Collatia 133 

Consuls 135 

Corioli 139 

Corsica 152 

Copts 221 

Cologne 254 

Cor'dova A 269 

Constance 331 

Copenhagen 408 

Courland 410 

Coblen'.z 451 

Corunna 490 

Comorn 553 

Crete 34 

Crasus* 56 

Creasy 299 

Cracow 410 

Croatia 542 

Cronstadt 553 

Ctesiphou 203 

Cumae 115 

Culloden 422 

Cuba 432 

Culm 498 

Cyclopes 22 

Cyclopean  structures 28 

Cyrenaica 70 

Cy'prus 80 

Cys'icus 86 

Cyc'lades 522 


Damascus 62 

Danube,  r 171 

Dacia 200 

Dalmatia 208 

Damietta 286 

Dauphin 304 

Dauphiny 341 

Dantzic 486 

Delphi 47 

Denmark 308 

Delhi 350 

Desna,  r 412 

Dettingen 420 

Dennewitz 499 

Derby 531 

Debreczin 553 


Diana  

PAGE 

.  .    26 

Gascony. 

PAGE 

293 

Dictator  

137 

Galicia  

540 

Dnieper,  r  

309 

Gaeta  

547 

Doris  

...     45 

Gedrosia 

101 

Don,  r. 

71 

Gela 

115 

281 

Germania  .  . 

200 

Dominica  

.    ...  438 

539 

Dogger  Bank. 

441 

596 

Dreux  
Dresden  

....  341 
359 

Geneva  

Genoa 

258 
315 

Druids 

.  195 

°68 

Dunbar 

295 

Ghent 

344 

Durham  

299 

Ghibellines 

-ti'J 

Dublin  

307 

Giants  

24 

Dunkirk  

372 

Gilgal  . 

59 

Dwina,  r.  

389 

Gil  boa 

60 

Dyrrach'ium  

....   180 

Gibraltar  

403 

Gloucester 

301 

Goshen  

16 

E 

27 

Ebro  , 

....  489 

Goths  
Goa.  

213 
....  349 

Edinburgh  
Edom  
Edghill  

Egypt  

Egypt,  pop.  of  
Egeata  
E'lis  
Elateia  

421 
.   ,,     63 
364 
13 
469 
119 
50 
....     96 
057 

Gottingen  
Goodwin  sands  
Graces  
Granicus  
Gracchi  
Granada  
Gravelines  
Grenada  
Granville  

356 
368 
....     26 
98 
170 
....   317 
379 
.,.,   439 
....  460 

Elba'.  
Emes'sa  
Emir  
Engen  
Epirus  
Eph'esus  
Eperies  
Eretria  

500 
....  248 
.   ,  .  310 
,  ,  ,  ,  477 
.     44 
,,    ,     57 
,  553 
....     85 

Gross-Beren  
Guadalete  r.... 
Guadalquiver  
Guinea  
Guienne  
Guadaloupe  
Guillotine  

,      .  499 
....  251 
.       251 
,     320 
....   341 
.,,,   4:32 
....   456 

Ethiopia.  

37 

125 

Euphrates  

13 

Euxine  

34 

27 

Euboe'a 

56 

98 

Eylau  

..  486 

Hastings  .  .... 

"90 

Halidon  Hill 

299 

Havre  

339 

Hanover. 

..  482 

Fates  
Falkirk  
Ferrara  

26 

,,   295 
544 
407 

Hanau  
Ham  
Herod'  otus  
Hebe  

539 
....  560 
....     14 
....     26 

Florence  
Flanders  
Fontenoy  
Forum,  Roman  
Franks  
Franconia  
Franche  Comt6  
Frankfort  
Frejus  

,  230 
378 
....  421 
,.144 
216 
....  270 
.  379 
419 
....  473 

Helen  
Hebron  

Hermean,  pr  
Herculaneum  
Her'uli  
Hesse  Cassel  
Heidelburg  
Hermanstadt  
Hegyes 

....     36 
60 
79 
....   154 
,  200 
334 
,  ,    .  539 
..  539 
553 
.  556 

Frederickshall  
Friuli  
Friedland  

Furies  

,  415 

268 
487 
377 
.  .  .  .  •  24 

Hercules  
Him'era  
Him'era,  r  
Hindostan  

Holland 

....     22 
117 
120 
.  ,  .  253 
..     35 
313,  592 

*  377 

...  429 

37 

.  433 

Gath... 

60 

....  479 

Gaul 

232 

Gaza.  .  . 

..  157 

Hudson's  Bav.  ter... 

..  406 

GEOGRAPHICAL   INDEX. 


Hungary.,  

PAOK 

...  542 

Lib'anus,  mU  

I'AOK 

....  282 

Moii  3  iS  ace  r  .      . 

PAOB 

138 

llyphasis,  r.  .  . 

...   101 

Lithuania  

312 

Montserrat. 

28G 

I 

Iberus,  r  
Iceland  
Jctni  

,,   157 
...  320 
...  195 

Lisbon  

....  320 

Moscow  

287 

Lisle. 

....  406 

Moldavia... 

434 

Livonia... 

407 

Moravia 

313 

Lissa  
Liegnitz  '  
Ligny  

427 
431 
....  501 

Morgarten  
Morea  
Moluccas  

313 
316 
393 

Illyria  

Tngria  
Innspruck.  

95 
...   153 
.,  .     89 
411 
...  541 

Locrians  
Lombardy  
Loire,  r  

Lodi  

92 
216 
257 
422 
466 
....  540 

Montenotte  
Mount  Tabor.  
Moeskirch  

Munda  

403 
....   465 
472 
477 
....     26 
182 

Ipsamboul  

&:::::::::::::::: 

...     19 

...     38 
103 
...     26 

Lusitanians  
Lucan  
Luxemburg  
Lusatia  
Lutter  

166 
,     194 
....  313 
,  .  ,  ,  313 
256 

Munster  

Mythology  
Myc'ale  

247 
....  392 
42(1 
....     22 
80 

I8SU8  

Ith6me  

.  ..     98 
351 
516 
.  ..     51 

Lubec  
Lutzen  
Luneville.  
Lucca  

Lydia 

257 
,  ,  .  359 
479 
.  .    .   544 
56 

Mysore  

N 

443 

Italy  

J 

Jabesh  Gilead  

578 
.     59 

Lyons  

M 

Mars  
Marathon  

....  209 

....     25 
75 

Naxos  
Navarre  

....     46 

115 
317 

Nantes  

347 

Naseby  

365 

Namur  

..  384 

Janus,  Temp.  of.  

...  129 
395 

Narva  

...  408 

Nazareth  

472 

164 

Mantinea  

90 

Navarino. 

517 

455 

....  113 

NapolidiRom  

518 

486 

Malta  

152 

Naples,  Kingdom  of 

54G 

14 

Marseilles  

....  157 

.     24 

39 

161 

Neap'olis  

115 

fil 

171 

Neustria 

272 

*uppa  

24 

Marl  us  

174 

Newbury  

364 

25 

Msesia  

200 

New  Netherlands. 

373 

Jupiter  jf  m.,  Temp  of. 

...   129 
245 

....  245 

Nerwinden  

385 

358 

406 

E 

Karaarina  
Kashgar  

118 
...  350 

Marston  Moor  

365 

Neva,  r  

411 

Madagascar        .   .. 

394 

Nile              t 

16 

395 

Nineveh 

17 

Madrid  
Malplaquet  
Manilla 

...  404 
....  405 

40n 

Nice  
Nice  

281 
....  336 

070 

Katsbacb  
Kalamatia  
Khorassan  
Killiecrankie  
Kiev  
Kotzim  

499 
..  517 
,       267 
376 
287 
...386 

Martinique  
Mans  
Malta  

,  .  .   432 
....  455 
...  4fiO 
466 
...  469 

Niemen,  r  
Normans  
Normandy  

Nottingham  

487 
....  262 
272 
....  309 
,.    .  364 

Kolin  
Krasnoi  
Kurdistan  

L 

426 
497 

222 

35 

Mahrattas  
Manchester  
Memphis  
Mercury  

...  485 
....  509 
14 
25 

Numantia  
Nuremberg  
Jfympki  
Nystad  

....   166 
,.,.   359 
....     24 
..   .416 

Messenia 

51 

0 

Oceanug  

.     28 

Media 

f-9 

Meg'ara      

83 

48 

Melos 

83 

12»i 

115 

Off'tipcs.  . 

29 

Latium 

126 

Metaurus  

159 

Olmutz  

542 

129 

°17 

Olympius  

27 

301 

Mecca 

247 

90 

384 

Medina             

°47 

Onod  

.   .  556 

515 

Mer'ida. 

°52 

Oporto  

.     489 

Lesbos 

.     45 

Minerva  

...     26 

....  348 

89 

Minos         .   . 

34 

Orleans  

301 

91 

Midianitcs 

41 

363 

316 

Miletus  

..     57 

Ostracism  

..     77 

Leon  

...  317 

Minden  

...  430 

Ostia  

....  131 

Leipsic  ..'. 

..  359 

Millesaimo  

465 

....  529 

Libva... 

.     37 

Moabites... 

.    40  Ondenarde.  .  .  , 

.  404 

GEOGRAPHICAL  INDEX. 


FAGB 

Palestine 40,  57^ 

Paraisus 52 

Pares 

Pannonia 105 

Panor'mus 117 

Parthia 179 

Palmyra 216 

Paris 255 

Papal  power 25(5 

Papal  States - .  544 

Pavia 258 

Pampeluna 258 

Passau 337 

Palatinate 384 

Parma 544 

Peneus,  r 44 

Persia 50 

Persian  Hist 572,  249 

Persian  Gulf 101 

Per'gamus 162 

Pelusium 250 

Pesth 549 

Peterwardein 551 

Philistines 41 

Phocis 91 

Phrygia 103 

Pharsalia 180 

Pharos 181 

Philippi 185 

Pindus,  mts 44 

Picts  . . 227 

Pisa 319 

Piedmont 421 

Pluto 24 

PlatJB'a 75 

Placentia 280 

Plantagenet 291 

Potidae'a 82 

Po,r 158 

Pontus 173 

Pompeii 200 

Pollentia 229 

Poictiers 852 

Poles 311 

Portugal 318 

Pomerania 358 

Podolia 390 

Pondicherry 395 

Prat'tor 156 

Pratorian  Guard* 192 

Provence 27  J 

Prague 355 

Pruth 414 

Pragmatic  Sanction 419 

Preston  Pans 421 

Punic 152 

Pultusk 4JO 

Pultowa 412 

Presburg 555 

Pyramids 16 

Pydna 110 

Pyrenees 252 


Qiuitre  Bras. 


ft 


501 


Rabbah 62 

Raab 558 

Raven'na 229 

fcamilliei 403 


Radstadt  

PAGE 

406 

Stockholm 

PACE 

415 

Raudian  plain  

173 

St.  Albans  

.  305 

490 

St.  Just  

337 

Rhine,  r  

179 

St.  Germain 

342 

Rhone,  r. 

172 

St.  Quentin 

339 

Rhodes  

..  250 

St.  Petersburg. 

389 

Rheims  

272 

400 

Richmond  
Riga  _,  

....  30fi 
407 

St.  Lucia  
St.  Vincents. 

438 

438 

488 

St.  Eustatia 

439 

258 

St.  Cloud  

473 

Roum  

281 

St.  Bernard 

477 

Rochelle.     .  . 

357 

481 

Roussillon  

379 

St.  Helena. 

501 

Rossback.  .  . 

426 

230 

Rome  

58-2 

Suabia  

.      .    .     270 

Rubicon,  r  

Russia.  . 

....   150 

287 

Surinam  

393 

Sussex 

290 

Riituli 

314 

Switzerland 

"6<> 

Ryswick  

385 

Syria     .  . 

62 

8 

Saturn  . 

24 

Syracuse  

84 

Syb'aris  

..   116 

Szeged  in. 

.     554 

T 

Tan'agra. 

.    88 

Samothrace  

34 

Sardis  

57 

Samaria 

64 

128,  578 
147,  578 
152 

116 

Samnites  

Tarquin'ii  

.   .           131 

Sardinia  . 

Tarsus  

185 

156 

Teg'yra 

91 

Sarmatia  

2f9 

Ten'  tones  

171 

224 

Terouane  ... 

254 

Saracen  

248 

Tewkesbury  

.     ...  306 

240 

Teutonic  Knightt 

312 

258 

Tessino  

515 

Saxonv  

...     270 

Teil,  Wm  

314 

Samarcand 

310 

Tenedos  ,  . 

519 

355 

Temeswar 

554 

Salonica  

519 

Thebes  in  Egypt.. 

14 

Salona 

520 

Thebes  in  Gr.. 

30 

Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.  . 

527 

Thessaly  

31 

Saumur 

459 

Theseus..  . 

33 

460    Tlieban  War. 

33 

Salamanca  

493  '  Thrace  

71 

Sardinia,  kingdom  of. 
Scythia 

....  515 
71 

Thermopylae  . 

71 

Thracian  Cher 

96 

Scone          

295 

Thera  

..  121 

518 

Thapsus  

183 

Selinus     

119 

270 

315 

T-heiss,  r  

.     .  .     548 

Serbs 

550 

Titans  

23 

.   .  443 

Tiber,  r  

125 

52 

Tibur  

218 

Sidon  

61 

Ticinus  

158 

Sicily 

.     84 

Tilsit  

487 

10" 

Tours  

253 

218 

254 

Sileucidts 

249 

Toulon  

404 

Silesia 

313 

Torgou 

431 

390 

441 

550 

Torfou  

459 

Sleswick      

407 

Torres  Vedras  

492 

Smolensko  

Solway  Frith 

....  412 

204 

Tokay  
Troy  

556 
35 

.     .  255 

Trezene  

79 

.  333 

Trib'unes  

133 

Spain  

....  156 

Tr6bia  

158 

Spires                

334 

158 

479 

Trajan's  col  

203 

Strabo  

111 

Tripoli  in  Af.  

250 

Stirling        

.     .  295 

282 

356 

390 

....  365 

TrafeRrar... 

..  484 

GEOGRAPHICAL  INDEX. 


FAQE 

509 

...  378 

Waterloo  

Trieste. 

516 

.  .  .  .    24 

Tripolitza  

517 

Vesta  ...... 

26 

Wallachs,.  

553 

150 

Veil  

...  142 

Warwick  

308 

151 

....  145 

Weaer,  r.  

257 

..   .  157 

Vesuvius          .....  . 

199 

360   487 

231 

...  215 

Wickliffe.  

.1  331 

Tudela*  

...  490 

Venice  

...  233 

Wittemberg 

.  339 

Tvre 

.    61 

Versailles    ..... 

380 

Windsor 

375 

204 

yendetm  Leader  $  .... 

...  460 

Wilna.... 

495 

lirol 

.  313 

Viriathui     

.  166 

Widdin 

558 

...  386 

Worms  

....     314 

..  402 

Wolsey  

320 

Vimiera  

...  489 

Ukraine  
Ulm  
Umbria 

..  590 
484 

°0°   578 

Vittoria.  
Volga,  r  

...494 
,,   137 

...  389 

Y 

..  240 

Utica  

22 
159 
344 

Volhynia.  

.    .  528 
...    25 

York.  

2QP 

W 

..  100 

V 

Wales 

£94 

Zara  ~. 

280 

Valencia. 

116 

Warsaw 

...  410 

Zenta  

390 

Vandals... 

..  219 

....  491 

Zorndorf.  

429 

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